Everyone loves Bordeaux wine…but most casual wine enthusiasts don’t like it enough to cough up the hundreds–or thousands–of dollars necessary to buy a bottle. If your eyes bulge at the ever-increasing prices, you may want to start looking at other options.
Enter Paso Robles, California. It’s the dressed-in-jeans cousin to the glitzy-ballgown-wearing Napa, but the winemaking is getting noticed. Not too long ago, Paso Robles was a sleepy agricultural area with a few dozen wineries and a handful of tasting rooms. But that has changed, and now the competition for best wine from Paso Robles is fierce.
Justin Baldwin, founder of Justin Winery, first planted vines in 1981. They weren’t the first winery–that was probably the precursor to Rotta Winery, whose vines were planted in the 1850s–but Justin Winery was among the early adopters of Paso Robles. In the early days, wineries weren’t owned by tech millionaires but by multi-generational farmers and vintners. These were people who got their hands dirty and were involved in every aspect of grape growing and winemaking.
Justin Winery made Justification to compete with the Bordeaux-style wines, but with a Paso Robles twist. It’s made from Cabernet Franc and Merlot. The Cabernet Franc brings herbal notes, and the California-grown Merlot gives it a ripe, full flavor. From Day One, Justin’s Justification was meant to be the best wine from Paso Robles.
I remember driving down dusty dirty roads in search of wineries before GPS or the (dot-com bubble). When I’d finally arrive, I would be welcomed by a family member and a tail-wagging dog or two. We’d get a personal tour of the vineyard and then the owner would take us into their cellar and offer us a few tastes. There were times I didn’t love the wine, but I always bought a bottle or two…it would have been rude not to.
Justin Winery was always one of my stops. I even got my mother to join their wine club. She thinks she’s been a member of Justin’s wine club for almost two decades!
The scene has changed. Now there are more than 200 wineries in Paso Robles, although many of these are still family owned and operated. There’s more signage, and WAZE has made finding the wineries easier for city-folk in low-slung sports cars. The competition for “Best Wine from Paso Robles” has become fierce. But Justin Winery is still among the best, and their Justification is always well-rated.
What happened to Justin Baldwin? He cashed in when he sold to Fiji water billionaire Stewart Resnick for an undisclosed amount. (Good for you, Justin!). But Resnick kept the top-notch winemaking style, as well as Justin’s iconic Justification wine.
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