ABOUT US
Winery History
In the early 1980s my father John Somogyi Jr., a Hungarian immigrant, purchased the land where we now operate our family winery. He originally purchased the 26 acres for its rustic beauty as it is some of the most pristine property on the central coast. The coastal weather and short commute to Paso Robles were also great. In 1999, he decided to turn his wine making hobby into a business and Rocky Creek Cellars was established. John‘s goal was to produce single varietal standalone wines. I, John’s son Dusty, grew up in this family winery and took over wine making operations in 2009. We are a true boutique winery only producing around 1000 cases annually and selling everything out of our tasting room. With my father’s past experience as a general builder along with many other trades we built our own tasting room, just him and myself. Our tasting room is a reflection of his past with rustic redwood and Old World wine presses. We opened the tasting room in March of 2006. We are open daily and you will find one of the Somogyi’s (John, Dusty, or Tessa) ready to serve you. This is a true family operated winery as every grape that is harvested, wine that is made, and bottle sold passes through our hands.
Wine Making Practices
Here at Rocky Creek Cellars we are proud of our traditional wine making practices. My father strived to produce wines that were natural and pure and I strive to continue making wine in the same style. We use only hand-harvested fruit in our wines and let the wines age themselves, rather than artificially speeding up the aging process. Our wine making practices include hand punch downs, long skin contact, hand racking with nitrogen, and up to 4 years in the barrel. We specialize in handcrafting long-aged red wines that are un-fined and un-filtered. This classic approach to wine making achieves a full-bodied, elegant single varietal wine.
Vineyard Practices
Rocky Creek Cellars currently manages 3 vineyards. Each grape varietal we match with the correct microclimate. Zinfandel in the Templeton Gap. Pinot Noir west in the York Mountain AVA and our Estate Syrah also in the York Mountain AVA. All of our vineyards utilize trellis systems which allow for easier working conditions and the ability to thin leaves to control wind flow and sun contact giving us additional control over growing conditions. We drop fruit to produce a manageable yield for our plants. All of our vineyards use no pesticides and are dry farmed, relying only on rain fall. We use a cover crop to disc in to help as a natural fertilizer to nourish the soils during the spring growing season. Finally, we hand harvest all of our fruit to ensure quality.