Where Wine Takes You - A Paso Wine Podcast

🍇 Where Wine Takes You, Episode Highlights 🍷 What happens when you actually follow through on the crazy thing you wrote down years ago? This week, Adam sits down with Dave and Shawn Kahal of Kahal Family Vineyards, whose path to wine country included Orange County, Connecticut, basement winemaking, some memorably bad early wine, and eventually a vineyard in Indian Valley with a San Miguel address. Their story is a good reminder that the finished bottle is usually the least complicated part. The conversation gets into Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, learning the realities of farming, the challenges facing growers in today’s wine market, and what it means to build a winery around experiences and relationships rather than simply making more wine. It’s also the latest stop in our exploration of Paso Robles’ 11 nested AVAs, with a closer look at the history and geography of the San Miguel District. Our Travel Paso Spotlight heads to From the Heart Animal Sanctuary on Fat Goat Farm in Paso Robles. The nonprofit provides permanent homes for special-needs animals, while those same animals help inspire art classes for local children. Their fifth annual fundraiser takes place Saturday, September 26, from noon to 2 p.m. at California Coast Beer Company. 🍷 GUEST + EPISODE LINKS Kahal Family Vineyards KahalFamilyVineyards.com Kahal Family Vineyards on Instagram @kahalfamilyvineyards From the Heart Animal Sanctuary FromTheHeartAnimalSanctuary.org From the Heart Animal Sanctuary on Instagram @fromtheheartanimalsanctuary Travel Paso TravelPaso.com 📰 PASO WINE WIRE Remembering Chuck Ortman Charles “Chuck” Ortman, founder of Meridian Vineyards and an influential figure in Central Coast wine, died September 16 at age 86. His career stretched from Heitz Cellars and Spring Mountain Vineyard to Meridian and later Ortman Family Vineyards with his son, Matt. Read the story at Paso Robles Daily News Lohr Named 2027 Grower of the Year The California Association of Winegrape Growers has selected J. Lohr Vineyards & Wines as its 2027 Grower of the Year, while Jeff Bitter of Allied Grape Growers was named 2027 Leader of the Year. Read the story at Paso Robles Daily News 🍂 HARVEST WINE MONTH October is Harvest Wine Month in Paso Robles Wine Country, with winery events happening throughout the month, including vineyard experiences, dinners, grape stomps, live music and more. See what’s happening at PasoWine.com 🎯 Plan your next Paso Robles getaway at travelpaso.com 📲 Where Wine Takes You now has its own Instagram. Follow us at @wherewinetakesyou for new episodes, behind-the-scenes pours, guest highlights, and more from Paso wine country. 🎙️ RECORDED AT SLO CAL STUDIOS Recorded at SLO CAL Studios, San Luis Obispo County, California. SLO CAL — where the wine is world-class, the people are real, and life is too beautiful to rush. For turns well taken: https://slocal.com 🎧 Subscribe & Follow Love Where Wine Takes You? Leave a review, subscribe, and share it with a fellow wine (or Paso) lover. 🎙️ Credits Executive Producer: Joel Peterson + Paso Wine Associate Producer: Krista Smith Recorded, edited, hosted by Adam Montiel Follow Adam: @AdamOnTheAir Explore all things Adam: AdamMontiel.com Listen to Adam’s other shows: Up + Adam (daily) and The Pour (wine & more, travel, culture) Learn more, connect, or say hey at AdamMontiel.com/connect 🎵 Original music by Moonshiner Collective 📱 Download the Paso Wine App 🍷 Plan your trip at PasoWine.com and follow @PasoWine 🎯 Plan your next Paso Robles getaway at travelpaso.com 🎧 Subscribe & Follow If you love Where Wine Takes You, make sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with your favorite wine or Paso lover. ©2026 Where Wine Takes You, All Rights Reserved.

