Locals' Feature: Alex Villicana

Tech booms, AI revolutions, okay that’s all fine, but you wanna know what else is really cool? Being a pioneer in a world-famous industry that—in Paso Robles—remains solidly down to earth. When Alex Villicana established Villicana Winery in 1993, he clearly had grape expectations for Paso’s favorable viticulture climate; the winery was one of only 20 in Paso Robles at that time. Today, over 300 wineries crisscross Paso’s bucolic and mountainous landscape.

Alex and his wife Monica moved from Southern California to Paso Robles full-time several years later and in 2023 were voted Wine Industry People of the Year.

The innovation didn’t stop at Villicana’s limited-production premier wine. In the “spirit” of sustainability and a no-waste philosophy, they created Re:Find Distillery (Paso Robles’s first distillery, established in 2011).

The idea was to use the saignée (free run juice) that wineries woefully discard during winemaking, and use it to make all-natural spirits, like limoncello, cucumber vodka, and rye whiskey.

Taste for yourself when you visit Villicana Winery and Re:Find Distillery in Paso Robles. The tasting room is part of the working winery so you not only get to sip and sample and picnic, you also have a good chance of meeting Alex and Monica on-site and observing the process of making magic in a bottle.

Something we love about Paso Robles’s wine and spirit country is its roots-run-deep community vibes and humble, passionate, down-to-earth nature. We’ll drink to that!

Villicana Winery and Re:Find Distillery are a dream built from the ground up!

Listen to Weekend Sherpa’s podcast Take It Outside episode 67, "Spring into Summer” to hear our conversation with Alex Villicana.

Check out Weekend Sherpa’s feature on Paso Robles: Road Trip to Real California.