Wine

Published: Friday, Aug. 14, 2009

Wine notes: Thacher Winery

Paso Robles landmark provides distinctive backdrop for family’s zinfandel and petit syrah vineyard

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Sherman and Michelle Thacher had been coming to Paso Robles for years. First when they were dating, and meeting there as a halfway point between her college town of Santa Barbara, and his home in the Bay Area.

Then, starting in 1993, beer brewmaster Sherman started buying some Paso Robles zinfandel grapes with a friend, and began making his own wine.

But it was a fateful trip in 2003, when they attended the wedding of a friend at a ranch on the west side of Paso, that their destiny was sealed.

That ranch was Kentucky Ranch, a well-known landmark of old-time Paso Robles, featuring a distinctive 90-year-old barn and 50 acres of rural beauty. When that same property went on the market nine months later, they told the realtor they wanted to come down from their home in Santa Clara and take a look.

“And then the realtor said, ‘By this weekend, it won’t be on the market any longer,’ ” Michelle remembers. With several other potential buyers ready to make an offer, the couple threw caution to the wind and placed an offer over the phone.

Today Kentucky Ranch is the home to the Thachers, their three young children, and Thacher Winery. They planted a zinfandel and petit syrah vineyard in 2007, completed their new 4,600-square-foot winery facility last year, and opened their tasting room in September.

Thacher’s first vintage was actually in 2004, using grapes that Sherman purchased from several local vineyards, and production facilities including Peachy Canyon and Templeton Wine Services. Although he had no formal training in winemaking, Sherman was the brewmaster at Los Gatos Brewing Co. for 16 years, and had been making wine on the side for 10 of those years. Working under the tutelage of several northern California winemakers at wineries such as David Bruce, Mariana and Savannah-Chanelle, Sherman honed his skills before starting his own label.

And although he now is growing grapes of his own, Sherman says he will continue to buy from neighboring vineyards, both for their quality and diversity. “It’s definitely nice having control of all your own grapes, but buying grapes from other farmers down here is also just a really nice way of expressing what is done with all the microclimates around here,” Sherman explains.

Local vineyards he sources from include Halter Ranch, Willow Creek and Hastings Ranch.

Thacher Winery made 1,000 cases a year initially, and ramped up to 1,800 cases last year. Without a tasting room, the Thachers have been stockpiling all that wine, waiting for the opportunity to sell it directly to the public. But they have entered several wine competitions, and have earned gold medals for both their viognier and their syrahs at the venerable San Francisco Chronicle competition. Currently offering syrah, zinfandel and viognier, no wine on their price list is more than $30.

One of the frequently asked questions at the tasting room has to do with the abstract depiction of a grasshopper on their label. “We get asked about it about a hundred times a day,” Michelle says. The Thacher family crest, Sherman explains, has sported the amusing creations for the past five to six centuries.

“We like to think they were a whimsical, irreverent reaction to the griffins and lions that were common in the grand heraldic displays of generations past,” Sherman says.

Everything the couple is doing on the property and with their wines is being done with both the past and the future in mind. They planted more than 160 young apple trees along the curving driveway to the winery, with the hope those trees will be cherished by future generations.

“When we get bogged down with everything, I just try to remember that hopefully we’re going to have our great-grandkids here one day, and they’ll say, ‘My great-grandmother planted those apple trees,’ ” Michelle said.

Thacher Winery

8355 Vineyard Drive, Paso Robles, 237-0087

Owners: Sherman and Michelle Thacher

Winemaker: Sherman Thacher

Cases produced: 1,800 in 2008

Varietals: Syrah, viognier, zinfandel.

Tasting room hours: Friday-Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Online: www.thacherwinery.com

Janis Switzer can be reached at 434-5394 or via e-mail at janisswitzer@yahoo.com.