Victor Hugo Winery

Wow. Don’t let the lack of reviews or pictures stop you from going to this place. (And my apologies, I forgot to talk pictures myself so I have nothing to add here!) Victor Hugo was our last stop for our Paso trip and what a great finish!!!
To start, it’s appointment only so be sure to call or email Vic before you want to come by.
To save on overhead, they taste their wines in one of their barrel rooms that’s basically a large barn. No seats, nothing fancy, just really good, moderately priced wine! Victor was in and out during our tasting but his wife was pouring for us and both were great to chat with. They shared their knowledge and love for wine with us as we tasted about 8 wines. (One white, one rose and the rest reds and we finished with a port.)
They also had a small table full of crackers, cheese and chocolate almonds which was very complimentary. (We came on a holiday weekend so I’m not sure if this was standard.)
$ 10 for a tasting, but waived with any purchase. Average bottle cost: $ 25 Dog friendly. We walked out with a case and wine club membership soooo my suggestion would be to visit if you’re in the area. If you are looking for the greatest views or fanciest tasting rooms, you need to go elsewhere but if you appreciate great wine and knowledgeable winemakers who have the time to talk with you, COME HERE!!! You will not regret it.

I am a big wino and this winery was a big surprise. Great wines and you get to do the tasting with the owners. They could easily charge double for their wines. Expect very high quality and well balanced wines. One of the best wineries in Paso.

This was a real find for my wife and me. We first tasted Victor’s red blend, «The Hunchback, «at the fine Red Raven Restaurant in Williams, Arizona, and loved it. We emailed the winery and asked for an appointment. Leslie answered quickly, and invited us over the next morning. We very much enjoyed visiting with her and Victor (Yes, his name is truly Victor Hugo Roberts).
The array of wines is excellent! Rich and supple reds. Fragrant and tasty viognier, and each one very reasonably priced.
We drove home with a case + and a club membership.
Thank you, Victor and Leslie!

Great wines. You need an appointment, so that weeds out the majority of the imbeciles who roll up in a limo and fall out while looking for the next glass of wine. Don’t let the low number of reviews fool you. This is a place where folks with an adult palate can find some really good stuff in a bottle.
Victor’s line up of wines is very impressive. All of them are from his vines on his property. He has been in the wine industry of Paso for over 33 years. He welcomes each guest with gusto and his story — which is a story of building a winery.
We tasted his whole line and found all of them very well made. Drinkable today and over the next few years. His price point is very good, especially for the quality.
Purchased two bottles of three varietals and joined the club. It is three bottles, twice per year, which is a very reasonable approach to getting his wine in distribution. Looking forward to the pick-​up parties.
Strongly recommended for adults with educated palates. You know who you are.

Good wines, intimate tasting room, gracious hosts.

Great wines! Laid back low key establishment. Not a huge tasting room but it’s in a cool barn where they store the barrels. You have to call in advance to make sure they will be around. If you leave a message they will call you back.
This was our fourth winery of the day. We enjoyed their wines here and at August Ridge the best. If you want to get married at a winery or just have an awesome scenic lunch I suggest STILL WATER not too far from here.

Spent an election all afternoon with mr caperone and gary eberle! victor and his wife were graciously offering a tasting from those three winemakers! all fabulous but victor Hugo winery rocks! Love his passion and his wines. must go destination in paso Robles!

Fantastic wine tasting experience. The winery is run by a husband and wife team, just the two of them, so appointments are for your convenience, they don’t you to show up and find them not there. The wines are all fantastic and the experience can’t be beat. They brought us the juice of freshly pressed grapes to taste and talked about the history of the winery. Leslie was friendly and warm. I would highly recommend any true wine lover visit Victor Hugo.

Great experience, delicious wines, lovely, laid-​back winery! The real deal. Go if you can!

I’ve been here twice now, in March 2013 and again in January 2014. When I first went all the wines were great! Especially the Zinfandel and 2012 Les Mis Rose blend, I bought a bottle of each. Vic and his wife are both super nice and helpful. I love the intimate setting of tasting in their barn/​barrel room. When I went again a few weeks ago, I still had an excellent experience but did not find the wines as enjoyable. All of the vintages were different, and some new releases, so maybe I just found the earlier vintages to be better than what he was pouring recently. The biggest surprise was the Chardonnay. He still ages it in oak, but for not as long, so it is still very crisp and refreshing and not super buttery or oak-​y like many. I bought a bottle of that as well as the 2013 Les Mis Rose, for $ 15 you can’t go wrong with that one on a summer’s day. Still one of my favored wineries in the area.

Their wines are outstanding. $ 5 per taste. Leslie and Vic are wonderful to talk with. Prices of wine are affordable. I’m all for supporting this mom and pop vineyard !!’

