Who is the Rabbit

"The Rabbit"

Founder and winemaker Erich Russell earned his nickname "The Rabbit" as a world-class runner in college. After graduation he took a teaching job, making wine in his spare time. Erich's winemaking talents were unmistakable and his entry into an amateur winemaking contest in 1979 won him a job at Chateau St. Jean. In 1981, Erich opened Rabbit Ridge Winery in Healdsburg, growing throughout the 1980's and 1990's to become one of the top wineries in Sonoma County.

In the mid 1990's Erich observed that Sonoma County's vineyards and raw agricultural land were being sold at elevated prices. Wineries or vineyards that paid these extraordinary prices were forced to either charge unreasonably high prices for wine or increase grape tonnage to levels as high as eight to ten tons per acre (which adversely impacts wine quality).

In an effort to continue Rabbit Ridge's commitment to producing high quality wines at affordable prices, Erich began looking for prime vineyard land elsewhere. His travels took him to Paso Robles where he spent a week viewing the area and tasting wine with local wineries out of the barrel and the bottle. He realized the huge potential of the west side of Paso Robles where the climate is cooler than the Dry Creek Valley of Sonoma. However, this area had something that neither Sonoma nor Napa had - limestone soil just like the best vineyards of Italy and France.

As Erich started spending more and more time in Paso Robles he fell in love with the area and decided he would make it his home and new winery site. In 1996, Erich began buying land on the west side of Paso Robles and in 1997 his first vineyards were planted. Erich believes this area of limited water and shallow, rugged, rocky, calcareous soils will produce some of the finest wines not only in Paso Robles but in all of California. Today, all three of Rabbit Ridge's producing vineyards are planted on the west side of Paso Robles. In May of 2003, Rabbit Ridge celebrated the grand opening of their 55,000 square foot state-of-the-art winery on San Marcos Road in west Paso Robles.