Where Wine Takes You - A Paso Wine Podcast

October is Harvest Wine Month in Paso Robles Wine Country, with winery events happening throughout the month, including vineyard experiences, dinners, grape stomps, live music and more.

See what’s happening at PasoWine.com

🎯 Plan your next Paso Robles getaway at travelpaso.com

📲 Where Wine Takes You now has its own Instagram. Follow us at @wherewinetakesyou for new episodes, behind-the-scenes pours, guest highlights, and more from Paso wine country.

🎙️ RECORDED AT SLO CAL STUDIOS

Recorded at SLO CAL Studios, San Luis Obispo County, California.

SLO CAL — where the wine is world-class, the people are real, and life is too beautiful to rush.

For turns well taken:

🎵 Original music by Moonshiner Collective

🎧 Subscribe & Follow

 ©2026 Where Wine Takes You, All Rights Reserved.

🍇 Where Wine Takes You, Episode Highlights 🍷

What happens when you actually follow through on the crazy thing you wrote down years ago?

This week, Adam sits down with Dave and Shawn Kahal of Kahal Family Vineyards, whose path to wine country included Orange County, Connecticut, basement winemaking, some memorably bad early wine, and eventually a vineyard in Indian Valley with a San Miguel address. Their story is a good reminder that the finished bottle is usually the least complicated part.

The conversation gets into Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, learning the realities of farming, the challenges facing growers in today’s wine market, and what it means to build a winery around experiences and relationships rather than simply making more wine. It’s also the latest stop in our exploration of Paso Robles’ 11 nested AVAs, with a closer look at the history and geography of the San Miguel District.

Our Travel Paso Spotlight heads to From the Heart Animal Sanctuary on Fat Goat Farm in Paso Robles. The nonprofit provides permanent homes for special-needs animals, while those same animals help inspire art classes for local children. Their fifth annual fundraiser takes place Saturday, September 26, from noon to 2 p.m. at California Coast Beer Company.

Kahal Family Vineyards

Kahal Family Vineyards on Instagram

From the Heart Animal Sanctuary

From the Heart Animal Sanctuary on Instagram

Travel Paso

Remembering Chuck Ortman

Charles “Chuck” Ortman, founder of Meridian Vineyards and an influential figure in Central Coast wine, died September 16 at age 86. His career stretched from Heitz Cellars and Spring Mountain Vineyard to Meridian and later Ortman Family Vineyards with his son, Matt.

Read the story at Paso Robles Daily News

The California Association of Winegrape Growers has selected J. Lohr Vineyards & Wines as its 2027 Grower of the Year, while Jeff Bitter of Allied Grape Growers was named 2027 Leader of the Year.

Read the story at Paso Robles Daily News

October is Harvest Wine Month in Paso Robles Wine Country, with winery events happening throughout the month, including vineyard experiences, dinners, grape stomps, live music and more.

See what’s happening at PasoWine.com

🎯 Plan your next Paso Robles getaway at travelpaso.com

📲 Where Wine Takes You now has its own Instagram. Follow us at @wherewinetakesyou for new episodes, behind-the-scenes pours, guest highlights, and more from Paso wine country.

🎙️ RECORDED AT SLO CAL STUDIOS

Recorded at SLO CAL Studios, San Luis Obispo County, California.

SLO CAL — where the wine is world-class, the people are real, and life is too beautiful to rush.

For turns well taken:

🎵 Original music by Moonshiner Collective

🎧 Subscribe & Follow

 ©2026 Where Wine Takes You, All Rights Reserved.

🍇 Where Wine Takes You, Episode Highlights 🍷

It’s harvest in Paso Robles, which means winemakers are moving fast, sleep is negotiable, and sitting still is not exactly the seasonal specialty. So this week, Adam follows the ripple effect of wine country in a different direction with Corey Jordan, Paso Robles native, musician, entrepreneur, and co-founder with his wife, Kate Jordan, of a growing collection of businesses helping shape what happens around the wine.

