Bodegas Paso Robles makes wine using grapes native to Spain and Portugal and grapes that have been used for centuries in Iberian winemaking. All our wines are hand-crafted and aged in premium French and American barrels. Our red wine blends are based on Tempranillo, one of the most extensively planted grapes in both Spain and Portugal. This grape is becoming increasingly popular in California, whi
ch seems to make sense because our climate and terrain are so similar to that of the Iberian Peninsula. Blended wines -- much more popular in Europe -- are just beginning to gain a following in America. Tempranillo is a thick-skinned dark grape that produces a fruity wine full of plum and black cherry with spice and sometimes smoky leather, licorice, and almond flavors. ¡Viva Yo! -- one of our most popular wines -- is Tempranillo blended with a smidgen of Cabernet Sauvignon. Other blends contain grapes either rare to this country (Graciano and Bastardo) or used strictly to make port wines (Tinto Cão and Touriga). Tempranillo blends are extremely versatile with food pairings, and the Spanish believe it is the most food-friendly of all wines. Nothing works better with spicy food or game birds-- think duck or pheasant -- and it is sublime with pork and lamb. All grapes for our winers are hand harvested early in the morning. Red grapes are destemmed, not crushed, and sorted pre- and post-destemming on the sorting table system, a manually intensive operation. White grapes are immediately sent to press, with the juice then transferred to tank for chilling. The destemmed red fruit is cold soaked for three to four days and then started on primary fermentation, which can take anywhere from eight to fourteen days, with “punch downs” manually three times a day. This process allows the fermenting juice to absorb color and tannin from the grape skins and seeds. When fermentation is complete, the wine is gently pressed and moved into oak barrels for secondary fermentation. Most Bodegas Paso Robles red wines are barrel aged for two years, with the whites and rosé aged six to seven months before bottling. The finished red wine is bottled in high-quality glass using hand-picked-quality natural corks.