Victor Hugo just missed the personal top three of all the wineries we visited on our last trip through the Central Coast. I nearly expanded it to a top four. I was swayed by the LG on this one. She did not enjoy their wines nearly as much as I did. Normally, I ignore her opinion and force things on her (see the mechanical and infrequent sex mentioned above) but she is a bit of a wine connoisseur or wino, take your pick, so her thoughts on all matter of the vine carry a good bit of weight. I loved their wine. They’ve got a 08 Zin that just kills you. I also loved their two red blends. The aptly named Hunchback drinks like a red wine far exceeding it’s price point and their Opulence really is just that. Across the board this is a fantastic winery. If you decide to check it out be sure to call ahead, they don’t take walk ins.

I have been drinking their wine for 8 years… first introduced to their petite sirah — outstanding. Very consistent year to year. Unpretentious down to earth husband and wife team. Never felt rushed when tasting. Vic is very knowledgeable… I really enjoy talking with and learning from him. Also recommend the Malbec, Opulence and viognier.

This is a small family owned winery! The first time we went to taste the Malbec but have been so impressed we have been back three times. Victor (owner & winemaker) spent time with us explaining about the difficulties of growing the Malbec grapes. There are just a few wineries that do Malbec in California but they are superior to the South American wines.
We went to taste the Malbec but discovered a great winery. All the wines are excellent at exceptional prices. I am not a zinfindel fan but their zin is one great wine. We ended up buying a case and regretted not buying more. My friends that have had some come by and ask when I am going to offer some more Victor Hugo zin.
Both Victor and his wife Leslie are a pleasure to visit. They are very personable and helpful answering questions. The journey to get there is well worth the trip!

Worth making an appointment. Really down to earth, friendly folks. Vic poured his excellent wine for us in his barrel room. Opulence (Bordeaux blend) is the best Paso wine I’ve had, bar none. The Petite Sirah is also outstanding. We’re going back next month and I’m sure I’ll bring home a case and/​or join the club.

We came to this winery on our way back home from Paso. We’d originally made an appointment on a Friday for our way up but when we had to change it to Sunday for our way back, they were really accommodating.
I couldn’t believe we were doing yet one more tasting (we’d already done 6 for the weekend), but am so glad we went!
Leslie, Victor’s wife poured for us. She was so sweet and easy to talk to, it was not uncomfortable at all that it was just two of us tasting and her. She told us what a difference it is for them to have the winemaker on the premises, and how they not only try to make great wines, they want the wines to be affordable and easy to pair with food. In short, they want their wines to be drunk!
We tried the 06 Viognier, 07 Zin, 06 Petite Sirah, 06 Cab Sauv, 07 Syrah, and the 06 Opulence. They were all good, and I noted that many were very smooth and flavorful. Prices were absolutely reasonable for the wine, in the low to mid 20s.
The grounds were also lovely; it was an all-​in-​all wonderful stop! I will absolutely return and will bring some others to join us, too!

I’ve long been a fan of Victor Hugo’s wines, so it was great to finally visit the winery. Last time I was in the area, we had called to make an appointment but didn’t get an answer; turns out they were on vacation, and I thought it was so nice that they still returned my call a few days later to apologize that they missed my call and to invite me to come back another time. This time I called a few days in advance rather than waiting until the last minute and they were very flexible about when I wanted to come by. Turns out that the reason they are appointment-​only is simply because there is just Victor (the winemaker) and his wife Leslie — that’s it! So since they don’t have any staff, they can’t just wait around the tasting room, because they have other things to do — like, for example, making the wine! So, Leslie came over and was nice enough to pour wine for us, and Victor stopped in to say hello as well. I always think it’s a better tasting room experience to talk with the winemakers rather than an uninformed employee. In the past, I’d had Victor Hugo’s viognier (I think it’s the best in CA), petit sirah (also I think one of the best in this style), zinfandel, and syrah. In the tasting room we got to try all of these, as well as a 2006 Malbec (they only made this one vintage) and their Opulence bordeaux blend. We enjoyed all of these, but especially the Malbec. We had a lovely chat with Leslie about their trip to Argentina that had inspired them to do a 100% Malbec that year (normally they just use it as a blend in the Opulence). Leslie and Victor really seemed like the kind of people we’d love to just sit around and have dinner with. On top of all this, their wines are really good value; no bottle is over $ 30, which is unusual for good wines in the area. They could easily charge more, but they want their wines to be accessible. I think the tasting fee might have been $ 5 but was waived with purchase. We ended up buying one of everything, and then a few days later kicking ourselves for not buying more. I’ll probably go up again sometime next week. :)

Victor Hugo could possibly be my favorite wine tasting I’ve done this month. Sometimes it is intimidating to schedule an appointment with a winery that only see customers in this manner, but I was so thankful that I did! The winemaker made time to stop his work in the vineyard, open up six fresh bottles and eagerly told me about Victor Hugo wines.
I bought the Meritage style Bordeaux blend called «Opulence» and I’ll be saving it for a special occasion!