How Thacher Winery & Vineyard uncovered a lighter side to Paso Robles

Sherman Thacher has occasionally pulled his young son, Cody, out of school to help with harvest and light winemaking – an ironic twist, given that Thacher’s great-grandfather founded the well-known Thacher School in Ojai.

The school was known for its balance of academics and rugged outdoor learning, including the care of horses. In the Thacher family, it seems, learning has always taken many forms, and true to the family tradition, it happens through hands-on experience.

Sherman Thacher’s personal education started outside the classroom, growing up on an orange orchard in Ojai, surrounded by nature, where his mother rang a triangle to call him and his brothers back to the house for meals.

He later attended a British boarding school, thanks to his English mother’s influence, before finishing high school in Santa Ynez.

This was not a typical high school experience, as the students lived in log cabins and chopped wood to heat both their rooms and the water for their afternoon showers.

To this day, Thacher heats his home with a wood-burning stove.

Scroll down for a selection of 10 wines from Thacher Winery

From beer brewer to Paso winemaker

As a student at the University of California at Davis, Thacher didn’t study oenology, but tagged along with friends in the fermentation lab. There, he tasted student-made beer and wine, which sparked an early interest.

Beer was his first career, and after a few years, he became brewmaster at Los Gatos Brewing Company. In 1993, Thacher produced his first wine with a friend, an old-vine Zinfandel from the Santa Cruz Mountains. Having spent nearly a decade in brewing, wine steadily took over as his focus.

By the early 2000s, Thacher and his wife were ready to leave Silicon Valley behind. In 2004, they bought land in Paso Robles’ Adelaida District, moving there two years later.

Thacher’s first vintage, made from purchased grapes, was in 2004. By 2006, He realised that to truly build a sustainable business, he needed a physical home, a tasting room where he could connect with customers. ‘The learning curve was steep,’ he admits.

Their initial land purchase was the Kentucky Ranch, once home to a breeding facility for Quarter horses and later a horse rescue programme.

The property, planted in 2007, was untouched land, set in the limestone-rich hills of Paso Robles’ Adelaida District. The site offered ideal conditions for growing structured wines, particularly Rhône varieties and heritage Zinfandel.

Thacher Winery & Vineyard: At a glance

Founded: 2004

Owners: Sherman & Michelle Thacher

Annual Production: 5,000 cases

Total hectares planted to vines: 

8 ha planted in total (breakdown below)

2ha Kentucky Ranch Vineyard

6ha Homestead Hill Vineyard

Appellation: Paso Robles AVA – Adelaida District & Willow Creek District

Estate vineyards: Kentucky Ranch Vineyard 2007-present (most have been replanted)

Homestead Hill Vineyard 2017-present

Key wine varieties: Syrah, Grenache, Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, Cinsault

Winemaker: Sherman Thacher. Assistant Winemaker Brenna Hill.

An early Zin focus

Today, Thacher Winery and Vineyard produces around 20 different wines that reflect both curiosity and intention.

Before getting married, the couple would go wine tasting in Paso Robles on weekends, which often centred around the Zinfandels that dominated the region at the time.

‘When we first started thinking seriously about Paso, I really thought I was going to open a winery with four or five different Zins,’ Thacher recalls.

In those early days, Thacher’s focus was on Zinfandel and Syrah. But curiosity and the evolving regional landscape expanded the possibilities.

Tablas Creek was just beginning to make waves, and Rhône varieties were gaining a foothold in the region. Inspired by this shift, Thacher soon added Grenache, Mourvèdre, and Viognier to his lineup.

The path to a wide-ranging portfolio had begun.

A passion for variety

At Kentucky Ranch, he eventually planted 1ha as a field blend of 11 different varieties from southern France and Spain. A testament to his exploratory approach.

‘We really want them [the grapes] to speak for themselves,’ Thacher says. ‘If a variety has certain characteristics, we want to find a vineyard or produce it in a way that expresses those characteristics rather than mutes them or turns them into something else.’

Josh Beckett, owner and winemaker at Thibido Winery, who has known Thacher for 30 years, agrees. ‘He is more about expressing the fruit and vineyard, and has created his own style. Thacher is creative and experimental. Almost to a fault sometimes.’

