Paso Robles winery celebrates ‘women who made a dent in the universe’ at new tasting room
Paso Robles winery Crazy Woman Cellars has a dual mission: to celebrate wine and the women who changed history.
The winery opened its first tasting room July 31 on Pine Street in downtown Paso Robles.
“It’s meant to be an homage to all the women who made a dent in the universe,” said Crazy Women Cellars owner and winemaker Chris Bennett, who started making wine with locally sourced grapes in 2020.
Bennett offers six wines at his tasting room: viognier, grenache blanc, rosé, cabernet sauvignon, syrah and Brooklyn ‘37.
Brooklyn ‘37, a grenache merlot blend, is named for his stepmother, who was born in 1937.
“Like her, this blend is very approachable and gregarious, with overt notes of plum and pluot on the front, and just the right amount of acidity and tannis on the back,” according to the winery’s tasting notes.
Paso Robles winemaker talks about process
Bennett jumped into commercial wine-making about a year and a half ago, and said it was a challenge to find grape-growers with which to partner.
“I’m a small potato,” Bennett said. “(They) didn’t have to sell to me.”
He now sources cabernet and Rhône varietal grapes from ONX Wines and Caliza Winery, both in Paso Robles.
He enjoys cabernet because it’s “almost obnoxious in its flavor profile,” Bennett said. The grapes are tough and grow well in cold or warm weather, he said, and their small size gives them higher a tannin content than other wines.
“I like my wine like I like my people. I want them to make me wonder a little bit, make me think — make me lean in and think, ‘What is this?’ ” Bennett said. “That’s fascinating to me.”
Bennett and his team give the grapes a “cold soak” for about three days, then ferment them for 10 to 14 days depending on the weather and other factors. Next, he shuts the wine into a barrel, opening it about once a month to taste its progress.
“I try to be as unobtrusive as possible to the process,” Bennett said. “Most of the time the grape does the work for you. You really just have to kind of stay out of it’s way.”
After about 18 months for red wines and six months for white wines, the wine is ready.
Bennett said he was pleasantly surprised with how his syrah turned out.
“Syrah is generally very fruit forward. Sometimes, depending on how people make it, it can be very jammy,” the winemaker said. “This is much more complex. It’s smoky, it’s meaty, it’s a really heavy weight on your tongue.”
Winery seeks to empower, recognize women
Bennett came up with the name of his winery, Crazy Woman Cellars, in 2017.
He and his ex-wife were discussing her mother, who raised her daughter on a 160-acre ranch with no plumbing or electricity. The woman they “affectionately called crazy” carried a six-shooter and shot at anyone who trespassed on her property, Bennett said.
“We would talk about her jokingly and say, ‘Oh my god, she’s crazy,’ ” Bennett said. “We meant it like she’s not to be trifled with. She is to be heard. She is not to be pushed around.”
Although some men are uncomfortable with the name Crazy Woman Cellars, Bennett said women in general have liked the name so far.
“Every one of them loves it,” Bennett said. “They go, ‘You’re damn right, I’m crazy,’ and mean, ‘I’m fierce, I’m fearless, I’m not to be messed with.’ ”
Each month, the winery recognizes a different woman who left a mark on the world.
August’s woman of the month is Russian fighter pilot Marina Raskova, who led 1,000 female pilots in on 30,000 missions in enemy territory during World War II, Bennett said.
The pilots, known as the Night Witches, dropped 23,000 tons of bombs on Nazi Germany during the war, he said.
“They had no guns, no parachutes, no radios and they flew so slow that the German fighter pilots’ planes would stall if they tried to follow them,” Bennett said.
“You’ve never heard of (Raskova), but you’ve heard of the Red Baron,” Manfred von Richthofen, the World War I pilot who shot down 80 planes, Bennett said. “Who had a bigger impact? By far, monumentally, she’s measurably more important.”
Paintings of influential women including civil rights activist Rosa Parks, author Ayn Rand and journalist and feminist icon Gloria Steinem line the tasting room’s walls. All were painted by artist Florence Lee.
“Gloria Steinem and Ayn Rand were my two favorite names because they didn’t agree on anything,” Bennett said. “Part of the point is, to be up here, they had to make a difference, but we don’t have to agree with them, and they don’t have to agree with each other.”
The winery plans to donate a portion of its earnings to nonprofit organizations who support women. The business’s first donations went to Rise SLO, which merged with Stand Strong to form Lumina Alliance, and MUST! Charities.
Bennett said donating to women-focused nonprofits “gives credibility to our mission.”
“It’s still important to have a dialogue,” Bennett said. “But I think it’s just one step better if you’re also contributing in some way to make a difference.”
Crazy Women Cellars offers ‘upbeat’ tasting room environment
Bennett said he wants Crazy Women Cellars’ tasting room to be a space where customers can learn about influential women, but also a fun and relaxing environment. He tailors the wine tasting experience to each person.
“It’s an interesting balance to me,” Bennett said. “You don’t want people to come in and feel like they’re in a museum and being lectured. We’re trying to blend the information with an upbeat environment where people feel relaxed.”
When people leave the tasting room, “hopefully they have a great taste in their mouth, literally,” the winemaker said. “I hope they felt relaxed, I hope they felt upbeat, and I hope they felt the experience was what they wanted.”
Located at 1244 Pine St., Suite 106A, Crazy Woman Cellars opens at noon Friday through Monday; the tasting room closes at 6 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and at 5 p.m. Sunday and Monday. Customers can make reservations online or simply walk in.
To learn more, go to the winery’s website at crazywomancellars.com.
This story was originally published August 18, 2021 at 11:10 AM.
