Wine, a work in progress

"Our 41,000 individual grapevines are waking up from winter hibernation right now. After big rains and some unexpected warm stretches, the last couple weeks were a sprint to finish pruning before budbreak. New green growth on these vines means we’re officially in the 2026 growing season."

- Maggie Tillman & the Alta Colina team, Alta Colina Winery, 3/18/26

"I spent some time out in our Estate vineyards recently, walking the rows with our vineyard team and taking in one of the most important parts of the season: Pruning

It’s late winter, and while the vines still look quiet, this is where so much of the vintage begins. Pruning helps the vine focus its energy, rather than growing wild and overproducing. By cutting the vine back now, we’re helping control yield, encourage even ripening, and support healthy growth as the season unfolds.

Sadie Drury, our Vineyard Manager (if you haven't met her, she’s not only the coolest but wicked smart), leads the efforts, and it’s incredible to watch her and the rest of the vineyard crew.

It’s a good reminder that great wine truly starts long before harvest. Even in this quieter season, there’s meaningful work happening in the vineyard every day, setting the stage for what we hope will be a strong vintage ahead."

Warmly,

- Melissa Clubb, Brand Manager/Third Generation Family Member, L'Ecole Nº 41, 2/6/26

"Bottling day is one of those days we don’t talk about much, but everything depends on it.

Last week, we bottled our 2025 white wines and rosé. And once the last bottle was filled, corked, labeled, packed, and stacked, the entire winery collectively exhaled.

Bottling is different from almost every other job in winemaking. In the vineyard, there’s always another pass, another decision, another chance to respond to what the vines are doing. In the cellar, we can taste, adjust, blend, and wait. Bottling day offers none of that. Once the wine goes into bottle, it’s sealed. No tweaking. No correcting. No second chances.

Grape growing and winemaking are about 99 percent fun. It’s real work, but it’s the kind you choose because you love it. That’s what makes bottling day different. It’s one of the few days that truly feels like work because it carries a very particular kind of stress. In more than 20 years at Alta Colina, I’ve always said there’s very little stress here, with one exception: bottling day.

For large wineries, bottling happens on permanent lines that run day in and day out. That’s a different scale entirely. For small producers like us, and for most of Paso Robles, bottling relies on mobile bottling lines that come in for a day or two and then move on. We bottle twice, maybe a third day a year. There’s no in-house crew running a line every day. When bottling day arrives, everything has to be ready, because there’s no easy way to stop, reset, or come back tomorrow.

It’s long. It’s loud. It’s repetitive. There’s a lot of standing in one place, listening to the constant clink of glass for eight, ten, sometimes twelve hours. It’s not glamorous work. The line doesn’t stop. You repeat the same motion again and again. You feel it in your body for days afterward.

But it’s also exciting, because this is the moment the wine becomes itself. This is the moment the wine goes from being ours to being yours."

- Bob & the Alta Colina team, Alta Colina Winery, 1/27/26