This latest acknowledgement tops a stellar rise for Brecon Estate’s team, which opened its Vineyard Drive tasting room to much anticipation a mere two and half years ago and has since amassed over 70 Golds/Double Golds and a handful of Platinum medals from the top tier wine review publications and competitions. Brecon has been at the forefront of producing world-class Paso Robles varietals including Petit Verdot, Albarino, Mourvedre and Syrah.

In Spring 2015 tasted the wines from Brecon Estate for the first time and found them all to be beautiful examples. I was most impressed by the 2014 Albarhio, scoring it 96 points. For me it was one of those bolt out of the blue moments from a new producer. The other releases from last year by winemaker Damian Grindley received solid scores as well. I just finished tasting this year’s releases over the summer and find as much to like as ever. 

The path to wine for the Welsh-born Grindley intersected with his passion for caving. While a winemaking student at University of Adelaide, a vineyard where he was working hired him to map the caves beneath their property to make sure the limestone domes were strong enough to support farm equipment. Below ground, he found quite a bit of steel pipe row anchors that slid through like slippery soda straws. He also discovered that a rich calcareous soil concentration was under a block that nobody else was interested in so he approached the vineyardist, bought that fruit and made a wine.

Read more on source: A-Town Daily News