This Paso Robles winery is Wine Enthusiast’s 2022 American Winery of the Year
A Paso Robles winery is Wine Enthusiast magazine’s 2022 American Winery of the Year.
Hope Family Wines of Paso Robles was honored as part of the publication’s annual Wine Star Awards.
“Paso Robles is at the forefront of all that we do,” Hope Family Wines president and winemaker Austin Hope said in a news release. “We are all grateful to be recognized for such a prestigious distinction by the editors at Wine Enthusiast.”
Hope’s parents, Chuck and Marilyn Hope, founded Hope Family Wines in 1978 — first partnering with Chuck Wagner of Caymus to produce Liberty School wines, then launching Treana under the leadership of Austin Hope’s uncle, Paul Hope.
Austin Hope, then a 22-year-old Cal Poly graduate, was thrust into a leadership role at the family-owned winery after his uncle suddenly died in 1995, according to Wine Enthusiast.
Hope expanded the Treana and Liberty School labels while launching other brands, such as Troublemaker, Quest and Austin Hope.
In 2018, Hope was named Paso Robles Wine Person of the Year.
Today, “Hope Family Wines produces a wide range of internationally distributed brands that are respected for both quality and affordability as well as market-leading creativity,” Wine Enthusiast reporter Matt Kettman writes.
According to Kettman, the Hope family played a critical role in the creation of the Paso Robles region’s 11 different sub-appellations, helping create the Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance in the 1980s.
“There would be no Paso Robles of today if it weren’t for Hope Family Wines,” Kettmann said in the release.
Austin Hope, whose two daughters also work for his family’s, winery told Wine Enthusiast he hopes to put Paso Robles wineries on the map internationally.
“I think that’s very possible in my lifetime,” Hope told the magazine. “We’re trying to create a legacy region, something that will be here and stand the test of time.”
This story was originally published November 4, 2022 at 11:00 AM with the headline "This Paso Robles winery is Wine Enthusiast’s 2022 American Winery of the Year."
