Team C&J
This Winery Is Permanently Closed.
Winery Rating
Located at:
8910 Adelaida Rd, Paso Robles, CA 93446
Wine Club Rating
Price Range For Tasting
Of the hundreds of wineries, tastings, and tours we have attended, our experience at Halter Ranch may have been the best yet. Keep reading to see what we loved about wine tasting at their Paso Robles property.
Halter Ranch was created by a Swiss entrepreneur, philanthropist, and conservationist Hansjörg Wyss who formerly founded a medical device company. Hansjörg became fascinated by the United State’s vast open land after he went on a hiking expedition in the Rocky Mountains.
The land where Halter Ranch sits today was settled back in 1880 by the Smith family and later changed hands to the MacGillivray family in 1947. The MacGillivray family held the estate for almost 60 years before they decided to sell 900 of their acres to Hansjörg Wyss in 2000. Wyss dubbed the new site “Halter Ranch” after his mother Alice Halter.
You can’t talk about Halter Ranch without talking about sustainability. Hansjörg’s love of nature was fueled by his interest in the American West, and when he began envisioning what he wanted his California wine project to look like, nature was a tenant of that vision.
What started out as a commitment to preserving large swaths of the 2,700-acre Paso Robles property, 90% of the land, to be exact, turned into so much more. An extensive 20,000 sq ft cave system, the largest of any winery in California’s Central Coast, was dug out into the calcareous soil at 10 feet per day for 18 months. With these caves, Halter Ranch leverages the earth’s natural evening cooling to maintain an ideal 56-degree temperature for wines in the barrel.
There are a lot of vineyards that bring herds of sheep on their properties during the spring to cut down the weeds between the vineyard rows rather than spraying harmful herbicides and pesticides, but Halter Ranch is taking this regenerative farming method one step further and reengineering parts of their Cabernet and Picpoul Blanc to allow sheep the “mow between the vines” all year long. This first-of-its-kind project in Paso Robles is just another way Halter Ranch continues to find creative ways to boost its sustainability and the productivity of the vineyard.
In addition to this, biodiversity on the estate is among the highest in the entire state. Not only is the land covered in manzanita, sagebrush, and ancient oak trees, but Hansjörg has preserved a unique four-mile-long wildlife corridor that crosses a busy stream – busy as in you won’t believe the number of animals that pass through the property. Halter Ranch’s popular Instagram account documents them all!
Halter Ranch offers three distinct tastings:
We decided to try Halter Ranch’s Caves & Winery Tour, and we will tell you right off the bat this was probably the best winery tour and tasting we have ever had – and that’s saying something. The tour was extremely well planned out; our tour guides, Rachel and James, were extremely knowledgeable and passionate about the wines and ranch, and they provided an amazingly detailed tour.
We were able to experience a barrel tasting and see the state-of-the-art winemaking facility, including the optical sorter that is used to kick out bad grapes and the gravity-fed system, which reduces or eliminates the use of machinery in the winemaking process. Winemakers believe this system helps to preserve the grape’s delicate characteristics and is environmentally friendly.
Proprietor Hansjörg Wyss’ commitment to his Halter Ranch project is clear when you visit the estate. Nothing on this property was done on a whim or executed in a way that was rushed.
Of the four wines we tasted on the cave tour, the 2019 Halter Ranch Ancestor, a blend of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Malbec, and 17% Petit Verdot was the standout for us. This Bordeaux-style wine is the brand’s flagship wine, and it was excellent. For the chef-prepared lunch, we enjoyed halibut and a ranch-inspired burger. The fish was paired with a lovely Viogier, and the burger was paired with a Halter Ranch Cabernet.
The meal capped off a great day of wine tasting and a phenomenal experience.
Our experience at Halter Ranch set a very high bar for the wineries that were to follow on our trip to Paso Robles. All of the wines we tried were of excellent quality, each was truly as good or better than the next. Winemaker Kevin Sass is doing great work here. We highly recommend you go and see all that Halter Ranch has to offer yourselves. From the beautiful grounds to the wine and the friendly and knowledgeable staff, everything at this winery is of the highest quality.
All things wine, and food you could ever need or want — straight to your email!
