Winemaker: Stuart Selkirk

History, tradition and curiosity have always been an important inspiration to Cayucos native Stuart Selkirk. In the early 1980s, curiosity caused him to ask a neighbor of Swiss decent what the heck he was doing with a load of grapes in the back of his truck? In response to his question, neighbor Paul soon had Stuart turning the handle on an old hand-crank grape crusher. The next few days brought the job of punching down the fermenting grapes in a large wooden vat and moving the finished wine from the vat to the cellar via bucket brigade. This was Stuart’s introduction to the historical art of family wine making. The traditional values of the Swiss way (though his own ancestry is Scot) of winemaking handed down generation to generation is what inspired Stuart early on and formed the basis for his love of winemaking.

Soon a small vineyard was planted on the home ranch and the long task of developing one’s own style of winemaking began. Mostly self taught, Stuart loosely follows an inspired benign winemaking style, (“let the grapes make the wine”), that uses wild yeast, neutral oak barrels and little intercession with the natural process of wine development. The grapes used in production are from the ranch vineyard, the west Paso Robles area, the Templeton Gap, the Adelaida, and a small amount from the Paso Robles eastside for balance.

From a very small first year production in 1996 to a current 800-1200 case production, this is very much a family affair with Stuart, wife Laura, sons Clay and Ross and daughter Paige creating a “small winery” atmosphere with excellent hands-on quality winemaking for your enjoyment and satisfaction. After all, everyone has to get something out of this experience! From seed to fruit to wine, Enjoy!

Annual Production: 800 cases

Grape Varieties Planted

• Pinot Noir