Ridge Vineyards’ History with Paso Robles

Blog Post

Ridge & Paso Robles, The Early Days

RIDGE’s connection to the Paso Robles area started in 1967 when Dave Bennion, one of RIDGE’s founders and its original winemaker, purchased zinfandel grapes from the Benito Dusi Vineyard just south of the city of Paso Robles, next to Highway 101. One of the larger zinfandel vineyards in the area at that time, it was planted in 1922 and purchased by the Dusi family in 1924. The RIDGE label for this 1967 bottling featured the designation “Templeton”. Templeton is the unincorporated region of San Luis Obispo County just south of the city of Paso Robles where the vineyard was located. Dave Bennion’s wife, Fran, describes the origins of that first meeting that started RIDGE’s journey in Paso Robles.

”In 1967, knowing that Dave would never take a vacation, I was invited to stay on our neighbor’s farm in Vermont, and I took the four kids on the train and went east for the summer. Dave spent that summer chasing around California looking for grapes. He got the idea to go down into the Paso Robles area. Dave was driving along the highway, and upon seeing the vineyard he walked in and started talking to Benito Dusi about the grapes in the area, eventually convincing him to let us have some grapes for that fall. He took his sleeping bag and did a lot of traveling around that summer.” Fran Bennion

After just one vintage from the Dusi Ranch, RIDGE would explore zinfandel from other areas, including the Sierra Foothills, Lodi, Mendocino County, and other parts of Sonoma County. However, a severe drought in the mid-70s left RIDGE short of fruit, so winemaker Paul Draper returned to Paso Robles. In 1976, grapes were again purchased from the Benito Dusi Ranch, and several additional younger vineyards in the area. This time, the wine made from the Dusi Ranch was given the Paso Robles designation to provide more specificity of location. This was the first time the words “Paso Robles” had been used on a bottle of wine made from grapes from the area. The designation became more widely used after 1983 when the Paso Robles AVA was approved, including a large section of northern San Luis Obispo County surrounding the city of Paso Robles, which included the Dusi Ranch.

The fruit RIDGE purchased from several younger vineyards in the Paso Robles area in 1976 was originally intended to be used in RIDGE’s blended Coast Range bottling, but because the fruit was rather different from the other Coast Range lots, Paul decided to bottle it separately under the Central Coast designation.

Customers responded well to the Paso Robles Zinfandel, so RIDGE made the wine again in 1977 and has done so continuously ever since. 2025 will be our fiftieth harvest from the Dusi Ranch.

Because 1977 was another drought year, RIDGE again purchased fruit from several younger vineyards in the Paso Robles area and bottled a wine with the San Luis designation, which was more descriptive of the area than Central Coast. RIDGE continued to produce the San Luis wine for four more years, through the 1980 vintage, but ended this production in favor of making more unique single-vineyard wines.

Dusi Ranch & Essence Zinfandels

From 1981 until 2017 (36 years), the only RIDGE wine produced from the Paso Robles area came from the Benito Dusi Ranch. Every year, there was a “Paso Robles” bottling, but often an additional bottling was made under the “Dusi Ranch” designation for our wine club from lots that were especially concentrated. On three occasions when conditions were just right, we also produced an Essence from Dusi Ranch grapes.

Introduction of White Rhônes

In January of 2018, the RIDGE Executive Team was discussing making a new white wine to complement our Estate Chardonnay. There were already many wineries making sauvignon blanc, so we started considering other varieties. David Gates, our Senior Vice President of Vineyard operations, said he knew where we might be able to purchase some high-quality grenache blanc. He told us that Adelaida Vineyards in Paso Robles had more fruit than they needed for their own wine production. There were only a few wineries in California making wines from white Rhône varieties, most notably Tablas Creek of Paso Robles. The Adelaida vineyard was not far from Tablas Creek in the western hills now known as the Adelaida District sub-region of the Paso Robles AVA.

We decided to try making this wine for one year and purchased grenache blanc, picpoul, roussanne, and viognier from Adelaida. Our favorite was a blend of primarily grenache blanc with smaller amounts of picpoul and roussane. We bottled a small amount of roussanne and viognier by themselves that year.

The release of the 2018 Grenache Blanc was a huge success, so we immediately committed to purchasing as much fruit from Adelaida for 2019 as we could, and we were able to slightly increase our production. We sold almost all of this wine through our wholesale sales channels.

In 2020 we started buying grenache blanc and picpoul from the Halter Ranch, which was located further west of Adelaida’s vineyard and very close to Tablas Creek’s vineyards. We made this wine separately under the Halter Ranch label, exclusively for sale at the winery and to our wine club members. The wine was popular and quickly sold out.

Around the same time, David Gates spoke to Mike Dusi, who had taken over farming his uncle Benito’s vineyard after Benito’s passing. Mike owns and farms several vineyards around Paso Robles, some of which are used for his family’s winery, J Dusi. Mike asked Dave about a vineyard he was redeveloping and specifically about planting white Rhône grapes. Dave told Mike that RIDGE would be very interested in those grapes, and after discussing it with the RIDGE Executive Team, it was decided to tell Mike we wanted the fruit when it became available. In 2022, Mike told Dave that we would be getting our first crop of white Rhône grapes from his newly planted Fossil Creek vineyard. At an Executive Team meeting in January 2023, we tasted wines made from each of the three vineyards. We then made a trial blend combining all three vineyards, and upon tasting it, the group unanimously agreed it was the superior wine.

Since 2022, we have been making wine designated as Grenache Blanc from the Paso Robles AVA, since the Fossil Creek vineyard is in a different sub-AVA from Adelaida and Halter Ranch. The customer response to this three-vineyard blend has been terrific, and we have increased the amount we make as the Fossil Creek Vineyard has come into full production.

Our Expanded Footprint in Paso Robles

In 2025, RIDGE made its largest commitment yet to Paso Robles with the opening of our new tasting room in Ramada Row, just a five-minute drive from the Benito Dusi Ranch. We are very excited to bring our long history of winemaking with Paso Robles fruit to all the customers who visit us there.

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