Guillaume Fabre grew up in a winemaking family in Narbonne, in the south of France, six generations deep. He could have stayed. Instead he came to Paso Robles, worked the cellar at L’Aventure, and in 2007 set out on his own with his wife Solene, the name on the door. Clos Solene is about 17 acres in the rolling hills of the Willow Creek District, and the wines carry a quiet ambition, to take the structure and elegance of French blending and let it speak with a Paso accent, ripe and warm but never loud.

A French vigneron’s American gamble

Guillaume Fabre is a sixth-generation winemaker, born and raised in Narbonne in the southeast of France, in a family of winegrowers. After years at home and time in Bordeaux, he came to California with a personal mission, to make wines that honor his French heritage while expressing the distinct energy of Paso Robles. He sharpened his Paso instincts as a winemaker at L’Aventure, one of the west side’s defining estates, before founding Clos Solene in 2007.

The winery is family-owned and named for Solene, Guillaume’s wife, described on the estate as his muse and inspiration. The philosophy is rooted in the vigneron tradition, which means the same person farms the land and makes the wine, with the emphasis on attentive farming, thoughtful blending, and restraint in the cellar. The result is a small, focused house where the goal is balance and elegance rather than size for its own sake.

A sixth-generation vigneron left a French family estate to chase elegance on 17 acres of California limestone.

Seventeen acres in Willow Creek

Clos Solene sits in the rolling hills of the Willow Creek District on the west side of Paso Robles, working with about 17 acres. This is the limestone heart of the west side, where the high bedrock slopes run from around 960 to 1,900 feet on calcareous Monterey-Formation loams and clay, in the cooler Region II climate band. For a Frenchman raised on the importance of soil, the calcareous ground here is familiar territory, the kind of stony, well-draining dirt that disciplines a vine and concentrates its fruit.

The cooling is the other half of the equation. The Templeton Gap pulls marine air inland and drops temperatures hard overnight, giving the big day-to-night swing that lets Fabre ripen Rhone and Bordeaux fruit fully while keeping the acidity that makes a wine taste fresh and lifted rather than heavy. That tension, ripe fruit over firm acidity, is exactly what an elegance-first style depends on, and it is why a French sensibility translates so well onto this particular hillside.

What the wines taste like

Clos Solene makes limited-production white and red blends, mostly Rhone-leaning with a Bordeaux thread, and the through-line is finesse. The reds are perfumed and layered rather than blockbuster, dark and red fruit woven with spice, florals, and fine, polished tannins, generous in the Paso way but reined in by acidity and restraint. Names to know include Hommage, the Bordeaux-leaning Harmonie, and the Grenache-based La Rose.

The whites are a highlight and very much in the French mold. A Roussanne-led white such as Hommage Blanc shows a beautiful balance of floral and citrus aromatics with texture and weight, the kind of white built for the table rather than the patio alone. The rose, a fresh Grenache-driven pink with vibrant fruit and refreshing acidity, rounds out a lineup that prizes drinkability and detail. Because production is small and allocation-driven, the wines reward joining the list and tasting at the source.

What to pour Clos Solene with

The elegance-first reds want food with finesse to match. Their fine-grained tannins bind to protein and fat, so they pair beautifully with lamb, duck, and herb-crusted rack, where the meat softens the tannin and the wine’s floral and spice notes lift the dish. These are not wines to bury under heavy barbecue sauce. Treat them more like a fine Cotes du Rhone or a polished Bordeaux, and let the food be refined rather than smothered.

The whites are where Fabre’s French instinct really pays off at the table. A textured Roussanne-led white has both richness and acidity, so it cuts through cream sauces and butter while standing up to roast chicken, pork, and richer seafood. Acid is the lever, slicing fat the way a squeeze of citrus does. The dry rose is a versatile all-rounder for salads, charcuterie, and lighter fare. To match a specific Clos Solene bottling to your menu, our wine pairing generator is a good starting point.

Visiting Clos Solene

A visit to Clos Solene leans into the intimate, allocation-driven world of small west-side Paso producers, where the wines are limited and the experience is personal. The estate sits in the rolling Willow Creek hills, and tasting through Fabre’s range, from the textured whites to the elegant reds, is the clearest way to understand a French vigneron’s translation of Paso Robles. Because production is limited, visits are best arranged by reservation, and you should confirm current hours and tasting formats before you go. To plan a wider west-side day around it, start with our Paso Robles guide.

Clos Solene: common questions