🍇 Where Wine Takes You, Episode Highlights 🍷 It’s harvest in Paso Robles, which means winemakers are moving fast, sleep is negotiable, and sitting still is not exactly the seasonal specialty. So this week, Adam follows the ripple effect of wine country in a different direction with Corey Jordan, Paso Robles native, musician, entrepreneur, and co-founder with his wife, Kate Jordan, of a growing collection of businesses helping shape what happens around the wine. Corey and Adam get into AMSTRDM Coffee House, Paso Robles Coffee Co., LIBRETTO, the LIBRETTO Conservatory, and the Paso Robles Jazz Fest, along with the larger idea connecting them all: Paso’s wine industry created an audience, a hospitality culture, and an expectation for quality that opened the door for entirely new kinds of businesses. Corey talks about growing up in Paso, leaving and coming home, opening AMSTRDM during the pandemic, roasting coffee with the same obsessive attention people bring to wine, collecting Steinways, building a serious listening room, and figuring out how to grow without sanding off what made something special in the first place. There’s also some breaking news in the conversation. Corey reveals plans for an AMSTRDM drive-through in San Miguel and another AMSTRDM location headed for downtown Los Angeles. Somehow the conversation also finds its way into old Paso tunnels, local history, jazz, coffee cupping, the Paderewski connection, and why sitting down at a piano is still Corey’s true north. 🌴 TRAVEL PASO SPOTLIGHT: THREE SPECKLED HENS For this week’s Travel Paso Spotlight, Adam goes treasure hunting with Three Speckled Hens Vintage Market & Antique Show, returning to the Paso Robles Event Center October 2 and 3. More than 75 vendors are expected with antiques, vintage furniture, clothing, jewelry, garden pieces, collectibles, food, drinks, and the wonderfully named Hen Pecked Husband area. A portion of every show’s proceeds benefits Jack’s Helping Hand. And there’s a little extra harvest-season nugget this week. Adam checks in by phone with Chris Eberle, winemaker at Eberle Winery, about his experience putting STRAUSS gear to work during harvest. STRAUSS is the official workwear partner of Paso Robles Wine Country. 🍷 GUEST + TRAVEL PASO LINKS Corey Jordan Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coreyjordannn/ @coreyjordannn AMSTRDM Coffee House Website: https://www.amstrdmpaso.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_amstrdm/ @_amstrdm Paso Robles Coffee Co. Website: https://www.pasoroblescoffeeco.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pasoroblescoffeeco/ @pasoroblescoffeeco LIBRETTO Website: https://www.librettopaso.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/librettopaso/ @librettopaso LIBRETTO Conservatory https://www.librettopaso.com/conservatory Paso Robles Jazz Fest Website: https://www.pasoroblesjazzfest.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pasoroblesjazzfestival/ @pasoroblesjazzfestival Three Speckled Hens Vintage Market & Antique Show Website: https://www.threespeckledhens.com/ 2026 Show Info: https://www.threespeckledhens.com/show-info Tickets: https://www.my805tix.com/e/threespeckled2026fall Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/threespeckledhens/ @threespeckledhens Travel Paso https://www.travelpaso.com 🌐 PASO WINE WIRE PASO ROBLES WINE COUNTRY VIRTUAL AUCTION The sixth annual Paso Robles Wine Country Virtual Auction runs through September 23 at 5 p.m. Pacific, with more than 40 curated packages featuring rare and allocated wines, private experiences, dining, lodging and wine-country getaways. Proceeds benefit the Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance Foundation, which has awarded 67 scholarships totaling $148,000 