Four Vines Winery

This is now Cypher Wines. Tasting room is nothing to expand upon as it is very minimal and not too inviting, but where it lacks in the tasting room it makes up in the actual taste. The wine is fantastic. Punchy, flavorful, smooth. All the things I like in a red (I do not particularly like food-​wines). The guys there were friendly but not too attentive. Shares the parking lot with Farmstand 46, be careful not to fly by it on the Highway :)

I have purchased different varieties of Four Vines wine in the past, typically from World Market. Most recently, though, I purchases a petite sirah that was the most disappointing wine I can ever remember purchasing. It smelled like rubbing alcohol and tasted as bad as it smelled. I had two sips of wine before I had to pour the entire bottle out. I buy Four Vines wines’ with the expectation that the wine will be a quality wine, and my most recent experience was very disappointing. I hope no one has the experience that I did. Don’t buy this wine.

Awesome… Try the Goat sandwich w The Peasant wine!

Been here a few times and liked it so much that I joined the (now Cypher) wine club. You can get a few of their wines — the Maverick Zin and the Biker Zin, I believe, under the Four Vines label at the local Costco in SLO, and both are excellent examples of reasonably priced local Zins. A trip down to Paso isn’t complete without a trip to Costco for the value day to day wines and buying a few bottles at local tasting rooms of particular examples you really like for special events. The wine club is a little pricier than the last one I had to cancel to try out their blends here, but I fell in love with some of the interesting blends — Anarchy, Peasant GSM, Monarchy, Louis Cypher — they’re all unique blends and the winemaker, Christian, has an outstanding palate — the uniqueness of these blends is why I joined the club!
Conveniently located, fun, hip, with unique flavors, this is going to be a stop of mine on most, if not every, trip through Paso. Hope to bring friends and spread the good word about Cypher! And you know I’ll be picking up my shipment personally to take advantage of just one more taste. ..

Tasty Zin and great blends.

ZinBitch is the best. A Fun, friendly and funky place.

Excellent glass of wine to go with lunch next door. P Sarah listed as 92 in wine spectator.

Our first stop on our Paso wine tour, and one of my faves.
Great people and delicious wines.
My favorite things:
Naked Chardonnay — I’m not a fan of big oak, or butter, and this Chardonnay was neither — crisp and fresh.
Anarchy — Not your typical «GSM» (Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre blend) Four Vines replaced the Grenache with Zin and it is fantastic!
Also, I love the stemless, etched Riedel logo glasses they give away when you taste. I will proudly use my «ZinBitch» glass often.

Part of SLO Wine tour
Pro: Bathroom is located outside
Con: cheap glass, idiotic staff, animals running loose indoor, no A/​C, dirty bathroom…
No good white, poor choice of red. Came here for the second to last winery for the day. Just an absolute waste of prime location. Not a single person from our bus bought a single bottle of wine (where we tend to drop 3 to 10 bottles per location).
Skip this place, I even told the driver to skip here in the future for other people.

Delicious wine!
Yummy food next door.
It’s punk rock meets wine making at it’s finest (does that even make sense?).
Our taste pourer, Kristie, so so much fun and knowledgeable. We’ll definitely go back there next time we’re in the area. We liked it so much that we even joined the wine club so we can make sure to have a steady flow of their wine at our house.
They even let us bring our dog into the tasting room.
5 Stars all around!

Plan your Paso tastings to arrive at Four vines for lunch. Incredible sandwiches and salads. I had The Goat for lunch which is slow roasted pork and carmelized onions sandwich.. Wow! Farro salad, tomato and mozzarelle salad were both awesome. Nice base for tasting out back. Love the names for all of the wines as well as the wines. Edgy tasting room. Kind of South beach feel.. Fun place. Check it out. Thanks Billy!

Apparently someone decided that they were going to make a winery that was hip and trendy, and I guess that if you call something trendy enough times it must be right?
Whatever was going on here I didn’t like it. Four vines was just trying way too hard. Their wine was drinkable, but nothing fantastic, especially not for the price (everything was around $ 40 a bottle). It also appeared that they didn’t grow any of their own grapes, it was all imported to them. They give their names edgy names like Anarchy, Biker and Zinbitch along with some others I can’t remember, all the servers also wear black shirts with the names and even give away temporary tattoos (in case you were hoping wine tasting helps you to reminisce about elementary school?). Our server at least seemed not to know much about the wines other than what was already listed in front of me.
The only thing I really benefitted from Four Vines was the take home glassware they made me buy (stemless Reidel, and imprinted with one of their logos).

Fun spot with a long list of wines with rebellious names. 4.4 stars.
Cost to worth it rating: 3 (good range: many ~$ 25, one for $ 13, other $ 30+)
Return worthiness: yes
Highlights:
— Wines: they make a full 2 column listing of them and taste of subset. I liked most all of them
— Overall vibe: very playful and fun – not an ounce of stuffy seriousness
— Pick your glass: to start you pick the stemless glass you’d like to use from different designs
— Tattoos: those childhood ones where you apply them with water. You can pick from some of their signature symbols like the four vines or zin bitch ;-).
— Crazy artsy chandeliers: tasting room had a bunch of these red glass blown lighting fixtures that looked part medusa and part alien
— Fun names: no [insert winery owner name] estate reserve here. Instead there’s anarchy, heretic, etc.
— Pink peppercorn chocolate: served with their port, it was pure super peppery goodness. Port also was not too syrupy sweet
— Café on site: supposedly has all local products
Lowlights:
— No free glass: for members I thought that could be waived
— Outdoor area looked like a great spot to hang out and sip wine at but it was full
— Didn’t get tons of information about the wine while tasting
Fun time and great wines at reasonable prices. I’ll be back!

