Norman Vineyards owner Jim Norman, right, and winemaker Steve Felten inside their 1950s-inspired tasting room in Paso Robles earlier this week.
Jim Norman isn’t your typical winemaker. With colorful tattoos running up his arms, long and flowing hair, and a Harley-Davidson logo on the back of his T-shirt, Norman seems more suited for a motorcycle rally than a wine tasting room.
But after starting on a radically different career path, Norman is now passionately dedicated to the winery that his father started 37 years ago. It began when his father, Art, died two years ago at age 72, and Jim was left with the decision to either let his mother, Lei, sell the vineyard and winery, or to try and run it.
Knowing nothing about operating a winery, his first reaction was to sell. But after putting the winery on the market and having some time to think about his father’s legacy and his own future, Norman had a change of heart.
“I literally pleaded with my mom, ‘Don’t sell it, don’t sell it,’ ” he says.
Making his mark
So for the past year, he has been keeping the winery alive in his father’s memory, while at the same time making his own very distinctive mark on the place.
The first clue that something’s changed is the jukebox and diner booth in the tasting room. Norman has remodeled the large space with a 1950s theme, complete with photos of James Dean, Marilyn Monroe and the Rat Pack.
Why the 1950s? “My dad was a kind of Renaissance guy,” Norman says. “He touched a lot of people in a lot of different ways, and the prime of his life was in the ’50s.”
Just as important, Norman says, is that the winery just feels like a place to have fun: “Our motto is ‘food, fun, friends and fantastic wine.’ ”
So far the formula is working. “In the last year, our profits are up, our quality is way up, our enthusiasm is up, but besides all that, the fun factor is up,” Norman says.
This weekend the fun factor goes even higher when the family celebrates the Paso Robles Zinfandel Festival.
Starting with Friday night’s “Sock-Hop” and dinner at the winery, Norman will enjoy the rest of the weekend with cheeseburgers, sweet potato fries, A&W root beer floats and live music.
He’ll also showcase 20 classic cars from the ’50s Saturday and Sunday.
If all this sounds like the work of a promoter, that’s exactly what Norman is. His previous career was in radio promotions for American General Media. He also has been a chef and a car mechanic, so the food and cars are just natural extensions for him.
A collaborative effort
Winemaker Steve Felten also has a prominent role in the festival this year. He is the honorary Blend Master, meaning he took zinfandel from 32 other wineries and blended them together for the event’s annual collaborative blend.
“I think I really lucked out by being chosen for the 2006 vintage because it was just a fabulous vintage for zinfandel,” Felten says.
Each of the 32 wineries donated five gallons.
“Normally I would go through and reject three or four of them, but in this case there weren’t any rejects, everyone gave me their best zin,” he says.
He made the equivalent of 50 to 55 cases of the wine, most of which will be sold in magnums and double magnums at the live and silent auctions at the Grand Tasting event Saturday.
Felten has been making wine for 33 years, ever since his fiancee at the time bought him a home winemaking kit. With a degree in microbiology, he went on to earn a master’s in enology at Fresno State University and worked for Arciero Winery in Paso Robles, eventually launching the new name EOS 12 years ago. He has been with Norman for three years.
Norman and Felten are taking Norman Vineyards in a new direction and have built a team around them that are as unconventional as they are. Almost none of the tasting room staff had any winery experience. They came from local bars, hair salons, tattoo parlors and restaurants. Many of them sport the same kind of colorful tattoos that Norman has. And in a crazy way, it all works.
“I love what I do, but I have to give it all up for my guys and my girls that work here,” Norman says. “They are what make this place work; they make me get up in the morning.”
Looking back on his initial decision to give up the winery, Norman says, “This is something that I’ve strived to come to. This is my life. This is my heritage.”
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