About the winemakers
Family Owned & Operated
Marty and Eileen first started making wine in the basement of their Redwood City home with a 1998 Barbera. After receiving numerous awards as home winemakers and repeated requests from family and friends for more wine, they decided to venture forth in planning for a commercial vineyard and winery. In 2001 they purchased their 10 acre estate in Placerville and started planting the vineyard. In 2007 Mais Fica was established as a commercial bonded winery.
As a clinical chemist, Marty has always found the chemistry of winemaking to be fascinating. He has strengthened his winemaking skills by attending classes in the enology program at UC Davis. He has gained further experience as an active member in the El Dorado County Grape Growers Association and by working closely with our vineyard management team.
All of our wines are hand crafted from grapes grown on our organically farmed estate vineyard. Our production is limited to only 500 cases per year. The grapes are hand picked and sorted before destemming and crushing. Fermentation takes place in small open top bins which allows for punching down manually three times a day. After pressing, the wine is aged in a combination of French, Hungarian and American oak as well as small stainless steel barrels. The barrels are stored in our temperature and humidity controlled bonded winery until ready for bottling.
Our wines have received numerous awards from both local and international wine competitions. See our Awards page for a list of our current medals.
The winemaking process has been a family event at Mais Fica from the very beginning. Eileen and her brother, Tim Finnigan, have designed their award winning wine labels. Numerous family and friends have lent a helping hand during harvest and bottling activities. We invite you to join the family and friends of Mais Fica Winery who have been enjoying these wines for the last fifteen years.