Pursuing a profound love of world-class wines throughout their personal and professional lives, father and daughter Lloyd Messer and Dana Brown developed a real thirst for cultivating something of their own. Truly distinctive terroir-driven wines can be elusive, but this remote plateau in Paso Robles—this place—certainly had a voice like no other. Planting their family vineyard here, atop 442 acres of solid calcareous rock, it has been a labor of love to cultivate fruit on this challenging land, but the reward is immediately apparent when savoring the award-winning results.

Lloyd passed on in 2006, but Dana continues to advance their vision as Calcareous consistently produces a collection of world-class Rhône and Bordeaux wines that speak with an undeniable sense of place.

 Dana and Lloyd in 2003

To winemaker Jason Joyce, the allure of crafting wine is in its ability to be both art and science, with room for spontaneity, exploration, and freedom of expression. Feeling stifled by the restrictions of his early scientific career, Jason was captivated by the process of making wine as a way to blend deeper human experience into his everyday life. Starting at Calcareous as a harvest cellar hand, Jason learned to craft small batch, high-quality wine, and ultimately advanced to become head winemaker at Calcareous Vineyard in 2010. “This is a project I passionately believe in. Our estate vineyard is of the highest quality and represents a unique fusion of soil and climate. I am given complete freedom in the cellar to bring the fruit from vine to glass in whatever manner produces the best possible expression of our place.”