Wine Tasting in Paso Robles: Part One
The view from on high at Daou Vineyards in Paso Robles
Continued from
Exploring Downtown Paso Robles
and A Road Trip to Paso Robles
The number one reason I love going to Paso Robles, a hilly sprawl of countryside halfway between San Francisco and L.A.?
Wine.
Wine tasting in Paso Robles, California is a delicious exercise in waking up your taste buds, meeting delightful people and gazing out over gold-and-green valleys, all while swirling a glass full of happy.
And yeah, I know. I want to go back there, too.
Paso Robles is the most diverse wine region in California, with 30 different types of soil (largely laced with limestone) and several microclimates spread across 614,000 hilly acres. The sister wine region to Southern France’s Rhône Valley, the focus here tends towards Syrah, Viognier and Rousanne, varietals you’ll see in a gajillion different custom blends. Paso’s signature grape, though, is Zinfandel, which the area’s vintners turn into some of my favorite wines on Earth.
Dear Zinfandel grapes: I love you
This trip to Paso Robles gave me a chance to introduce my boyfriend, Eric, to both Paso and wine tasting for the first time. By the end of our long weekend, he had become a fan of both…and my car’s trunk was cheerfully packed full of booze.
Here are some of the discoveries we made while prowling Paso wine country:
This is one of my favorite Paso wineries for its dry-farmed Zinfandels. Recently moved from its cozy farm-style digs down on Highway 46 to a former horse barn set on a quiet hilltop along Adelaida Road, the new Lone Madrone has plenty of room for hanging out beside the vines and playing a little bean bag toss with a canyon view.
The winemaker here is Neil Collins, a British-born and French-trained cross between an artist and a farmer. Head vintner at nearby Tablas Creek, he maintains Lone Madrone as a labor of love, expressing his passion for grape-stressing techniques and Paso’s limestone soil with his intense, sexy reds and bright, mineral-finish whites like an elegant Chenin Blanc. Collins also produces a series of hard ciders in homage to his Bristol roots, the boldest of which is the popular Black Bart. Eric took home a bottle, while I claimed the deep, fruity and spicy 2010 Bailey Ranch Zinfandel.
Lone Madrone: (clockwise from left) Eric doing some bean bag tossing with a view, winemaker Neil Collins, a picnic patio beside the vines, and a spot of hard cider
Just down the road from Lone Madrone, this powerhouse winery set within a walnut orchard has been around since 1981, and is where Neil Collins cut his winemaking teeth. These days, their winemaker is Jeremy Weintraub, who has learned his trade on three continents and earned accolades for his Cabernet Sauvignons. I generally love the wines here, but am most partial to their dry-farmed Zinfandels (especially the 2010 Michael’s Vineyard), their farm animals and their resident cat. (Their resident cat is, sadly, less enthusiastic about me.)
Tasting here is a belly-up-to-the-bar experience and you’ll rarely be alone, but the crowd is cheerful rather than raucous, and the staff here are some of the friendliest people in the area. If you have any questions whatsoever about winemaking, go ahead and ask. Wines here are made the old-fashioned way (read: by sweet, tattooed skater dudes wading through the grapes in rubber boots), production is low and vintages rarely make it to restaurant menus or liquor store shelves. Don’t miss out on their Syrah blends and a rich, velvety port called The Don.
Adelaida Cellars: (clockwise from left) Post-harvest grape stomping; an acclaimed Cab; me and the winery’s less-than-thrilled feline; and Eric meeting the on-site menagerie
We were intrigued by this relatively new winery because they had designed our room at the Paso Robles Inn, and decided to pop in on a whim. Set on a sprawling hilltop up near Lone Madrone and Adelaida, I’d recommend this as the perfect place to visit after the other two, parking yourselves for the afternoon before an amazing view.
Owned by a French family who clearly have deep pockets, the tasting room is a splashy combination of new California construction, Spanish-Colonial Revival and that villa you’ve been wanting in the South of France. Eric and I both agreed that DAOU’s wines are tasty (and at an average of $40+ a bottle, that’s a darn good thing), but with a scene like this, it almost doesn’t matter what you drink. That said, try to get your paws on some of their reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, stake out seats by the edge of the hill, and take some quiet time for yourselves.
DAOU Vineyards: (clockwise from left) The grand exterior; one-half of the winemaking team, Georges Daou (in pink); our hillside wine-barrel seats; and the tasting room’s fancy interior
Nothing like sipping some hard alcohol just shy of noon — and falling in love.
Just before I left for Paso, my friend Spencer told me that the long-established Villicana Winery had started up a spirits distillery. (Bless you, Spencer.) This distillery, called Re:Find, takes grape-juice run-off from the winemaking process and makes three kinds of clear, warming and herb-scented “brandy;” if it wasn’t made from grapes, they’d be called “gin.”
After one sip, Eric and I simply called it done and bought a bottle of the botanical brandy to share.
Botanical brandy made with grapes at Paso’s only spirits distillery, Re:Find
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Click here for a Paso Robles wine tasting map.
And check out this post: A Weekend of Wine in Paso Robles
________________________________
Our complimentary wine tastings at
Lone Madrone and Adelaida
were arranged by the
Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance.
However, all opinions and observations presented here
are personal, thoughtfully considered and unsolicited.
________________________________
Continued in
Wine Tasting in Paso Robles: Part Two
