After a dozen years at Meridian Vineyards in Paso Robles, winemaker Signe Zoller left in early 2006 to start her own Paso-based consulting business, Zoller Wine Styling. That meant making the transition from a job where she oversaw the production of about a million cases a year to a role in which she works with about a dozen clients who make anywhere from one barrel a year up to 10,000 cases.

Zoller had worked at Meridian Vineyards for nearly 10 years before she succeeded the winery’s founder, Chuck Ortman, as head winemaker in 2003. Before joining Meridian, Zoller spent more than 10 years at Kendall-Jackson and its related wineries, including three years as winemaker at Cambria in the Santa Maria Valley.

“The move from specialist to generalist has been the biggest issue,” Zoller says. “As winemaker in a large facility, you are focused on tasting, trying blends put together by staff for you, PR events and lots of meetings. Fortunately for me, I began my career in a very small winery, Kendall-Jackson when it was a start-up. So I’m rekindling all the skills needed for that job.”

As a consultant, Zoller’s clients include Salisbury Vineyards (for the winery’s Paso Robles wines), Red Soles Winery and Gelfand Vineyards, as well as some tiny start-ups. Now that she’s working with smaller lots of Paso Robles wine, rather than the big blends she was accustomed to supervising for Meridian, she’s able to focus more on maintaining a sense of place in her wines, a process she says begins with proper viticultural practices.

We talked about her transition; whether it’s possible for a big winery to reflect the character of an appellation; and what the Paso Robles terroir brings to a wine.