After more than two decades working out of a custom crush facility in Santa Maria, Paul has recently had to move wineries.

“We were given only five months to get out of our old facility,” says Paul. We had been there for 21 years! The previous owner passed away, and they sold the building, so we had to act quickly. In one way, we lost the place that served us well for 21 years, but in the other, we found a fabulous new space on Tepusquet Road. The facility was built by Mondavi.”

Paul’s operation is as hands-on as it gets.

“I have just seven people working with me,” he informs me. “The way we run this winery is a European mom-and-pop operation. We even sit and have lunch together. That’s how it is. I must work with people I trust. I need to be able to see eye to eye with my growers. If I can’t, then I can’t work with them.”

Early in Paul’s life, he wanted to be a chef. The art of cooking resonates in everything he does.

“It’s true,” he laughs. “My whole winemaking approach is my mother’s cooking. My mother would say, ‘Don’t add more herbs. Don’t overcompensate.’ When she taught me how to make chicken, she told me you have to match the size of the chicken to the size of the pot. What she meant is there is only so much flavor you can get from one chicken. I use this quote from my mother when I talk to my growers about yields. We can’t get three tons per acre for Pinot and get the flavor I want.”

When I taste Paul’s wines each year, I’m intrigued to hear his approach to the vintage because nothing is ever the same.

“We have a philosophy but not a recipe at Paul Lato,” he points out. “I love to cook, but I don’t cook with recipes. It’s so hard to keep from falling into the corporate world and having your wines go generic. But that’s not me. Making the Pinots, I was inspired by the wines of Henri Jayer. Wines have to have balance, but they also need flavor. Jayer had a certain amount of volume without being over the top. There was a purity and wholesomeness to his wines. Jayer shared a lot of knowledge with winemakers. I liked his ideas and philosophies. He was so particular and obsessive; I like that. Jayer would say, ‘I want my wine to be of the vineyard, but then I also want the wine to taste of Henri Jayer, and finally I want wine to be of pleasure.’”

Of Paul’s outstanding 2021 Chardonnay line-up, the Hyde Vineyard was my favorite.

"I would put the Hyde from 2021 right up there with a great white Burgundy."

“We love the balance that came from Hyde in 2021,” commented Paul. “I would put the Hyde from 2021 right up there with a great white Burgundy. The Hydes have been friends for nearly 20 years. This section is Old Wente clone planted by the lake. I named it Goldberg Variations because five or six years ago when I started with Hyde, I realized I would have to rely on Chris Hyde and his winemaker to send me fruit samples because I’m all the way down in Santa Maria. Goldberg Variations is a musical piece with 32 variations, and it was my joke that there were that many variations in the samples every year. All our Chardonnays are barrel-fermented. We are very oxidative at the very beginning. We didn’t need to acidify any of the whites this year. We press very lightly, and we separate the lees. The goal behind the barrels I use is to hide the oak. Yes, it adds flavors, but it needs to be seamless. The malo-lactic occurs in barrels on gross lees. We don’t stir the lees to fatten the wine. It’s a long and slow malo-lactic. The wines then rest on lees for another six months, and then sometimes we have to rack it.”

The styles of Paul’s Syrah and Grenache are unique. There’s a Pinosity to the wines, but these are no emaciated, quixotic pursuits of dogmas.

“We’re right next to the former Sine Qua Non block at Bien Nacido,” said Paul. “It’s a nicely balanced block. My style is very different from Manfred’s (of Sine Qua Non). I want violets and white pepper in Syrah, and I want vibrancy. We co-ferment with 5-7% Viognier from Bien Nacido. This adds flavor and fragrance. We use about 10% of the whole cluster. This wine is aged in 70% new oak. With Larner Vineyard, we have to be very careful about new oak. Bien Nacido never shows the oak, but Larner can, so we never use more than 50% new oak. We leave the Syrah on the lees. You really have to watch for reduction, tasting it frequently. I call it being close to the wine. I think it is much easier to get good results using whole cluster with Syrah than with Pinot. Larner is a warmer site—simply a magical place in Ballard Canyon. We wait a little bit longer for the ripeness at Larner. We use less stems on Larner and up to 5% Viognier, co-fermented. Larner is more exotic and exuberant than Bien Nacido.”

The Grenaches come from the same two vineyards—Bien Nacido and Larner—but the wines couldn’t be more different.

"My inspiration for Larner was Rayas."

“Grenache is very different than Syrah,” agrees Paul. “Bien Nacido is on a steep hill. It is Alban Clone with a lot of stuffing. Bien Nacido is more powerful in style. Larner Grenache is the opposite of the Syrah. Larner is on a sandy, gentle slope. My inspiration for Larner was Rayas, which is also just sand. Larner is delicate, silky, and lighter than Bien Nacido, which is more structured. This is what the vineyard wants to give. We used only about 40% new oak. On Larner, we use a concrete egg for about 20% for one year only. I would not be making Grenache if it weren’t for Robert Parker. He challenged me. He said Grenache was the most challenging grape, and he wanted to see what I could do with it.”