Corey and Adam get into AMSTRDM Coffee House, Paso Robles Coffee Co., LIBRETTO, the LIBRETTO Conservatory, and the Paso Robles Jazz Fest, along with the larger idea connecting them all: Paso’s wine industry created an audience, a hospitality culture, and an expectation for quality that opened the door for entirely new kinds of businesses. Corey talks about growing up in Paso, leaving and coming home, opening AMSTRDM during the pandemic, roasting coffee with the same obsessive attention people bring to wine, collecting Steinways, building a serious listening room, and figuring out how to grow without sanding off what made something special in the first place.

There’s also some breaking news in the conversation. Corey reveals plans for an AMSTRDM drive-through in San Miguel and another AMSTRDM location headed for downtown Los Angeles. Somehow the conversation also finds its way into old Paso tunnels, local history, jazz, coffee cupping, the Paderewski connection, and why sitting down at a piano is still Corey’s true north.

For this week’s Travel Paso Spotlight, Adam goes treasure hunting with Three Speckled Hens Vintage Market & Antique Show, returning to the Paso Robles Event Center October 2 and 3. More than 75 vendors are expected with antiques, vintage furniture, clothing, jewelry, garden pieces, collectibles, food, drinks, and the wonderfully named Hen Pecked Husband area. A portion of every show’s proceeds benefits Jack’s Helping Hand.

And there’s a little extra harvest-season nugget this week. Adam checks in by phone with Chris Eberle, winemaker at Eberle Winery, about his experience putting STRAUSS gear to work during harvest. STRAUSS is the official workwear partner of Paso Robles Wine Country.

Corey Jordan

AMSTRDM Coffee House

Paso Robles Coffee Co.

LIBRETTO

LIBRETTO Conservatory

Paso Robles Jazz Fest

Three Speckled Hens Vintage Market & Antique Show

Travel Paso

The sixth annual Paso Robles Wine Country Virtual Auction runs through September 23 at 5 p.m. Pacific, with more than 40 curated packages featuring rare and allocated wines, private experiences, dining, lodging and wine-country getaways. Proceeds benefit the Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance Foundation, which has awarded 67 scholarships totaling $148,000 over the last five years.

https://pasowine.com/events/virtual-auction/

Hawks Hill Ranch finished No. 2 nationally in The Zoe Report’s 2026 Readers’ Choice poll for Best U.S. Winery Tour, making it the highest-ranked Central Coast winery tour in the poll.

https://pasoroblesdailynews.com/local-winery-ranks-no-2-in-national-tour-poll/223776/

Hope Family Wines has introduced 1.5-liter wine-in-box versions of Troublemaker Red and Troublemaker White, extending one of Paso’s most recognizable brands into a format built for pools, tailgates, weekends and places where glass bottles are not exactly invited.

https://www.winebusiness.com/news/article/322998

Chris Eberle, Eberle Winery

Eberle Winery: https://www.eberlewinery.com/

🎯 Plan your next Paso Robles getaway at travelpaso.com

📲 Where Wine Takes You now has its own Instagram. Follow us at @wherewinetakesyou for new episodes, behind-the-scenes pours, guest highlights, and more from Paso wine country.

🎙️ RECORDED AT SLO CAL STUDIOS

Recorded at SLO CAL Studios, San Luis Obispo County, California.

SLO CAL — where the wine is world-class, the people are real, and life is too beautiful to rush.

For turns well taken:

🎵 Original music by Moonshiner Collective

🎧 Subscribe & Follow

 ©2026 Where Wine Takes You, All Rights Reserved.

Harvest is moving quickly in Paso Robles, after two brutally hot days, calendars are becoming suggestions, and this week we’re making room for two very different conversations about what happens when you finally get the chance to shape something for yourself.

First up is Oliver Mikkelsen, owner and winemaker of Landsby Wines, the small family project he created with his wife, Natalie. “Landsby” means “village” in Danish, and that idea runs straight through the brand. Oliver talks about building a label of his own while working as winemaker and ranch manager for Villa Creek and MAHA Estate, the farmers and mentors who make a tiny wine project possible, and why his approach starts in the vineyard. We also get into organic and dry-farmed fruit, Bailey Vineyard, Chenin Blanc, native fermentation, and what happens when Adam once again declares somebody’s Chenin the best Chenin Blanc.

