2016 High Road James Berry Vineyard

JoAnn and Cris Cherry’s Villa Creek Cellars has been part of Paso Robles’ upper tier of producers for some time. Now that they are committed full-time to their 60-acre vineyard and winery (since closing their iconic Villa Creek restaurant on the square in Paso Robles last July), their wines have never been better. Cris Cherry told me that he began making a conscious move toward great elegance and balance a few years ago, and the results show, even in warm, drought-affected vintages like 2016. There’s plenty of whole-cluster work going on here, and the Cherrys also continue to explore the use of various tanks, with a particular interest in concrete, as they “want to get maximum vineyard expression with as little winemaking static as possible,” as Cris put it to me.