Meet Ted Ross | Vintner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ted Ross and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I enjoyed a 30+ year career in marketing services – primarily digital media. Over the course of my career, I focused on two things: my professional success and raising successful, responsible children. I did very little “giving” or at least not enough to be proud of. The excuse of convenience I made to myself – for years – was that someday I would retire and at that point would have the time to find a way to help others.

My “put up or shut up” opportunity arrived when I chose Paso Robles as a place to move to and retire. After a handful of years of helping good friends launch their wine brand, they invited me to start making wine with them for my own label. I opened Hayseed and Housdon in 2019 when my first vintage of wines was ready to sell. On day one we committed to share profits 50/50 from the sale of our wines with various local nonprofit organizations that look after members of the community that we care about.

One can’t split profits unless they have profits to split, however, so we work very hard to run our business profitably which is not always easy. Start-up costs associated with a winery are significant, Despite that, we have managed to raise tens of thousands of dollars for our various nonprofit partners since opening less than four years ago. While I am very proud of this, I recognize I waited a long, long time before sharing much of my focus on anyone other than myself.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Paso Robles is all about wine, of course, but wine lovers love wonderful food as well. Hence, we have an abundance of fantastic restaurants in Paso – particularly given the small size of our town (population ~ 32,000 people). Most of them are quite difficult to get into on weekend evenings, so I’d start planning the itinerary by locking in some dinner reservations. I’d include il Cortile on 12th Street, Le Petite Canilles on Spring, Thomas Hill Organics on Park Street and BL Brasserie at Pine and 12th. Though wine and wine tasting at a handful of Paso’s 200+ wineries would fill up a lot of the itinerary I’d make sure to spend time at our newest speakeasy: Remedy. What they are doing with mixology in this tiny little “bar within a bar” can be likened to alchemy. In fact, Remedy is located within The Alchemists Garden – which itself has an amazing bar and delicious food. To complete a uniquely Paso experience for my best friend I’d make sure to visit Sensorio – a literal 20+ acre field of lights designed by artist Bruce Munro – which is just on the outskirts of town. It’s remarkable.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
The eight local nonprofit organizations that we support: Operation Surf, Paso Cares, CASA of San Luis Obispo County, 805UndocuFund, Wine4Paws, Share Aloha Project, Lighthouse and Lumina Alliance.

Website: https://hayseedandhousdon.com

Instagram: @hayseedwine

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hayseedwine/