OUTDOOR KITCHEN: Paso Robles’ Sextant Wines widens its horizon by becoming the official wine for U.S. Sailing 

With a love for all things nautical, it was only a matter of time before Sextant Wines founder Craig Stoller struck up a partnership with U.S. Sailing.

“It’s such a natural fit,” Sextant Director of Sales Chris Blake said. “Obviously the tie to sailing and the tie to the ocean, and then we found a real natural alignment with both teams.”

As a name, sextant—an ancient navigation contraption used for measuring angular distances and observing altitudes of celestial bodies—underscores the Paso Robles winery’s passion to create Old World varietal wines through exclusive relationships with the French, Portuguese, and Spanish governments. It allowed Sextant Wines to import certified nursery grape stock that can be traced back to the original mother blocks in France, Portugal, and Spain. Currently, Sextant Wines produces more than 24 hand-crafted wines and runs two tasting rooms in Edna Valley and Paso Robles.

The 20-year-old winery added an all-American strand to its international network in May when it became the official wine of the national governing body of the sport of sailing. It’s already served as the presenting sponsor of the biennial Stakeholders Summit where sailing organizations meet with U.S. Sailing leadership to share ideas about sailing regionally in the country.

“We get to be a part of the end of races where they do Sextant Wines celebration moments,” Blake said. “Our sparkling wine gets awarded to the winner of the race, and like so many different sports, you get the old ‘shake out the bottle of sparkling wine’ to celebrate at the end.”

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• PHOTO COURTESY OF SEXTANT WINES
• MEANT TO BE From left to right, Eric Krasnoo of U.S. Sailing, and Sextant Wines proprietors Craig and Nancy Stoller celebrate their official union with the sporting governing body leaders Rich Jepsen and Alan Ostfield.

Eric Krasnoo, the senior vice president of partnerships and memberships at U.S. Sailing, noted that while the governing body has a connection with Goslings Rum, the Sextant Wines union is its first association with a winery.

“We at [U.S.] Sailing are 127 years old but we’re really just starting to think about how we operate from a commercial standpoint,” he said. “We’re looking for brands that want to grow with us.”

Sextant Wines’ proximity to Southern California stood out to Krasnoo. He’s thinking beyond 2024 when it comes to U.S. Sailing’s relationship with it.

“As you look at the calendar, a lot of our athletes will be competing in Marseilles as part of the Paris Olympics in the next few months,” he said. “Right after that … people are looking at Los Angeles 2028 [Olympics], which is pretty close to the backyard where Sextant Wines is located.”

U.S. Sailing has 43,000 individual members and 1,500 yacht club and sailing center members around the nation. Through the partnership, Sextant has the opportunity to mingle with them. 

“We’re looking to have different wines for the yacht clubs specifically,” Sextant Wines CEO Brian Storrs said. “We’re currently building different wine club packages for our wine club members, and also an allotment of chardonnay, cabernet, pinot noir, and sparkling wine with U.S. Sailing.”

Now, Sextant Wines is slated to appear at the Chicago Yacht Club for the U.S. Women’s Match Racing Championship starting Aug. 2. At the end of September, the winery will participate in the U.S. Adult Championship at the Detroit Yacht Club. Sextant Wines will be sipped in Little Rock, Arkansas, during the Championship of Champions in October too. 

“Once you’ve navigated the sea with your sail and wind and the water, there’s nothing better than a great glass of wine,” Storrs said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s chardonnay, cabernet or any other varietal once you get back safe.”