PACO WINE NEARS FIRST VINTAGE

Hello,

     This is a volume entry that I’ve been waiting to write to you for a very long time. I’m here to finally relay the news that the official Paco Winery release is set to be hitting your inbox very soon. The final stage we’re in now is purely logistical, finalizing the website, buttoning up our point of sale, and dotting our “i”s on our shipping compliance. All of the crucial yet boring steps that people may not even realize need to happen in order for the wine to make their way out into the wild.

The path it took for me to get to this point has been filled with joys and challenges (both valuable). I have learned a great deal of lessons throughout this journey of starting Paco and I’ve gained a clear understanding of how I want to conduct winemaking in this new chapter. My life's voyage has led me to honing in on what I call, my three pillars of winemaking,  Intuition, Intent, and Relinquishment.

I am a strong believer in the importance of intuition within winemaking, it’s something you’ve probably heard me talk about before. This idea of relying on our intuition as winemakers and farmers is fundamental to making wines with distinction. Every vintage has its own unique thumbprint and if we rely on our sense of knowing, we can use it to make the best choices in the vineyard and cellar to express what it is about that year that makes it special. Following your intuition in winemaking can help avoid the temptation of becoming too formulaic which in turn helps to avoid wines from becoming overly homogenous. Variety, the proverbial spice of life, is arguably one of the greatest gifts in the vast world of wine and what a gift it is to be able to make wines with unique qualities versus uniformity. 

However, intuition can only take you so far, it must be followed with some intentional action. Walking vineyards as harvest begins to unfold is when the traits of the vintage really begin to reveal itself. Once I begin to have an understanding of what ripeness means for that particular year, I can start to truly understand how the fruit wants to be expressed, how it's already leaning towards a particular style of extraction. It's my opinion that wines made with intention taste far better than ones made without enthusiasm and we as winemakers are constantly flirting with the art of obsession. 

The final and most challenging of the three principles is relinquishment. If you can avoid tinkering with the wine once it’s in the barrel, the better the reward is on the other side. Of course there is required maintenance like topping and adjusting SO2 but my experience in winemaking has taught me not to be too quick to judge any wine for its first twelve months in barrel. You can taste something when it’s very young and not like something about it and then you run the risk of adding a scarlet letter to that wine. Maybe this mindset is something I borrow from fatherhood. Wine in it's early state is very much like that of a young person and sometimes giving it space and acceptance of its “flaws” gives it the room to evolve and pleasantly surprise you. That’s not to say that there are no red flags, or moments of necessary intervention but what's important to keep in mind is to not overly obsess about fixing every little observed "issue". Giving a wine a little bit more time to develop a characteristic that you may have first thought of as a shortcoming, can actually be the exact aspect of the wine that makes it interesting and a sense of soul.

Thank you so much for following me through these times. Unbeknownst to you, you are a source of inspiration to me. My greatest joy of making wine is knowing that it provides some pleasure to others. Knowing that years of hard work is now ready to make its way to you has been the most fulfilling part of all of this. The next email you receive from me will have all the details about the new lineup of wines and how you can purchase them. Please, never hesitate to reach out with questions, thoughts, or good cheer.

-Tyler A. Russell

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Paco Winery 3025 Bluerock Road Paso Robles, California 93446