Then Roxan Kragten, General Manager of Villa San Juliette, joins Adam for a very different Paso story. Roxan spent about a decade working with the property before leaving, then returned under new ownership with a new title and, as she puts it, roughly ten years’ worth of ideas she finally gets to put into motion. They talk about preserving what longtime club members already love, growing the hospitality, lodging and event side of the estate, and keeping wine at the center of it all. There is also unfinished business involving Adam, the Villa San Juliette pool, and the discovery that he was apparently not even the worst offender.

For this week’s Travel Paso Spotlight, we head downtown to The Ava Hotel, where the attraction isn’t only where you sleep. The hotel has three distinct food and drink destinations under one roof: Pine Street Bistro, EMRE, and Esperanza on the Rooftop. Coffee and breakfast downstairs, Mediterranean-inspired dinner, then Baja and Latin-inspired flavors with agave-driven cocktails above downtown Paso. You don’t even need a room key to make a day of it.

Landsby Wines

Villa San Juliette

The Ava Hotel

Travel Paso

The sixth annual Paso Robles Wine Country Virtual Auction runs September 14–23, 2026, with more than 40 curated packages featuring rare and allocated wines, private tastings, vineyard experiences, dining, lodging and wine-country getaways. Proceeds benefit the Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance Foundation, which has awarded 67 scholarships totaling $148,000 to North San Luis Obispo County high school seniors over the last five years.

https://pasowine.com/events/virtual-auction/

New Jeb Dunnuck scores have Paso talking, including the first 100 point wine for Epoch Estate Wines and the team of winemaker Jordan Fiorentini. Adam has been calling his shot on Block B for years, but this is great news, and long overdue! Congrats to other 100s announced for La Venture, Booker, Turtle Rock, Alban, and 2 for Saxum!

With Paso Wine pics in the latest edition of Wine Enthusiast, mentions in a recent RobbReport, also linked here is Wine Spectator taking a deeper look at Epoch Estate Wines and Paso Robles site expression in “Paso by Paso: Two Ways Toward Site Expression,” exploring winemaker Jordan Fiorentini’s approach to blending, vineyard identity and expressing two different estate sites.

https://www.winespectator.com/articles/epoch-paso-robles-site-expression

🎯 Plan your next Paso Robles getaway at travelpaso.com

📲 Where Wine Takes You now has its own Instagram. Follow us at @wherewinetakesyou for new episodes, behind-the-scenes pours, guest highlights, and more from Paso wine country.

🎙️ RECORDED AT SLO CAL STUDIOS

Recorded at SLO CAL Studios, San Luis Obispo County, California.

SLO CAL — where the wine is world-class, the people are real, and life is too beautiful to rush.

For turns well taken:

🎵 Original music by Moonshiner Collective

🎧 Subscribe & Follow

 ©2026 Where Wine Takes You, All Rights Reserved.

What happens when the tasting room decides you should probably stay for lunch?

This week on Where Wine Takes You, we’re digging into a side of Paso Robles wine country that has been evolving for decades: wineries with real restaurants, real kitchens, and chefs who are thinking about what’s on the plate with the same intention that goes into what’s in the glass.

And Paso has some history here. JUSTIN Vineyards & Winery was putting real money and intention behind winery dining decades ago with Deborah’s Room, an early fine-dining experience at the estate that eventually became The Restaurant at JUSTIN, today a MICHELIN-starred restaurant. That early commitment helped establish the idea that a Paso winery could be a destination for dinner, not simply a tasting stop.

That tradition keeps getting stronger. In 2026, Wine Enthusiast included Niner Wine Estates Restaurant on its list of the Best Winery Restaurants in the World, giving Paso some very timely international love for just how serious the food side of wine-country hospitality has become.

Wine Enthusiast:

Because harvest schedules are harvest schedules, Adam changes up the normal format and sits down for two separate conversations. First, it’s CASS Winery co-owner and co-founder Ted Plemons, whose story includes Paso dirt, a trip to South Africa, a few consequential bottles of Syrah, and an early belief that food, wine, hospitality, and the land could all be part of the same experience. Ted shares stories from more than two decades at CASS, how the property has grown, and why building around good people has remained such a big part of the philosophy.

