Nestled into the hills just west of Paso Robles, Ca is a little winery called Red Soles. Named for the color of your feet after you crush wine, these are some wines that will knock you off your feet. They are just that good.
Family owned and operated, just the way we like our wines, this winery began a few years ago as a way to protect their number one love, growing grapes for other wineries in the area.
This uniquely successful, wine-growing and wine-making duo, Randy and Cheryl Phillips, happily run the tasting room themselves. Each wine in their line-up is Estate grown, and the duo is proud of the fact that they do not source their wine grapes from any vineyard other than their own.
Although the winery is definitely a full-time business, the main focus of Randy and Cheryl’s company will always be farming. There is something extremely satisfying about being able to be part of a wine grape’s journey from dust to vine and vine to barrel. Currently, the pair owns two hundred acres of wine grapes; half are on the east side of Paso Robles and the other half are at the winery site in the Templeton Gap. Only a small percentage of what is grown gets turned into Red Soles wine; the rest of the grapes are sold to large wineries, most of whom they have been doing business with for years.
Most of the wines have some foot related theme to them, which makes them fun. From the Flop-Flip to the Achilles Weakness (a personal favorite) the wines of Red Soles are nice and understated, but bold when they need to be. Another plus is the tasting room is dog friendly. ON a recent weekend Ms Eggshell and I took the furchild there for a picnic and the dog was invited in to lay on the floor while we imbibed. A nice touch even though they have plenty of room on the grounds for you to chill and enjoy a glass or bottle.
From our time there it appears this winemaker caters to its wine club members. One member told of us about a semi-annual blending party where club members get together and actually help choose the next years members blend wine by blending from five different varietals. Sounds like a pretty fun day of meeting new people and enjoying good wines.
