Bunny Slope Vineyard is located two miles west of highway 101 on San Marcos Road. This is the first of three properties in Paso Robles to be owned and planted by Rabbit Ridge Winery as well as the future site of their new winemaking facility. Erich Russell, the owner of Rabbit Ridge Winery, purchased this site in Paso Robles in 1997 in order to sell high quality fruit to local wineries. Erich is quite fond of traveling to Italy for his winemaking inspiration. Interestingly, Erich discovered that the darkest Nebbiolos, Sangioveses, and Barberas always come from vignas containing the highest quantities of limestone in the soil. Coincidentally, while discussing high density vineyard ideas with John Caldwell (the nursery and vineyard owner in Napa and consultant to Rabbit Ridge), Tim was encouraged to visit this nearby development. John is no stranger to high quality clonal/rootstock/winemaking research. Over the years John has participated in various winemaking trials in Napa County and published several editions of A Concise Guide To Wine Grape Clones For Professionals describing the winemaking qualities of French, Italian, and Californian clonal selections. Rabbit Ridge has planted the Estrella clone of Syrah on low vigor 101-14 and 3309C rootstocks in the gently rolling cobbley silty loam soils. This vertically shoot-positioned 6' X 5' vineyard (1442 vines per acre) produced 2000 bottles of wine in the 2000 vintage from a one acre block and 4800 bottles in the 2001 vintage from a nearby two acre block. Unfortunately Clos Mimi was unable to purchase grapes from Rabbit Ridge after the 2001 growing season. There is a velvety and very intriguing Burgundian quality to the wines produced from this property. The name Bunny Slope Vineyard was conceived based on the mild gradient to the vineyard's slope, its proprietorship, and the anecdotal fact that our daughter, Maggie, was born during the Chinese year of the rabbit.