The land Calcareous sits on is just 12 miles from the Pacific Ocean and enjoys the full benefits of Paso Robles’ unique westside climate. Richly calcareous soils, the regulating maritime influence of both the Templeton Gap and Salinas Valley fogs and steep hillside topography create a spectacular climate for growing wine grapes. Long, warm days during the growing season, followed by the cool nights, result in a massive diurnal temperature swing that is of utmost importance to producing perfectly balanced wines. The result is wines of uncommon character and unparalleled beauty.
Calcareous Vineyards is located on Peachy Canyon Road in the westside hills of Paso Robles, California. Established in 2000, Calcareous Vineyard is a 442 acre estate sitting about 4 miles west of the Paso Robles city limits.
The expanse of this land offers many opportunities for optimal vineyard sites and varietal selections. The benefit of the westside of Paso Robles is the terrain allows for the production of wide ranging varietals virtually side-by-side. The limestone soils were derived from the sea-life once covering these hills in pre-historic times; creating the foundation for a great vineyard. The hills emerged from the depths of the ocean by the colliding forces of geological plates and volcanic eruption; this has created varied microclimates throughout our Estate, due to the different exposures to sun, wind, and rain.
Our search for the perfect combination of land, climate and varietal selection brought us to this exact place within the Paso Robles AVA, and we believe it's utterly unique characteristics are what set our wines apart.
Planted in 1968, this vineyard consists of 9 Acres of Cabernet Sauvignon, 4 acres of Pinot Noir, and 2 acres of Chardonnay nestled amongst an oak forest. The Carver Vineyard is located in the York Mountain AVA, a separate region on the western edge of the Paso Robles AVA. The vineyard is located just 6 miles from the Pacific Ocean near the crest of the Santa Lucia mountain range. This extreme western local and high elevation makes it much cooler and has much deeper soils than our Paso Robles vineyards making it a perfect location for these cool climate loving varietals.
Due to being a separate AVA, the grapes from Carver are only used to produce single-varietal vineyard designate wines. This vineyard is truly one of the jewels of the area and we couldn’t be luckier to have it as part of our Estate.
All of the Zinfandel we use comes from Kate’s. It is located 1/2 mile south-east of the Calcareous Tasting room. In fact, you can see the top of it from our Bocce Ball court. It consists of 12 acres of Zinfandel planted in 1988. The rolling hill terrain creates vast differences in soil type, moisture and sun exposure throughout the 5 separate blocks. On one side is block 1 that sits in rich wet soil at the base of north facing slope covered in oaks. This allows for dry farming and yields around 4-tons to the acre and is used for our Twisted Paso Zin and Main Squeeze. To the other extreme is block 4 which sits on top of a rocky chalk outcropping facing directly south-west. This 1-ton to the acre section produces tiny berries of intense richness and structure and is mainly responsible for the flavors in our Estate Zinfandel.