Then we head to Bianchi Winery with winemaker Todd Weiher and Chef Gregg Wangard, who is leading the new Melo Mela Kitchen. The conversation gets into the relationship between chef and winemaker, why acidity matters at the table, Gregg’s belief that his best cooking happens when he’s trusted to take chances, and what changes when a winery stops treating food as an accessory and builds a restaurant people might come back to on its own.

For our Travel Paso Spotlight, we turn up the volume for the 13th Annual Whale Rock Music & Arts Festival, returning September 19–20, 2026 at Whale Rock Vineyard at Castoro Cellars. What began as a 30th-anniversary party called Beaverstock has grown into two days of music, art, wine, food, yoga, family fun, and support for Templeton music education. Adam spent several years hosting the festival himself, making this spotlight a particularly personal one.

CASS Winery

Bianchi Winery

Melo Mela Kitchen

Whale Rock Music & Arts Festival

🎯 Plan your next Paso Robles getaway at travelpaso.com

📲 Where Wine Takes You now has its own Instagram. Follow us at @wherewinetakesyou for new episodes, behind-the-scenes pours, guest highlights, and more from Paso wine country.

🎙️ RECORDED AT SLO CAL STUDIOS

Recorded at SLO CAL Studios, San Luis Obispo County, California.

SLO CAL — where the wine is world-class, the people are real, and life is too beautiful to rush.

For turns well taken:

🎵 Original music by Moonshiner Collective

🎧 Subscribe & Follow

 ©2026 Where Wine Takes You, All Rights Reserved.

Adam may be recording this episode from a lake house on Bear Pond in Hartford, Maine, but we’re headed straight back to Paso Robles wine country for another look at the region’s nested AVAs. This time, we’re going south, to the Santa Margarita Ranch AVA and one remarkable piece of land with a lot of stories buried in it.

Adam sits down at SLO CAL Studios with Doug Filipponi, co-owner of Ancient Peaks Winery and Margarita Vineyard, and Mike Sinor, founding winemaker at Ancient Peaks. Doug grew up about a mile from Santa Margarita Ranch, later drilled water wells on the property, and eventually became one of its owners. Mike came to Cal Poly thinking he might become a teacher, found wine instead, and has spent decades learning how to translate the character of Margarita Vineyard into the glass.

The conversation digs into the history of Santa Margarita Ranch, its wildly varied geology, the cooler growing conditions of the southernmost Paso Robles nested AVA, and the unusual reality that Margarita Vineyard remains the only vineyard inside the appellation. Doug and Mike also get into water wells, airplanes, old Jeeps, the early days of Ancient Peaks, their commitment to over-delivering on quality and value, and the story behind Oyster Ridge, the wine Mike calls their “best foot forward.”

For this week’s Travel Paso Spotlight, Adam checks into River Lodge Paso Robles, the restored mid-century roadside motel from Nomada Hotel Group. The property gives an old Paso motor lodge a second act with 28 rooms, landscaped grounds, a 21+ pool and hot tub, and poolside restaurant and bar Ciao Papi. We also hear from Nomada founder and creative director Kimberly Walker about the vision behind the property.

And because the show is literally called Where Wine Takes You, Adam has one more story developing from Maine. Turns out there’s a tiny vineyard practically across the pond from where he’s staying, with a couple, a dream, and one very unexpected obstacle involving a dry town. More on that one next episode.

Ancient Peaks Winery

River Lodge Paso Robles

Advanced Viticulture looks at an unusually early 2026 growing season and how soil-moisture probes, plant-stress monitoring, and smart irrigation decisions have become especially important in a compressed vintage.

https://advancedvit.com/why-technology-was-essential-in-2026/

https://www.jlohr.com/latest-news/j-lohr-winemaker-kristen-barnhisel-returns-as-asev-president-for-2026-2027

California Coast Brewery and Tobin James Winery took the People’s Choice Award, Booker-My Favorite Neighbor and Ava Hotel won the Professional Chef Award, V1no Juan earned the Judges’ Award, and Hoyt Family Vineyards took the Spirit Award at the annual fundraiser supporting local youth scholarships.

https://pasoroblesdailynews.com/winemakers-cookoff-announces-this-years-winners-2/222731/

River Lodge Paso Robles

🎯 Plan your next Paso Robles getaway at travelpaso.com

📲 Where Wine Takes You now has its own Instagram. Follow us at @wherewinetakesyou for new episodes, behind-the-scenes pours, guest highlights, and more from Paso wine country.

