Our Clesi Story

Tucked in between the rolling hills of the Templeton Gap AVA and surrounded by vegetable gardens and roaming chickens, Clesi Winery is open Thursday through Sunday in their Tasting Room at 1873 Templeton Road in Templeton. After more than a decade in San Luis Obispo, Adrienne and Chris Ferrara of Clesi bought 30 acres in 2015 to return to the Templeton AVA. The winery and tasting room were built and completed in May of 2017.

Clesi Wines GrapesClesi Wines Vineyard

It was just down the road in Templeton while working for another winery that Chris Ferrara and Adrienne Lindsay first met working harvest in 2002, and where Chris first fully realized his passion for exotic varietals while working under legendary winemaker Ken Volk. Today Clesi produces rare heirloom varieties like: Malvasia Bianca, Dolcetto, Sangiovese, Negro Amaro, Aglianico, Montepulciano and more. The estate ranch in Templeton has six acres of vines planted to Dolcetto, Sagrantino, Sangiovese, and Montepulciano.

Clesi Wines - Chris Ferrara

Like the Sicilian trinacria stamped on the label, the inspiration behind Clesi is a symbolic trifecta. Equal parts legacy, curiosity and culture, Chris brings his Sicilian-American farming roots, love of eccentric varietals and reverence for Italian culture into his winemaking process. Because of this, Clesi wines are elegant, food-focused and meant to be shared amongst family and friends.

Clesi Wines Chickens

When you come to the tasting room, you sit at an ancient redwood slab table and enjoy the wines with Chris and others as friends. This is intentional. While traveling through Italy, Chris and Adrienne had their eyes opened to the concept of convivio – shared life – and embrace visitors in this style. And when you leave, you may have tomato seeds in your teeth and a bottle under your arm whose name you may or may not be able to pronounce – but it will be filled with beautiful wine.

The property is more than just a winery and vineyard. Adrienne keeps sheep and chickens.  Chris tends to an organic garden and greenhouse that are more than an acre of production.  The winery is family-friendly and dog-friendly.

Clesi Timeline

2004

Donning an old family name, our first Clesi vintage was harvested with enough fruit for just 75 cases.

2007

We officially launched the wine club – even without a tasting room.

2009

We got married, celebrated with Clesi wines, and danced to “The Best is Yet to Come”.

2011

We opened the tasting room and opened our eyes to parenthood with the birth of our daughter, Anna.

2013

Another harvest and another baby! Anna was joined by her first brother, Joseph.

2015

We purchased 30 acres in Templeton with an idea for a winery and vineyard—just down the road from where we met while making wine in 2002. We welcomed a third baby a couple of months later, because “overdoing it” has become our mantra. Biagio joined Anna and Joseph, making a trio of future cellar hands.

2016

We built the road, poured the concrete, and erected the beams of the structure. We finally knew that we’d be able to call it a winery and new tasting room in 2017.

2017

We planted Dolcetto, Sangiovese and Montepulciano on our ranch, which is in the Templeton Gap sub-appellation of Paso Robles. We opened our “forever” winery at 1873 Templeton Road, Templeton, CA. We moved the chickens and the cats, barrels and equipment up to the ranch.

2018

We finished our first estate block by grafting Sagrantino from cuttings off the Siletto ranch. The block totals six acres with four different varieties.

2020

In the midst of the pandemic, we tended vines, shipped cases to customers, loaded trunks, made lots of food, and listened to lots of good music as a family. In mid-August, a fire started in Santa Cruz.  The smoke drifted down to the Central Coast.  Our first vintage on Montepulciano was smoke tainted, but the rest of the harvest was spared.  We bought a Dorper ewe and two lambs to graze the ranch.

2021

We harvested our first complete vintage from the estate, including a half acre parcel of fruits, vegetables, and herbs.  Beginning in 2021, our estate wine labels are black.  Our journey to making estate wines took 17 years, we thought it would be fun to mix up the look. We still work with outside vineyards, but we will keep those wines in the white label.

Also, in 2021, we got our first family dog. McCoy joined in May to help herd the sheep and chickens and generally bring fun to our lives. The kids at 6, 8, and 10 were overjoyed.

2022

We snuck in a family trip to Sicily visiting the town where Chris’s great grandfather was born.  We learned that his great grandmother, Anna Clesi, was from a milling family.  We tasted Nero d’avila from all over the island and fell in love with Frappato and Nerello Mascalese.  We ate caponata, arancini, and squid ink pasta.  The kids drank chinotto (and fanta).  Now, we have a piece of pottery featuring the trinacria in the tasting room to help explain our three-pointed logo on the bottle.

2023

It was a wet winter and we had some flooding on the front of ranch.  The Salinas river at the back of the ranch was raging from bank to bank.  It was wild, but also fun to see so much water.

2024

We planted another two acre block of Barbera and Nebbiolo.  We are trying two different trellising systems on this block.

2025

The winery is entering its 21 harvest.