Day one of our Paso Robles Wine Tasting found us at our rental house in the tiny village of Cambria. We like staying in Cambria, as we can rent a nice 3 bedroom house overlooking the Pacific Ocean for less than the cost of a decent hotel / motel stay. This way we have a full kitchen, can bring our dog, and really enjoy ourselves.

We started off with a nice breakfast at the Redwood Cafe. My favorite is their Chorizo and Havarti omelete. WineWench went for her standard Ham and Swiss omelete. Both came prepared perfectly, with nice crispy hashbrowns.

Fully fueled, we started off on our adventure.

Our first stop was Rocky Creek Cellars. When we were here last year, Rocky creek had a delicious Sangiovese, and I was looking forward to this years offering. I wasn’t dissapointed. They had a Late Harvest Sangiovese, the first that I’ve tried. It was bursting with cherry, and just sweet enough to make a great dessert wine. Two bottles in hand, we continued on.

Next stop was Jack Creek Cellars. We found Jack Creek last year and were really impressed with their Pinot Noirs. This visit confirmed that. Their new Pinots convinced us to join their wine club, and take several bottles with us.

Hearthstone was next on our list. Our first visit to this winery also ended up with a wine club membership due to a great ’06 Grenache.

Paso Port was next on our list, and turned out to be a great find both for their ports and for their home-pressed walnut oil. Yet another wine club addition.

Then it was time to visit one of our favorite stops Adelaida Cellars. They have a great collection of reds, and this time was no exception, picking up an ’05 Nebbiolo, an ’06 Syrah, and their brand new port.

Finally it was time to stop by and see my favorite Zin Producer, Frank Nerelli of Zin Alley. We had just received our allotment of ’06 and ’07 Zins from Frank just before our trip, so we were just there to say hi. Frank poured his Zin Port and After Hours Sauterne, and it was such a hit with our guests that several bottles of each were purchased.

Overall, a good first day.

Day 2

Breakfast was at the Redwood Cafe again, so nothing new to report there.

We started up Route 46 and our first stop was Booker Winery. While the wines were ok, there was nothing we wanted to buy. Pretty much the same result at Caliza Winery and Grey Wolf Winery. Things started to pick up at JanKris, where we picked up a nice Rhone Blend along with a really nice almond-infused Sparkling Wine.

Next up was Fratelli Perato which was the find of the day. This small family-owned winery specializes in Italian wines, and each one we tried was better than the last. A wine club and six bottles later we were on our way.

Next was a stop at Windward, one of our favorite Pinot Noir producers. They make old-world-style Burgundian Pinots that are excellent. We now have some ’06 and ’07 Pinots to set up a vertical tasting with the ’04 and ’05 bottles we have at home. Time for a Pinot Party!!

Winding down, we made our next to last stop Thunderbolt Winery. This is another small out-of-the-way winery that produces some great wines. First was an “overripe” Pinot Noir that had an amazing nose, more like a fine port than a delicate Pinot Noir, with all of the taste of a great Califonia Pinot. There was also an “overripe” Syrah that was smooth and very well-balanced. An unusual find was a 100% Petite Verdot that has a lot of potential, but still needs a year or two in the bottle. Finishing off with an excellent Late Harvest Merlot and a Very Late Harvest Dolcetto. A wine club and a case later, we were on our way.

Last stop was back at Zin Alley for yet another bottle of his Sauterne.

Day 3

We had originally planned to switch off and visit breweries, but a quick check showed that some of our planned visits were closed on Sunday. So much for that plan. Also much to our chagrin, our favorite local Mexican restaurant, Medusa’s, is also now closed on Sunday, so no breakfast burritos for us. What to do, whta to do.

We finally decided to head to downtown Paso Robles and do the walking wine tour. There are 15 tasting rooms within walking distance of the city park, so off we went.

It’s important not to start off on an empty stomach, so we went looking for a place to eat. We ended up at Chico’s, where I ordered a Cajun Omelette, and WineWench opted for pancakes, eggs and bacon. The results were mixed. My omelette was mostly sauteed red onion, with a smattering of a slightly spicey sausage and maybe one shrimp. The hashbrowns, which I ordered extra crispy, were badly underdone. WineWench’s eggs and bacon were to her liking, and the pancakes were excellent, large and light and fluffy.

Our first stop was Kiamie Cellars, a “virtual” winery. Virtual wineries are startups that buy juice from other growers, rent space in large temperature-controlled warehouses and in some cases even rent the winemaking equiptment in order to see if they have the chops for making decent wines without the enormous investment of a full-blown vinyard/winery/tasting room.

