Decemil Estate Wines
Get the Dirt from owner/winemaker Jerry Ulrich
“We are making wine to show the expression of our favorite varieties from our property where we “control” the viticulture as well. We’re intending to stay small and like the idea of growing and making a product end-to-end.”
What was your first vintage year? Our first vintage was in 2022.
How many cases do you make per vintage? We make around 700 cases per vintage.
Do you have a Tasting Room? Yes, we just opened in downtown Paso Robles in September 2025. Open Thursday through Monday 11AM-6PM (until 7PM on Fri & Sat) for walk-ins and reservations (www.decemilwines.com/visit)
If not you, who is your winemaker? I share the duties with my consulting winemaker Kevin Jussila and Assistant Winemaker Curren Du Beau (both from kukkula).
What wine/grape made you want to become a winemaker/start your own winery?
Grenache and Syrah – it’s a toss-up.
What varietals do you work with? Which varietal/wine is your favorite to make?
We have 2 clones of Grenache, 2 clones of Syrah and 1 Mourvèdre on the estate. It’s fun to make (or attempt to make) a 100% Mourvèdre, 2024 will be the first vintage that we’ve been satisfied with the resulting wine at 100% (2022 and 2023 were Mourvèdres with some help form Syrah or Grenache).
What vineyards do you source from?
All estate from our 5 acres in the northwest corner of the Paso Robles Willow Creek District. Based on experience with other wines from the west side, we felt that GSMs were very well suited for our sub-AVA with Calcareous and clay loam soils and more moderate temps than the east side of Paso. We are making wine to show the expression of our favorite varieties from our property where we “control” the viticulture as well. We’re intending to stay small and like the idea of growing and making a product end-to-end.
What type of oak treatment do you use?
French oak with a mixture of 228L barrels and 500L puncheons. Our new component typically varies between 0% and 25% - a tight grained light-to-medium toast for around 16 months total. We like the softening and flavor influence, but also want the effect matched to the variety. We’re thinking about a bigger new oak with extended age versionn for one of our 2025 Syrah lots (which we think holds up well to the oak).
What do you love about your winemaking region?
Down-to-earth people!
What’s the story behind your winery name / label?
Like many, we went through several iterations because many good name ideas were already taken or trademarked and other suggestions didn’t inspire. We luckily landed with a beautiful name that was much better than the initial iterations. We have just over 10,000 vines on our 5 acres and after a while, I was going to settle on “10,000 Vines Cellars”. Amazingly (fortunately) a guy in Buffalo had this name trademarked. So we went to a Roman numeral version – an “X” with a line over the top stands for 10,000. No trademark issue, but when searching “X Vines Cellars” for social media names, Google search brought back a few porn sites….so another iteration later, the Latin words for ten (decem) and thousand (mille) combined for that beautiful result “Decemil”.
What’s the one thing you wish someone had told you about the wine business before you started your own winery?
People did tell me (“don’t do it”) but we still did it…….
What’s so great about being small? What can you do as a small winemaker that wouldn’t be possible for larger wineries?
I can honestly share my story and the details of experiences with each vintage, variety and lot in my tasting room and see the responses (mostly positive?) from our wine tasting customers. On the other hand, being this small requires you cover every aspect of the business and the lack of resources that a larger winery has can be frustrating (let alone challenging).
How do you view the future in the wine industry for small-lot winemakers?
Challenges will prevail. For established producers it will be replacing the churn among those who have been long-time followers. For both new and established producers, it’s the challenge of getting noticed in a sea of social media posts and trying to offer “experiences” that some pundits say are critical to today’s wine consumers. And larger producers have the definite advantage in offering experiences other than the authenticity that small producers can.
Do you ever get tired of drinking your own wine?
Never, but I also enjoy tasting other makers comparable (competing?) wines - especially Grenache, Syrah and other GSMs.
If you could choose another wine region to work in, what would it be?
Santa Barbara
For more information about Decemil Estate, please visit their website or follow them on Instagram.