Edgar Torres named a Cabernet Franc after a song on his son Evan’s playlist, Donavon Frankenreiter’s Call Me Papa, and that tells you almost everything about Songs. It is the ultra-premium label from Torres, the Paso Robles vintner behind Bodega de Edgar, and every wine on it is a single varietal made in lots of four barrels at most. Each one is named for a song that means something to him, often pulled from his son’s playlist. The wines are French in style and tiny in volume, made to spotlight one grape and one vineyard at a time.

A winemaker, his son, and a playlist

Edgar Torres started where a lot of dreams start, with a small bet. In 2007 he scraped together enough to buy four barrels of Garnacha and made wine his own way, which became Bodega de Edgar. Years later, with that brand established, he carved out a separate, more personal project. Songs is the result: an ultra-premium label where every release is a single varietal made in no more than four barrels, the same tiny scale he began with.

What sets it apart is the naming. Each Songs wine takes its name from a song that matters to Torres, and many come straight off his son Evan’s playlist. The Cabernet Franc is called Call Me Papa, after the Donavon Frankenreiter track. Another nods to California by The Lagoons. The idea, in Torres’s own framing, is to chase the grapes and vineyards he believes can touch your soul, and to tie each one to a song that already does. It is a deeply personal project dressed up as a wine label.

Single-varietal wines in four-barrel lots, each one named for a song off his son’s playlist.

Paso Robles fruit, French restraint

Songs is built on Paso Robles fruit, and the style leans French: single varietals made with restraint, meant to show the grape rather than overpower it. That restraint is a choice. Paso can make enormous, jammy wines, and plenty of west-side ground delivers exactly that. Torres aims the other way, picking specific lots and vinifying them clean and varietally pure so the place and the grape speak without a lot of cellar noise.

The Paso terroir does the rest. Warm days build ripeness and the cool marine air pulled through the Templeton Gap drops the temperature hard at night, locking in acidity. That big day-to-night swing is what lets a French-style wine stay fresh in a warm region. On calcareous, limestone-influenced ground, the wines pick up a fine, structured backbone. Working in four-barrel lots, Torres can be picky about which blocks make the cut, which is the whole advantage of staying small.

One grape, one song, at a time

Because the lots are so small, the Songs lineup rotates and stays limited, so what is open on a given day depends on the vintage and what has sold through. The constant is the format: single varietals, each poured as a clear statement of one grape. The Cabernet Franc, the Call Me Papa bottling, is the kind of wine that shows the variety’s herbal, red-fruited side rather than burying it in oak, which is what a four-barrel scale lets you do.

Be honest about what this is. These are not wines made by the pallet. Four barrels is roughly a hundred cases at most per release, which means bottles are genuinely scarce and meant to be savored rather than stockpiled. That scarcity is the point. The trade-off for tiny production is intensity and focus, a wine that tastes like one person’s specific, stubborn vision rather than a committee’s. If you want to understand a single Paso grape on its own terms, this is a rare way to do it.

What to pour Songs by Bodega de Edgar with

Pair to the grape in the glass, since the label is single-varietal by design. Cabernet Franc like the Call Me Papa bottling has moderate tannin and a savory, herbal streak, so it loves food with green and earthy notes: roast chicken with herbs, grilled vegetables, lamb, or a dish with rosemary and thyme. Its tannin binds to a little fat without overwhelming, and its acidity keeps the plate fresh, which makes it one of the more food-flexible reds you can pour.

For any of the bigger reds in the range, lean on the chemistry: tannin binds to protein and fat, so reach for grilled or braised meat, and acidity cuts richness, so the wines handle a fatty cut without going flat. Avoid drowning these focused, restrained wines under a heavy, sugary sauce, since matching a dry wine to a sweet dish makes the wine taste thin and sour. Because the lineup shifts with each tiny release, the simplest move is to tell our wine pairing generator the exact varietal you have open and let it match the plate.

Visiting Songs by Bodega de Edgar

Songs is the small, personal side of Edgar Torres’s Paso Robles operation, so a visit is less about a big crush pad and more about tasting rare, single-barrel-lot wines poured by the people who made them. Go in expecting limited pours and a focused lineup rather than a sprawling list, and treat the scarcity as part of the experience: what you taste may not be available again. Tasting is by reservation at boutique Paso rooms like this, so book ahead, and confirm the day’s offerings since the four-barrel format means the list changes often. For where Songs fits into a wider Paso itinerary and how to pace a day among the west-side rooms, our Paso Robles guide is the place to start.

Songs by Bodega de Edgar: common questions