“I’ve had my eye on this particular spot — knew what I wanted — for 15-plus years,” said Justin Smith of his newest vineyard in Cayucos. He smiled: “I’d drive and sneak around, didn’t have permission from owners, to steal mushrooms.”
Photos: Mira Honeycutt
The mushroom thief is also winemaker and owner of the storied Saxum Vineyards, home to Paso’s original cult wines, located in the Willow Creek District and available by allocation. He has a long wait list. With his new spot, Smith has added a sibling to Saxum’s portfolio, wines from Cayucos Ridge, located in the San Luis Obispo (SLO) Coast AVA.
On a clear January afternoon, Smith drove me to Cayucos Ridge to visit his recently planted vineyard. As he turned onto Old Creek Road, he recalled that he was drawn to the area’s calcareous shale and marine deposits. “It’s in this one little spot and there’s all this open land,” he enthused. “I always thought there’s a potential for growing grapes here.”
That untapped spot is the 160-acre ranch that Smith acquired in 2017. It is perched at 1,700 feet elevation along the ridge line of the Santa Lucia Mountain range.
As he drove along the Old Creek Road, flanked by a forest of oak, bay madrone and maple trees, the Paso Robles native expounded on the area’s historical background. A wagon trail once came through here from Cambria to Templeton. There was a way station and a spring for passing travelers and their horses. In this virgin, never-logged land, a road was eventually built.
“They put in an oil pipeline which runs through the properties of Tablas Creek and Halter Ranch vineyards up to San Ardo,” said Smith.
Smith kept his eye on the property, so when it came on the market, “I jumped on it,” he said. The 600-acre property was divided into four parcels, three of which were for sale. However, the fourth parcel, the one Smith wanted, the seller chose to keep for himself. Smith was persistent though and finally made an offer the seller couldn’t resist.
From the gated entry at 1,300 feet elevation, a one-mile drive brought us to the hilltop with a spectacular coastline below us. The Instagrammable spot offered a sweeping view from Morro Rock and Edna Valley’s Santa Lucia range to Cambria. “On a clear day you can see the Piedra Blanca lighthouse,” Smith remarked.
Pointing to the 12-acre own-rooted Syrah vineyard planted in 2018, Smith continued: “One side of the vineyard is tapered toward Cayucos and the other side into Templeton. We are in the middle of the Templeton Gap. You can imagine the wind going in both ways. It’s pretty extreme.”
Extreme is the keyword for vineyards planted on a wind-blown hilltop 4.5 mil from the ocean. “When we first planted we didn’t know what it was going to be,” Smith recalled. The unpredictable 60-miles-per-hour wind can blow in anytime of the day (or night). “It often kicks in at 2 a.m., calms down at 10 a.m., then kicks back again.”
While fierce wind is a challenging factor, the upside is milder temperatures and substantial rainfall. “We don’t have the lows and highs we get down in Willow Creek,” Smith remarked. Furthermore, Syrah sets very well even in windy conditions. In this cool climate, slow fruit ripening allows for more hang time and the alcohol level is lower than the wines from Willow Creek.
While there are a handful of vineyards planted in the valley area, the Cayucos Ridge vineyard is the only one along the Santa Lucia ridge line in the SLO Coast AVA. Although not certified, Smith and his vineyard team follow organic and regenerative practices, among them no till or pesticides.
Back in the Willow Creek District, we found ourselves at the deep end of the Saxum winery cave backed by a dramatic wall of exposed fractured rock. “I love it when these fractured rocks are tilted up,” said Smith pointing to the jagged angle of the rock formation. “What we’re looking at is this uplift so the roots of the vines go through these cracks and come down to where the water is instead of fighting their way through.” Old Creek Road in Cayucos has a similar tilted rock formation, he added.
We were ready to savor the Cayucos Ridge 100% Syrah from SLO Coast AVA alongside two of Saxum’s Syrah-driven wines from Willow Creek District AVA.
“There’s not a night or day difference,” Smith commented on the distance between the two vineyards. “Cayucos Ridge is just eleven miles from here. One is more spice-driven and the other more fruit-forward.”
Indeed, distinctive savory notes and black pepper embrace the powerfully structured Cayucos Ridge Syrah, influenced by the aromas of the surrounding chaparral. Commenting on the inky-dark color, Smith mused: “We’ve never seen anything like it. It was so black when we harvested it.”
The two Syrah-dominant wines from Willow Creek AVA offered different expressions. From the oldest, the James Berry vineyard planted in 1999, the 82% Syrah Bone Rock showed more structure and some spice while Broken Stones with 54% Syrah was more red fruit-froward, with a touch more new oak. Varieties such as Mataro, Graciano, Grenache and Petite Sirah are typical companions in Saxum blends.
As for vinification, Smith prefers partial whole clusters. “With Syrah, it’s the spice. A lot of black pepper comes from the stems,” he explained. Fermentation is typically about three weeks, usually a week of cold soak before fermentation starts.
“Once it starts we pump over twice a day, doing a nice gentle extraction with no heating so in the cold cave and concrete fermenters it stays really cool.” Barrel aging in a combination of new and neutral French oak typically ranges from 22 to 30 months.
Saxum’s 2024 annual production is targeted at 8,000 cases. “In 2023 it was 11,000 cases, but we want it to be more like 8,000,” Smith noted. “We’ve dropped some of our purchased fruit. Moving forward we’ll be one hundred percent estate.”
Saxum’s estate vineyards in three AVAs now include Willow Creek District, SLO Coast and the recent addition of York Mountain.
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