A Journey from Hollywood & Malibu to Paso Robles

BY MIRA HONEYCUTT

Actress and Winemaker Carol

Hoyt of Hoyt Family Vineyards

From stomping grapes in her Malibu home kitchen to a 130-acre ranch in Paso Robles' Willow Creek District, actress, and winemaker Carol Hoyt has come a long way in establishing the Hoyt Family Vineyards with her husband Stephen, winning accolades and 90-plus scores for their wines.

Tall and statuesque, Carol’s effervescence spills over into her wines, and I don’t mean just her deliciously crisp sparkling wine that she offers me when I visit her at the tasting room in downtown Paso Robles.

Perhaps it’s her easy breezy Malibu style that is reflected in Carol’s small-lot, handcrafted, estate-grown wines that are fresh and approachable to be shared with family and friends.

“My slogan is our wine goes best with friends,” Carol convinces me. “I don’t like really high-acid wines that you have something to eat with. Just enjoy a glass of wine, put your feet up and watch Yellowstone,” she says with her signature hearty laugh.

Yet her easy-drinking wines are being noticed by wine journals and competitions. “We get all these awards,” Carol comments. For instance, early in 2012 Hoyt Family Vineyards entered four of their wines in the California State Fair Commercial Wine Competition. All of them received awards, including the 2009 Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon, which earned a Double Gold with 98 points resulting in the coveted “Best of Micro Winery, Red Wine.”

“It’s been quite a ride,” she mused. “We’re the little engine that could.” acquired the 130-acre ranch in 2012 in Paso’s Willow Creek District AVA. The 30-acre vineyard is planted to tempranillo, cabernet sauvignon, petit verdot, viognier, pinot noir, grenache and syrah. While Carol is a full-time winemaker, devoting some time to acting, Stephen, now retired, is dedicated to farming.

This passion which took root in 2002 with two cases of cabernet sauvignon called Carol’s Cab, made from 100 pounds of grapes purchased from a home winemaking shop (foot-stomped in the kitchen assisted by her two-year-old daughter), has now grown to around 800-1,200 annual case production. “It’s still a micro-winery,” Carol insists.

Over the years, Carol has honed her winemaking skills from mentors such as Travis Proctor and Kip Lorenzetti. Currently, she makes her wines at Paso Robles’ Four Lanterns winery under the watchful eye of owner/winemaker Steve Gleason. “I am the winemaker while Steve does day-to-day work,” Carol tells me.

Carol Loscutoff (her father Jim Loscutoff was a professional basketball player for the Boston Celtics) grew up on the East Coast. She studied Drama at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts which led to a successful acting career in film and television including the famous villainous role as Divatox in the Power Rangers television series. She then met shoe designer Steve Hoyt in New York.

Hoyt Family’s intimate tasting room in downtown Paso exudes a beachy Malibu vibe. This is where you can taste a wine flight ranging from the flagship chardonnay dubbed “Drink it All Day Chardonnay” and the strawberry-laced Rosé to the deep-hued petit sirah, a seductive pinot noir and the temptingly savory tempranillo. There’s also a crisp sparkling wine produced in the méthode champenoise style and a well-structured cabernet sauvignon.

“I was in show business and he was in shoe business,” Carol quips. After their marriage, they moved to San Francisco where trips to Napa’s wine region triggered their interest in owning a vineyard one day.

From San Francisco, the couple moved to Hollywood. Once they started their family, a move to Malibu in 2001 was a natural transition. “We moved to Malibu to raise our kids,” says Carol of her two children, Emma, 22, and Dylan, 19.

Inspired by their neighbor’s patch of vineyard, the Hoyts planted an acre of grapevines to merlot, chardonnay and malbec. Their first harvest in 2004 was produced at the Camarillo custom crush facility. “I learned how to drive a forklift and all about yeast and bottling.”

Soon Hoyt began sourcing other varieties from Paso and was impressed by the region’s diversified grape varieties. The Hoyts

In 2018, Malibu’s devastating Woolsey fire destroyed the Hoyt family residence but not the vineyard entirely. While Carol was on her way to Paso that day and Emma was in Mexico, Stephen and Dylan witnessed their home burn to the ground. “I feel blessed that we were all safe,” Carol recalls.

The Hoyts decided not to replant the damaged vineyard, sold the property, and relocated to Tarzana till 2020 when they returned to Malibu in a new residence. Since they have their vineyard and a home in Paso, I ask why the move back to Malibu?

“We love Malibu, there was never a question that we won’t come back,” Carol shared. “There’s something really special about Malibu. We raised our family here. It’s a community, people are down to earth and so real.”

As bi-county residents, the Hoyts feel blessed to experience the friendly communities of both Malibu and Paso Robles.

Get to know the Hoyts at hoytfamilyvineyards.com