over the last five years. https://pasowine.com/events/virtual-auction/ HAWKS HILL RANCH EARNS NATIONAL TOUR HONOR Hawks Hill Ranch finished No. 2 nationally in The Zoe Report’s 2026 Readers’ Choice poll for Best U.S. Winery Tour, making it the highest-ranked Central Coast winery tour in the poll. https://pasoroblesdailynews.com/local-winery-ranks-no-2-in-national-tour-poll/223776/ TROUBLEMAKER NOW COMES IN A BOX Hope Family Wines has introduced 1.5-liter wine-in-box versions of Troublemaker Red and Troublemaker White, extending one of Paso’s most recognizable brands into a format built for pools, tailgates, weekends and places where glass bottles are not exactly invited. https://www.winebusiness.com/news/article/322998 🧰 STRAUSS HARVEST CHECK-IN Chris Eberle, Eberle Winery Adam catches up with Chris during harvest to hear how STRAUSS workwear performs when it actually has to deal with cellar floors, vineyards, long days and the messier side of making wine. Eberle Winery: https://www.eberlewinery.com/ 🎯 Plan your next Paso Robles getaway at travelpaso.com 📲 Where Wine Takes You now has its own Instagram. Follow us at @wherewinetakesyou for new episodes, behind-the-scenes pours, guest highlights, and more from Paso wine country. 🎙️ RECORDED AT SLO CAL STUDIOS Recorded at SLO CAL Studios, San Luis Obispo County, California. SLO CAL — where the wine is world-class, the people are real, and life is too beautiful to rush. For turns well taken: https://slocal.com 🎧 Subscribe & Follow Love Where Wine Takes You? Leave a review, subscribe, and share it with a fellow wine (or Paso) lover. 🎙️ Credits Executive Producer: Joel Peterson + Paso Wine Associate Producer: Krista Smith Recorded, edited, hosted by Adam Montiel Follow Adam: @AdamOnTheAir Explore all things Adam: AdamMontiel.com Listen to Adam’s other shows: Up + Adam (daily) and The Pour (wine & more, travel, culture) Learn more, connect, or say hey at AdamMontiel.com/connect 🎵 Original music by Moonshiner Collective 📱 Download the Paso Wine App 🍷 Plan your trip at PasoWine.com and follow @PasoWine 🎯 Plan your next Paso Robles getaway at travelpaso.com 🎧 Subscribe & Follow If you love Where Wine Takes You, make sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with your favorite wine or Paso lover. ©2026 Where Wine Takes You, All Rights Reserved.

🍇 Where Wine Takes You, Episode Highlights 🍷 Harvest is moving quickly in Paso Robles, after two brutally hot days, calendars are becoming suggestions, and this week we’re making room for two very different conversations about what happens when you finally get the chance to shape something for yourself. First up is Oliver Mikkelsen, owner and winemaker of Landsby Wines, the small family project he created with his wife, Natalie. “Landsby” means “village” in Danish, and that idea runs straight through the brand. Oliver talks about building a label of his own while working as winemaker and ranch manager for Villa Creek and MAHA Estate, the farmers and mentors who make a tiny wine project possible, and why his approach starts in the vineyard. We also get into organic and dry-farmed fruit, Bailey Vineyard, Chenin Blanc, native fermentation, and what happens when Adam once again declares somebody’s Chenin the best Chenin Blanc. Then Roxan Kragten, General Manager of Villa San Juliette, joins Adam for a very different Paso story. Roxan spent about a decade working with the property before leaving, then returned under new ownership with a new title and, as she puts it, roughly ten years’ worth of ideas she finally gets to put into motion. They talk about preserving what longtime club members already love, growing the hospitality, lodging and event side of the estate, and keeping wine at the center of it all. There is also