Breathe, breathe in the air
Set your intentions
Dream with care
Tomorrow is a new day for everyone,
Brand new moon, brand new sun.
Xavier Rudd, Follow the Sun
This year marks my 40th in the wine business. Even after all these years, I still love to hop in my car when I’ve got a day off and go wine tasting. Usually, I like to visit two wineries before lunch, and then two afterwards. Every wine region worth its salt keeps evolving. In my entire career, I’ve never had the occasion to say that I won’t be returning to a wine region because it’s always the same. New wine producers emerge every day, and established ones often reinvent themselves with new projects. Just when you think you know a region, you’ll return to discover new tasting rooms, new plantings, and winery buildings popping up here and there.
Here are a handful of cool, Paso Robles-based projects that have captured my attention of late. They’re being given life by talented, hardworking humans, all wishing to add their own voice to the cultural landscape of the Central Coast.
Cecelia Aguirre at work in the cellar
Loom Wines:
Founded in 2021 by husband and wife team Diego and Cecilia Aguirre, Loom is a house devoted to Rhône-style wines. The name “Loom” takes its inspiration from the looms of Oaxaca, the couple’s ancestral homeland, known for producing vibrant rugs and other textiles. “Mother Nature, our babies, winemaking…these are threads that weave our life together, and we love traveling to Oaxaca, so Loom just fit,” Cecilia tells me. The Aguirres are busy young parents to 10-month-old Lola and 3-year-old Maya. Cecilia is the assistant winemaker at Booker Wines, while Diego and his parents own and operate the popular Paso Robles eatery Finca, where Diego can be found in the kitchen every day.
The couple run their young brand, including all administrative and winemaking duties, after hours. “We joke that when we work in the winery, it’s date night, because that’s when we get to see each other and spend time together,” Diego tells me. Their daughters tag along and play or nap while mom and dad make wine. “It’s better than just going home after work and scrolling through our phones.”
Despite its relative youth, Loom is well on its way to becoming a serious, purposeful brand. They’ve identified a house style: establish consistency and a clear editorial eye while still allowing for vintage variation and site differentiation. They’ve decided to focus on Rhône varietal wines and, stylistically, they prefer wines with a lighter touch; good acid and bright fruit. They’ve taken to using only barrels that are steam-bent versus fire-bent, as fire-bent barrels can lend an oak sweetness to a wine that threatens to overpower it. “Steam bent lifts fruit. The fruit is respected and the role of oak is lighter,” says Diego. They’re drawing fruit from throughout Paso Robles, including from Helen Keplinger’s much-buzzed about Star Wagon Vineyard.
Their wines are well-made, balanced, and fresh. I’m completely charmed by their 2025 Ugni Blanc, a nervy, zippy white that offers up heady, energizing aromas of lime, wild chamomile, and sea spray. It’s a great palate cleanser and the perfect way to kick off any meal. For a small production wine, it’s a steal at $ 38.00 a bottle.
The Aguirre Family of Loom Wines
Terranean Wines:
Husband and wife team Alex and Ryan Kemp founded Terranean Wines, a brand entirely devoted to Grenache, in 2023. Their approach to Grenache is a classic one, focusing on this variety’s penchant for transcendent aromatics, age-worthiness, and transparency. Of the three Grenaches Terranean has released so far, the 2023 Coakley is the standout; a real gem with a pale color, beautiful aromatics of bergamot, dried citrus peel, red fruit, roses, and cedar, and an otherworldly texture. Apart from Newfound wines, there isn’t another California producer of Grenache I know of who captures the true personality and reach of this great variety as well as Terranean does.
Ryan is the winemaker at Brecon Estate, while Alex is the Assistant Winemaker at Adelaida Vineyards & Winery. Together, they welcomed their son Callum to the world last year. When I ask about their house style, Ryan says that she and Alex “care a lot about the aromatics of a wine. And the texture. That’s everything,” she says. Both Alex and Ryan are deeply earnest, projecting a wholesomeness perhaps matched only by their drive.
