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Hippie Hill 2023: The Art & Meaning Behind It All

Mourvèdre: A Grape That Rewards Time and Trust

Mourvè­dre has long been used as a sup­port­ing play­er, it’s a grape that asks more of both the grow­er and the drinker — but gives gen­er­ous­ly in return.

Thriv­ing in warm cli­mates with long grow­ing sea­sons, Mourvè­dre ripens late and devel­ops slow­ly. In years when fall storms come ear­ly and heat comes late, this vari­ety of grape can be a farmer’s night­mare. When up to the chal­lenge, Mourvé­dre deliv­ers wine with deep col­or, savory com­plex­i­ty, and a ground­ing sense of place when you can almost taste the ter­roir in every drop. Its nat­ur­al struc­ture and earthy char­ac­ter make it espe­cial­ly well-suit­ed to Paso Rob­les, where warm days and cool evenings allow the grape to retain fresh­ness while offer­ing a depth unri­valed by many grapes.

At Thibido, Mourvè­dre has become a qui­et cor­ner­stone that aligns nat­u­ral­ly with our approach: patient farm­ing, min­i­mal inter­fer­ence, and an appre­ci­a­tion for wines that unfold over time rather than announce them­selves all at once. A beau­ti­ful wine that often shows beau­ti­ful­ly when first bot­tled and con­tin­ues to shine with a few years of cellaring.

From the Thibido Vineyard, CCOF Certified Organic

The fruit for Hip­pie Hill 2023 comes entire­ly from our CCOF Cer­ti­fied Organ­ic Thibido Vine­yard in the Wil­low Creek Dis­trict of Paso Rob­les — a site that con­tin­ues to show increas­ing matu­ri­ty and bal­ance with each vin­tage. Plant­ed in 2019, the 2023 vintage 

offered ide­al con­di­tions for the grow­ing sea­son, and grapes reached opti­mal ripeness while main­tain­ing acid, struc­ture, and col­or. From a final­ly mature vine­yard, to an opti­mal sea­son, the 2023 vin­tage is the best yet! It takes many hands and hearts to grow great fruit and we are hand-hoing weeds, hand prun­ing vines, leaf pulling nad hand har­vest­ing every step of the way. When we final­ly har­vest the fruits of our labor, we apply metic­u­lous hand har­vest­ing which allows for care­ful selec­tion and ensures that only the best fruit makes it into the winery.

This vin­tage reflects a vine­yard com­ing into its own — con­fi­dent, expres­sive, and deeply con­nect­ed to its place.

Native Fermentation & Gentle Guidance

Once picked, the grapes are fer­ment­ed in open-top fer­menters using native yeasts, allow­ing the vineyard’s nat­ur­al micro­bi­ol­o­gy to shape the wine. Gen­tle hand punch-downs guide extrac­tion slow­ly and inten­tion­al­ly, build­ing struc­ture with­out over­whelm­ing the fruit.

After press­ing, the wine was aged in a com­bi­na­tion of new and neu­tral French oak bar­rels, cho­sen to enhance tex­ture and struc­ture while pre­serv­ing the wine’s ener­gy and savory character.

The final blend — 61% Mourvè­dre, 17% Syrah, 13% Zin­fan­del, and 9% Grenache — brings har­mo­ny and dimen­sion. Mourvè­dre anchors the wine with depth and earth, while Syrah adds lift, Zin­fan­del brings gen­eros­i­ty, and Grenache con­tributes bright­ness and approachability.

In the Glass: Bold, Earthy, and Welcoming

Hip­pie Hill pours with a medi­um to dark pur­ple core, imme­di­ate­ly sig­nal­ing depth. Aro­mas unfold in lay­ers: black­ber­ry, anise, smoked meats, and choco­late-cov­ered cher­ries, ground­ed by notes of crushed stone and earth.

On the palate, the wine is full and round­ed, burst­ing with straw­ber­ries, blue­ber­ries, cher­ry, and sub­tle spice. Savory under­tones of cof­fee and smoked meat add intrigue, while mild, pol­ished tan­nins pro­vide struc­ture with­out heav­i­ness. The fin­ish is long and slight­ly dry­ing, lin­ger­ing with rich, savory com­plex­i­ty. It’s bold with­out being aggres­sive — a wine that feels con­fi­dent, gen­er­ous, and deeply satisfying.

The Label: Creative Freedom

The label art­work was a dead­line under pres­sure sit­u­a­tion in which we need­ed art, and Thibido own­er, Gib­sey Beck­ett, put pen to paper and pulled images from the vine­yard and the nat­ur­al sur­round­ing envi­ron­ment to cre­ate an orig­i­nal piece. The art­work fea­tures a ren­di­tion of the old ​“hip­pie shack”, a ceram­ic stu­dio built by the pre­vi­ous own­ers to cre­ate art and take in the views. Addi­tion­al­ly, there are gnarled old vines, sprays of sun­shine and Cal­i­for­nia pop­pies nes­tled into the art­work. The old Hip­pie Shack is a reminder of days past, and over­looks the 1.8 block of Mourvé­dre on the estate vine­yard where Hip­pie Hill originates.

A Wine Made for the Table

Hip­pie Hill shines along­side hearty, fla­vor­ful dishes:

  • Grilled filet mignon with rosemary
  • Rich mush­room pas­ta or lentil ragù
  • A slow-sim­mered stew
  • Or the per­fect smash burg­er hot off the grill

Limited Production, A Spirited Wine

Hip­pie Hill is pro­duced in lim­it­ed quan­ti­ties, often few­er than 65 cas­es, and shaped by such a hands-on process.

Join­ing our mem­ber­ship pro­gram is the best way to secure access to these lim­it­ed wines while enjoy­ing up to a 20% dis­count on wine pur­chas­es year round. Mem­bers also enjoy pri­or­i­ty access to new releas­es, invi­ta­tions to pri­vate events host­ed by Gib­sey & Josh, and extend­ed com­pli­men­ta­ry tast­ings for up to four addi­tion­al guests.

Hip­pie Hill is a mind­set as much as a wine — root­ed, cre­ative, a lit­tle rebel­lious, and deeply wel­com­ing. It’s a reminder that some of the best things take time. 

This 23 vin­tage is almost sold out and we can’t wait to intro­duce you to the 2024 vin­tage arriv­ing late April 2026.

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