MCV Wines began with a knee injury and four tons of Petite Sirah. Matt Villard was working a Napa harvest, pre-med background and a winemaking degree behind him, when he hurt his knee and headed back down to the Central Coast. He started making calls, looking for work or grapes, and found a production facility and four tons of the region best Petite Sirah. That was the start. He named the label MCV for his own initials, Matthew Christopher Villard, and a decade and a half later it stands as one of the warmest, most personal stops in Tin City, built on family, tradition and one very good grape.

From the family table to UC Davis

Matt Villard grew up in Visalia, in California Central Valley, and discovered his passion for wine the most natural way possible, around the family dinner table. A proud third-generation Mexican-American, he built MCV on the foundations that mattered most to him: family and tradition. He went to college pre-med, then took an Intro to Winemaking course on a whim and was immediately hooked by the idea that he could actually make this thing he loved.

He studied at UC Davis, one of the great winemaking schools, and interned at prestigious wineries including Quintessa in Napa and JUSTIN here in Paso Robles, learning from the best in both regions. When the Napa harvest and the knee injury sent him south, he and his wife Teresa seized the moment and launched MCV in 2011, buying some of the highest-quality Petite Sirah in the Paso Robles AVA. The winery has been a family project from day one, and you feel that the moment you walk in.

The name is his initials, Matthew Christopher Villard, and the wines feel exactly that personal, the work of one family betting on a single grape and getting it right.

Tin City and the case for Petite Sirah

MCV pours in Tin City, the district of metal buildings just south of downtown Paso Robles that has become home to the regions most independent producers. The tasting room sits on Ruth Way in the Tin City Annex and doubles as a full production winery, so when you taste here you are standing where the wine is made, often with Matt himself nearby. It is the kind of working, unpretentious space where a barrel tasting with the winemaker is part of the offer.

The grape that defines MCV is Petite Sirah, and Paso Robles is one of the best places on earth to grow it. The warm days build the deep color and dense, dark fruit the variety is known for, while the cold nights, a daily swing that can top thirty degrees, preserve the acidity and structure that keep the wine from turning flat. The result is Petite Sirah that is smooth, bold and elegant, yet powerful and built to age, exactly the balance Villard set out to capture.

The wines: Petite Sirah and the 1105 blend

Petite Sirah is the heart and soul of MCV, made in a style that aims for power without clumsiness: inky and full-bodied, with blackberry and plum, a savory pepper edge and firm, age-worthy tannin, but polished enough to drink with pleasure now. Villard makes both a flagship and reserve expressions, and tasting them is the clearest argument for why this grape belongs in Paso.

The other signature is 1105, an ultra-premium red blend that changes every vintage to showcase the best of that year harvest, a winemaker chance to assemble the strongest parts into a single statement wine. Between the focused Petite Sirahs and the evolving 1105, MCV offers a tight, confident lineup that rewards a careful tasting and reflects a winemaker who knows exactly what he wants in the glass.

What to pour it with

Petite Sirah is a wine for big, fatty, charred food, and the reason is chemistry. Its substantial tannins bind to protein and fat, so a peppered ribeye, braised short ribs, carne asada or anything off a smoky grill makes the wine taste rounder and softer while the wine cuts the richness of the meat. The grilled char even echoes the savory, peppery side of the wine, a pairing that works on two levels at once.

Given Villard heritage, the wine is a natural with Mexican cooking that has weight and spice: barbacoa, mole, grilled meats with chile and smoke. Hard aged cheeses and cured meats are the easy tasting-room match, since salt rounds the tannin and lifts the fruit. The one place Petite Sirah struggles is with delicate white fish, where there is no fat or protein for the tannin to grab and the wine turns bitter, so keep this red with the hearty plates.

MCV Wines: common questions