Pairing Margerum Wines with Bento Boxes

Given the tremendous range of flavors available in Japanese cuisine, from fresh to funky, savory to sweet, spicy to delicate, it’s confounding that sushi and its culinary counterparts are not already a regular part of pairing menus in wine country. Counteracting that unfortunate oversight is Margerum Wine Company’s new tasting room in Los Olivos, where customers can pre-order bento boxes that have been developed to match with Doug Margerum’s bottlings.

“I love everything about Japan, and I love my wine with Japanese food,” said Margerum, who’d just returned from his latest trip to the island country when we met to try the first official bento box together. “It was one of my best markets for so long, and COVID just killed it.”

While preparing to open this Los Olivos location — which is tiny, especially compared to the winery’s Funk Zone spread on East Mason Street — Margerum “wanted to do something completely different than any other place in town.” Sushi was a novel choice. “I don’t think it exists,” he said when asked if other tasting rooms served it.