Longtime Central Coast Winemaker Establishes Modern Winery in Paso’s Tin City Annex
December 6th – Paso Robles, CA – Winemaker and founder, Orion Stang has launched Emercy Wines in the Paso Robles appellation of California’s Central coast. He is joined by business partner and co-founder Richard Crockett, and his wife, Tracy, owners of Ladron Cellars in Colorado.
Stang, who held successful winemaking stints at Booker Vineyards, Law Estate and Dilecta, in Paso Robles, will helm winemaking duties at Emercy Wines, located along Paso’s Tin City urban wine trail. Colorado-based winemaker and co-founder, Richard Crockett, will continue to make wines at Ladron Cellars. Stang was made partner at Ladron Cellars when Emercy was founded.
Emercy Wines is a collection of varietal wines sourced from coveted sites throughout the Central Coast, including Bien Nacido Vineyards (Santa Barbara County), and G2 and Full Draw Vineyards (Paso Robles), among other esteemed designates. The Emercy collection of wines will be available direct-to-consumer and in the wholesale sector in select markets.
The wines are identified by a series of visually arresting labels by artists Betty and Harry Wick, Stang’s mother and uncle respectively. Fanciful names identify each wine, including “Enter the Void,” “Enshroud,” and “Beyond the Veil.” Stang describes the process of naming these wines as “intuitive and creative. Essentially, it’s just me and the wines and some really great music and a lot of time. I’ll just sit with the label artwork for a while, find a song that seems to match it, and then just wait for a name to come along. It’s a spiritual process.”
The Emercy tasting room is cosmopolitan in tone, possessing a modern, understated sensibility. A sleek members lounge is tucked away from public view, while a welcoming, open environment greets guests as they enter. A striking, large black and white mural of a vineyard setting, painted on-site by Betty Wick, extends across the width of the tasting room, while behind the tasting bar is a bird fashioned from wrought iron and brass. An identical bird is tattooed onto Stang’s neck. “My grandmother, Emercy, loved to garden with her late husband, my grandfather. Now, when Emercy is gardening, if she sees a bird, she believes it’s the spirit of my granddad, come to say hello to her. The bird seemed a fitting logo for the brand and a tribute to a remarkable woman,” Stang says.
Stang, who studied the culinary arts and held a cooking stage in Italy, conceptualized the tasting room as a gathering place of sorts, with ample indoor and outdoor seating. Stang and members of his team park their motorcycles just inside the tasting room entrance, infusing the hospitality environment at Emercy with a casual, California grit.
To learn more about Emercy Wines, please visit: https://emercywines.com/