🎙️ RECORDED AT SLO CAL STUDIOS

Recorded at SLO CAL Studios, San Luis Obispo County, California.

SLO CAL — where the wine is world-class, the people are real, and life is too beautiful to rush.

For turns well taken:

🎵 Original music by Moonshiner Collective

🎧 Subscribe & Follow

 ©2026 Where Wine Takes You, All Rights Reserved.

Who actually decides what’s next in wine?

This episode puts that question in front of two people who see the consumer from very different sides of the table. Alex Wolfe, General Manager at Les Petites Canailles, lives in the moment where a guest actually has to choose a bottle. Andrew Nelson, President and Co-Founder of WarRoom Cellars, is looking at that same consumer from the brand side, acquiring and revitalizing legacy names and figuring out what people still love about them.

The conversation gets into the difference between a trend and a fad, orange wine, chilled reds, Riesling, large-format bottles, alternative packaging, value, restaurant wine lists, and the strange alchemy of taking a wine brand with real history and giving it a second act. Andrew also takes us inside WarRoom’s approach to brands like Bonny Doon Vineyard and its newly acquired Pacific Rim, while Alex talks about being the conduit between the enormous world of wine and the actual human sitting at his table.

We skip the Paso Wine Wire this episode and go straight into harvest with winemaker Anthony Yount, who takes Adam’s call with barrels being hydrated and Chardonnay arriving in the background. Anthony gives a genuinely working-winemaker review of STRAUSS, the Official Workwear Partner of Paso Robles Wine Country, including how his STRAUSS Chelsea boots have held up against long cellar days, water, concrete and his previous experience with Blundstones. He also gives us a live look at what was shaping up to be a very long 2026 harvest.

Alex Wolfe | Les Petites Canailles

Andrew Nelson | WarRoom Cellars

Bonny Doon Vineyard

Pacific Rim

STRAUSS is the Official Workwear Partner of Paso Robles Wine Country. Anthony Yount joins Adam from the middle of harvest for a real-world conversation about boots, workwear, long cellar days and the 2026 vintage. STRAUSS continues to identify itself publicly as the Official Workwear Partner of Paso Robles Wine Country.

STRAUSS: https://us.strauss.com

Studios on the Park is a nonprofit art center in downtown Paso Robles with working artists, exhibitions, classes and community arts programming. Jordan Hockett is currently listed as Operations Manager & Curator, and Christy Wilkins as Marketing Coordinator.

Website: https://studiosonthepark.org

🎯 Plan your next Paso Robles getaway at travelpaso.com

📲 Where Wine Takes You now has its own Instagram. Follow us at @wherewinetakesyou for new episodes, behind-the-scenes pours, guest highlights, and more from Paso wine country.

🎙️ RECORDED AT SLO CAL STUDIOS

Recorded at SLO CAL Studios, San Luis Obispo County, California.

SLO CAL — where the wine is world-class, the people are real, and life is too beautiful to rush.

For turns well taken:

🎵 Original music by Moonshiner Collective

🎧 Subscribe & Follow

 ©2026 Where Wine Takes You, All Rights Reserved.

🍇 Where Wine Takes You, Episode Highlights 🍷

This week, we continue our journey through the eleven sub-AVAs of Paso Robles with a stop in the Templeton Gap District, where the Pacific gets a vote, the wind rarely takes the day off, and Paso’s natural power finds a little extra freshness, perfume, and lift.

Joining Adam at SLO CAL Studios are two winemakers operating on very different timelines.

Vic Roberts, owner, estate grower, and winemaker at Victor Hugo Winery, arrived in Paso Robles in 1982. A UC Davis enology graduate, Vic helped with the original Paso Robles AVA effort, participated in the early growth of the Paso Robles Wine Festival, and planted his Templeton property one section at a time with his wife, Leslie.

