New M4 Tasting Room Offers Wine, Education to Saratoga Village

Saratoga’s Michaud Vineyard and Martella Wines are no strangers to the grape business, with each producing wine for more than 30 years.

So it made sense when the two next-door establishments joined forces and created the M4 Tasting Room in Saratoga Village.

Now there has been a steady increase of business since M4 opened on July 14, the French holiday of Bastille Day.

“There are lots of new faces every time I come here,” said winemaker Michael Michaud, one of the two owners, in the homey tasty room, wine bottles displayed prominently behind oak counters.

Visitors are mostly locals, he said, although several tourists visit over the weekend, when a steady stream of traffic often lines Big Basin Way. 

M4, 14598 A Big Basin Way, is open 3-8 p.m. Thursday; 1-9 p.m. Friday and Saturday; and 1-5 p.m. Sunday. The business is now toying with the idea of tastings on Mondays as well.

Cinnabar Winery, the first winery and tasting room to be established in Saratoga Village in 1981, also sits next door.

“It’s worked perfectly to have a number of wineries here together,” said Michaud, sipping a 2006 Pinoit Noir on the tasting room’s patio, which overlooks the quaint Big Basin Way, dotted with a variety of unique mom-and-pop shops and restaurants.

“The wineries don’t think of themselves as competitors, but rather work together,” said Debra Cummins, president of the Saratoga Chamber of Commerce.

Both owners specialize in different types of wine: Martella in Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Barbera, Grenache, Petite Sirah, Syrah and Zinfandel, and Michaud in Chardonnay, Marsanne, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Noir, Sangiovese and Syrah.

Across the street sits Restaurant Sent Sovi, with offers seasonal French California cuisine and charges no corkage fee for wine purchased from M4.

The M4 Tasting Room was the first in Saratoga to take advantage of a so-called “food sampling permit,” required by Santa Clara County as of this summer for any tasting rooms that offer more than crackers.

Now winery-goers have the option to indulge in cheeses such as Spanish Manchego and German Cambozola, while they sample wines.

Unlike other nearby tasting rooms, said Michaud, visitors also talk with the winemakers, and learn about how the wine—which they describe as having a flavor unique to the Santa Cruz Mountain region from where it hails—is produced.

“They just love wine and here it comes across,” said Cummins. “Here it’s all about education.”

Saratoga has a long history of wines, with Paul Maison—an early pioneer of California viticulture—opening The Mountain Winery in 1905.

There are four tasting rooms in Saratoga Village, with a fifth coming in November, said Cummins. They are:

• Big Basin Vineyards, 14598 Big Basin Way
• 14612 Big Basin Way
• Martella Wines (M4), 14598A Big Basin Way
• Savannah Chanelle Vinyards, 23600 Big Basin Way