Winemaking
Our Winemaker
Nicole represents a new generation of Paso Robles winemakers, bringing fresh energy, creativity, and a modern perspective to the evolving wine industry. As a young female winemaker with roots in both science and hands on agriculture, she reflects the growing movement toward experience driven, innovative wine culture that is resonating with younger consumers.
Nicole came to winemaking from the biotech industry, where she earned a master’s degree from Northwestern University and developed the precision and analytical skills she now applies to her true calling. Currently completing her Winemaking Certificate Program through UC Davis, she brings scientific rigor together with several years of hands-on expertise in farming, cellar work, and daily operations.
Combining her background in biotechnology with immersive work in the vineyard and cellar, Nicole approaches winemaking with both precision and authenticity, embracing new ideas while remaining deeply connected to the craft, the people, and the community that make Paso Robles unique.
The Universe in a Glass of Wine
Below is an excerpt from the lecture titled “The Relation of Physics to Other Sciences,” in which Richard Feynman highlights the connectedness of everything to everything else. Feynman’s lectures are collected in The Feynman Lectures on Physics.
A poet once said, “The whole universe is in a glass of wine.” We will probably never know in what sense he meant that, for poets do not write to be understood.
But it is true that if we look at a glass of wine closely enough we see the entire universe. There are the things of physics: the twisting liquid which evaporates depending on the wind and weather, the reflections in the glass, and our imagination adds the atoms.
The glass is a distillation of the earth’s rocks, and in its composition we see the secrets of the universe’s age, and the evolution of stars.
What strange array of chemicals are in the wine? How did they come to be?
There are the ferments, the enzymes, the substrates, and the products.
There in wine is found the great generalization: all life is fermentation.
Nobody can discover the chemistry of wine without discovering, as did Louis Pasteur, the cause of much disease.
How vivid is the claret, pressing its existence into the consciousness that watches it!
If our small minds, for some convenience, divide this glass of wine, this universe, into parts—physics, biology, geology, astronomy, psychology, and so on—remember that nature does not know it!
So let us put it all back together, not forgetting ultimately what it is for.
Let it give us one more final pleasure: drink it and forget it all!
Our wine making philosophy
Our philosophy is simple: make wine that is a true and honest expression of the land. Our estate wines are crafted from 100% organically and sustainably farmed Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot vines grown here on the property. These vines, almost 40 years old, give us exceptional starting material. As vines mature, their root systems reach deeper into the soil, accessing minerals and nutrients that younger vines cannot, and developing the complexity and concentration that define old vine fruit. From the 25 acres we farm, we hand select only the finest sections each year, carefully monitoring and analyzing the vineyard before choosing which grapes will go into our bottles. At harvest, every cluster is hand picked from those selected rows, then screened again by our winemaker, Nicole Flores, to ensure we are bringing only the absolute best the land has to offer into each bottle.
As a small production winery, our primary focus is quality and authenticity. We do not engineer our wines for awards or alter the chemistry of the grapes to match predetermined profiles. We embrace the controlled chaos of nature and see our wine as a harmony of expression, telling the story that unfolded throughout the year. Every vintage reflects whatever nature put the grapes through, capturing a unique moment in time. We recognizes the unique qualities of our mature vineyard and meticulously adjusts the winemaking process to coax out these inherent characteristics, employing restrained, minimal intervention techniques that allow the old vines to express themselves fully in the finished wine. In a world where so much is artificially created in labs, filled with additives and chemicals, and where farms work against nature and deplete soil health every cycle, we hope to offer a refreshing change to what it means to be a steward of the land.
We personally oversee every aspect of this vision: vineyard management, winemaking from harvest to bottling, and ensuring each vintage expresses the distinctive character of our estate. Nicole also curates immersive tasting experiences and nurtures relationships within the wine community. Driven by a commitment to sustainability and craftsmanship, we creates wines that are as authentic, expressive, and enduring as the vineyard itself.
Our Estate Wine Collection