While we taste, I’m completely absorbed in their 2023 Coakley Vineyard Grenache. I want to talk about its chameleon-like, shape-shifting aromatics, the impossible length of this wine, the way the texture completes it so seamlessly, but both Alex and Ryan spend more time talking up their colleagues’ wines than their own, wanting to promote other up and comers from Paso Robles. Their wines are not cheap, necessarily, but they overperform for their price, as they’re exceptionally well-made and built to age. Because they’ve wisely chosen to grow slowly and organically, my sense is that they’ll settle into benchmark status in years to come. Terranean is one of the more promising brands I’ve come across in a long while.
Ryan and Alex Kemp of Terranean Wines
Landsby Wines:
Winemaker Oliver Mikkelsen is well known among diehard California Rhône fans as the winemaker at Villa Creek and MAHA estate. After being mentored by owners/winemakers Cris Cherry and the late, great JoAnn Cherry for years, Oliver was handed the winemaking reins at this celebrated estate in 2024. A soft-spoken, thoughtful, intelligent vigneron, Oliver and his wife Natalie founded their own small brand, Landsby Wines, in 2025.
I’ve been watching Oliver’s career closely for a few years now. Back in 2022, I got my hands on a bottle of “Olly’s Piquette,” a precursor to Landsby Wines that Oliver made independently as an homage to the harvest season. Piquette has been around for thousands of years, and Olly’s Piquette is made using the same traditional methods, except that Oliver uses Grenache grapes for his Piquette. After he presses his Grenache grapes to make a red wine, he takes the leftover skins and adds water to them, re-hydrating and re-fermenting them with the bit of sugar that’s left on the skins. This new juice stays on the skins for a few days, receiving one punch down a day. Then it’s settled in tank and bottled with native yeast and a bit of organic priming sugar to invite natural fermentation. Piquette is made sans soufre – no added sulfur. The resulting beverage is light (only 6.5% alcohol), effervescent, charmingly delicious, and just a whole lot of fun. It’s about five bucks a bottle and is sold in beer bottle-sized bottles.
The 2024 Landsby Chenin Blanc is another keeper. With beautiful aromatics of paraffin, wildflowers, kumquat rind, and stone fruit, it’s a joy to drink. I’ve been on a Chenin Blanc kick for a few years now and am always on the hunt for expressions of this lovely variety that are lifted, energetic, and balanced. The Landsby Chenin more than fits the bill. At $40 a bottle, it’s reasonably priced for the quality. While it can be enjoyed as a casual sipper on a summery night, it stands up to a multi-course meal with a bright acidity that cuts through richer fare.
As is the case with all Landsby wines, they are farmed organically and regeneratively, with a full list of ingredients provided for each wine.
The Mikkelsen Family of Landsby Wines
Paco Wines:
Winemaker Tyler Russell first made a name for himself on the Central Coast with Nelle, the small Rhône-inspired wine brand he founded. His Nelle Coastview Vineyard Syrah became a darling of the critics and led him to expand his winemaking profile, co-founding another brand called Cordant not long after. A few years ago, Tyler sold both brands and took a brief hiatus from winemaking to recalibrate and reorient himself toward his vocation.
His new brand Paco stands in direct response to that recalibration. I’ve long been a fan of his wines, but never more so than now. His new lineup reveals his level of seriousness toward his craft and his commitment to Rhône varieties. “I am a believer of the Rhône varieties for Paso Robles,” he tells me. “To me, it just feels like they belong here. Who am I to go against that?”
Founded a couple of years ago, the Paco portfolio has emerged as a complete whole; of a piece, thematic and harmonious. The Paco house style is rooted in giving voice to meritorious Rhône sites in Paso Robles, with each wine a passionate example of its provenance. Tyler’s personality makes up the rest of each wine’s identity. These are characterful wines, original wines of verve and nerve.
Paco is located in Tin City, Paso’s urban wine trail; a fun collection of wineries, tasting rooms, ice cream and cheese makers, a pasta maker, a brewery, a cannabis dispensary, an Italian marketplace, and restaurants. Paco is an open concept winery, in that the production facility, the barrel room, the case goods room, and the tasting room all share one contiguous space. Though every other business in Tin City hangs a shingle outside its door, Paco is nearly impossible to find, and Tyler likes it that way. There isn’t much signage to speak of, so he provides directions that include a couple of local businesses his winery sits between and the make and model of his truck, which is parked out front, as landmarks to finding the front door.
