Cayucos Cellars

used gym socks… their wines tasted and smelled… like used gym socks… and tiny pours… of used gym socks…

This was our first wine stop on our trip up the coast. 10 $ for a tasting, pretty standard. All the wines were decent, nothing mindblowing, until I got to the end: right now they have a reserve zin… you have to try it, it is amazing, and I’m not usually that excited about zin. It is crazy flavorful. The place is super chill, too — always nicer tasting at a place that isn’t crazy busy (though I suppose it’s the off-​season, it’s probably a lot crazier in the summer.)
Bonus tip: when we mentioned it was our first stop, and we were heading up to Cambria, they gave us some tourist stuff, which if I recall, included a 2-​for-​1 for one of the other wineries we were about to visit.

This is one of our favorite wineries on the coast. I hope they ship their wine club to NJ soon, we only come here once a year and it is just not enough! Brenda helped us today and she was helpful, knowledgable and fun!! cant wait until next year!

I stopped by for a tasting this past Saturday on 6÷20÷15. I was so lucky that Virginia was pouring at the time. She only works there on weekends and the owners are very fortunate to have her as an employee! I expected my tasting to last about 20 minutes and ended up learning an extraordinary amount of fascinating knowledge from her in the 2 hours that I ended up spending there. She is a truly gifted and talented, wise, humble and well traveled individual. Her boyfriend has to be the luckiest man in the world! Besides her, every wine there was fabulous. Thank you SO much Virginia for bringing so much joy into my life that afternoon– and forever. I will forever cherish the couple of hours that our paths did cross. It was not by chance. It was our fate. Sincerely, Erich Small

I had visited this wine cellar with my fiancé during a trip to the coast for the weekend. While the tastings would have been slightly expensive it was waived with the purchase of a bottle of wine. We had a wonderful conversation with the gentleman working the store and I would surely go back!

As a first wine tasting experience, it was great. Very simple menu and family owned. I walked away with their most expensive bottle of 2007 Zinfandel and who cares, you’re in Cayucos having a blast. It was the best tasting.

Well, maybe I’m spoiled and probably a lot of this review has to do with the fact that the place was empty. Oh, and having the girl stand directly in front of us waiting for us to finish each glass was a little unnerving. Kind of killed any conversations my fiancé and I could have enjoyed while trying the wines. The wine itself was ok, but only two or so were really to my liking.
Pros:
–Cheaper than most tastings. $ 10 for 6 or 7 wines
–No other places close by
–Nice interior
Cons:
–TINY pours… I mean, a sip or two and it is finished
–The girl behind the counter gave very little info beyond the standard spiel but stood directly in front of us the whole time with very little conversation and looking bored. 1 star for customer service. You’d think she’d want customers to help pass her time!
Personally I’d never go back and never send anybody to this place, but I could see it being a lot better if there were multiple couples/​groups. I can take the small pours, I just wasn’t able to get comfortable there, and relaxing is a big part of wine tasting!

The 3 of us went to the tasting room yesterday afternoon. My first observation is that it is really tiny & only about 8 people can taste at a time, max. There are no stools at the counter, so you have to stand for an hour, which annoyed me. I want to relax when I do a tasting. I am thinking they feel they can crowd in more people without stools if they need to. I just felt it showed a lack of caring for the customer. I had read earlier posts, so some things have changed & I am going to mention them here. Tasting is $ 10.00, not $ 5.00. The owner’s son no longer works in the tasting room, he is employed at another winery in Templeton. As for the wines, they only have one white, a chardonay, & it is pretty good, it has been in the barrel a long time, so it is smoother than usual. My favorite was a rose, which was the next wine given us. It was not on the list. I don’t like reds because they are so strong & overpowering, sour, etc. but they had some good reds & one of us bought a bottle to go. Your $ 10.00 is credited to the cost of a bottle if you buy one.

Nice little tasting room a couple doors down from where we stayed for the weekend. The girl who worked there was great! Very nice and friendly. I left with a luscious red – Devil’s Gate – yum. She let us take our time and revisit what we wanted to. We got a free tasting card from the place we stayed at, so I am not sure what it costs…
They have 2 different brands of wine here. All from the same family of wine makers. I think the one is the entire family and the other is an off shoot that i believe the brother went on. The Cayucos label is a bit lighter than the Devil’s Gate, but still good. My tastes just went to the heavier label. Good stuff and a good place to pull over and enjoy if your in the area!

I really liked the wines from this place. I think it’s the owner’s son that runs the tasting room in town, and is knowledgable and generous with tastings and helps to junderstand the different wines. Brought a variety case home with me. I might even join the wine club for this one!

We bought a half wine barrel for $ 20, total score! In for the weekend, we stopped at as many tasting rooms as possible. This in fact was a nice stop, the wine list was interesting because they were more like elaborate creative stories rather than a description and food pairing. But, their Chardonnay was very good and bought a bottle for home!

Very friendly and warm family establishment. Wine was pretty good, but the lady pouring for us made it awesome. This is her family business and she had great stories about how they got started. We bought a bottle of The Rustic One to go with dinner last night. Awesome!

