Jeffrey Hevert, Co-Owner of Vinyl Vineyards, is a graduate of Claremont Mckenna College and UCLA’s MFA Film and TV program. He spent 15 years as a TV executive producer in Los Angeles before leaving entertainment to pursue a career in viticulture and enology. Since 2019, he has been honing his craft working at Alta Colina winery under the tutelage of winemaker Molly Lonborg, while building his own label Vinyl Vineyards, becoming a certified sommelier, building and opening a glampground resort on the vineyard, and expanding and rehabbing their 26 acre vineyard to Cabernet Sauvignon, Tempranillo, and Touriga Nacional varietals. Media Inquiries: jeff@vinylvin.com | https://vinylvin.com/
What’s the ONE THING most unique, authentic, memorable about your winery brand?
In 2020, just as COVID hit, my wife Dina and I left LA with our newborn, chasing a dream in Paso Robles. We lost our jobs, but not our drive—we built a glamp ground with restored vintage trailers and tipis named after legendary musical artists and inspired by “If you build it, they will come.” And they did! Business boomed; we hosted celebrity parties, went viral, and were flooded with reservations—until the county shut us down for improper permitting. Refusing to give up, we bought 120 acres of vineyard land that could legally host a campground.
Jeff went back to school for viticulture and enology and became a 40-year-old intern and cellar rat. Now, after years of permitting, building, and grit, we’re producing award-winning wine under our label, Vinyl Vineyards. Guests come for wine and stay for the authentic, restorative escape we dreamed of building. Vinyl Vineyards is an escape from the fast-paced modern world, offering guests a unique experience to stay in a vintage trailer, on a family-owned vineyard, while sipping our wine and spinning some vinyl.
Describe how and what you’d do with your winemaking career or winery business if you were not constrained. Sky’s the limit!
Two things… First and foremost, we would redevelop the 26-acre vineyard all at once, farming organically, and planting varietals most suited to our terroir in the Geneseo District of Paso Robles AVA. Paso Robles is made up of 11 sub-AVAs. Each is extremely unique in terms of its climate and soil type. Most farmers in the Geneseo District planted Bordeaux and Rhone varietals in the 1990s without giving it much thought. We are working with a few local growers by planting experimental blocks of varietals that are most suited to our unique sub-AVA. This process is time intensive and extremely expensive at a time when the overall wine industry is in a bit of a slump. Currently, most wine enthusiasts come to Paso for the Rhone’s on the West side in sub-AVAs like Willow Creek and Adelaida. There are some fantastic growers and winemakers there. But East Paso Robles and the other 9 sub-AVAs also have extremely unique terroirs and expressions. Because we’ve set down roots, figuratively and literally, we’d love to fast track the growth and promotion of our own. But if we can’t do it quickly, we’ll continue step by step and get there eventually!
Second, we’d love to expand our label’s connection to the music industry. We are working to host several concerts at Vinyl Vineyards next year. We think wine and music are a perfect pairing – especially live music. We’re working with local artists and few music industry reps in Los Angeles to bring small and intimate performances to our ranch next Spring and Summer. And eventually we’d like to build a recording studio in our winery to allow bands and musicians to be artists in residence while recording albums.
What is the One Wine most emblematic of your brand and/or winemaking style? Tell us its story.
Vinyl Vermentino. One delicious white wine. 100% single varietal from Geneseo, Paso Robles AVA. In keeping with our responses to the above questions, Vermentino loves our terroir. It holds its acid in the heat, ripens beautifully, and delivers an aromatic, zesty, and crisp expression that goes perfectly with a warm summer day or evening, seafood, and food with spice. We gave it 24 hours on skins, pressed and fined in tank, before fermenting in neutral French oak, where it was stirred every other week for mouth feel. Vermentino is one of the first grapes we “auditioned” to replant in our vineyard, and it’s performed. To celebrate our excitement, we went the extra mile and placed the David Bowie lightning bolt on the inner label as an homage to the artist and our first vintage trailer restoration a 1974 Avion trailer (which is extremely popular) themed after the artist. We are currently carried in several local restaurants including Michelin rated “In Bloom” and are nearly sold out of our first vintage. Our second vintage will be released in Feb 2025. It’s currently in barrel and the aromatics are better than the previous vintage! Check out the Vinyl Vineyards Vermentino wine review!
What are your wholehearted convictions related to the wine business? Not about your wines!
We are in a bit of a slump as an industry. We need a shakeup. No, Alcohol is not “good for you”. But sharing a glass of wine with family, friends, and community IS. I’m constantly bombarded by negative press regarding wine consumption and the industry. There are so many other products and daily activities that are just as bad for you if not worse that people do without giving it a second thought – and without the benefits! There needs to be a sea change in how wine is portrayed to the next generation. Nobody is promoting binge drinking, drunk driving, and addiction. Moderation and appreciation for craft, expression, tradition, communal experiences, and shared memories is where it’s at. That’s something we are trying to build at Vinyl Vineyards. And we truly believe our glampground / wine label experience can do that for the next generation of wine enthusiasts, travelers, and experience seekers.