Women Behind Paso Robles Wine Making
JUSTIN Leading by Example
May 25, 2026
At JUSTIN Vineyards & Winery, women are shaping every dimension of what this winery produces – from the wine in your glass to the food on your plate to the community grants funding classrooms across Paso Robles.
JUSTIN is shaped by a team of remarkable women at every level. Here we spotlight three whose work as a winemaker, a MICHELIN-Starred chef, and a community leader captures what makes this place unlike any other.
Key Takeaways
- Women make up just 14% of California’s lead winemakers, yet women-led wineries account for 27% of Wine Enthusiast’s Top 100 California selections (Santa Clara University, 2025).
- JUSTIN Winemaker Taryn Salazar crafted JUSTIN’s first nationally distributed Chardonnay – a milestone 38 years in the making.
- Chef Rachel Haggstrom leads the only winery restaurant in the world with a MICHELIN Star, MICHELIN Green Star, Forbes Five-Star, and AAA Five Diamond rating, earning the MICHELIN distinction four consecutive years alongside a Green Star for sustainability.
- Community leader Molly Scott has directed more than $2.1 million in grants to Paso Robles nonprofits and mentors women in local viticulture (GlobeNewswire, 2025).
The Reality for Women in the Wine Industry
The wine industry has long been shaped by women – from Madame Clicquot, who revolutionized Champagne in the early 1800s, to the trailblazers who broke through California’s glass ceiling in the 1960s and ’70s.
The numbers, though, tell a more complicated story.
Only about 14% of California’s 4,200-plus wineries have a woman serving as lead winemaker (Santa Clara University, 2025). Nationally, women make up roughly 17.8% of U.S. winemakers (Bureau of Labor Statistics/Zippia). And at the highest levels of the culinary world, only about 6% of head chefs at MICHELIN-Starred restaurants are women (Chef’s Pencil).
Here’s what makes those numbers so striking: women are consistently driving an outsized share of the industry’s best work.
Women-led wineries accounted for 27% of California’s selections in Wine Enthusiast’s Top 100 in 2024 – despite representing just 14% of lead winemakers (Santa Clara University, 2025). Women also represent nearly 60% of wine buyers in the U.S. (Beverage Information Group).
The rise of women in winemaking mirrors what’s been true all along: women have always had exceptional palates and vision. At JUSTIN, we don’t follow trends in championing women – we follow the talent.
Inside the Cellar with Taryn Salazar
Taryn Salazar grew up on California’s Central Coast, surrounded by vineyards and the agricultural rhythms of a region that shaped her long before she had a name for it. Today, she’s raising her own family in the same landscape that raised her.
“Growing up on the Central Coast, wine was always the backdrop of my life,” she says. “I knew I loved being in the lab and studying the science, but I also couldn’t see myself stuck at a desk all day. I needed to be outdoors.”
That love of both lab and landscape led her to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, home to the largest undergraduate wine program in the country and now the site of the JUSTIN and J. Lohr Center for Wine and Viticulture. A global viticulture class her freshman year sealed the path. She graduated with a degree in Wine and Viticulture, spent a semester abroad in Adelaide, Australia, and returned with a global perspective on Southern Hemisphere winemaking she still draws from today.
Her career began in the Edna Valley, working harvests with pinot noir and chardonnay. From there, she moved to Paso Robles as an enologist, and eventually to JUSTIN, where she now serves as Senior Manager of Winemaking Operations.
It’s a role that puts her at the center of everything. Harvest timing. Picking decisions. Drain and press. Blending. She oversees the lab, cellar, and bottling teams that carry each wine from vine to bottle.
What Drives Her
Balance. Not just in blending, but in the philosophy she brings to every vintage.
“Every choice, from the timing of a pick to the precise selection of a barrel, is a deliberate decision made to honor the fruit,” she says. “Winemaking is about being a quiet, steady presence for every step of the journey.”
That intentionality carries through to what she hopes lands in every glass. “I hope guests feel a sense of connection to the Central Coast and the season that fruit was grown in. I want the wine to become a part of their story.”
Leading the Reserve Program
As JUSTIN’s lead winemaker for the Reserve program, Taryn oversees some of the winery’s most coveted small-lot wines. Reserve designations at JUSTIN represent hand-selected standout lots, made in limited quantities and offered first to Wine Society Members before wider availability. It’s where the winemaking team has the most creative latitude, and Taryn takes full advantage of it.
Two wines she’s especially excited about right now are the Reserve Rosé and Reserve Sauvignon Blanc.
“Because these are small-lot, winery-exclusive offerings, we have the total creative freedom to really play around with our fermentation vessels, yeasts, and overall wine style,” she says. “These bottles are a direct result of that innovation. They represent a more adventurous side of our winemaking where we can experiment with different techniques to craft something truly unique and expressive for our Members.”
