Bill Sheffer, Consulting Winemaker
Winemaker, Bill Sheffer, has made wine in Paso Robles, as well as in leading wine regions throughout the world, for over 25 years.
In the early 1980s, when the Paso Robles wine region was just beginning to be recognized for its high-quality grapes and wines, Bill began work at the historic Estrella River Winery. He moved on to assistant winemaker positions at both Adelaida Cellars and J. Lohr Winery, before serving for seven years as head winemaker at Eberle Winery.
Looking to learn more from different perspectives, Bill followed his adventurous spirit and ultimately gained invaluable experience at well-known southern hemisphere wineries such as Viña Santa Rita in Chile, Rapara Road Vintners in New Zealand, and La Viña Winery in Valencia, Spain.
Bill joined the Halter Ranch Team as Winemaker in 2006 and served in that role through March 2011 when current winemaker, Kevin Sass came aboard. In his current role is consulting winemaker Bill will lead the move into our new production facility during the summer of 2011. Bill is responsible for the overall design of the new winery processing area, equipment procurement and installation.
Bill’s approach to wine making is to tailor a wine’s style to the character of the fruit the vineyard gives him; wines that are fully evocative of their variety and place. In the case of Halter Ranch, he remains true to his method, as he transforms the superb fruit into richly flavored wines with bright acidity and a refreshing vein of minerality.
Bill will remain with the Halter Ranch assisting with the winemaking team through Harvest 2011.