Team C&J
This Winery Is Permanently Closed.
Winery Rating
Located at:
8355 Vineyard Dr, Paso Robles, CA 93446
Wine Club Rating
Price Range For Tasting
The husband and wife team of Sherman and Michelle Thacher craft wines that are rustic and light through low-intervention winemaking.
Sherman and Michelle Thacher, the owners of Thacher Winery and Vineyards, fell in love with Paso Robles and each other when they would meet in the small wine town while Michelle was away at college in Santa Barbara and Sherman was a brewmaster in San Francisco. As they continued to meet at this halfway point between their two cities, they developed an interest in wine and were drawn to the slowed-down style of living in what was then a sleepy part of the Central Coast.
Serendipitously, a friend of the couple was wed at what was then called the Kentucky Ranch, and the Thacher’s quickly became interested in the property’s unique qualities – it was originally used as a cattle ranch and Quarter Horse breeding operation. As luck would have it, a 52-acre parcel went on the market a few months later, and the Thacher’s jumped at the opportunity to put down new roots in Paso Robles.
While the Thacher’s have kept some relics of the property’s past, including the ‘KR’ barn, which was built in the 1920s, and numerous decorative stagecoaches, they have also added their own touches. Today, the property boasts a 4,600 country-style tasting room, a solar-powered winery, and an on-property guest residence that visitors can rent for the evening.
Thacher offers two tasting opportunities, a patio tasting with current vintages that are priced at $20 per person, with the fee waived per two bottles purchased, and an elevated tasting called the Thacher Stable Tasting.
The Thacher Stable Tasting takes place in one of the property’s old horse stables and includes library releases, extremely limited bottlings, and new vintages. This tasting requires a $60 prepaid reservation.
There is no food served on the property, but guests are encouraged to bring a picnic lunch if they like.
Thacher appears to be in an expansion process where grape growing is concerned. Presently, about 70% of the grapes that winemaker Sherman Thacher uses are sourced from outside vineyards.
When the Thacher’s purchased the 52-acre property, there were existing Zinfandel and Petite Sirah plantings, but the couple really wanted to explore the world of Rhone varieties and more experimental field blends. In 2022, Mencia, a Spanish grape, Muscat Blanc, and a mixed white blend of field grapes were also planted in their 5-acre Kentucky Ranch Vineyard. This vineyard also has plantings of Counoise, Alicante Bouchet, and Viognier.
The family’s newest vineyard, the Hillstone Vineyard, was planted in 2016 to a slew of Rhone varieties, including Cinsault, Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre, Carignan, and Bordeaux Cabernet.
2022 CINSAUT ROSÉ
100% Cinsaut, Monterey
Cinsaut (Cinsault) is a Southern Rhone grape variety known for making “poppy” light red wines with tart aromatics and low tannins. It also happens to make excellent rose wines.
The Thacher 2022 Cinsaut Rose is a very, very unique Rose. The wine is light, minerally, refreshing, and low in alcohol (10.5%). Abundant strawberry and peach define the acidic palate. If we were to buy one wine from Thacher, it would most likely be this bottling.
2021 MENCÍA
100% Mencía, Siletto Vineyard, San Benito
Mencía is a Spanish varietal known for its earthy, herbal qualities and light red fruit. The grape is typically pretty tannic, but Thacer uses carbonic maceration in the winery to reduce those tannins and bring the fruit forward on the palate.
We found this bottling to have heavy mineral aspects, and abundant cherry, to the point that it almost tasted like a Jolly Rancher, as well as herbal notes. The wine is very light, and with its low alcohol, and medium acidity, it may be intended to drink as a “chillable red wine.”
2021 NÉGRETTE
100% Négrette, Calleri Vineyard, San Benito
Négrette is usually used as a blending grape in southwestern France, but it is increasingly showing up in rosés and in experimental single-vineyard bottlings. Lots of herbal aromatics on the nose, and the palate had broad dark fruit notes, green pepper, and more herbal qualities. The tannins could have been kept a bit more in check, as this wine was extremely tannic. The low 12.5% alcohol and medium acidity made the wine a little more approachable.
2018 RESIDENT ALIEN
65% Tannat, 35% Petite Sirah, Paso Robles
This Central Coast red blend could have used more structure, despite being highly tannic and acidic. This one was honestly pretty bland. There was almost a tanginess to it. A very average wine. Probably our least favorite in the tasting line-up.
2018 NORMAL DEVIATION
39% Zinfandel, 39% Petite Sirah, 22% Alicante Bouschet
Kentucky Ranch Vineyard, Paso Robles
Thacher’s Normal Deviation is made with fruit entirely sourced from the brand’s Kentucky Ranch Vineyard.
The palate is pretty meaty, and there’s a nice amount of black fruit here too. The structure is well-balanced but in the end nothing special. The winery says this bottle can be cellared through 2031; maybe it just needs a few more years in the bottle.
We should also note that the staff opened up a bonus bottle for us, a Pinot Noir made from fruit sourced from Santa Barbara. Aside from the rose, which we really enjoyed, this was the best wine they have. This one almost neared a 90 PT score from us.
We visited Thacher Winery and Vineyard right after our utterly amazing tour and tasting at Halter Ranch, and these two Paso Robles wine brands couldn’t have been more different in their operational styles and in the wines themselves.
On a scale of Poor, Average, Good, Very Good, and Outstanding, we found all of the wines to be in the Average to Good range. There was just nothing great here for our tastes. While Sherman has been making wine for the last 10 years, our impression is that he could use some help from the outside.
While the staff is very nice, the tasting area is basic, and it doesn’t really take advantage of what could be some pretty amazing views of the property. A lot of the property’s original barns make up many of the outbuildings, and they looked a little long in the tooth.
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