Karl Kresser and Juliane Grosso went on their first date in Los Angeles in 1992, and by their third date, in Napa Valley, they had discovered a shared and slightly dangerous love of wine. Karl, an Austrian with a master’s in photography, ran marketing for a Hollywood cinema-camera house and co-founded the Cine Gear Expo. For thirty years the couple traveled the wine regions of Europe and the southern hemisphere together. In 2005 they began hunting for California land, and in 2012 they closed on a westside Paso Robles estate carrying vines older than their romance.

A love of wine, a legacy carried forward

Karl and Juliane were partners for some thirty years, building both the Cine Gear Expo and the winery together. Their winemaking grew out of decades of travel through Italy, Austria, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Australia and New Zealand, the slow education of two people who tasted everywhere before they planted anywhere.

Karl passed away in 2022, and Juliane carries the estate forward, opening the newly remodeled tasting room in May 2024. The hospitality is warm and a little rustic, with a small team and the winery dogs underfoot. The wine itself dates back to the 2012 founding, which means the bottles you taste today are the fruit of the long, patient program the couple set in motion together.

The estate’s Cabernet vines were planted in the 1970s by Gary Eberle, the man widely called the godfather of Paso Robles.

Eberle’s old vines on a limestone slope

The estate runs to twenty-two acres of sloping hillside on Vineyard Drive in the Adelaida District, fourteen of them old-vine Cabernet Sauvignon. Those vines were planted in the 1970s by Gary Eberle, the UC Davis-trained pioneer whose Cabernet was the first wine to carry the Paso Robles name on its label and who is rightly called the godfather of the region. To farm vines from that founding generation is to farm a piece of Paso history.

The site is classic west-side terroir, calcareous limestone soils on a hillside overlooking a valley, roughly twenty miles from the Pacific. Pacific air through the Templeton Gap drives the dramatic day-to-night temperature swing the Adelaida District is known for, warm afternoons and cold nights that build flavor in the grapes while holding their acidity. It is the kind of ground Eberle chose precisely because it could grow world-class Cabernet.

Patience in barrel, depth in the glass

The house philosophy is patience. Every red spends a minimum of three years in barrel and another full year in bottle before release, an unusually long elevage that the winery says yields exceptional depth, roundness and mouthfeel, wines you can enjoy on release or cellar for a dozen years or more.

The specialty is estate Cabernet Sauvignon and Bordeaux-style blends. The flagship is Candere, Latin for to glow, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Verdot. There is a Reserve Cabernet as well, and across the years the estate has also bottled varieties including Zinfandel, Viognier, Albarino and Chardonnay, a nod to the couple’s wide-ranging palate. The wines are elegant rather than showy, deep without bludgeoning the senses, and the tasting room keeps a library of older vintages so you can taste what time in bottle actually does.

What to pour Grosso Kresser with

This is Cabernet country, and Cabernet wants protein and fat. Tannin binds to the protein and fat in red meat, so the estate’s structured, barrel-aged Cabernet and the Candere blend taste softer and more harmonious the moment they meet red-oak-grilled tri-tip, the local Paso ritual, or a fat-marbled ribeye. The long barrel aging already rounds the tannin, and a charred steak rounds it further.

Reach for lamb with rosemary, short ribs, or aged hard cheeses like an aged cheddar or Manchego, whose richness the wine’s tannin and acidity cut cleanly through. Because these reds carry real structure and depth, give them simply cooked, high-quality meat rather than fussy sauces that would compete. For a precise match to your menu, try our wine pairing generator.

Visiting Grosso Kresser Vineyard

The tasting room reopened in 2024, newly remodeled and perched on the hillside with panoramic views down the valley, and it is one of the quieter, more personal stops on the west side. You taste estate Cabernet and Bordeaux blends that have spent years in barrel and bottle, often poured alongside library selections that show how the wines age, with the winery dogs likely to greet you at the door. The estate even hosts traveling RVers through Harvest Hosts. Reservations can be made in advance and walk-ins are welcomed as seating allows, so it is best to confirm current hours before you visit. To map out the surrounding wineries, see our Paso Robles guide.

Grosso Kresser Vineyard: common questions