Paul Clifton: Keeping Hahn On Course

March 25, 2022 – Nobody seems more surprised than Paul Clifton himself that he’s been at the original anchor winery of the Santa Lucia Highlands for 18 years now. After skiing wherever he could find snow, this lover of the Great Outdoors traded in a firefighting career to follow his passion for winemaking. Along the way, he apprenticed under the legendary Don Blackburn at Bernardus, following him to Byington in 1999.  The siren song of Pinot Noir then drew him to New Zealand, where he earned a postgraduate degree in viticulture. In 2003, he came back home to the Monterey area and joined Hahn as winemaker.

One of the attractions was getting back to surfing his home ocean. He still tries to get out at Moss Landing every week, only this year, with the maniacal high pressure and constant offshore winds, the fog has fled, and with it the moderate temperatures of old. “It’s just been so cold!” he says, “And there haven’t been any decent swells.” Surfing season is about wrapping up: it typically goes from September through March, so he expects to do some spring skiing in the Sierra’s where his family has a cabin. He used to live at Lake Tahoe, and had always dreamed of returning and retiring there at some point, but the place has been forever altered. “So many Bay Area people have moved up there since the pandemic,” he says. “There is no infrastructure to support all the people living there now!” Housing prices have skyrocketed and ski resorts can’t hire people to work because there is no place for them to live. It’s effectively the goose killing its golden egg. He thinks about Costa Rica, another place where Americans are buying homes in droves. “It’s warmer there— and good surfing!”  

The grass may always be greener somewhere else, but for Clifton, the job at Hahn has been a constant reward. Nicky was a generous and encouraging boss from the outset, and Clifton loved not just the job, but the people who came with it, especially the Hahn family, with whom he still keeps in very close touch. 

For nearly two decades, the world has ebbed and flowed, the seasons have come and gone, there have been years of pestilence, drought and fire: sometimes all at once. These are the things that forge the true mettle of a man, and Clifton has the kind of inner strength, grit and sense of direction that makes a true leader. He was named general manager in 2017. 

Epic challenges can force a team to bond like nothing else. Among that team, Clifton is fortunate to count winemaker Juan Jo Verdina, who was already at Hahn when he joined, along with Megan McCollough, who started in 2011 and was promoted to winemaker in charge of Smith & Hook in 2017, and Patrick Headley, director of viticulture.

The pandemic had many downsides, but for Hahn and Clifton, it was an opportunity to turn fear and uncertainty into a sense of hope. “Not one person was let go, not even in the tasting rooms,” Clifton says. “We put people to work in the fields. They learned to prune. Everyone had a job to do and we all did it every single day. It gave us purpose and focus, and we developed a camaraderie that is really special. It helped us through.” 

And then, the fires hit. “We didn’t harvest a single Pinot Noir grape. We dropped it all. We lost 400 acres of fruit. We had to write off our entire farming costs: millions of dollars worth. It was hard.” He pauses for a moment, the gravity of the memory weighing on his slight frame. But then, his cautious optimism shines through. “When the very first fires broke out, I saw what was happening, and immediately started buying on the bulk market before the prices started to go sky high. I could see what was coming. Live and learn.” 

He and his team immediately began shifting wines from one program to another, using some timely market acquisitions to fulfill channel obligations.

They were lucky, though, to eke out some Grenache and Pinot Noir from Arroyo Seco vineyards for their fairly new Arroyo Seco Series. Due to its popularity, that series is being ramped up now and Clifton expects volume to grow to 20k cases of Pinot Noir in the 2021 vintage, along with 10k each of Chardonnay and the GSM. (The latter was a Best of Class winner at the recent L.A. Times Competition, and was chosen to compete in the Sweepstakes round.)

The fruit they did harvest in 2020 was carefully picked and rigorously tested for smoke taint. They took extra measures like flash détente to mitigate impact. Still, there were a few lots of Cabernet that tasted a bit off to Verdina. Clifton credits his incredible sensory skills for ferreting out a potential problem. Says Clifton, “He’s an awesome guy. Supersensitive palate. We tasted through all the barrels in December, and he found something he didn’t like in some of the barrels of Cab from a vineyard in the Arroyo Seco Gap, so we had the identified smoke markers removed.” The wine, which has subsequently rested in a new barrel, is remarkably alive, with no trace of stripping. It will go into the Smith & Hook program. 

Verdina, who started at Hahn in 2002, hails from Chile. He started off in the cellar, then moved to the lab, then the bottling line and then became assistant winemaker. He then worked at a Chilean winery with which Hahn had a joint venture, before returning to Hahn in 2011. 

Viewed in the rearview mirror, even after the immense losses of 2020, the support of wine loving club members really helped bolster the bottom line. 

“We actually came out ok,” says Clifton. “Between the government PPP and the sudden spike in retail (DTC) sales, we almost made a profit.” This, in spite of losing every single grape they usually sell, and most of the ones they need for their own inventory.

Fortunately, the harvest of 2021 came through with flying colors. It was a good yield and every single vineyard is showing beautifully in barrel.  What a different a year makes. “It was a really nicely-paced vintage,” says Clifton. “Everything was spread out perfectly. We just finished tasting all the Pinots, and they are fantastic! The Chardonnays are still undergoing ML, but so far, everything is looking really good.” 

Clifton is happy to be making another vintage of Orchestral, his massal Pinot Noir project that was begun in 2012. Initially done by planting random cuttings from different clones from the various vineyards they own in the Lone Oak Vineyard, they are now using virus-free wood to install a new Orchestral block in Doctor’s Vineyard. Some virused vines have been particularly vulnerable to the invasion of mealy bugs that they were fighting last year. If it’s not smoke, it’s insects. Farming. 

And then there’s the subject of tasting rooms, once something he shied away from, preferring the company of wines in the cellar. But it all comes with the territory. 

“I never thought I’d be running the winery,” Clifton admits with a gesture that mixes disbelief with a modicum of bemusement that stops just short of an eyeroll. “Especially the tasting rooms!” After years of trying to manage them remotely out of Napa, with less than stellar results, they are finally operating smoothly, without drama. He credits a great staff that understands customer service first and foremost. And, no drama. 

That, and a consistently good product line to sell that gets better every year.

Clifton and his team are definitely doing something right, because all those spreadsheets are pointing to a very positive trend. “We’re on track to have the best year ever in our history,” he states, with a smile that is anything but self-congratulatory: it’s more like a prayer of gratitude and relief. 

One gets the feeling he uses a compass for a rosary.