Carl and Beth McCasland opened the Penman Springs tasting room in 2000, back when Paso Robles counted just 40 or 45 wineries in the whole region. They refer to their 40-plus acres as a garden, and they farm it like one, an estate vineyard tended row by row in the rolling hills east of town, with picnic tables and long views for anyone who makes the drive out.

A garden, not a factory

Carl and Beth McCasland came to Paso Robles in its earlier days and opened the Penman Springs tasting room in 2000, when the region was home to only 40 to 45 wineries rather than the hundreds it has today. They saw their land not as a factory but as a garden, and they farmed it that way.

Carl chose the varietals he believed would thrive on the property, installed a range of trellis systems, and trained his vines using the canopy-management techniques of Dr. Richard Smart, whose book Sunlight into Wine became a grower’s bible. He put sustainable farming practices in place from the start. The result is a small, careful, family-owned estate that has quietly outlasted the wine boom around it, doing the same thing well for more than two decades.

They opened in 2000, when Paso Robles had barely forty wineries, and farmed their forty acres like a garden.

The Geneseo District ground

Penman Springs farms more than 40 acres in the rolling hills east of Paso Robles, in the warm Geneseo District. The ground here is the gravelly, granite-laced terrace soil typical of the east side, free-draining and well suited to vines that have to work for their water. The climate is a warm Region III to IV, with the wide day-to-night temperature swing that defines this side of town.

That swing is what lets the estate ripen Bordeaux and Rhone grapes fully in the afternoons while holding their acidity through cool nights, so the wines come in ripe but balanced. Careful canopy work, the kind Carl built the vineyard around, manages exactly how much sun each cluster sees, which is how a small grower coaxes even ripening and clean flavors out of a warm site.

The wines

Penman Springs is an estate-grown, artisan winery, and the lineup reflects what Carl planted: Muscat Blanc among the whites, and Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Petite Sirah, and Petit Verdot among the reds, hand-crafted into varietal bottlings, blends, and dessert wines. Petite Sirah and Petit Verdot, both deep, structured grapes, give the reds real backbone.

The wines are made in small lots from estate fruit, which keeps them personal and consistent. Expect ripe, warm-climate reds with the structure those darker varieties provide, an aromatic Muscat for the lighter side, and the occasional dessert wine that shows off what a warm Paso vineyard can do when the fruit is left to hang.

What to pour it with

Petite Sirah is the showpiece here, and it is a wine that demands a serious plate. Inky, tannic, and full, it wants fatty, flavorful meat: braised short ribs, a peppered tri-tip, barbecue brisket. The wine’s heavy tannins bind to all that protein and fat and soften, while the meat tastes cleaner, a textbook case of why big reds and rich meat belong together.

The estate Cabernet and Petit Verdot want red meat too, a grilled steak or a lamb shank, while the Syrah leans savory toward a charred, herb-rubbed lamb chop in a congruent, pepper-on-pepper match. Save the aromatic Muscat Blanc for the patio or the dessert course, matching its sweetness to fresh fruit or a not-too-sweet tart so the wine does not fall flat. Keep the tannic reds off delicate fish, which gives the tannins nothing to grab.

Penman Springs Vineyard: common questions