Kiamie is one such virtual winery, and their first try isn’t bad.We tried several of their wines, our favorite being a Rhone-style they call “R’Own”.

Next on the list was Arroyo Robles, which makes an excellent Tempanillo port. Unfortunately none was available, but the upcoming wines were good enough for us to continue our wine club with them.

Edward Sellers was next on the walk, with a nice selection, but nothing we wanted to take home.

Pianetta Winery was a great find, where we scored an ’06 Sangiovese and an ’06 Estate Syrah. They also have a Petite Syrah that would go great with the right food pairing.

Clayhouse Winery was the hit of the day. Not only were the wines great, the gals running the place were funny and engaging. We ended up spending well over an hour just talking and tasting, and finally left with two whites, a Chenin Blanc and their “Adobe” blend, as well as a Late Harvest Petite Syrah, and a Malbec.

Last stop was a single tasting room that handled two wineries. Here we did a vertical tasting of Bodegas ’02, ’03, and ’04 VivaYo Tempranillo/Cab blend. We liked the ’02 and ’04 and opted for a bottle of each. We then went on to try Asuncion Ridge’s Pinot Noirs and took a bottle of their ’07 with us.

The day was getting late so we decided to head back. On our way we decided to stop at the Firestone Walker Brewery, and try some brews. WineWench’s favorite was a very dark Xantus Imperial Stout, which because of the high (11%) alcohol content I could only taste. I settled with trying a very hoppy IPA, their brown ale, and their signature Double Barrel Ale. We also picked up 4 bottles of Xantus to take with us.

All in all, a good day.

Day 4

Our stop a t Firestone Walker whetted our taste for beer, so it was off to San Luis Obispo to try out the three breweries there. Our first surprise on arriving in San Luis Obispo (herefter referred to as “SLO”) was that all of the streets in downtown SLO are metered parking, with the average cost running in at $.75/hr. Now this goes against my Las Vegas free parking everywhere grain, but luckily I had a buch of quarters in the truck, so we put in 4 hours worth and set out.

First stop was Creekside Brewing Company, which had five of its own brews and several “guest” brews on tap. We opted for a flight of all of the house brews. We also ordered some garden-ripened Jalapeno Bottle Caps as a side dish.

The Jalapeno Bottle Caps were great. The jalapenoes were red-ripe, and just a little sweet, but still with plenty of kick. They were sliced into little disks, breaded and deep-fried, then served with a very good ranch style dressing. Unfortunately the Jalapeno Bottle Caps were the best part of the set, as all of the beers were lacking body. Even the stout started out fairly strong, but had no finish.

Next we decided to hoof it over to Central Coast Brewing Company, about a half mile distant. Once there we were faced with a selection of about eleven brews, ranging from their Topless Blonde Pale Ale to a seasonal pumpkin ale to an Imperial Stout. While the selection was large, the taste mostly wasn’t. With the exception of the Espresso Porter, which I liked, and the Imperial Stout that WineWench had two of, the rest were either excessively hoppy for us or just lacked body. So we paid our bill and headed back to our vehicle.

We got there with about 10 minutes to spare, and pumped another three hours worth of quarters, expecting to try another brewery. That money went to waste, since when we arrived at the Downtown Brewing Company, we found out that the brewery and grill wouldn’t open for another hour and a half! We weren’t willing to wait that long, so we headed back to our vehicle and headed back to our house. As I’m writing this, we’re sitting on our deck watching the sun go down on our last full day here.

Day 5

On Day 3, when we were at Firestone Walker having some suds, we struck up a conversation with the gusy sitting next to us. Turned out that he was the “F” in F/S Cellars, and he offered to open up his wine tasting room for us. Since we had been drinking the better part of the day, and since his tasing room was on our way out of town, we arranged to meet him on our way out of town. It turned out to be a great stop, with excellent wines. We got one of each of his wines, and an extra Mourvedre. It was a really nice way to finish up our trip home.

The good feeling didn’t last however, as one of our tires suffered a tread separation out in the middle of nowhere, and when I pulled over to change the tire I realized that the shoulder was way too soft for my jack to support my Excursion. Lucky for us we’ve been AAA members for about 3 decades, so a quick call to their number dispatched a truck to our location and about an hour later we were back on the road.

Final tally: 87 bottles of wine and four bottles of beer, some nice pictures, and more great memories.

...And This Is Why We Drink™