Serendipity. It’s the word you could use to describe the divine forces at work that led to Columbus’ discovery of America. It’s also the word that could be used to explain how three families, the Filipponis, Rossis and Wittstroms, came to own a fertile piece of sprawling land, called Rancho Santa Margarita, that is the source of some of... Read more →

Somewhere in the middle of a nondescript, industrial part of town in Paso Robles, California—populated with tin warehouses and appropriately dubbed “Tin City”—is a Frenchman born of the Languedoc region laboring in the wee hours of the morning over wine vats and excited about a concrete fermentation tank that has newly arrived in a... Read more →

Why 13? Because 100 is too damn many.     Because 13 is more satisfying than 10 or 12. Because we believe, like the Chinese do, the number 13 is a fortuitous one. The number 13 forces us to be very picky and very disciplined in putting our annual list together. Our list could easily be 50, but these are the ones you... Read more →

There are those who say that the wine scene in Paso Robles, California, is what Napa Valley was 35 years ago. Such comparisons are moot—Paso is its own place, with a unique vibe and culture—and this winemaking region of central California stands on its own and treads its own path, defying comparisons to anywhere else in... Read more →

Merry Edwards is an avid gardener, and the parallels one can draw between tending a garden and growing a vineyard are not hard to see when it comes to one of the first woman pioneers in American wine.   The evidence is in the wine. For over 40 years, Merry Edwards’ Pinot Noirs have been recognized as some of the greatest of... Read more →