Sitting beside him is Scott Mathews, owner and winemaker at 915 Lincoln Wines. Scott’s wine journey began when he announced plans to make wine from a kit, and a friend immediately told him absolutely not. Real grapes were picked, an obsession was born, and the project eventually outgrew the garage and basement at 915 Lincoln.

Today, Scott is building a small-production label and welcoming guests into his tasting room on Pine Street in Paso Robles.

Together, Vic and Scott discuss estate farming versus creative sourcing, Viognier’s long climb toward name recognition, small vineyards, tasting-room realities, shifting consumer habits, the current wine market, and how a winemaker stays flexible without losing the reason they started.

Two winemakers.

Two completely different clocks.

One cool, windy corner of Paso Robles tying their stories together.

Later, the Travel Paso Spotlight heads just off the downtown Paso Robles park to Nectar Supply Co., a modern apothecary and lifestyle shop featuring clean skincare, wellness goods, home fragrance, gifts, and small-batch products.

Caleb joins Adam to explain what a modern apothecary actually is, how Nectar curates its shelves, what the shop adds to the downtown Paso experience, and where a first-time visitor should begin.

🌐 Paso Wine Wire

🍷 Cab Franc Masters returns to Paso Robles

The fourth annual Cab Franc Masters takes place Sunday, December 6, 2026, at Cass Winery.

The event includes expert-led seminars, culinary pairings, and a grand tasting featuring more than 25 Paso Robles producers pouring Cabernet Franc.

The day begins with a global exploration of the grape led by Sam Schmitt of the Central Coast School of Wine, followed by a food-pairing seminar with winemaker and educator Wes Hagen.

🔗 Read more:

🔗 Tickets and information:

🍇 Central Coast vineyards running early

Central Coast vineyards are reportedly running three to four weeks ahead of schedule, with a lighter 2026 crop also expected.

An early harvest can compress labor, trucking, picking schedules, tank space, and winery production while a lighter crop can affect grape availability and the financial outlook for growers and producers.

🔗 Read more:

🏡 Bodega de Edgar moves to Templeton

Bodega de Edgar is shifting its tasting-room experience from Paso Robles to Templeton.

The new location is at the Lone Madrone property on West Highway 46, alongside Kitchen 46, adding another wine and food stop to the Templeton tasting map.

Visitors should confirm the current tasting location and hours before arriving.

🔗 Visit Bodega de Edgar:

🌅 Travel Paso Spotlight

This week’s Travel Paso Spotlight features Nectar Supply Co., located just off the downtown Paso Robles park at 840 11th Street, Suite 102.

The modern apothecary and lifestyle shop offers clean skincare, wellness products, home fragrance, gifts, and small-batch goods curated to turn everyday routines into more thoughtful rituals.

🔗 Learn more:

📱 Instagram:

🎯 Plan your next Paso Robles getaway at travelpaso.com

📲 Where Wine Takes You now has its own Instagram. Follow us at @wherewinetakesyou for new episodes, behind-the-scenes pours, guest highlights, and more from Paso wine country.

🎙️ RECORDED AT SLO CAL STUDIOS

Recorded at SLO CAL Studios, San Luis Obispo County, California.

SLO CAL — where the wine is world-class, the people are real, and life is too beautiful to rush.

For turns well taken:

🎵 Original music by Moonshiner Collective

🎧 Subscribe & Follow

 ©2026 Where Wine Takes You, All Rights Reserved.

🍇 Where Wine Takes You – Episode Highlights 🍷

In this episode of Where Wine Takes You, Adam sits down with two people who represent both sides of the bottle: Janell Dusi, owner and winemaker of J Dusi Wines, and Octavio “Tavo” García Martínez, founder of Martínez Farming.

Recorded at SLO CAL Studios, the conversation celebrates Janell being named the 2026 Winemaker of the Year and Tavo being named the 2026 Wine Grape Grower of the Year. The honors recognize two very different journeys. One is rooted in a century of Paso family history. The other was built through decades of vineyard work, entrepreneurship, and leadership.

Janell grew up in the Dante Dusi Vineyard, where grapevines surrounded her childhood home and her grandfather Dante taught her old-world Italian winemaking. After making her first Zinfandel as a kid, she launched J Dusi Wines in 2006 and built a winery that carries her family’s legacy forward with her own perspective.

