Estrella Creek
About
We are a family owned and operated vineyard, bottling our wines under the Estrella Creek label. Proudly offering you our family's finest Paso Robles wines. We choose to hold back the release of our wines for several years, saving the consumer from having to cellar the wine.
Location Description
Located in the scenic northern foothills of the Paso Robles appellation.
Features
- Proudly offering you our family's finest Paso Robles Syrah, Petite Sirah, Viognier and Special Blends.
Additional Information
- Meeting / Conference Facilities:
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- Dog Friendly:
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- Wine Tasting:
- Art or Architecture:
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History
Peter and Beverly bought their 40 acre Paso Robles property in 1977. After a few years spending weekends and holidays shaping the undeveloped land, the Mays family made the final move from the San Francisco Bay area in 1981. We have called the 40-acre ranch home ever since.
Estate Vineyards / AVA
Planting 10-acres of Paso Robles Syrah and Petite Sirah in 2001, we originally started our vineyard with the intention of selling fruit to discriminating wineries requiring grapes of the highest standards. Realizing we were expending countless hours nurturing our vines to produce exceptional fruit, we decided to create our own Estrella Creek wine label and bottle our efforts in the vineyard to share them with friends, family and anyone who appreciates wines hand-crafted from fruit grown with the utmost care and attention.
The hot summer days, with temperatures reaching into the low 100's, are cooled nightly by the gentle winds blowing off the Salinas River Valley, dropping the evening temperatures into the low 50's. The night time temperature drop allows the fruit to rest before another day of growing.
In 2008, we grafted an acre of Viognier, a white Rhone varietal, onto existing Syrah rootstock. Grafting, versus planting, enabled us to harvest our first Viognier in 2009; to be released in November 2010.
We continually nurture our vines through shoot and cluster thinning to yield 2-3 tons/acre. Because of our very warm and sunny growing season, we limit leaf pulling to protect the grapes. With our very manageable number of vines, we can assure that each vine is evaluated every year by a family member.
Our vineyard consists of four distinctly separate blocks on rolling hills with elevations ranging from 700 to 1300 feet in complex soils of calcareous shale, weathered granite, and sandstone.
The plantings were 1-year old dormant, disease-resistant vines. All fruit from 2002 was dropped, with our first harvest in 2003. After aging in oak barrels for 22 months, our inaugural vintages of 2003 estate grown Paso Robles Syrah and Petite Sirah were released in early 2006