unfinished business involving Adam, the Villa San Juliette pool, and the discovery that he was apparently not even the worst offender. For this week’s Travel Paso Spotlight, we head downtown to The Ava Hotel, where the attraction isn’t only where you sleep. The hotel has three distinct food and drink destinations under one roof: Pine Street Bistro, EMRE, and Esperanza on the Rooftop. Coffee and breakfast downstairs, Mediterranean-inspired dinner, then Baja and Latin-inspired flavors with agave-driven cocktails above downtown Paso. You don’t even need a room key to make a day of it. 🍷 GUEST + TRAVEL PASO LINKS Landsby Wines Website: https://landsbywines.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/landsbywines/ @landsbywines Villa San Juliette Website: https://villasanjuliette.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/villasanjuliette/ @villasanjuliette The Ava Hotel Website: https://www.theavahotel.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theavahotel/ @theavahotel Travel Paso https://www.travelpaso.com 🌐 PASO WINE WIRE 1. PASO ROBLES WINE COUNTRY VIRTUAL AUCTION The sixth annual Paso Robles Wine Country Virtual Auction runs September 14–23, 2026, with more than 40 curated packages featuring rare and allocated wines, private tastings, vineyard experiences, dining, lodging and wine-country getaways. Proceeds benefit the Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance Foundation, which has awarded 67 scholarships totaling $148,000 to North San Luis Obispo County high school seniors over the last five years. https://pasowine.com/events/virtual-auction/ 2. NEW JEB DUNNUCK PASO SCORES New Jeb Dunnuck scores have Paso talking, including the first 100 point wine for Epoch Estate Wines and the team of winemaker Jordan Fiorentini. Adam has been calling his shot on Block B for years, but this is great news, and long overdue! Congrats to other 100s announced for La Venture, Booker, Turtle Rock, Alban, and 2 for Saxum! 3. PASO GETTING NATIONAL PRESS With Paso Wine pics in the latest edition of Wine Enthusiast, mentions in a recent RobbReport, also linked here is Wine Spectator taking a deeper look at Epoch Estate Wines and Paso Robles site expression in “Paso by Paso: Two Ways Toward Site Expression,” exploring winemaker Jordan Fiorentini’s approach to blending, vineyard identity and expressing two different estate sites. https://www.winespectator.com/articles/epoch-paso-robles-site-expression 🎯 Plan your next Paso Robles getaway at travelpaso.com 📲 Where Wine Takes You now has its own Instagram. Follow us at @wherewinetakesyou for new episodes, behind-the-scenes pours, guest highlights, and more from Paso wine country. 🎙️ RECORDED AT SLO CAL STUDIOS Recorded at SLO CAL Studios, San Luis Obispo County, California. SLO CAL — where the wine is world-class, the people are real, and life is too beautiful to rush. For turns well taken: https://slocal.com 🎧 Subscribe & Follow Love Where Wine Takes You? Leave a review, subscribe, and share it with a fellow wine (or Paso) lover. 🎙️ Credits Executive Producer: Joel Peterson + Paso Wine Associate Producer: Krista Smith Recorded, edited, hosted by Adam Montiel Follow Adam: @AdamOnTheAir Explore all things Adam: AdamMontiel.com Listen to Adam’s other shows: Up + Adam (daily) and The Pour (wine & more, travel, culture) Learn more, connect, or say hey at AdamMontiel.com/connect 🎵 Original music by Moonshiner Collective 📱 Download the Paso Wine App 🍷 Plan your trip at PasoWine.com and follow @PasoWine 🎯 Plan your next Paso Robles getaway at travelpaso.com 🎧 Subscribe & Follow If you love Where Wine Takes You, make sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with your favorite wine or Paso lover. ©2026 Where Wine Takes You, All Rights Reserved.

