Curtis Hascall

Career Curtis Hascall’s work is built on two fixed points: Cal Poly State University, where he trained, and Paso Robles, where his cellar practice took shape. The line from one to the other is not dramatic; it is functional. Study gave him the habits winemaking requires — precision, patience, and attention to what the fruit is actually doing — and Shale Oak Winery became the place where that training was put to use. At Shale Oak Winery, Hascall’s 2010 appointment as winemaker marked the start of a long professional run in one region. That consistency matters in wine. It means repeated exposure to the same ground, the same growers, and the same seasonal variables, with each vintage asking for a fresh read rather than a fixed formula.

Coming Up

Training at Cal Poly State University gave Curtis Hascall a practical base for winemaking: work grounded in precision and in the specifics of place. In 2010, Hascall moved into the winemaker role at Shale Oak Winery, bringing that foundation into daily production and beginning the stretch of work that would define his career.

Where They Are Now

Since 2010, Hascall has remained winemaker at Shale Oak Winery in Paso Robles. That continuity gives the work a clear frame. One winery. One region. One extended engagement with fruit from Paso Robles and San Luis Obispo County. Over time, that kind of continuity becomes a method of its own: reading the same landscape across different seasons and making decisions that track the vintage rather than override it. “We grow and buy grapes in an area that produces amazing, high-quality fruit and that allows me to make some really nice wines.” The line is plainspoken, and that is the point. It places the work where it belongs: with growers, with fruit quality, and with the act of turning what arrives in the cellar into finished wine. The craft is in the translation. Paso Robles is also the setting Hascall names with particular attachment. That remark reads as position, not sentimentality: a maker describing the practical and social context of the job, and the value of working in a place that others come to visit. His tasting philosophy is similarly direct. “What a winemaker is actually doing when they taste is asking a series of questions.” For a winemaker associated with Petite Verdot, that approach fits the work: taste, assess, decide, and return to the glass with the next question in hand. It is a process built on repetition, not spectacle.

Signature

Curtis's signature wines include 2020 Syrah.

In Their Words “We grow and buy grapes in an area that produces amazing, high-quality fruit and that allows me to make some really nice wines.”

Honors

The recognition available in his biography is professional continuity itself: winemaker at Shale Oak Winery from 2010 to the present, with a defined specialty in Petite Verdot and a career centered in Paso Robles.