York Mountain and the Birth of Paso Robles Wine
Near Paso Robles, California
The first wine grapes in Paso Robles were planted by Franciscan missionaries at Mission San Miguel around seventeen ninety-seven, but the modern wine industry began with a determined Englishman. In the eighteen eighties, Andrew York bought land in the hills west of town and established what he called the Ascension Winery, on what is now known as York Mountain. York planted Zinfandel, and that hardy grape became the backbone of early Paso Robles winemaking.
The region's hot days, cool nights, and limestone-rich soils proved ideal for bold red wines. For decades, Zinfandel defined this place. Then, beginning in the nineteen eighties, a quiet revolution arrived.
Winemakers began planting Rhone varieties from southern France, including Syrah, Grenache, Viognier, and Roussanne. In fact, some of the first Syrah vines in all of California took root here. Paso Robles went from fewer than one hundred acres of Rhone grapes in nineteen ninety-six to more than two thousand two hundred acres just ten years later.
Today Paso Robles is one of the fastest-growing wine regions in the country, home to hundreds of wineries. But it all traces back to Andrew York and his Zinfandel vines, clinging to a mountainside that still carries his name.
