Last weekend, I went wine tasting in Paso Robles with several friends. We loaded up our cars after work last Friday and made the 4 hour drive from LA up to the little town of Atascadero (about half way between Paso Robles and San Luis Obispo). Being the young energetic people that we are, always eager to take advantage of an opportunity to party, we stayed up until 5am that night in our hotel room playing games like Identity Crisis and Taboo, drinking beer and readying our palates for the next day’s tasting by drinking some wine. The wine turned out to be horrible. We bought a “Red Rover Barbera” from the local store, wanting to get something from the area, but it turned out to be the worst expression of that Italian wine I’d ever had. Generally, I like Cal-Ital wines because I like to see what California producers can do with some of my favorite grapes, but I’d advise you to stay away from this one.
Needless to say, staying up until 5 did not give us a lot of sleep that night, and so at about 11 the next morning, we all dragged ourselves out of bed, and without much energy headed off to our first stop of the day- Bella Luna. Bella Luna is a winery that I’d visited before, but on my previous trip there, they only had one wine to try as they were sold out of the rest. This trip proved to be a better opportunity to taste their wines. Bella Luna works with Zinfandel (common for the area), but also with Italian and Spanish varietals. We got to try their Sangiovese, Barbera, and Tempranillo, all of which were pretty darn good, but a little too pricey for my liking. I recommend checking this place out as you will have a fun tasting and will probably learn a lot about the wine making process on your visit. Their tasting room is a garage that also houses their barrels for aging their wines before bottling.
After Bella Luna, we headed down the road to Wild Horse. Wild Horse is a huge winery whose wines can be found in grocery stores across the country. Their basic wines (Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, among others) are decent for the price (about $15-$20), but the charm of the tasting room is that you get to try all of their “Unbridled,” or reserve wines. We had a great tasting that included rare varietals like Malavisa Bianca, Negrette, and Blaufrankisch, as well as their single vineyard Pinot Noirs and reserve Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Syrah. We also randomly found that their Zinfandel pairs extremely well with beef jerky. This tasting compelled me to walk away from there with a bottle of the Malavisa (I’m generally a red drinker, but I like to buy white whenever I find something intriguing).
The day’s next stop was at Turley, the winery founded by Larry Turley, brother of Helen Turley (tabbed by Wine Spectator as “America’s best winemaker”). I wasn’t a fan of this tasting- I got a bad impression of the place, not because the wine was bad, but because the person conducting our tasting came off as a bit of a b-word. Anyway, the wine was good, but again a bit too pricey for me. If you like Zinfandel, check this place out.
At the recommendation of the desk manager from the hotel, we had lunch at a local sandwich place nearby and took the opportunity to recharge a bit. Part of what drew us to this location for lunch was the fact that there was a tasting room attached to the restaurant. After eating, we decided to wander into the tasting room, but immediately walked out. Four Vines’ tasting room struck me as a tasting room designed by Ed Hardy (not my style at all), so rather than waste our time drinking wines like “Chaos,” we decided to move on.
Now, my friend Alex is a big 49ers fan, so upon seeing a winery bearing the name Niner, he decided we had to stop. Their brand new tasting room looked out of place surrounded by all of the tiny wineries and tasting rooms we had visited thus far, but it turned out to be a great tasting. The man conducting our tasting was from the LA area like us and was a very engaging host. We had good Cal-Ital wines, some Syrah and Zinfandel, took in their gorgeous new tasting room (which looks a bit like a barn from the outside, but is completely modern and decked out with marble on the interior).
Since most wineries close at 5, we were running out of time for the day, so at the recommendation of someone we had talked to earlier, we decided to make Lone Madrone, a small winery across the street our last stop of the day. Lone Madrone was exactly what I picture a small winery to be. It had a cozy tasting room, complete with a dog asleep on the floor. We enjoyed our tasting (the highlight of which wasn’t a Lone Madrone wine, but a Pinot Noir from a small winery named Steven), and since the Steelers-Ravens playoff game was tied near the end of the 4th quarter, rushed back to our hotel to see the end of the game and to catch the Packers-Falcons game. Dinner that night consisted of pizza in the room and a quick nap before getting back at it. Alex and I wandered to a local bar named “Club Soda.” Complete with pool tables, shuffle board, and $2 PBRs, this was a small town dive bar. We have a great tradition of visiting dive bars on wine tasting trips- I’ll have to explain that at another time.
Sunday marked checkout day at the hotel and our time to head home. We squeezed in one last wine tasting at Ancient Peaks (my favorite of the trip). Ancient Peaks is my ideal size for a winery. Their production is about 14,000 cases per year. Meaning it’s big enough to be found at the random wine store around the country, pop up on restaurant wine lists, and even occasionally be found on grocery store shelves, and at the same time, still be small enough to have some gems that have to be discovered at the winery itself. We found some of these gems and had a great time to finish up our trip.
Monday was a day of recovery and Tuesday was back to the grind. However, refreshed by my latest wine adventure, I popped open a bottle of 2006 Epicuro Salice Salentino riserva from the deep south of Italy. At just $6 a bottle from Trader Joe’s, it is a great match for pasta and meat, (I paired it with cheese tortellini and red sauce) and a great way to try a wine that comes from “off the beaten path.”
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