2.5 stars for quality, 3 for ‘fun factor.’
After eating at Farmstand 46, we figured we may as well taste; it’s next door! Tasting was 8 bucks each (charging for tasting is uncommon in the area). We did get to take home our glass; I got the Heretic one. Heehee!
WIne is just ok I think. Too sweet or too bold, depending on the wine. I love a bold wine, but I get the feeling these wines are bold due to a lack of winemaking savvy. I will give them credit for their marketing strategy; all the wines have interesting names: ZinBitch, Heretic, etc. But, I don’t know that this strategy will get serious wine drinkers to take them seriously. They were busy though, so what the hell do I know? =)
Personally, I wouldn’t go out of my way to go here, nor would I buy their wines, but if I were next door, I’d saunter over and taste some more wine.

This was our first stop on a weekend tour of Paso and what a fun place to begin our trip. The place is hip and gives a modern vibe with great music, fun keepsake glasses, and some interestingly named wines.
I ended up buying the zinbitch tank top because they were out of glasses! Instead I had to get the anarchy engraved glass, shucks.
The staff was very friendly and we had fun learning about their wines and merchandise. We’ll be back the next time we’re in Paso.

I loved their wines. Lots of good syrahs. My favorite. Its 7 dollars for a tasting and you get to pick your glass. And they are quite cool looking.
The staff member who helped up was upbeat, passionate about their wines, helpful with explaining and super friendly. You rock lady.
It is a big pricey. for us to buy regularly. The avg price was 40 dollars and the one we wanted was sold in a set of 3, so we skipped the purchase. But we plan to visit them again. and again.

Great winery that was recommended to us by other wineries.
At first, we were being ignored and was about ready to walk out when we were approached by the owner’s sister-​in-​law (I think). She was very welcoming and informative.
They have interesting wine names and label designs, which may look like a marketing gimmick, but they’re just having fun with themselves. The wines speak for themselves.
They said they were one of maybe 3 or 4 wineries that have old vine zins in the area. I don’t particularly go looking for old vine zin, but I really liked their «Biker» Zin from Paso. We picked up a bottle of that.
Tasting fee was $ 10 and you get to keep the Riedel logo glass. I believe they waive the fee if you buy a bottle, but after visiting 11 wineries over the weekend, I can’t remember if that was the case.
They’re right behind Farmstand 46, which is also worth stopping by if you love greasy, heavy, tasty sandwiches.

When driving through or visiting the Central Coast wine country, Four Vines is an easy stop to make for a quick wine tasting. They’re right on the 46, and a few minutes off of the 101. There aren’t any long winding dirt roads required to find it. Yeah, hidden gems are nice to discover, but if you want to get down to some tasting business, Four Vines is a good spot.
I’ve never had too wait too long for some service. The stewards and crowd have been fairly chill… no run-​ins with snobs yet.
In general, 4V wines are robust red wines that go great with your barbeques and burgers. Their provocatively named red blends (Anarchy, Loco, etc.) are probably their most popular reds, but it’s the zins are my favorites. Particularly, in order: Dusi, The Sophisticate and then Maverick. Their case production isn’t too high, so in order to buy Dusi, you’ll either have to join their club or be really lucky on a visit. Totally worth the cash though. If the Dusi is available, get it because you probably won’t have a chance to try it later.

(Visited mid-​October 2008, Harvest Wine Weekend)
Four Vines Winery is another Paso stop that has multiple strong zins, but also has some other grapes thrown in their mix. Daringly (for Paso), they have an unoaked chardonnay that I liked, although I prefer this style far more than the American-​oaked style that is so common. They also had several other wines, although most weren’t available the day I was there, with the exception of a good tempranillo that was thankfully more Paso than Spain. But this winery’s strength is its many zins and zin port, for which I will say it deserves a stop. Besides, where else can you get a dessert wine glass embossed with the «A» for Anarchy on it? I liked the «Biker» zin in particular. Unlike several other visitors, I had no problems with staff, crowds, or anything else.

***My winery/​tasting room reviews are rated based upon many factors. First is QPR or quality to price ratio of the wine. In other words, is the wine priced according to how good it is. The second factor is the tasting room experience. This involves the staff, grounds and anything unique about the winery.***
Date Visited: Late 2008
Tasting room fee: $ 7 (stemless Riedel logo glass included), not refundable with purchase
Wine price range: $ 14-​$ 40
We stopped into Four Vines because it was convenient. We were nearby, they were open until 6pm so here we are.
They make a variety of wines, primarily blends. They have a similar marketing plan as Linne Calodo (who we had just visited). The wines have names like anarchy, loco, biker, etc. They have plenty of logo-​wear for sale as well. You even get a stemless Riedel glass with tasting with your choice of design on the glass. I am more of a purist, but it will be nice to try drinking out of a stemless glass.
Unlike Linne Calodo, their wines are more appropriately priced for what they are. I found a zin blend and a zin port which I take home with me. The tasting room is small, I have no idea what the large parking lot is for. In all, a bit much on the gimmickiness. Still, the wines were good for the price.