Steve Glossner started his Paso Robles career at Justin in 1994, then moved through Adelaida and Halter Ranch before deciding he wanted to make the one wine almost nobody on the Central Coast took seriously. In 2005 he and his wife Lola launched PasoPort, a label built entirely around Portuguese grapes and the fortified, Port-style dessert wines they yield. Today the operation runs three ways: PasoPort for the sweet stuff, Per Caso for still wines, and Pendray’s Distillery, where a 500-liter German pot still turns out the brandy that fortifies it all.

The winemaker who bet on Port

By the time Steve Glossner founded PasoPort in 2005, he had already spent more than a decade learning Paso Robles from the inside. He arrived at Justin in 1994, when the region was still defining itself, and went on to make wine at Adelaida Cellars and Halter Ranch, two estates that helped set the bar for the west side. That resume could have pointed him toward another big Cabernet or Rhone program. Instead, working alongside his wife Lola, he chose Port.

The choice was contrarian on purpose. Fortified dessert wine is harder to sell, slower to make, and demands grapes that few growers were planting. Glossner committed anyway, sourcing Portuguese varieties and building a house style that treats Port as a serious wine rather than a holiday afterthought. Over time the single brand grew into three. PasoPort handles the fortified bottlings, Per Caso covers small-lot still wines, and in 2013 the couple added Pendray’s Distillery so they could make their own brandy rather than buy it. The family has effectively built a vertically integrated grape-to-glass operation around a category most California wineries ignore.

A label built around the one wine almost nobody on the Central Coast took seriously.

Tin City and the Portuguese palette

PasoPort pours in Tin City, the cluster of metal warehouses on the south end of Paso Robles that has become the region’s most concentrated home for small, hands-on producers. It is an unglamorous setting by design: roll-up doors, working barrel rooms, and winemakers who are usually somewhere on the property. The format suits a label whose whole appeal is craft over polish.

The grapes behind the wines are classic Douro stock, the same varieties that built Portugal’s Port trade. PasoPort works with Touriga Nacional for structure and floral lift, Tinto Cao for backbone, and Souzao for deep color and acidity. Grown in Paso Robles, these varieties get the region’s signature engine: hot, sun-drenched days that build sugar and concentration, then sharp nighttime cooling that locks in acidity and aromatics. That big day-to-night swing, driven by marine air pushing through the Templeton Gap, is exactly what keeps a high-alcohol fortified wine from going flat or jammy. The acidity it preserves is what makes these Ports taste lifted rather than heavy.

The wines, from vintage Port to brandy

The PasoPort range spans the full fortified spectrum: vintage-style Ports built to age, ruby styles for fruit and immediacy, tawnies that trade primary fruit for oxidative notes of caramel and nut, white Ports, and single-variety bottlings. A late-bottled Violetta blends Souzao, Touriga Nacional, and Tinto Cao into a dark, structured wine, while an Iberian blend called Glenrose leans on Tinto Cao and Touriga Nacional. Expect flavors that run from black plum, fig, and dark chocolate in the younger reds to dried cherry, toffee, and roasted hazelnut as the tawnies mature. Every one of them is fortified with brandy distilled in-house on the German pot still.

Per Caso is the still-wine outlet, a place for Glossner to make small-lot blends and vineyard-designate bottlings without the fortification, including Rhone-leaning reds that draw on Syrah, Grenache, and Mourvedre. Pendray’s Distillery rounds out the trio with hand-crafted brandies, grappas, and fruit-infused liqueurs. Tasting across all three is the rare chance to follow a single grape from a still red, through a fortified Port, and into the spirit that binds them together.

What to pour PasoPort with

Fortified wine is one of the most rewarding things to pair, because its sweetness and structure give you room to play. The core rule of dessert pairing is to match sweetness: a wine should be at least as sweet as the dish, or the wine tastes thin and sour by comparison. A ruby or vintage PasoPort, with its dark fruit and firm tannin, is built for chocolate. The tannin binds to the fat and proteins in a rich flourless chocolate cake or a dense brownie, cleaning the palate so each bite tastes fresh. Blue cheese is the other classic move; the wine’s sweetness offsets the salt and funk of a Stilton or Roquefort while its acidity cuts the cream.

Tawny styles, with their nutty, caramelized character, are gorgeous with toasted almonds, salted caramel, or a simple wedge of aged Gouda. For the Per Caso still reds, treat them like any Paso red and lean into red-oak-grilled tri-tip, where the wine’s tannin balances the charred fat. To dial in a specific bottle and dish, try our wine pairing generator.

Visiting PasoPort

PasoPort and Per Caso share a tasting space in Tin City, an easy stop on the south side of Paso Robles where you can sample fortified Ports, still wines, and Pendray’s brandies in one sitting. Because the lineup is so unusual for California, it is worth treating a visit as a guided tour through a category most people only know from the holidays. Tin City clusters dozens of small producers within walking distance, so PasoPort pairs naturally with a longer afternoon of low-key, maker-driven tasting. If you are planning a broader trip, our Paso Robles guide maps out the districts, the drive times, and how to build a day around the west side.

PasoPort and Per Caso Cellars: common questions