Hunt Cellars

Small lots from the hill

David Hunt keeps the house style close to the finished glass, working as winemaker at Hunt Cellars in Paso Robles on Highway 46 West. At the bench and in the cellar, his name is tied to continuity: he worked here first as winemaker, then carried the place forward as owner, keeping the same label, the same room, and the same emphasis on wines built to stay in memory. The estate sits on a mountain-top route through the Paso Robles AVA, with coastal-road views and a tasting room scaled for a quiet conversation rather than a crowd. Hunt is also a blind winemaker, a fact that belongs to the discipline of the work rather than to sentiment. The house identity gathers around red wine, fortified bottles, and music-threaded names. David Hunt has attached that identity to Cabovation, Cloud 9, Hilltop Serenade, Que Sirah Sirah, and Let it Be, bottles that mark the range most closely associated with Hunt Cellars. The restaurant world has its pass; here the equivalent is the long memory of a cellar, where a house repeats its preferences until they become legible.

Reds, ports, and the named bottle

The program is small production, with Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, Zinfandel, Petite Sirah, and Barbera carrying the red side of the house. The focus stays on still reds and fortified wines, with barrel tasting part of the way the place lets drinkers meet the work before it is settled into its final form. Recognition has followed particular bottles, not a vague reputation. Food and Beverage World named Hunt Cellars 2012 “Rhapsody in Red” Blend its California “Other” Red Bordeaux of the Year in 2016, the 2014 “Imagination” Pinot Noir its California Pinot Noir of the Year in 2016, and the 2012 “Thriller” Blend its California “Other” Red Wine of the Year in 2016. Best of California Wines also named the 2011 “Cabovation” Best California Cabernet in 2015 and the 2011 “Red Velvet” Best California Bordeaux Blend in 2015. Awards do not make the wine, but they do fix the bottles in time.

The tasting room and the player piano

The room at Hunt Cellars works at an intimate register: warm hospitality, an educational pour, live music at times, and a player piano that suits the names on the labels. It is a cozy tasting room rather than a formal salon, rustic in its materials and quiet enough for the person across the counter to explain a bottle without raising their voice. Outside, Highway 46 West gives the estate its line of sight, mountain-top vineyard, scenic coastal route, and the dry brightness of Paso Robles around the vines. Inside, the pace belongs to the glass. A barrel sample can slow the conversation; a pour of an older red can move it toward structure, fruit, and the way time has treated the wine. The close work here remains Hunt’s, held in the cellar and in the names he keeps returning to, especially Cabovation.