Paso Robles in Three Acts
I had such a wonderful time winetasting in Paso Robles— just as everyone said I would. The weather wasn’t too hot, the people were friendly, and the wine was good. What more can you ask for? We tasted at nine wineries in all and had one really nice meal. Arriving very late Thursday night, BK and I woke up early for an attempted hike on Friday and then the tasting extravaganza began.
The first stop was Peachy Canyon Winery. We actually went to the newer location, which was unintentional but a good thing because it’s not nearly as busy as the original, according to our very helpful tasting room associate. Only one other couple was there during our half hour, so we got plenty of attention and information. While I enjoyed the Viognier and some of the reds quite a bit, my favorite by far was the 2005 Westside Zinfandel. I was drawn to the very pretty strawberries, vanilla, and spice and could see why it’s their flagship. I usually try to purchase smaller production wines when visiting the source, but I couldn’t walk away from this bottle. After that, we went along to Justin , where we discovered there are guest quarters, and very nice ones from the looks of it. My mom would have loved the bathroom, with its rooster motif…. My wine pick here was Deborah’s Delight, which was a light dessert wine of 2/3 Viognier and 1/3 Orange Muscat. It displayed nice notes of honey, peach, and honeysuckle.
My favorite winery of the day, and probably the entire trip, was Tablas Creek. From their website: Tablas Creek Vineyard was founded by the Perrin family of Château de Beaucastel and Robert Haas, longtime importer and founder of Vineyard Brands. They chose the hilly Las Tablas district of west Paso Robles for its similarities to Châteauneuf du Pape: limestone soils, a favorable climate, and rugged terrain. The tasting room is one of the nicest I’ve seen, with several different bars–and the ability to close one room off for private tastings–and a very charming patio area. BK, the plant fiend, was especially interested in the nursery section, where they sell different clones of Rhone grapes. However, I was more interested in the wine and fun goodies scattered about, including a book on Rosés I couldn’t resist. And before crossing over 101 to hit the east side of Paso Robles, we stopped for an olive tasting at Mt. Olive Company. I made a couple friends at the mini-farm in the back, as you can see in the picture.
winetasting in Paso Robles, Peachy Canyon Winery, 2005 Westside Zinfandel, Justin, Deborah’s Delight, Tablas Creek
July 13th, 2007 at 9:16 am
Farley, great post! I pretty much have to get myself a bottle of “Deborah’s Delight,” don’t I? Tablas Creek is such an amazing operation. Haven’t been there yet myself, but it is at the top of my Paso Robles list, for sure.
July 13th, 2007 at 5:31 pm
Deborah’s Delight was one of my favorites - a very nice contrast to the intensity present in virtually every other wine I tasted that weekend. One thing I found almost as amazing as the wines in Paso was the soil. While I often hear references to limestone and associations with France about this region, it turns out that there is a very high occurence of less sedimentary calcite formations - you can literally see huge veins of this white rock running across the surface of the unplanted hills all over this place. The resulting calcareous soil is widespread, and I found a couple of very interesting scents common in about half the reds I tasted. Even though the wines themselves tasted unique, the nose on them was remarkably similar. The current edition of Justin Winery’s newsletter contains a very interesting interview with a soil professor from Cal Poly that provides a great overview on this topic, which can be found here: http://www.justinwine.com/news_newsletter.php
July 14th, 2007 at 7:45 am
Thanks, Dr. Debs. You should, but it’s defintely not under $20. I can get you a Muscat Canelli that’s almost as good for much much less.
Bryon, it was really interesting about the soil. Glad you pointed it out.