Winemaker Notes
The 2023 growing season in Paso Robles was extended due to the wet winter and cool spring weather, allowing extra hang time for fruit to develop flavor, without sacrificing acidity. The resulting wine shows beautiful complexity and depth, with concentrated fruit flavors including dark cherry, blackberry, and cassis. Aging in French oak deepens our flavor profile, contributing to the tobacco and spice notes. The structure is firm but approachable, providing a fine backbone for the rich fruit.”
Blend: 95% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Petite Sirah
Professional Ratings
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
With enticing aromas of black cherries and graham cracker crumbs, the 2023 Textbook Cabernet Sauvignon delivers a rich mouthful of ripe, dark fruit, framed by a gentle kiss of oak. Plush and generous on the palate, it balances richness with just enough structure to keep things lively. Serve it alongside Santa Maria–style grilled tri-tip—simply seasoned, oak-grilled, and sliced thin—where the wine’s fruit depth and subtle sweetness echo the meat’s smoky char and savory finish. (Tasted: December 25, 2025, San Francisco, CA)
Textbook was inspired by the Pey Family's travels in France and Italy, where they learned about wine and its place at the table. While abroad, they fell in love with European craftsmanship – wines made with structure, restraint, and revealing a 'sense of place.' For nearly two decades, they've fulfilled that vision – crafting exceptional, while approachable wines that truly represents the best a region has to offer.
Their high-caliber grower and producer partners provide them with superior lots, allowing them to consistently deliver complexity and quality vintage to vintage.
Winemaker Abigail "Abi" Horstman Estrada sources small lots from a range of climates and soils, providing a diverse palette of flavors and aromatics. She honed her winemaking chops in Italy, New Zealand, and Israel and worked for prestige brands like Markham, Domaine Chandon, and Robert Mondavi in Napa Valley. She crafts Textbook wines by keeping the lots separate, tasting them throughout the year, and then integrating the components to create balanced, complex wines that can be enjoyed independently or with various cuisines.
As Paso Robles, California has soared in number of wineries and gained in popularity, Cabernet Sauvignon has firmly taken root as the region’s number one varietal. Alone, it accounts for just over 40% of plantings and is grown throughout both the western and eastern sides of the appellation. Though viticulture here dates back to the 18th century, Cabernet Sauvignon didn’t emerge as a significant grape here until the 1970’s. But since then it has definitely made up for lost time.
Legendary winemaker and consultant Andre Tchelistcheff first recognized Paso’s potential with Cabernet Sauvignon in the early 1960’s. The calcareous soil and dramatic diurnal temperature changes of Paso’s westside particularly intrigued him. Today modern winemaking techniques and focused experimentation with various clones, rootstocks and vineyard strategies optimize the region's ideal combination of soil and climate to deliver the best fruit possible.
The results are evident in the glass. Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon can be mesmerizing, with rich aromas and flavors of blackberry, cassis, black cherry, graphite, toasty oak, vanilla and spice. The structure, balance and unbridled opulence of these wines impress from first sip to last. Not surprisingly, Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignons have steadily grown in reputation, not just in the U.S., but around the world.