Before Eric Jensen had a label of his own, he had the best apprenticeship in Paso Robles. Five years alongside Justin Smith at Saxum. Two more with Stephan Asseo at L Aventure. He learned the limestone hills of the west side from the two people who had just put them on the world map, and then, on a historic farm he and his wife Lisa had bought in 2001, he set out to make his own mark in the same dirt.

An apprenticeship, then a farm of his own

Eric and Lisa Jensen bought one hundred acres of the historic Booker family farm in the Willow Creek District in 2001. Rather than rush a bottling, Eric spent years learning the craft where it was being done best, five vintages with Justin Smith at Saxum and two with Stephan Asseo at L Aventure, the two estates that had just announced Paso Robles to the wine world. When he finally launched the Booker label with the 2005 vintage, he did it with the confidence of someone who had studied under masters and farmed his own ground at the same time.

That patience paid off. Booker became one of the most sought-after names on the west side, and in 2021 Constellation Brands completed its acquisition of the label, with Eric staying on as head winemaker. The estate now farms roughly sixty planted acres and makes around five to six thousand cases a year, all still rooted in the same limestone hillside the Jensens bet on more than two decades ago.

Eric Jensen apprenticed five years at Saxum and two at L Aventure before launching Booker, then earned a place beside his mentors on the Paso west side.

Why the name is Fracture

The Booker estate sits on calcareous limestone, and that single fact explains both the wines and the winery flagship. There is so much limestone in the ground here that the soil fractures rather than crumbles, splitting into shards that force the vines deep and stress them into small, intense berries. Eric named his benchmark Syrah Fracture as a tribute to exactly that, the broken white rock that gives the wines their mineral backbone.

The rest of the climate does its part. Willow Creek pulls cool Pacific air through the Templeton Gap every afternoon, so summer heat gives way to genuinely cold nights and the grapes keep their acidity while they ripen. Booker farms regeneratively and organically, treating the soil as the living thing the wines depend on. The result is power with freshness, the signature of great west-side Paso.

The wines: Syrah with a Rhone heart

Booker is Rhone country at heart, built on Syrah and Grenache. The lineup runs through Syrah-led blends, Vertigo, Tempted, and the flagship Fracture, alongside the Grenache-led Oublie and a handful of varietal bottlings off those sixty estate acres. These are dark, generous, structured wines that still carry lift, the cool-night acidity keeping all that ripe fruit honest.

Fracture is the one to know, a deeply colored, full-bodied Syrah with blackberry, cracked pepper, smoked meat, and a stony, almost iron edge from the limestone. Oublie shows the softer, red-fruited, more aromatic side of the estate through Grenache. Across the board these are wines built to drink well young but reward a few years in the cellar, and they have the following to prove it.

What to pour Booker with

A Syrah-led wine like Fracture wants dark, rich, savory food, and its firm tannins are made for fat and char. Pour it next to a peppercorn-crusted ribeye, lamb chops off the grill, or braised short ribs, and the tannin binds to the protein and fat, the wine turns silky, and the meat tastes cleaner with every sip. Skip lean white fish, which leaves all that structure with nothing to grip and turns the wine bitter.

Lean into Syrah love of pepper and smoke: a black-pepper steak, grilled merguez, or wild mushrooms and a hard aged cheese all echo the wine savory side. The red-fruited Oublie Grenache is more flexible, happy with grilled chicken, pork, or a herb-roasted leg of lamb. And in Paso, the local move never fails, red-oak tri-tip beside a glass of estate Syrah. Need a match for your own table? Our wine pairing generator can help.

Visiting Booker

Booker tasting room is one of the most striking on the west side, a sleek, modern space set among the estate vineyards on Anderson Road, southwest of downtown Paso Robles. Tastings are seated and by reservation, walking you through the estate Syrah and Grenache with the rows that grew them in view. It is a popular stop, so book ahead, especially on weekends. For more wineries on the same limestone ridge, see our Paso Robles guide.

Booker Vineyard: common questions