Working with such a broad mix of grapes isn’t just practical, it’s fulfilling. ‘There are so many things to learn. Working with different varietals and seeing how they perform and what kind of flavour profiles you can get out of them is really exciting,’ says Thacher. ‘It’s like making a new recipe at home.’

Daniel Sinton, owner of Shell Creek Vineyard, where Thacher sources old-vine Chenin Blanc and Valdiguié, recounts the first time he tried the carbonic Valdiguié made by Thacher.

‘It was one of my memorable moments in wine. Bringing these types of methods to the Paso area and to broader American wine is a cornerstone of why I think he is so great,’ he says.

Thacher acknowledges the gravitational pull of this kind of experimentation, likening his path to other varietal obsessives.

‘I think of people like Randall Grahm (Bonny Doon Vineyard, Popelochum, Language of Yes) or Kenneth Volk (Wild Horse, Kenneth Volk Vineyards) who went down the same rabbit hole,’ he says.

‘I’m not sure if it’s a good thing or not. It’s a little addictive. Once you get going, it’s a little hard to turn off because there are just so many things to know and explore.’

Epiphany

Paso Robles has long been known for its bold red wines. Even when well-balanced, they tend to showcase powerful structural elements – high alcohol, full body, intense aromatics, concentrated fruit, and sometimes, firm tannins.

Like many producers in the region, Thacher’s style initially followed suit, crafting some notably big wines. Reflecting back, he admits, ‘I taste through some of them now, and they’re out of my norm and not my favourite.’

A major shift for Thacher came in 2013. A big crop of Viognier hadn’t sold as much as he had hoped, and they were behind, but they were contracted for the fruit the following year.

The only option was to make something else out of it.

Thacher made a call to a friend in Santa Cruz and asked for insight on how to make sparkling wine. His friend shared basic information such as target brix, TA, and pH levels.

Thacher picked the fruit accordingly and sent it to Santa Cruz for tirage bottling.

One 60-gallon (227L) drum didn’t fit in the tank and stayed behind, resting in the cellar for a year.

There weren’t solid plans for the leftover wine, but over time, it evolved into a non-vintage bottling. The results surprised them. ‘It was bright, alive, and vibrant.’

Because it had been picked early, as one does for bubbles, the wine had energy and lift. ‘It took me to a whole different spot,’ Thacher says.

‘That moment was my epiphany for what we’re doing now. This is where I should be picking stuff. Not later.’

Seeking a lighter side of Paso

The shift began with white wines, but reds soon followed.

That one vineyard decision reshaped his entire winemaking philosophy: rather than manipulating wine in the cellar, why not simply pick the grapes when chemistry and flavour aligned and let the fruit speak for itself from vineyard to bottle?

It wasn’t an overnight transformation, but a steady evolution. Today, Thacher wines are made with native fermentations, no water, nutrients, acid, or enzymes, and only minimal effective SO₂.

‘Everything you need is in the grape, if you pick it on the right day,’ says Thacher.

Thacher always had an, ‘early vision for less is more,’ says Beckett.

Thacher finds it rewarding when guests taste through the lineup and see a theme from start to finish, regularly commenting that everything doesn’t taste the same.

From delicate, lighter styles to bold, hearty reds, the common thread is a sense of freshness and liveliness – even in wines that are otherwise vastly different.

‘It’s about good wine that doesn’t need to be manipulated in any way. It’s not about making low alcohol wine. That’s just the result,’ says Thacher.

The next generation

Out of his three children, Thacher’s 16-year-old son, Cody, has already had his hands, as much as a child can, in five vintages.

He started when he was just nine, assisting his father with a small block affectionately called the C-Block, consisting of about 80 own-rooted, dry-farmed vines tucked into a corner of the property, planted with a mix of varieties.

In the early Thacher days, Cody would wake up and head straight to the vineyard to help with harvesting and sorting fruit. He even missed a bit of school during harvest season.

Thacher recalls his wife pulling up in the minivan, the door sliding open as Cody dashed out to the winery to partake in a punchdown. He’d also squeeze in another one before dinner.

Thacher bought him a tiny press, which Cody proudly maintains himself. Over the past five years, the block has produced anywhere from half to a full barrel each vintage. Now that high school and sports are involved, it has become a bit trickier, but the foundation is clearly in place.

Thacher remains a student of the vine, still learning, still experimenting, and always letting the vineyard lead the way, with the next chapter yet to be written.

Ten wines from Thacher:

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