🍇 Where Wine Takes You, Episode Highlights 🍷 What happens when the tasting room decides you should probably stay for lunch? This week on Where Wine Takes You, we’re digging into a side of Paso Robles wine country that has been evolving for decades: wineries with real restaurants, real kitchens, and chefs who are thinking about what’s on the plate with the same intention that goes into what’s in the glass. And Paso has some history here. JUSTIN Vineyards & Winery was putting real money and intention behind winery dining decades ago with Deborah’s Room, an early fine-dining experience at the estate that eventually became The Restaurant at JUSTIN, today a MICHELIN-starred restaurant. That early commitment helped establish the idea that a Paso winery could be a destination for dinner, not simply a tasting stop. That tradition keeps getting stronger. In 2026, Wine Enthusiast included Niner Wine Estates Restaurant on its list of the Best Winery Restaurants in the World, giving Paso some very timely international love for just how serious the food side of wine-country hospitality has become. Wine Enthusiast: https://www.wineenthusiast.com/best-winery-restaurants-2026/ Because harvest schedules are harvest schedules, Adam changes up the normal format and sits down for two separate conversations. First, it’s CASS Winery co-owner and co-founder Ted Plemons, whose story includes Paso dirt, a trip to South Africa, a few consequential bottles of Syrah, and an early belief that food, wine, hospitality, and the land could all be part of the same experience. Ted shares stories from more than two decades at CASS, how the property has grown, and why building around good people has remained such a big part of the philosophy. Then we head to Bianchi Winery with winemaker Todd Weiher and Chef Gregg Wangard, who is leading the new Melo Mela Kitchen. The conversation gets into the relationship between chef and winemaker, why acidity matters at the table, Gregg’s belief that his best cooking happens when he’s trusted to take chances, and what changes when a winery stops treating food as an accessory and builds a restaurant people might come back to on its own. For our Travel Paso Spotlight, we turn up the volume for the 13th Annual Whale Rock Music & Arts Festival, returning September 19–20, 2026 at Whale Rock Vineyard at Castoro Cellars. What began as a 30th-anniversary party called Beaverstock has grown into two days of music, art, wine, food, yoga, family fun, and support for Templeton music education. Adam spent several years hosting the festival himself, making this spotlight a particularly personal one. 🔗 GUEST + TRAVEL PASO LINKS CASS Winery https://www.casswines.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cass_winery Bianchi Winery https://www.bianchiwine.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/BianchiWinery Melo Mela Kitchen https://www.bianchiwine.com/kitchen/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/MeloMelaKitchen Whale Rock Music & Arts Festival https://www.whalerockmusicfestival.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whalerockmusicfestival 🎯 Plan your next Paso Robles getaway at travelpaso.com 📲 Where Wine Takes You now has its own Instagram. Follow us at @wherewinetakesyou for new episodes, behind-the-scenes pours, guest highlights, and more from Paso wine country. 🎙️ RECORDED AT SLO CAL STUDIOS Recorded at SLO CAL Studios, San Luis Obispo County, California. SLO CAL — where the wine is world-class, the people are real, and life is too beautiful to rush. For turns well taken: https://slocal.com 🎧 Subscribe & Follow Love Where Wine Takes You? Leave a review, subscribe, and share it with a fellow wine (or Paso) lover. 🎙️ Credits Executive Producer: Joel Peterson + Paso Wine Associate Producer: Krista Smith Recorded, edited, hosted by Adam Montiel Follow Adam: @AdamOnTheAir Explore all things Adam: AdamMontiel.com Listen to Adam’s other shows: Up + Adam (daily) and The Pour (wine & more, travel, culture) Learn more, connect, or say hey at AdamMontiel.com/connect 🎵 Original music by Moonshiner Collective 📱 Download the Paso Wine App 🍷 Plan your trip at PasoWine.com and follow @PasoWine 🎯 Plan your next Paso Robles getaway at travelpaso.com 🎧 Subscribe & Follow If you love Where Wine Takes You, make sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with your favorite wine or Paso lover. ©2026 Where Wine Takes You, All Rights Reserved.

