Hollyhock Vineyard

03/12/2021

We now have a tasting room, full time staff, and a wine club which includes both Hollyhock and Rotta wines. If you enjoyed your Hollyhock wines you don't need to wait until you stay with us again, you can receive 3, 6, or 12 bottles 2-3 times a year.

Last October Julie and I took the next step in our family's journey by acquiring Rotta Winery. Rotta is a 35 acre vineyard, winery, and tasting room 6 miles down the road from Hollyhock in the heart of the prestigious Paso Robles Willow Creek AVA. It was established in 1908 and is one of the oldest continually operating wineries in the United States (it even has a history page!). A few of our earlier posts detailing the purchase and progress are below.

03/03/2021

After having to w**d manually with hoes for the past 6 years we finally splurged on gear we can share here and with Rotta. Keeping it organic!

04/27/2020

Contributing to the local businesses never tasted so good!

04/25/2020

From an old (and rare) underground root cellar to a fully temperature controlled rustic wine cellar. The door is from my house in Maine. You can see the build photos here.

04/14/2020

We just released a bunch of our 2017 wines for shipment (and a few 2016, 2018 and 2019 Rose). Given our small production we thought it would be a good idea to describe the process and a vineyard a bit. Each of the photos in this album has a description fo the vineyard or how the wine is made.

We grow about 32 tons of fruit a year, 16 Grenache and 16 Mourvedre on 10 acres. Almost all of our fruit goes to Tables Creek Vineyard who blends it with Syrah and Grenache from other local vineyard to create their Patelin line which score in the 90's and has even made some top 100 wine lists. Our Hollyhock Vineyard wine is made a bit differently. We drop more fruit to cut down the yield and grow more premium. We also hang it longer to ripen further. In many years we will also do whole cluster fermentation. Everything is handpicked, hand sorted, hand stomped, and well.... everything is crafted by hand. It can be tricky to do this while both Julie and I have day jobs but it helps that vineyard work typically occurs before the rest of the world wakes up for a standard work day!

-Julie and Bill

We just released a bunch of our 2017 wines for shipment (and a few 2016, 2018 and 2019 Rose). Given our small production we thought it would be a good idea to describe the process and a vineyard a bit. We grow about 32 tons of fruit a year, 16 Grenache and 16 Mourvedre on 10 acres. Almost all of our fruit goes to Tables Creek Vineyard who blends it with Syrah and Grenache from other local vineyard to create their Patelin line which score in the 90's and has even made some top 100 wine lists. Our Hollyhock Vineyard wine is made a bit differently. We drop more fruit to cut down the yield and grow more premium. We also hang it longer to ripen further. In many years we will also do whole cluster fermentation. Everything is handpicked, hand sorted, hand stomped, and well.... everything is crafted by hand. It can be tricky to do this while both Julie and I have day jobs but it helps that vineyard work typically occurs before the rest of the world wakes up for a standard work day!

04/14/2020

We just released a bunch of our 2017 wines for shipment (and a few 2016, 2018 and 2019 Rose). Given our small production we thought it would be a good idea to describe the process and a vineyard a bit. We grow about 32 tons of fruit a year, 16 Grenache and 16 Mourvedre on 10 acres. Almost all of our fruit goes to Tables Creek Vineyard who blends it with Syrah and Grenache from other local vineyard to create their Patelin line which score in the 90's and has even made some top 100 wine lists. Our Hollyhock Vineyard wine is made a bit differently. We drop more fruit to cut down the yield and grow more premium. We also hang it longer to ripen further. In many years we will also do whole cluster fermentation. Everything is handpicked, hand sorted, hand stomped, and well.... everything is crafted by hand. It can be tricky to do this while both Julie and I have day jobs but it helps that vineyard work typically occurs before the rest of the world wakes up for a standard work day!

08/14/2019

Great Accolades on the Rose made with our Hollyhock Fruit!

August Featured Wine: 2018 Patelin de Tablas Rosé
We have a treat for our August monthly wine feature. The lively 2018 Patelin de Tablas Rosé, like most rosés from Provence, is based on the bright strawberry fruit and fresh acidity of Grenache, with additions of deeper red fruit and spice from Mourvèdre and Counoise. It tied for the highest rating the Wine Enthusiast has ever given a Central Coast rosé at 93 points. Vinous gave it 91 points, named it a Vinous Favorite, and called it "a balanced, concentrated Rosé that deftly marries power with elegance."

09/15/2018

Harvest 2018 - woke up to pick at 2am. Brrrrr.... had to use the Tesla for heavy duty towing.

09/15/2018

Harvest 2018 - Grenache For Direct press rose at Tablas Creek and a little bit for Greywolf/Barton cellars. Quick drone footage. Will try for more professional later

01/31/2018

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12/06/2016

A previous recipe from Tablas Creek Vineyard and with short rib, Madeira, Patelin, and Espirit. Yum! Oh. And we smoked some pork too.

11/27/2016

A visitor recently took these great photos!