This appearance is also a full-circle moment. Janell was the very first guest on Where Wine Takes You. Six years later, she returns with 20 years of J Dusi wine in the bottle and a Winemaker of the Year belt buckle around her waist.

Tavo was born in Oaxaca, Mexico, came to the United States as a teenager, and built his career from the ground up in California’s vineyards. He founded Martínez Farming in 2010 and now provides vineyard development, farming, and management services while using social media to show the work, people, and knowledge behind every grape.

Janell has seen Tavo’s leadership firsthand, including overnight harvests when he arrives with dozens of Double-Doubles, donuts, ice, and whatever else his crew needs. His style of leadership is built not just on managing vineyards, but on taking care of the people working inside them.

They also talk about an extraordinarily early 2026 harvest, Janell’s expanding partnership with Maker Wine, her canned wine headed to United Airlines, Tavo’s enormous online following, and what it feels like when years of quiet work are finally recognized out loud.

Later, the Travel Paso Spotlight fires up the grill for the 27th annual Paso Robles Rotary Winemakers’ Cookoff, happening Saturday, August 8, 2026, from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Paso Robles Event Center. Local wineries serve their wine alongside competition-worthy food while battling for People’s Choice and Judges’ Choice honors. More importantly, the event supports scholarships for local high-school seniors through the Harlow Ford Scholarship Fund.

🌐 Paso Wine Wire

🏆 Toast Tours earns major national recognition

Paso-based Toast Tours was named California’s highest-ranked wine tour company and the number-two wine tour company in the United States in the 2026 USA Today 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards. Founded by Kristina Horton and Lars Bruinink, the company is known for personalized itineraries, local guides, and experiences built around each guest.

🔗 Read more:

🥃 Paso Robles Distillery Trail Weekend

The annual Distillery Trail Weekend runs August 7 to 9, 2026, with special tastings, tours, demonstrations, live music, food, and experiences at 12 boutique distilleries. Visitors who collect stamps from at least six locations can earn a limited-edition Paso Robles Distillers shot glass.

🔗 Event details:

🥂 Paso Robles White Wine Invitational

The third annual Paso Robles White Wine Invitational takes place Saturday, August 1, 2026, from 4 to 7 p.m. at Rava Winery. More than 20 producers will pour quality-driven white wines in a walk-around tasting designed to show that Paso’s range goes far beyond big reds. Advance tickets are required.

🔗 Event details:

🌅 Travel Paso Spotlight

The 27th annual Paso Robles Rotary Winemakers’ Cookoff takes place Saturday, August 8, 2026, from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Paso Robles Event Center.

Enjoy wine, food, live music, and friendly competition while supporting scholarships for local students.

🔗 Information and tickets:

🎯 Plan your next Paso Robles getaway at travelpaso.com

🎙️ RECORDED AT SLO CAL STUDIOS

Recorded at SLO CAL Studios, San Luis Obispo County, California.

SLO CAL — where the wine is world-class, the people are real, and life is too beautiful to rush.

For turns well taken:

🎵 Original music by Moonshiner Collective

🎧 Subscribe & Follow

 ©2026 Where Wine Takes You, All Rights Reserved.

🍇 Where Wine Takes You: Episode Highlights 🍷

In this episode of Where Wine Takes You, Adam sits down with Phil Lamontagne, owner and winemaker of IIWII Wines, and Taylor Mathiesen, owner and winemaker of Cutbow Wines, for a conversation about the space between paychecks and passion.

Recorded at SLO CAL Studios, the episode brings together two emerging Paso Robles brands from what Phil calls the “good draft class of ’22.” Both launched in 2022. Both are earning serious respect. And both are still being built around full-time jobs, long cellar days, supportive partners, hard-earned relationships, and the belief that a small brand can grow into something much bigger.

For Phil, IIWII, pronounced “ee-wee”, grew from his years working with Jennifer and Terry Hoage at TH Estate Wines. When the Hoages retired, Phil and longtime coworker Cyril Pujadas found themselves pushed from the nest. Instead of walking away from what they had built, they created IIWII: short for “It Is What It Is.”

