Team C&J
This Winery Is Permanently Closed.
Winery Rating
Located at:
3430 Peachy Canyon Road Paso Robles CA, 93446
Wine Club Rating
Price Range For Tasting
This family-owned winery has a near-perfect five-star review across Yelp and Google, and we recently made a trip to the estate to see if the wines lived up to all the hype.
You hear a lot about wineries founded by husband and wife teams, by friends who meet as cellar rats, and by successful business people who embark on second-act careers as winery owners. What you don’t hear much about are father-daughter teams, which is why learning about how the father-daughter team of Lloyd Messer and Dana Brown intrigued us.
Lloyd and Dana are originally from Iowa and had both built careers as Midwest wine distributors prior to moving out West. In 2000, however, Messer and Brown caught the winemaking bug and began looking at vineyard properties in the still relatively small growing region of Paso Robles. It didn’t take long for the pair to fall in love with a 442-acre property that was already planted with some of the Rhône and Bordeaux varieties they loved. In addition to the breathtaking views from that hilltop, the property sat on calcareous rock soil. This abundant soil would later inspire the ‘Calcareous Vineyard’ name.
While Lloyd passed away in 2006, that hasn’t stopped Dana from continuing to manage the business. In 2019, she hired Jason Joyce as Calcareous Vineyard’s head winemaker, and the pair maintain a respectable 9,000 case production each vintage.
When you visit Calcareous Vineyards for a wine tasting, you’ve got a few options, but the most popular, at least based on the foot traffic while we were there, was the Outdoor Wine Tasting with Optional Lunch. And, once you stand on top of the estate’s hill, you understand why. The views up there are endless!
If you’re interested in a more educational experience, book the Cabernet Elevated Wine Flight with Cheese & Charcuterie. This tasting takes place in the cellar and includes a peek at the behind-the-scenes winemaking.
If outdoor wine tasting isn’t really your thing, or the weather isn’t cooperating, opt for the Indoor Wine Tasting with Lounge. If you book this experience, just be aware that there is no lunch option available.
The last tasting option brings all of the above experiences together into one blockbuster afternoon. The Premier Hilltop Tasting and Lunch includes a cellar tour, lunch, wine flight, and drive through the vineyard.
On our visit to Calcareous Vineyard, we opted for the ‘Outdoor Wine Tasting with Optional Lunch’ experience, which included five wines. The lunch menu has a good mix of options, from lighter fare like the strawberry salad to heartier options like the Devil’s Canyon Burger, Spring Pasta, and Crispy Chicken Sandwich.
These were our takeaways from the tasting.
2021 CHARDONNAY, $38
The Calcareous Chardonnay is made with grapes sourced from the Calcareous Vineyard, and it’s worth noting that this vintage experienced cooler-than-usual summer weather, which slowed the grape ripening. This nose on this Chardonnay has noticeable minerality, sweet honeydew melon, and a lemon butteriness to it.
Similar qualities appear on the palate with flinty lemon notes and more melon. There’s a good amount of acid in this wine, which makes for easy sipping.
2021 KATE’S VINEYARD ZINFANDEL, $54
All of the estate’s Zinfandel is sourced from Kate’s Vineyard, a 12-acre plot that was planted in 1988. The fruit appears in this estate bottling and also in the ‘Main Squeeze’ and ‘Twisted Paso Zin’
Kate’s Vineyard Zinfandel presented as a highly tannic and acidic wine with what felt like a lot of alcohol on the palate. The wine is very dark in the glass and appears almost purple. Black fruit dominates, with black cherry, blackberry, and rich boysenberry. This Zin has a nice long finish but didn’t have the balance we typically expect from a Paso Zinfandel.
2020 LLOYD, $65
The Calcareous Vineyards Lloyd wine is a tribute to the founder, and Dana’s father, Lloyd Messer. This Bordeaux-inspired wine is 26% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Franc, 24% Cabernet Sauvignon, 19% Malbec, 6% Petit Verdot.
This wine may have benefited from some decanting or a bit more age. The tannins were very heavy, and the alcohol level kind of got in the way of this bottle. The palate has a good amount of dark fruit, with juicy plum the standout note, but the finish turns all of that fruit into an almost candy-like aftertaste.
2019 MOOSE, $70
This wine has been called a “textbook” Paso Robles Syrah, and we echo that notion. The 2019 Calcareous Moose wine was our most highly-rated wine of the tasting. This Syrah is an enchanting violet color in the glass and exhibits bold, rich qualities from the nose to the palate.
Ripe, dark cherry fruit, chocolate, cedar spice, and jammy dark berry fruit combine for a lovely, complex palate. The acidity provides balance to this intriguing palate.
2020 MESSER, $70
The Messer bottling is an homage to the Messer family. This blend of Cab Franc and Malbec exhibits cherry and blackberry, along with notes of pepper and mint. Like some of the other wines in the tasting, you could really feel the alcohol on the palate here. The acidity was on the lower end, and the finish was long and slightly sweet. Another good wine, but not a wine we would necessarily seek out.
We found the wines at Calcareous Vineyards to be good but not great. Having said that, the property and the tasting room are beautiful, and there are worse ways to spend a day than sipping decent wine atop a hill overlooking the valley and vineyards. The lunch menu and the tasting line-up was good enough that we would recommend a visit.
All in all, this was still a nice way to spend an afternoon in Paso Robles wine country.
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