New winery tasting room built for ‘great conversation’ opens in downtown SLO
A new tasting room offering a range of natural wines in a cozy, community-oriented space recently opened in downtown San Luis Obispo.
Launched at the Creamery Marketplace in mid-June, ídola wine co. offers patrons a place to relax and connect over an assortment of organic wines, owner Ryker Wall told The Tribune.
He and his wife, Pooja Wall, first launched ídola as an online natural wine shop in 2023. But after three years in business, he said they were ready to serve the community beyond just selling bottles on their site.
Now, the Walls are hoping the tasting room will be a third space for folks to share good conversation over an affordable flight of wines.
“I definitely want to have a spot that people can come and enjoy wine,” he said. “They can enjoy some music with that wine, and they can enjoy great conversation and relearn how to reconnect.”
Cal Poly grad launches new winery tasting room in SLO
Ryker Wall, a Cal Poly graduate, said it was always his dream to open a tasting room, but his work in the wine industry first began as a sommelier in Miami restaurants.
While curating wine lists for fine-dining establishments, he tasted all types of wines from around the world.
Out of all the vino he tried, his taste buds were most captivated by organic, all-natural wines. It became routine to bring bottles home to his wife in the evening, and they would enjoy not just the flavor and texture of the wines, but the emotionality contained in each glass, Wall told The Tribune.
“Natural wines tend to lean more into ... flaws or faults, and they’re sort of celebrated,” he said. “In Japanese culture, they call it wabi-sabi. So, there’s some beauty in the imperfection of these wines because perfection’s boring, to be honest.”
He and his wife eventually moved back to the Central Coast, where he took a job as an assistant winemaker at Denner Vineyards in Paso Robles. After the company was acquired by E. & J. Gallo Winery, Wall moved to a winemaker position at Cordant Winery, also in Paso Robles.
After tasting his way around North County, Wall said he was itching to create less immaculate wines.
“All the wines in Paso are great, they’re also very perfect,” he said. “If I’m being honest, like I sort of feel that sometimes these wines can kind of suffer from a homogeneity, where a lot of them do taste the same, or stylistically they’re in the same vein.”
Wall said after learning how to taste perfect wines and make perfect wines, he’s now trying to forget everything he knows to create more interesting, complex bottles that keep people coming back for another glass.
New tasting room incorporates ‘California cozy’ aesthetic
The new tasting room in the Creamery Marketplace was designed to fit a “California cozy” aesthetic, Wall said.
Visitors who walk into ídola will feel like they’ve entered an intimate, peaceful living room. The 575-square-foot room features comfortable chairs and tables in tones of warm sage, olive green and burnt orange.
Sunlight peeks through windows surrounded by exposed brick and cream-colored walls underneath a ceiling of wood beams. Hand-painted surfboards are propped up in one corner and local artwork from San Luis Obispo artist Jennelle Robles depicting impressionistic scenes of the Central Coast hang across the room.
Besides providing a place for connection, Wall hopes the tasting room will spark emotion in people trying ídola wines for the first time.
“Rather than, you know, just taste — ‘Oh, that’s a cherry, that’s a raspberry, and that’s really good, and it’s gonna pair with blah blah blah,’ and it’s like none of that matters,” he said. “How does it make you feel?”
What’s on the menu at new downtown tasting room?
ídola wine co. offers a rotating selection of natural wines with fruit mostly sourced from Paso Robles.
All of their natural wines are created using organically-farmed grapes with no added water, acid, yeast or nutrients, Wall explained.
The tasting rooms offers a $20 flight including five wines, as well as glasses and bottles for purchase. Glasses of white wine are $14, while reds are $16 per glass.
Their current menu features a rosé with hints of “Jolly Rancher, guava, superbloom” and a syrah with notes of “underripe plum, sanguine, chalk,” as well as red and white blends, according to its menu.
In the future, the tasting room will also offer small bites like tinned fish, cheese and nuts, Wall said.
What are open hours?
ídola wine co. is open from 2 to 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday at 570 Higuera St., Suite No. 135, in the Creamery Marketplace.
Wall said people can always schedule tastings outside those of open hours by filling out a form on the winery’s website.
