Michael Stiekema calls himself a one-man army, and he means it. He grows nothing he does not chase, designs his own labels, and pours his own wines. A South African who came to Paso Robles in 2018 after studying viticulture and enology, he arrived hungry for serious winemaking and set out to make Rhone blends from the rocky west side of town. He met his wife Megan here, started a family, and built a tiny brand that began with 75 cases in 2021. Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre are, in his words, his pride and joy.

One man, one obsession

Michael Stiekema fell into wine, by his own telling, more than a decade ago while searching for a sense of purpose. The search led him out of South Africa and eventually to Paso Robles in 2018, fresh from formal study in viticulture and enology and looking for high-caliber fruit to test himself against. He found it on the west side, and he never let go of the idea of doing the whole thing himself.

Stiekema is genuinely a solo operation. He sources the grapes, makes the wine, designs the labels, builds the website, and pours for guests personally. His wife Megan and their young family are part of the story he tells, a legacy in its early chapters. The scale is deliberately small, the kind of garagiste production where a single person can know every lot. The 2021 debut was 75 cases, growing to 140 in 2022 and a planned 175 in 2023, every bottle passing through one set of hands.

Stiekema’s first commercial vintage was just 75 cases, the kind of garagiste scale where one person can touch every barrel.

Strictly the west side

Stiekema draws his fruit strictly from the western half of Paso Robles, with a focus on the Adelaida District, the high, cool, limestone-laced country at the top of the appellation. The 2021 GSM came from three different vineyards in the Adelaida District, and he has bottled a single-vineyard Mourvedre from the well-regarded Alta Colina Vineyard, a name serious Paso drinkers know.

The Adelaida District is Paso at its most extreme: shallow calcareous bedrock on steep Santa Lucia slopes running roughly 900 to 2,200 feet, cooled by air funneling through the Templeton Gap. That setting gives one of the biggest day-to-night temperature swings in California, so Rhone grapes ripen in the heat of the day but hold onto acid and perfume through the cold nights. For Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre, that balance between ripeness and freshness is exactly the point, and it is why Stiekema chases this fruit and nothing easier.

The wines in the glass

GSM is the heart of the project. The 2021 G-S-M was an even split of Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre, and a Wine Enthusiast review found pomegranate, rose petal and pepper on the nose, with warm pastry crust, vanilla and nutmeg flavors wrapped around a red-plum core. The 2022 Signature Blend leaned harder on Mourvedre for structure and earth, with Grenache lifting red fruit and Syrah adding black pepper and a darker, savory edge.

The single-vineyard Alta Colina Mourvedre shows what one site can do on its own: a meatier, more brooding wine, all leather, dried herb and dark berry. Stiekema ages in French oak, which he prefers for the way it integrates quietly with Rhone fruit rather than overpowering it, and he leans toward balance over sheer power. Beyond the core trio he has worked with Petite Sirah and Cabernet Franc, but it is the Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre that carry the name.

What to pour Stiekema with

A GSM like this lives in the middle of the table, bright with acid and red fruit but with enough Mourvedre grip to handle real food. The acidity is the key tool: it cuts through richness, so the wine refreshes the palate against a fatty lamb shoulder, sausages, or a duck leg confit. The peppery Syrah note loves anything off a live fire, including local red-oak-grilled tri-tip with a charred crust.

Nod to Stiekema’s roots and pour it with biltong, the South African air-dried beef he uses in his tastings, where the wine’s red fruit and savory edge meet the cured meat head-on. The more Mourvedre-driven bottlings, with their firmer tannin, do well with charred or fatty cuts, since that tannin binds to protein and fat and softens against them. Go easy on heavy heat, because chili amplifies the sensation of alcohol. To dial in a match for your own menu, try our wine pairing generator.

Visiting Stiekema

Stiekema is a downtown Paso Robles experience rather than a country estate, with Michael himself pouring small-lot wines for guests, so check the current tasting location and book ahead before you visit, since a one-person, shared-space operation can change its schedule and venue. Expect a personal walk through the lineup, often with a South African touch like biltong on the table. To plan the rest of a Paso day around it, including the west-side wineries whose fruit fills these bottles, see our Paso Robles guide.

Stiekema Wine Company: common questions