He insists on hosting tastings himself and so only makes himself available after he’s finished his work around the winery. Appointments are necessary and require a little patience, but the payoff is worth it. I found our tasting to be a study in contradictions. He’s outspoken, yet sensitive. Boisterous, yet mannerly. Cosmopolitan in his tastes, yet unassuming.
I tasted through the entire Paco lineup and found the wines to be cohesive, memorable, pretty, and well-made. A standout is the 2022 Hermosillo, a Syrah dominant blend that includes 30% Grenache. The entire portfolio is line-priced at $72 a bottle.
Winemaker Tyler Russell of Paco Winery
AllBaer Wines:
Winemaker Alex Baer has impressive credentials, having worked at Petrus, Domaine La Barroche, and Sine Qua Non before founding Allbaer in 2018. It was while he was working at SQN, and commuting home to Paso every day, that he decided to make wines for himself. His parents founded the brand alongside him and continue to help sustain it, with mom Jocelyn handling administrative duties, while dad Tom oversees farming.
Recently, I joined the Baer family at their vineyard on the West Side of Paso Robles for a tasting and lunch. Citing Justin and Heather Smith of Saxum as inspirations, Alex poured me the 2007 Saxum Bone Rock James Berry Vineyard to kick off our lunch. It’s not everyday that a winemaker pours someone else’s wine before their own during a tasting, a lovely decision I found disarming. Alex was in high school when this remarkable wine was made.
Next up, Alex poured the 2016 Domaine La Barroche PURE, another resplendent beauty that represented the year he worked at the storied Châteauneuf estate. When we finally got around to tasting the AllBaer wines, the pizzas Jocelyn and Tom had been making for our lunch were ready, and we all gathered at a small table to enjoy the fruits of the family’s labor.
It’s obvious that Jocelyn and Tom are proud of their son. While Alex spoke about each wine, they’d interrupt somewhat shyly to remind me that their son is a hardworking perfectionist who doesn’t do anything halfway. I didn’t need much convincing that this was true when we dove into Alex’s wines. Rich yet refined, fruit-forward, yet finessed, the lineup of AllBaer wines is a study in craft and diligence. His 2024 Chardonnay from Oliver’s Vineyard is so delineated, balanced, and austere (in the best sense) that it already tastes like a classic. From there, we dove into the 2023 Sangiovese, a surprising beauty, as it’s hard to find great Sangios being made in the United States. From there, we moved into the balance of his lineup, including a Sauvignon Blanc, a Grenache, and a Syrah which were all exceptional.
These are noteworthy, collectible wines. The reds are line-priced at $75 a bottle, while the whites are line-priced at $65, not cheap by any means, but they still over-perform for the quality. My sense is that modern California wine history is being written by winemakers like Alex Baer – vignerons who refuse to cut corners in the vineyard, cellar, or with customer service.
Winemaker Alex Baer with Mom Jocelyn
Ours Wines:
Winemaker Josh Pehle and his wife Flynn founded Ours Wines in 2022. It’s a very small operation, and they are not permitted for tastings, so while their wines are available in a handful of shops and restaurants on the Central Coast, they’re otherwise only available on the bare bones but functional Ours Wines website.
I love Cabernet Sauvignon and am always on the lookout for new expressions of this meaningful grape variety. My personal palate gravitates toward balanced Cabs; not too extracted, not sweet, not too over blown, or heavily oaked. The Ours 2023 Kota Cabernet Sauvignon is right in line with my personal preferences. It combines fruit from Santa Barbara County (8% Petite Verdot from the Nolan Vineyard in Los Alamos) and Paso Robles (92% from the Brecon Estate in Paso’s Willow Creek District) and is fetching in its blue fruit aromatics and its pleasing mouthfeel. The 2023 Ours Kota was raised in a combination of neutral oak and new French oak barrels. The oak profile is measured, with this young wine having absorbed its influence in a measured way. Pehle previously made wine in the Napa Valley, New Zealand, and Australia and describes his approach to winemaking as minimal intervention.
Only 70 cases of the 2023 Ours Kota Cabernet Sauvignon were produced. It retails for $60 a bottle, which, considering the low production number, is a fair price for this lovely, thoughtfully composed wine.
The Pehle Family of Ours Wines