But the name is not about giving up. For Phil, it describes the reality of winemaking. It is this vintage, this hillside, this weather, this fruit, and this moment. The winemaker’s job is to capture it honestly, using the raw chemistry of wine as a palette for what he calls abstract art under a cork.

Taylor’s Cutbow story started with a happy accident. After five formative years at Booker Vineyard, Taylor joined Bret Urness at Levo. During the 2022 harvest, Bret had an extra ton of Grenache from Jack Creek Vineyard and encouraged Taylor to take it, experiment, and make the wine his own.

The name comes from a cutbow trout, a hybrid of a cutthroat and rainbow trout, and Taylor’s childhood fly-fishing trips with his grandfather. For Taylor and his wife, Emma, the fish became a symbol of two individuals coming together to create something distinct, beautiful, and entirely their own.

Adam, Phil, and Taylor get into the open-cellar culture that makes Paso different, the mentors who made time for them, the challenge of finding your own voice without rejecting your influences, and what it takes to build a premium wine brand when the day job is still paying the bills.

🌐 PASO WINE WIRE

Third Annual Paso Robles White Wine Invitational

The Paso Robles White Wine Invitational returns Saturday, August 1, 2026, from 4 to 7 p.m. at Rava Wines.

What began as a collaboration among seven like-minded wineries has grown into a major Central Coast celebration featuring more than twenty producers. The participating lineup includes Tablas Creek, Union Sacré, Paix Sur Terre, Monochrome, Kinero, Alta Colina, Thacher, Giornata, Villa Creek, and episode guest IIWII Wines.

The walk-around tasting includes live music, food available for purchase, and oysters that can be added when making a reservation. Advance tickets are required.

🔗 Event details:

Tablas Creek’s Original Nursery Block Is Still Teaching Lessons at 32

Tablas Creek Vineyard is looking back at the original nursery block that helped seed the modern American Rhône movement.

The block began with a small number of Rhône cuttings brought into the United States, quarantined, propagated, and eventually distributed to growers throughout the West Coast. At its peak, Tablas Creek was selling hundreds of thousands of vines annually to roughly 600 vineyards.

Jason Haas estimates that around 70 percent of the wineries at a typical Rhône Rangers tasting work, at least partly, with material that originally came through Tablas Creek.

More than three decades later, those own-rooted vines remain healthy and productive. Their longevity is now raising new questions about what own-rooted Mourvèdre may be capable of under the right conditions.

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🥃 TRAVEL PASO SPOTLIGHT

Paso Robles Distillery Trail Weekend

This episode’s Travel Paso Spotlight trades the corkscrew for the cocktail shaker and explores the Paso Robles Distillery Trail.

Distillery Trail Weekend happens August 7–9, 2026, bringing together twelve boutique distilleries for three days of local spirits, special tastings, tours, demonstrations, and build-your-own exploration.

No general-admission ticket is required. Visitors can pick up a map at any participating distillery or the Paso Robles Visitor Center, create their own route, and start exploring. Guests who visit at least six distilleries and collect a stamp at each stop earn a limited-edition Paso Robles Distillers shot glass.

The 2026 Copper Card adds one complimentary tasting at each participating distillery, access to select private tours, demonstrations and events, plus discounts at certain locations. The cards do not expire, allowing visitors to experience the trail at their own pace.

Adam also makes the case for treating Paso’s distillers with the same respect and excitement given to its winemakers. These small producers are making world-class whiskey, gin, vodka, rum, brandy, liqueurs, and other craft spirits—often with tiny teams and major obstacles standing between their bottles and the people who want them.

Visit them. Taste what they are making. Ask questions. Buy a bottle. Supporting local producers matters.

HELP YOUR LOCAL DISTILLERS HERE

🎯 Plan your next Paso Robles getaway at travelpaso.com

🎙️ RECORDED AT SLO CAL STUDIOS

Recorded at SLO CAL Studios, San Luis Obispo County, California.

SLO CAL — where the wine is world-class, the people are real, and life is too beautiful to rush.

For turns well taken:

🎵 Original music by Moonshiner Collective

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