Nix Cellars is one of the best arguments in Paso Robles that passion plus a great palate can outrun a resume. Chris Haisma spent more than twenty years in restaurants, sharpening his taste one bottle at a time, then dove headfirst into making wine with no formal winemaking background at all. His first release landed at the end of 2022. By his second, critics like James Suckling, Jeb Dunnuck and Vinous were handing the wines scores in the low-to-mid nineties. The Tin City tasting room, open since late 2024, runs a turntable and a laid-back vibe, but the wines in the glass are dead serious.

A restaurateur learns to make wine

Chris Haisma and his wife Nicole are familiar faces in the Paso Robles food world, owners of the In Bloom restaurant at the Paso Market Walk. Chris spent over two decades in the restaurant industry, which is a long, hands-on education in taste, sharpening his palate across thousands of wines until he understood exactly what he liked and why. The natural next step, for someone that obsessed, was to try making it himself.

So he did, with no prior winemaking experience, leaning on a crucial mentor: Don Burns of Turtle Rock, who took Chris under his wing and gave him space to make his wines at his facility. Nix Cellars had its first release toward the end of 2022, and the trajectory since has been startling. In only its second release the wines drew scores of 92 to 96 points from some of the most respected critics in the business. The Tin City tasting room opened toward the end of 2024, giving the young label a permanent home and a place to share the wines directly.

By only its second release, Nix had earned 92 to 96 point scores from James Suckling, Jeb Dunnuck and Vinous, remarkable for a winemaker who started with no formal training.

Tin City, varietal purity, sense of place

Nix pours in Tin City, the district of metal buildings just south of downtown Paso Robles that has become the regions hub for ambitious small producers. The room on Blue Rock Road is lively, welcoming and anything but traditional, with a turntable spinning vinyl and a relaxed, come-as-you-are feel that fits the founder restaurant background. It is a place built for hospitality, which makes sense given where Chris came from.

The winemaking philosophy is to honor both varietal purity and a sense of place, letting each grape taste like itself and like where it grew. Nix sources across the Central Coast and works in three classic European idioms at once: Bordeaux and Rhone for the reds, the Loire for the whites. That range is unusual for such a young label, and pulling it off at a high level so quickly is exactly why the wines have drawn attention well beyond Paso.

The wines: Bordeaux, Rhone and the Loire

Nix makes Bordeaux variety reds, think Cabernet Sauvignon and its blending partners, with structure and dark fruit, alongside Rhone variety reds like Syrah and Grenache that lean savory and spicy. On the white side, the wines are Loire-inspired, which points to crisp, mineral, high-acid whites in the mold of Sancerre and Vouvray rather than rich, oaky styles.

What ties it together is that pursuit of varietal purity: wines that taste clearly of their grape and their vineyard, made with restraint rather than heavy manipulation. The critical scores confirm the wines deliver on the ambition. For a label only a few years into its life, the consistency across three very different European traditions is genuinely impressive, and tasting through them in the Tin City room is the best way to see the range.

What to pour it with

The Bordeaux reds want red meat. Their firm tannin binds to protein and fat, so a Cabernet or a red blend tastes rounder against a ribeye, a rack of lamb or an aged hard cheese while cutting the richness of the plate. A char from the grill deepens the savory notes in the wine. The Rhone reds love grilled lamb, sausage and herb-driven, peppery dishes, the flavors of their southern French home.

The Loire-inspired whites are where it gets fun. A crisp, high-acid white slices through cream, butter and fried food, so grilled fish, oysters, goat cheese and a lemony roast chicken all come alive next to them, the acid resetting your palate for the next bite. Sauvignon Blanc and goat cheese in particular share a green, grassy character that reads as one flavor. Match the weight of the wine to the weight of the plate and this lineup can carry a whole meal.

Nix Cellars: common questions