Austin Hope is a visionary. A very young visionary. He talks about wine the same way that Al Gore talks about global warming — with understated passion and conviction. He’s a winemaking man on a mission; to make and sell great wine for a fair price. So far so good.
Austin was born, coincidentally, in my own hometown of Bakersfield, Calif., into a farming family. At the young age of 7, Austin’s family pulled up roots (literally) in 1978 and moved 90 minutes due west, to the town of Paso Robles, where Austin was put to work in the vineyards and apple orchards that his father, Chuck, bought. Chuck sold one piece of land, then bought a few more, and continued the practice until the Hope family became one of the largest suppliers of bulk wine in the state.
