Drive up Santa Rosa Creek Road out of Cambria and the world narrows to oak hills, an old dairy barn, and rows of vines less than three miles from the ocean. This is the Stolo estate, a genuine working-ranch-turned-winery that is now home to the Parr Collective, the tasting project of celebrated sommelier and winemaker Rajat Parr.

From family ranch to Parr Collective

Don and Charlene Stolo bought the fifty-three-acre property east of Cambria in 2002, found a vineyard already planted in 1998, and harvested their first vintage in 2004 as Stolo Family Vineyards, with help from their three children and neighbors. Their daughter Maria Stolo Bennetti left a career as a wine broker to become general manager in 2008, and the family built a reputation for cold-coast estate wine.

In 2023 the property was purchased by Rajat Parr, the three-time James Beard Award-winning sommelier and the founding winemaker behind Evening Land, Sandhi, and Domaine de la Cote, who had begun consulting at Stolo in 2021. The tasting lounge now operates as the Parr Collective at Stolo, pouring the Stolo wines alongside Parr other labels.

The farmhouse, dairy barn, and ranch quarters date to the late 1800s; the estate vineyard was planted in 1998.

Less than three miles from the sea

The estate sits about a mile and a half up Santa Rosa Creek Road from downtown Cambria, less than three miles from the Pacific, which makes it one of the truly extreme cold-coast sites on the SLO Coast. Fog settles into the creek valley and the ocean air keeps the vineyard cool right through the growing season, so the grapes ripen slowly and keep a bright line of acidity.

The setting is half the experience. The old farmhouse, the dairy barn, and the ranch-hand quarters at the base of the vineyard all date to the late 1800s, a reminder that this was a working coastal ranch long before it grew grapes. The estate vineyard itself went in back in 1998.

Cold-coast estate wines

The estate is planted to Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Syrah, the trio that thrives in this kind of cold, foggy ground, along with Sauvignon Blanc and a dry Gewurztraminer. The wines are taut and energetic, shaped by a site that is closer to the ocean than almost anywhere else growing these grapes.

Under the Parr Collective, the tasting lounge pours the Stolo wines next to Parr other projects, so a visit is a chance to taste across a sommelier idea of cool-climate California. It remains a small, reservation-led, out-of-the-way experience, which is exactly the appeal.

What to pour it with

Cold-coast Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc are made for the local catch. Pour the Chardonnay with crab or grilled halibut, the acidity cutting the butter, and the Sauvignon Blanc with oysters or a goat-cheese salad, where the wine and the cheese share the same green, grassy notes. The dry Gewurztraminer is the one for a spicy noodle dish, its fruit and lower alcohol cooling the chile heat.

The estate Pinot Noir wants salmon, duck, or mushrooms, meeting the dish on shared savory notes, while the cool-climate Syrah, peppery rather than jammy, is lovely with lamb or a peppered steak off the grill. With Cambria so close, a plate of fresh seafood next to the whites is the obvious move.

Stolo Vineyards: common questions