06 Nov Red Soles Winery

High-school sweethearts Randy and Cheryl Phillips began growing grapes in Paso Robles in 1991. With two hundred acres of wine grapes, half are on the west side of Paso on the winery property and the other half are on the east side of Paso. They have been selling their fruit to local wineries for more than 20 years. In 2004 Cheryl convinced Randy to make one barrel of wine and the first commercial vintage of Red Soles was produced in 2005. Today, they still sell most of the grapes but keep 30 tons each year in order to make 2000 cases of wine under their label. With 25 different wines, no more than 150 cases of each, their wines are only available in the Red Soles tasting room. The tasting room is casual and friendly; think of it as a mom-and-pop fruit stand that sells wine, instead of grapes. It also doubles as the winery during harvest. Guests enjoy tasting wine in an authentic “behind the scenes” setting while the grapes ferment and wine ages in barrels. Read the full story from Wine Country This Week Day Trips Fall/Winter 2012