🍇 Where Wine Takes You, Episode Highlights 🍷 Adam may be recording this episode from a lake house on Bear Pond in Hartford, Maine, but we’re headed straight back to Paso Robles wine country for another look at the region’s nested AVAs. This time, we’re going south, to the Santa Margarita Ranch AVA and one remarkable piece of land with a lot of stories buried in it. Adam sits down at SLO CAL Studios with Doug Filipponi, co-owner of Ancient Peaks Winery and Margarita Vineyard, and Mike Sinor, founding winemaker at Ancient Peaks. Doug grew up about a mile from Santa Margarita Ranch, later drilled water wells on the property, and eventually became one of its owners. Mike came to Cal Poly thinking he might become a teacher, found wine instead, and has spent decades learning how to translate the character of Margarita Vineyard into the glass. The conversation digs into the history of Santa Margarita Ranch, its wildly varied geology, the cooler growing conditions of the southernmost Paso Robles nested AVA, and the unusual reality that Margarita Vineyard remains the only vineyard inside the appellation. Doug and Mike also get into water wells, airplanes, old Jeeps, the early days of Ancient Peaks, their commitment to over-delivering on quality and value, and the story behind Oyster Ridge, the wine Mike calls their “best foot forward.” For this week’s Travel Paso Spotlight, Adam checks into River Lodge Paso Robles, the restored mid-century roadside motel from Nomada Hotel Group. The property gives an old Paso motor lodge a second act with 28 rooms, landscaped grounds, a 21+ pool and hot tub, and poolside restaurant and bar Ciao Papi. We also hear from Nomada founder and creative director Kimberly Walker about the vision behind the property. And because the show is literally called Where Wine Takes You, Adam has one more story developing from Maine. Turns out there’s a tiny vineyard practically across the pond from where he’s staying, with a couple, a dream, and one very unexpected obstacle involving a dry town. More on that one next episode. 🍷 GUEST + TRAVEL PASO LINKS Ancient Peaks Winery https://ancientpeaks.com/ Instagram: @ancientpeaks River Lodge Paso Robles https://www.riverlodgepaso.com/ Instagram: @riverlodgepaso 🌐 PASO WINE WIRE 2026: An Early Vintage Demands Precision Advanced Viticulture looks at an unusually early 2026 growing season and how soil-moisture probes, plant-stress monitoring, and smart irrigation decisions have become especially important in a compressed vintage. https://advancedvit.com/why-technology-was-essential-in-2026/ Kristen Barnhisel Returns as ASEV President Lohr Winemaker, White Wine Kristen Barnhisel has returned as president of the American Society for Enology and Viticulture for the 2026-2027 term, after previously serving as president in 2019-2020. https://www.jlohr.com/latest-news/j-lohr-winemaker-kristen-barnhisel-returns-as-asev-president-for-2026-2027 Winemakers’ Cookoff Announces 2026 Winners California Coast Brewery and Tobin James Winery took the People’s Choice Award, Booker-My Favorite Neighbor and Ava Hotel won the Professional Chef Award, V1no Juan earned the Judges’ Award, and Hoyt Family Vineyards took the Spirit Award at the annual fundraiser supporting local youth scholarships. https://pasoroblesdailynews.com/winemakers-cookoff-announces-this-years-winners-2/222731/ 🌴 TRAVEL PASO SPOTLIGHT River Lodge Paso Robles https://www.riverlodgepaso.com/ Instagram: @riverlodgepaso 🎯 Plan your next Paso Robles getaway at travelpaso.com 📲 Where Wine Takes You now has its own Instagram. Follow us at @wherewinetakesyou for new episodes, behind-the-scenes pours, guest highlights, and more from Paso wine country. 🎙️ RECORDED AT SLO CAL STUDIOS Recorded at SLO CAL Studios, San Luis Obispo County, California. SLO CAL — where the wine is world-class, the people are real, and life is too beautiful to rush. For turns well taken: https://slocal.com 🎧 Subscribe & Follow Love Where Wine Takes You? Leave a review, subscribe, and share it with a fellow wine (or Paso) lover. 🎙️ Credits Executive Producer: Joel Peterson + Paso Wine Associate Producer: Krista Smith Recorded, edited, hosted by Adam Montiel Follow Adam: @AdamOnTheAir Explore all things Adam: AdamMontiel.com Listen to Adam’s other shows: Up + Adam (daily) and The Pour (wine & more, travel, culture) Learn more, connect, or say hey at AdamMontiel.com/connect 🎵 Original music by Moonshiner Collective 📱 Download the Paso Wine App 🍷 Plan your trip at PasoWine.com and follow @PasoWine 🎯 Plan your next Paso Robles getaway at travelpaso.com 🎧 Subscribe & Follow If you love Where Wine Takes You, make sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with your favorite wine or Paso lover. ©2026 Where Wine Takes You, All Rights Reserved.