Denner Vineyards

Paso Robles is one of the most exciting wine regions in California. Over the last decade, the number of wine producers has more than doubled. There are now 180+ producers in Paso Robles, and more operations are expected to open up in the coming years. Most interesting is the Paso Robles West, the cooler and rolling landscape west of Highway 101, where Zinfandel and Rhône varietals thrive on the hillsides. In this region, you’ll find abundant of limestone or mudstone (a soil type rich in calcium) which is very rare in California. The soils and the cooler climate definitely add structure and personality to the wines. They are normally rich, ripe och huge, still with a good portion of tannins and a lively natural acidity.
Still the “old timers” (well, they’re not really that old) such as Justin Vineyards and Tablas Creek Vineyards, co-owned by Château de Beaucastel in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, make wines of qualities that are anywhere from recommended to outstanding, and both of them make wines that are able to evolve well in the bottle.

Denner Vineyards is a new winery, founded by the business man Ron Denner, who spared no cost in the development of his fabulous vineyard and winery. It perfectly planned into the smallest detail. It’s really a hit! Denner sells most of the grapes from his 63 hectare vineyard and among the lucky winemakers who are on that list you’ll find Matt Trevisan of Linne Calodo, another great Paso Robles producer (Matt focus on Zinfandel). They also sell grapes to Justin for their top wine Isosceles and to the highly recommended winery Villa Creek.
The wines of Denner are rich and intense, pure and very elegant, and with a lot of personality. I like to their lovely balance, their length, and (with some air on most of their wines) the almost French flavor profile. Production reaches around 4 500 to 5 000 cases annually, but the capacity stretches more towards 10 000 to 12 000 cases per year.

Our 156 acres press up against the Santa Lucia Range, giving the site great diversity of elevation, aspect and soil. Previously dry farmed barley, the estate is nestled into the Templeton Gap, an East/West corridor where the marine layer can reach the inland valleys. As a result we receive large diurnal temperature swings without high moisture pressure, giving us a near perfect growing climate.

The original 96-acres were designed and planted by John Crossland of Beckstoffer fame. Later, Justin Smith of Saxum came on to consult with Aron Nevarez, our Vineyard Manager. Since 2005, Aron has had complete control of all vineyard operations, including the designing and planting of the 12 acres surrounding the winery. He is committed to environmentally friendly farming practices, using only sustainable inputs and minimal irrigation. The belief that timliness is the key to sustainable farming allows him to proactively approach any issue before it would require chemical intervention. Aron’s hands-on approach and years of experience with the vineyard allow him to produce the quality fruit Denner is known for harvest after harvest.

The Denner Vineyards wines are genuine expressions of the vintage and vineyard that they were grown in, but also of the people that make them. While we would love to paint the picture of these wines making themselves because of the uniqueness of our soil and the powerful temperature swings in our weather, the truth is our wines taste like the time and place in which they were grown because we work incredibly hard to make them that way.

We can pontificate about the excruciating attention to detail we practice at every step of the wine growing process, but really, the most important decisions we make in any year are those to not act at all. To not irrigate even though it’s hotter than Hades, to not sort despite there being ripeness variation, or to not rack during aging even when there’s some reduction in the wines. These are the decisions that create wines with character — that make them true to this vineyard, their vintage, and to the people that made them. But most importantly, these are the decisions we make that create wines that are delicious, complex, and singular.

In 2008, working with a local company, REC Solar, we installed a 140,000 DC watt ground mounted solar project. The system handles all of the electrical energy needs of the winery and most of the Comus Club Center, thereby greatly reducing the buildings’ carbon footprint.
In 2008 we also expanded our wetlands to include a system for filtering the water used in production to be distributed throughout the vineyard.