November 16th, 2009

"WINE DJ", THE NEW LIBERTY SCHOOL iPHONE APP FROM HOPE FAMILYWINES LAUNCHES AS THE FIRST APP TO HIT THE WINE AISLE
Retail Program Geared Towards Millennials Offers "Music to Match Your Spirits"

(November 16, 2009; Paso Robles, CA)—Hope Family Wines, a family-run wine producer with over 30 years of grape growing experience in Paso Robles, is inviting consumers to drink to a new beat. Today Winemaker and President Austin Hope announced the launch of Wine DJ, the Liberty School iPhone application created to build a playlist of “Music to Match Your Spirits” based on mood, setting and which Liberty School wine is being consumed. The app is available for download free via Apple’s app store and on Apple’s iTunes.

Click here to read Wine DJ Press Release

 

July 17 , 2009

Austin Hope named Winemaker of the Year
2009 California Mid-State Fair, San Luis Obispo County Wine Industry Awards

PASO ROBLES, CA (July 16, 2009) –Austin Hope was named Winemaker of the Year at the San Luis Obispo Wine Industry Awards last Thursday at the Paso Robles Event Center, leading up to the California Mid-State Fair. The award was presented by the Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance in partnership with the Independent Grape Growers of Paso Robles, the San Luis Obispo Vintners Association and past award recipients.

Hope oversees winemaking for the entire Hope Family Wines portfolio – Treana, Liberty School, Westside, Austin Hope and Candor wines. Austin Hope is a third- generation California farmer and a first-generation winemaker. He began working in his family’s Paso Robles vineyards at the age of eight. Pioneers in the region, the Hope family planted vineyards in Paso Robles in 1978.

“That fact that other winemakers decide who gets this award makes it so special. It’s very humbling to receive this award” said Hope, who also thanked the work of the winemaking staff.

Winners were nominated and voted on by their peers for their leadership in California’s third largest wine region, San Luis Obispo County. Past winners include Ken Volk, Chuck Ortman and Stephan Asseo.

Immersed in the world of farming and winemaking throughout his childhood, Austin expanded his knowledge by attending California Polytechnic, earning a degree in fruit science. He gained hands on experience from traveling abroad and working for Chuck Wagner of Caymus Vineyards. These experiences prepared him to take over as president of Treana and head winemaker in 1998.

Since then, Austin has continued to expand on the vision of his family and build it into the prolific and well respected winery that it is today. Most recently, Austin renamed the company Hope Family Wines to clearly establish the relationship between all five of the company’s brands, Treana, Liberty School, Austin Hope, Candor and Westside. He has also continued to pursue his passion to experiment with old and new world winemaking philosophies by using techniques that enhance fruit and structure while maintaining quality and varietal correctness. A newly built tasting room opened in early 2009 on the vineyard in Paso Robles to showcase the Austin Hope and Treana brands.

To download this article, please click here.

 

March 26 , 2009

Wine Notes:Austin Hope and Hope Family Wines
Winery’s philosophy is simple
Janis Switzer
The Tribune, San Luis Obispo

Over the past 12 years, Austin Hope has been quietly growing his family’s winery business into the third largest producer in Paso Robles. Along the way he has broken with many of the conventional rules in the industry, by always keeping his focus on what consumers really want in a bottle of wine.

“They simply want a great bottle of wine that looks good, tastes good and is priced right,” Hope said.

The Tribune - Austin Hope, president of Hope Family Wines,
has open a new tasting room to showcase their wines like,
Liberty School, Treana, Candor, and Austin Hope lables.

That basic philosophy has led to the development of four distinct brands of wine, at four distinct price points. Liberty School, Treana, Austin Hope and most recently, Candor, are all under the new company name of Hope Family Wines. Yet even with all these brands, the company only makes nine different wines.

“Too many times in the past I’ve seen brands hurt by trying to put too many wines in one brand,” Hope explains. His strategy is for each brand to have a singular focus, such as just two high-end red Rhône varieties under his Austin Hope label. In doing this, it’s possible for a restaurant or retailer to have all of the Hope brands on its wine list and not overlap wines or price points.

“We look at it as a one-stop shop,” he explains. “We want to be able to provide very high quality wines at very good prices.” In many ways, he and his family have been ahead of their time because his father, Chuck, was one of the first pioneers to plant grapes in Paso Robles back in 1978. Austin started working those vineyards when he was 8 years old, and after earning his degree at Cal Poly in fruit science, has been the head winemaker for the family’s wineries since 1998. When the family started the Treana label in 1996, Hope said most customers couldn’t understand paying $25 for a bottle that was just labeled “White.” The only other wine under the brand was Treana Red at $40. Both were Rhône blends, and both were inspired by the great Rhône wines of France.

“We’ve always been committed to building things the way we want to build them,” Hope said. “Sometimes success doesn’t come right away, sometimes it takes time.” In the case of Treana, success finally did come. After multiple industry accolades and widespread customer demand, he says, “Now we’ve created a category, and we’re the largest white Rhône producer in California. We can’t make enough right now.”

The latest project for Hope is Candor, a label that also has just two wines under its name, a merlot and a zinfandel. The concept grew from Hope’s frustration over how those two varietals were being made in California and his goal of creating “straightforward wines, which bring out the true varietal characteristics of each grape.” To this end, he mixes two vintages together in one bottle, creating a wine that has both the freshness of a young vintage and the aged component of an older wine. The name stems from “truth and honesty in winemaking.” The workhorse of Hope Family Wines is Liberty School, a value-priced brand that has distribution in all 50 states, as well as Canada, Germany and Japan. It is currently the number one imported red wine in Quebec, and annual production exceeds 250,000 cases.

Up until now, there was no place to taste and experience any of the Hope Family wines. “We’ve been flying pretty much under the radar,” Hope said. That changed last week when Hope opened his new tasting room on the west side of Paso Robles, on the Hope Family Vineyards property on Live Oak Road. He will primarily showcase his Treana and Austin Hope brands there, but during events and festivals all brands will be poured. The tasting room itself is an open, somewhat stark place. You know it’s all about the wines here, with two huge room dividers built in the shape of wine barrels. Windows cut into the walls look liked framed photos of the ever-changing vineyards behind them. Designed by San Luis Obispo architect Garth Kornreich, Hope said he knew the design would be controversial.

“It was one of those things that we thought would turn out really cool,” Hope smiled, “or people would say, ‘What the hell were they thinking?’”

Just in time for summer sipping.  See what the critics are saying about our elegant
Rhône-style blend of Viognier and Marsanne.