"One barrel! All I wanted was one barrel and I got a winery," laments Cheryl Phillips, wife of Randy Phillips and co-owner of the Red Soles Winery in Paso Robles.

If Paso were the Hollywood of the wine world then Cheryl and Randy would be the Angelina and the Brad. They are the cool kids; the ones who stumbled, or rather stomped upon a barrel of grapes in their search for a new hobby and ended up with one of the most successful and welcoming wineries in the area. Venturing into the tasting room of their 200-acre lot in California’s famed agricultural mecca, one is struck with a sense of casual and unassuming glamour. The smooth stone floor and Mexican-stuccoed interior are resonant of the area’s native roots and complemented by a round, central wooden bar with Mission-style ironwork and it’s gracious hosts working side by side to ensure the comfort and counsel of every pilgrim that lands on their doorstep.

A few pours and several cheese-bites later (they had a delicious hunk of Gouda and Monterey Jack on a barrel at the front door and a rather addicting but anonymous sort of oyster cracker in goblets all around the bar) and you’re talking life-story with these guys. From their 7 years spent in Spain, to Randy’s business background and their son’s recent acceptance into Berkeley, it felt like we were shooting the breeze with old pals. No bullshit sales pitches. No silly spiel about keeping your commemorative Riedel glass for a $10 tasting fee that won’t be waved with purchase (a sad, but consistent detail at many of the Paso wineries). Just the Phillips and their grapes. And their feet- the left foot in the logo is an actual print of Randy’s wine soaked ped and the right belongs to Cheryl. All of their wines have names that make endearing reference to their nom de enterprise, from the 2004 Flip-Flop (bought this for my mom!) to the 2007 Loose-Laces Dry Rosé (80%Syrah/20% Viognier), to the Kick-Off, the Stiletto, the Blue Suede etc. You get the idea. Each of their reds was consistently complex, full-bodied and rich and after only a minor arm-twisting, we relented to tasting their whites, which were the most multi-faceted and satisfying of all the whites we sampled that weekend (a lot of similarly dry and flat Viognier and Chardonnay). Pardon my lack of wine-commenting vocabulary. It is being arduously fattened by a diet of tasting trips such as this, updating the lists at the restaurants I manage and picking my boyfriend’s endlessly large mental cache for the famed grapes. We smuggled the Bootlegger dessert wine (super jammy, clean- finish, late harvest syrah) back to our room that evening and had to agree that you could taste the spirit of these two entrepreneurial lovebirds in every dark, delicious sip of their well-crafted vintages. For despite their obvious accomplishments and a wealth of experience, these Red Soles bear evidence of nothing more than the most beautiful of souls.

And we can drink to that!