Ep 179 Built by Hand, Blown by the Gap – Featuring Victor Hugo Winery | 915 Lincoln Wines

🍇 Where Wine Takes You, Episode Highlights 🍷

This week, we continue our journey through the eleven sub-AVAs of Paso Robles with a stop in the Templeton Gap District, where the Pacific gets a vote, the wind rarely takes the day off, and Paso’s natural power finds a little extra freshness, perfume, and lift.

Joining Adam at SLO CAL Studios are two winemakers operating on very different timelines.

Vic Roberts, owner, estate grower, and winemaker at Victor Hugo Winery, arrived in Paso Robles in 1982. A UC Davis enology graduate, Vic helped with the original Paso Robles AVA effort, participated in the early growth of the Paso Robles Wine Festival, and planted his Templeton property one section at a time with his wife, Leslie.

Sitting beside him is Scott Mathews, owner and winemaker at 915 Lincoln Wines. Scott’s wine journey began when he announced plans to make wine from a kit, and a friend immediately told him absolutely not. Real grapes were picked, an obsession was born, and the project eventually outgrew the garage and basement at 915 Lincoln.

Today, Scott is building a small-production label and welcoming guests into his tasting room on Pine Street in Paso Robles.

Together, Vic and Scott discuss estate farming versus creative sourcing, Viognier’s long climb toward name recognition, small vineyards, tasting-room realities, shifting consumer habits, the current wine market, and how a winemaker stays flexible without losing the reason they started.

Two winemakers.

Two completely different clocks.

One cool, windy corner of Paso Robles tying their stories together.

Later, the Travel Paso Spotlight heads just off the downtown Paso Robles park to Nectar Supply Co., a modern apothecary and lifestyle shop featuring clean skincare, wellness goods, home fragrance, gifts, and small-batch products.

Caleb joins Adam to explain what a modern apothecary actually is, how Nectar curates its shelves, what the shop adds to the downtown Paso experience, and where a first-time visitor should begin.