THE VINEYARD
Founded in 2012, Defiance Vineyard is a boutique vineyard nestled to the east of Paso Robles, and is known in the area for growing premium Petite Sirah and Bordeaux varieties. Its terrior offers a diurnal temperature swing, providing optimal growing conditions, coveted by others in the region. Dedicated to sustainability, Defiance Vineyard is all farmed and harvested by hand with the utmost attention to detail. The result is our grapes are featured in high-rated and award-winning wines. Clients are located from Napa to Colorado: Ecluse, Dilecta, Cinnabar, Daou, Sinegal, Barbieri, Ladron, LaZarre, Pali Wine Co., Sunstone, Defiance.
In September 2020, Defiance Vineyard announced the launching of its estate wine, after seeing their perfectly concentrated and coveted fruit produce wines full of richness and natural balance. The Estate portfolio includes: Petite Sirah, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot, and Malbec varieties.
The vineyard rests on an east facing hillside well above the Creston Valley. The elevation spans up to 1500 feet with most rows on a 35 degree slope and a row orientation of North - South. All of the Bordeaux varieties are modified VSP and our Petite Sirah is head trained. We use sustainable and organic practices.
Sustainability
Through careful stewardship of the land and its resources, Defiance delivers a luxury product.
ORGANIC & SUSTAINABLE FARMING PRACTICES
No herbicides
Cane pruning
Weed control via hand and Clemens
Organic cow manure compost
Macro- & micronutrient repletion
RDI for optimal canopy and berry size
Cover crop rotation
Hand pruned, hand picked
Modified VSP and head trained
Limited yields
Soil & Climate
Much of the soil composition at Defiance is the result of millions of years of marine shell deposit creating limestone layers. The soils are a clay loom, rich in limestone and sandstone. The vineyard employs a state of the art duel drip system to ensure detailed, accurate water management.
One of the key ingredients to making Paso Robles a notable wine AVA, rests in the region's dramatic temperature swings between the daytime and night, especially close to harvest. Famous wine regions share commonalities in the Growing Degree Days (GDD) required to ripen and balance the wine. Heat ripens the fruit to promote the big and bold flavors unique to California. Coolness preserves the acidity required to add high notes and protect the complexity needed to make a wine interesting, agreeable and ageable. The combination of the two is responsible for the balance and structure of the wine. Paso is uniquely situated to achieve the high end on both spectrums while averaging to a balanced GDD region, promoting an experimental and fun wine area. In fact, Tablas Creek likes to point out to its sister winery, Château de Beaucastel in the Rhone valley, that while it’s 105 degrees in Paso and 80 degrees in the Rhone, it is in fact cooler in Paso.