Both are available exclusively online and at JUSTIN’s Paso Robles locations.
Her Biggest Launch Yet
In 2025, Taryn led one of JUSTIN’s most significant releases: a nationally distributed Chardonnay. The Central Coast Chardonnay was crafted in stainless steel and neutral French oak, deliberately stepping away from heavy, oaky California Chardonnay in favor of something brighter and more expressive.
“I’m excited to introduce this balanced, modern Chardonnay to the JUSTIN portfolio,” Taryn says. “The aging process, combined with the different regions where the grapes are sourced, makes this a lighter, vibrant, and approachable Chardonnay that is great for any occasion.”
Chardonnay was one of the first grapes founder Justin Baldwin planted on the estate in 1981, making this launch both a return to the winery's roots and a bold step forward.
From the Garden to the Plate: Chef Rachel Haggstrom
If Taryn shapes what goes into the glass, Executive Chef Rachel Haggstrom shapes everything that sits beside it.
“Even though women are in powerful places and ‘have a seat at the table,’ we need to go a step further and also allow those females to have a voice at the table. Not just a seat,” says Chef Rachel Haggstrom.
Rachel leads The Restaurant at JUSTIN, the only winery restaurant in California to hold a MICHELIN Star, a MICHELIN Green Star for sustainability, a Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star rating, and an AAA Five Diamond Award, a distinction the team is extremely proud of.
No other winery restaurant in the country holds all four.
An Unconventional Path to the Kitchen
Rachel’s journey to Paso Robles wasn’t a straight line. She grew up in Temecula, California, on her family’s citrus grove, where she was given a packet of mixed seeds as a child and taught herself to cook with whatever she grew. She studied criminal justice in college before reading about Chef Thomas Keller’s work at The French Laundry. That changed everything.
“One of my biggest takeaways was the importance of a team and each member of that team,” Rachel says of her time staging at The French Laundry. “Whether it’s the gardener, the purveyor, the head chef – everyone is important in their role and deserves equitable respect.”
That ethos carried her through kitchens at Postrio under Wolfgang Puck and the Ritz-Carlton San Francisco before she arrived at JUSTIN in 2019.
Cooking From 26 Acres
Since joining, Rachel has built a 26-acre on-site garden – an orchard, edible flower fields, exotic fruits, vegetables, herbs, and an apiary – that supplies much of The Restaurant at JUSTIN’s ingredients. The rest comes from local Central Coast purveyors.
She describes her culinary approach as “restrained, focused, and feminine.” Every dish on the multi-course tasting menu is paired with JUSTIN wines, a collaboration she builds alongside all of JUSTIN’s winemakers.
“What is so special about having a garden, aside from the obvious, is that it allows us to grow ingredients that we could not otherwise access,” she says. “It forces us to think outside of the box and pushes us to be creative when we need to utilize a new ingredient.”
Read Chef Haggstrom’s full story here, and if you’re in Paso Robles, reserve your table at The Restaurant at JUSTIN.
Rooted in Community: Molly Scott
Wine doesn’t exist in isolation. It grows from the land, but also from the people who tend it and the communities that surround it.
No one at JUSTIN embodies that truth more than Molly Scott, Senior Director of Grower & Community Relations. A Cal Poly Viticulture graduate who joined JUSTIN in 2011, Molly was named the 2024 SLO County Wine Industry Person of the Year – the youngest person ever to receive the honor (Wine Industry Advisor, 2024).
$2.1 Million and Counting
Molly spearheads JUSTIN’s Community Grants Program, which has awarded more than $2.1 million to local nonprofits and classrooms since 2013, including $350,000 in 2025 alone across 15 organizations in North San Luis Obispo County (GlobeNewswire, 2025).
She chairs the Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance, co-chairs the Cal Poly Wine and Viticulture Advisory Board, and created the Juan Nevarez Memorial Scholarship, supporting students whose parents work in the wine industry, and personally mentors women in the Paso Robles viticulture community.
“In the wine industry, we often say the terroir isn’t just in the soil, but in the spirit of the community,” Molly says.
The Rise of Women Across Paso Robles
Molly’s work reflects a broader movement happening across the Central Coast. Paso Robles, home to more than 250 wineries and 40,000-plus acres under vine, boasts roughly 17% women lead winemakers, above the California average (Santa Clara University, 2025).
Names like Jordan Fiorentini at Epoch Estate Wines, Vailia From at Desparada, and Janell Dusi at J Dusi Wines are helping redefine what Paso Robles winemaking looks like.
Together, the women of JUSTIN represent something worth celebrating year-round: a winemaker pushing boundaries, a chef redefining sustainable fine dining, and a community leader investing in the region’s future.
They’re not just part of the story. They’re writing it.