Charming little winery in a charming little town with very friendly workers who aren’t that into their wine (!) for good reason– the zin and the late harvest zin are the only good things on the list. Cheapest wine tasting I’ve seen, $ 5 for 6 or 7 wines, but there’s a reason for that. Not very rich reds.
This was my first time having a late harvest though, and it was awesome. And the worker recommended Ruddell’s Smokehouse to me, so points for that. Not worth going out of your way for, but if you’re just walking around and have a few bucks you might as well try some wine. Or you and your friend could go somewhere else and just buy a $ 10 bottle which would probably be just as good or better.

Our hotel for our Paso trip was in the sleepy beachtown of Cayucos. Surprise, there’s also a tasting room here, so points for convenience. The wine, however, is just OK. The operation is entirely family run, which I appreciate, and the person running the tasting room was very friendly and engaging.
The only wine we really enjoyed was the zin. It’s sweeter than the normal zin and not spicy like you expect. Not sure if some would even call it a zin.
During our visit, we learned the winemaker likes to keep the wines in barrel longer than usual. The results are interesting, but don’t quite work out. The wines have a lot going on, and I don’t know if aging will smooth/​mellow them out since some of the reds we tasted were from 2004.
But, if you’re in Cayucos to enjoy the beach, I’d stop by the cellar just to try it. The small tasting room allows for a very low-​key, intimate vibe. You get to taste about 7 wines for, I think, $ 5 but that’s waived with bottle purchase.

I really don’t know how to write this review because I don’t really know how I feel about Cayucos Cellars. The first thing I’ll say is that both the zin and late harvest zin are excellent wines. The location is awesome. The owner/​winemaker is a really nice guy and gracious host. I was very comfortable asking questions and he really took the time to answer them.
That being said, these wines aren’t for everyone… even the winemaker. That puzzled me, but I chalk it up to him being humble and self-​deprecating rather than insecure. While I appreciate the frankness, I have a hard time buying a wine the maker says he doesn’t like. That seems a little bizarre to me and turned me off to buying as many bottles as I would have otherwise.
What’s interesting is that these are old school wines: wild yeast, high alcohol, unfiltered, and really strong on the broad tastes of fermentation. Initially I thought the taste shock was coming from wines being bottled too soon, but after working my way through a bottle of zin at a slower pace I figured it out. These are good wines, but they aren’t commercial. The good is that they’re distinct. The bad is that polish isn’t what you’ll remember them for.
As a matter of fact, you should try out for NASA’s astronaut program if you can remember your name after a bottle. These wines hit like Drago from Rocky IV. And just like punchdrunk Rocky, I’ll be coming back for more in a state of confusion.

The bf, brother and I took a trip along the Central Coast and stopped by a few wineries. This was our favorite place. The tasting is free if you purchase a bottle. The bf, brother, and I were happy to chat with the owner’s son. He was very nice and took his time with us. He never tried to sell us anything, but just allowed us to enjoy our tasting.
I am a newbie when it comes to wine and usually I could never distinguish one type of wine from another. But when we tried the wines here, we could tell the precise different between each wine. We loved it and bought 2 bottles.
When we came back home, we realized how much we enjoyed the wine here that we even joined the wine club and now anticipating when we can get our next bottle of wine.

Dropped in for a tasting on a beautiful Saturday afternoon in May. The winemaker, Stuart, poured us our tastings and we tried a total of about 10 wines, 5 of which weren’t on the tasting menu. They had yummy and interesting snacks, cream puffs, cheese, warm potstickers, for you to taste between pourings. The wines were delicious and they had some intriguing blends. Purchased 2 bottles to take home. We’d definitely return next time we’re in town.

Whenever my wine-​o friends come down to visit my home town, I always know where to go to make them a little tipsy… err, happy.
Über-​friendly, family-​run. Great wines… and you can taste (free of charge) before you buy.

My beautiful hometown now boasts a quality winery with the perfect tasting room to fit the town. The tasting room is tucked away between two larger stores but actually adds and gives a more private setting amongst the small downtown area.
The winery is family owned and operated by long time local family. I only discovered this on my last visit on Friday and was pleasantly surprised to run into an old school mate which happens to be the winemakers son.
The wines have a good nose and are well made. They are still new in the winemaker but the quality stands out above some long time winemakers a few minutes east. I am very fond of Cabernet Sav and Cayucos Winery left me purchasing a bottle for the road which we enjoyed at evening over some cannelloni.
Make sure if you visit Cayucos to stop by Cayucos cellars for some wine tasting (fees are waved with bottle purchase). Small production so you may want to purchase a bottle as it may not be there when you return.

Beautiful tasting room! $ 5 tasting fee for 6 – 7 wines, fee waived with purchase. Shipping available.
Small production winery with 500 – 800 barrels a year. Some of the vintages are as small as 80 barrels!
The wines were all flavorful and well-​described.
Mom-​n-​pop kind of thing… they have no employees! When we tasted the mom was there, and then her son showed up and finished our tasting. They were very talkative and horrendously knowledgable about the vintages!