About ten miles inland from the Pacific, high in the Willow Creek District of Paso Robles, a father and son are trying to grow wine grapes that have never been touched by diesel or gas exhaust. Paul Lopez, known to everyone as P-Lo, spent thirty-five years as a Paso Robles grocer before fourteen vintages in cellars at Villa Creek, Alta Colina and now Denner, where he is cellar master. His son Brian left a career in software to manage the family vineyard. In 2024 they launched Lopai Cellars on an estate the family’s roots in the area reach back generations to honor.

A grocer, a coder, and six generations of roots

Lopai Cellars is one of the newest names on the Paso Robles west side and one of the most deeply rooted. The Lopez family has been in San Luis Obispo County since the 1870s, and Brian Lopez represents the sixth generation of the family on the Central Coast. The wine project itself, though, only launched in 2024, the joint work of a father and son who came to it from opposite directions.

Paul Lopez, universally called P-Lo, was a popular Paso Robles grocer for thirty-five years before he ever made wine commercially. He has since logged fourteen vintages, with stints at Villa Creek and Alta Colina, and serves as cellar master at the highly regarded Denner Vineyards. His son Brian built a career in software and technology before turning all of it toward farming, becoming the estate’s full-time vineyard manager. The combination, an old-school cellar hand and a systems-minded engineer, defines how Lopai is built.

The goal is an estate that can run off-grid indefinitely, on grapes that have never been coated in diesel and gas exhaust.

An off-grid estate in the Willow Creek District

The Lopai estate sits in the Willow Creek District, the cool, high, limestone heart of the Paso Robles west side, roughly ten miles from the Pacific. Willow Creek climbs steep slopes of calcareous Monterey-Formation loam and clay over bedrock, a Region II climate where the ocean’s reach keeps the days mild and the nights cold. The site runs ten to fifteen degrees cooler than downtown Paso, with a marked diurnal swing and a mosaic of micro-climates across its elevation, exactly the kind of slow-ripening, acid-preserving terroir that makes the west side prized.

What sets Lopai apart is how it is farmed. Brian uses his technology background to minimize water and push the estate toward a self-sustaining organic ecosystem that could run off-grid indefinitely while protecting the soil for future generations. The family has invested in renewable energy and storage and is shifting from gas, diesel and propane machinery to electric power, with the explicit aim of growing grapes that have never been coated by exhaust. It is a working farm built around soil health first.

What Lopai wine actually tastes like

Lopai makes wine in very small lots, and the estate’s cool, high Willow Creek site shows in the glass as freshness and tension rather than weight for its own sake. The reds run to Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Mourvedre, Petite Sirah and Grenache, picked from a vineyard that ripens slowly under the marine influence. Expect dark, structured wines with real lift: cassis and blackberry on the Cabernet with a graphite, limestone edge; smoke, pepper and dark plum on the Syrah; a deep, brooding density from the Petite Sirah.

Because the fruit comes from a cold, calcareous slope ten miles off the coast, the wines hold their acidity even at full ripeness, which keeps them lively rather than jammy. These are early days for a 2024 project, so the lineup will evolve, but the house intent is clear: site-driven, structured west-side reds farmed as cleanly as the land allows. The honesty of the farming carries into the glass.

What to pour Lopai with

The estate Cabernet and Petite Sirah are tannic, structured reds, and tannin is happiest against protein and fat. Pour them with red-oak-grilled tri-tip, a hard Paso tradition, or with a dry-aged ribeye: the meat’s fat and protein bind the tannins and soften them on the palate, while the wine’s cool-climate acidity cuts through the richness so each bite resets. Lamb works just as well, its gentle gaminess meeting the wines’ dark, savory core.

Match the Syrah and Grenache to slightly lighter fare, braised short ribs, mushroom dishes, or herb-roasted pork, where their brighter acidity lifts the food. A word on spice: alcohol amplifies chile heat, so if you want to pour these structured reds with something bold, keep the spice smoky rather than scorching, and let char and umami do the work instead. When you want a precise match for a particular dish, the wine pairing generator will point you to one fast.

Visiting Lopai Cellars

As a small, brand-new estate in the Willow Creek District, Lopai offers something increasingly rare: the chance to taste hyper-limited wines with the people who grew and made them, on a working off-grid farm in one of the prettiest, coolest corners of west Paso. Because it is a young and tiny operation, visits run by reservation, and you should confirm current availability and hours directly before planning your trip rather than assuming a walk-in. It pairs naturally with a wider day exploring the limestone west side; for context on how the Willow Creek District fits into the region and how to build an itinerary around it, see our Paso Robles guide.

Lopai Cellars: common questions