OuR Estate VineyaRd
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Paso Allegro ~ The “Other” Dream

While owning and running a B&B has long been Alma’s dream, living in wine country has always been mine!  Opening Sundance Bed & Breakfast in beautiful Paso Robles was the perfect compromise since it didn’t involve any compromising!  And once we had settled in the next logical step was clearly to do “something” with all this land surrounding us.  It didn’t take long to decide that “something” should be a vineyard and Paso Allegro was born! Sitting atop one of California’s largest aquifers, the hot summer days, cool, breezy nights and long growing season make it an ideal location to grow grapes for making “Big Red” wines. In the Spring of 2012 we planted about 5 acres, roughly split between Cabernet Sauvignon and Petite Sirah. There’s a never-ending battle with the gophers, squirrels, deer and berry-loving birds that call this area home but each year our little vineyard gets stronger! In the Fall of 2015 we had our first commercial harvest and were excited that Justin Vineyards & Winery bought all our fruit!

07/05/2013 ~

Well with the watering and the sunshine, our 7,000 little vines are starting to stretch and find their way through their white “milk carton” protectors. It’s exciting to see the sprouts of green erupting everywhere across the sea of white which mark the rows of the vineyard! Unfortunately, all this activity has also been noticed by a small family of deer who we had to scare away – which involved standing at the top of the hill and looking at them sternly – and they haven’t been back since (as far as we know!). We’ll see how that goes…

07/14/2013 ~

They’re b-a-a-ack! Apparently folding my arms and looking angry was not as effective as I had hoped. Here’s a picture I took looking out the glass window of the living room door of that same deer family now confident enough to check out our back patio. Next week they’ll probably be gazing in through the kitchen window to see what Alma is making for breakfast! After taking this picture, they once again ran away through the vineyard to the ravine that runs along the bottom of the property and I haven’t seen them since. The vineyard management company has been experimenting with a “deer repellent” which consists of sprinkling the vineyard with dried blood. I guess the deer smell the blood and assume a predator is nearby – I’m pretty sure they’ve figured out it’s not me! – and decide to look elsewhere for little green shoots to munch on!

07/14/2013 ~

They’re b-a-a-ack! Apparently folding my arms and looking angry was not as effective as I had hoped. Here’s a picture I took looking out the glass window of the living room door of that same deer family now confident enough to check out our back patio. Next week they’ll probably be gazing in through the kitchen window to see what Alma is making for breakfast! After taking this picture, they once again ran away through the vineyard to the ravine that runs along the bottom of the property and I haven’t seen them since. The vineyard management company has been experimenting with a “deer repellent” which consists of sprinkling the vineyard with dried blood. I guess the deer smell the blood and assume a predator is nearby – I’m pretty sure they’ve figured out it’s not me! – and decide to look elsewhere for little green shoots to munch on!

08/14/2013 ~

One might wonder why our fence is now festooned with glimmering mylar ribbons, swaying gently in the breeze. Are we celebrating some 5-year old’s birthday, whose party wish was to spend a weekend in wine country? Perhaps some budget-conscious wedding planner who got a deal on some old “Happy Valentine’s Day” balloons, cut them into strips and fastened them to our fence posts to welcome home the happy couple? All good guesses – have another sip, you’ll probably think of more – but all of them wrong! It turns out there may be no need to sprinkle our vineyard with dried blood or spray it with some obnoxious chemical. The glinting mylar strips waving in the breeze, attached to bamboo sticks on every fence post around our perimeter are meant to fool the deer into thinking we spent a lot of money erecting an 8-foot “deer fence”. A real 8-foot deer fence is a pretty expensive proposition so we’re counting on our little deer family not being clever enough to spot the difference. So far, so good…

08/14/2013 ~

One might wonder why our fence is now festooned with glimmering mylar ribbons, swaying gently in the breeze. Are we celebrating some 5-year old’s birthday, whose party wish was to spend a weekend in wine country? Perhaps some budget-conscious wedding planner who got a deal on some old “Happy Valentine’s Day” balloons, cut them into strips and fastened them to our fence posts to welcome home the happy couple? All good guesses – have another sip, you’ll probably think of more – but all of them wrong! It turns out there may be no need to sprinkle our vineyard with dried blood or spray it with some obnoxious chemical. The glinting mylar strips waving in the breeze, attached to bamboo sticks on every fence post around our perimeter are meant to fool the deer into thinking we spent a lot of money erecting an 8-foot “deer fence”. A real 8-foot deer fence is a pretty expensive proposition so we’re counting on our little deer family not being clever enough to spot the difference. So far, so good…