About Clos Solène Winery
Guillaume Fabre, a sixth-generation winemaker from a Languedoc grape-growing family, came to Paso Robles in 2004 for what was supposed to be a three-month harvest internship at L'Aventure under Stephan Asseo, the godfather of Paso's French contingent. The internship became an assistant winemaker post, and Paso's limestone soils struck Fabre like the same coup de foudre he'd felt on meeting Solene, the woman he'd left behind in Europe. He mailed her a ticket and a promise: come to California and he would build her a clos of her own. She came in 2007, the year two barrels became the first vintage of Clos Solene.
Fabre made wine nights and weekends at L'Aventure until 2014, when the label demanded his full attention, and in 2017 the couple purchased the former Pipestone Vineyard in the Willow Creek District, a secluded 17-acre estate where the family now lives among the vines. The wines, roughly 90 percent Rhone-inspired blends like Harmonie, Fleur de Solene and Hommage a Nos Pairs, plus cuvees named for the couple's three children, marry French restraint with Paso generosity and have earned a devoted following. Fabre also makes Benom with his brother Arnaud. Private, seated tastings overlook the estate vineyard by appointment.
