| Subject: Paso Robles - Seven Wineries
Topic: Wine Tasting, Wineries When: January 2, 2000 Date Posted: January 10, 2000 By: Tom Regner & Susan Mountain <bigtree@attbi.com> This was the first time we'd done any serious tasting in the Paso Robles / Templeton region for many years. When looking at the local wine map in the morning, we scoped out ten possible wineries we'd like to visit. We ended up at seven: Besides buying from the winery, we also found some bargains in town for many of the wines we tasted (click here). |
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Mastantuono This was one of the stops we'd made back in the 80's on our way to San Simeon. It is still a beautiful facility with a moderately sized tasting room. We joked about how their chardonnay had reminded us of tuna fish (no, really!) on the first visit, but went in with an open mind. As it turns out, neither of us cared for their wines much. Their chardonnay was no longer fishy, and we thought it was perhaps the only wine there worth buying. Their reds were underpowered and lacked complexity. Still, it is such a nice tasting room that the experience wasn't entirely bad. See more at: http://www.pasowine.com/wineries/mastantuono.html |
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Bonny Doon This "outpost" of Bonny Doon is a bit different from the one near the coast in the Santa Cruz mountains, since it shares a building with an herb shop (and they have many of their herbs growing right outside). So, you have to walk through some fairly pungent odors to get back to the wine tasting bar. As usual, the Bonny Doon folks are friendly and knowledgeable about their wines. Randall Grahm continues to produce interesting and sometimes gorgeous wines, some of which are quite pricey and others that are quite affordable and a good value. Most of their offerings are Rhone blends, but Randall is branching out and making other interesting wines as well. We recommend stopping here, even if you are familiar with most of their wines. See more at: http://www.bonnydoonvineyard.com/ |
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Dark Star This was one that neither of us had ever heard of. It is next door to Midnight Cellars, but while the names might seem to be related, they are not. Their rather basic tasting room has at least one fascinating feature, and that is their large collection of really tacky wall clocks, which include themes from horse racing and golf, a Garfield clock that is reminiscent of the Felix clocks (and yes, they have one of those, too), and various horrid tourist clocks from all over the world. All of their wines we found to be quite palate-friendly, but the two that stood out most were their cabernet sauvignon and their merlot. Of the two, we both felt that the merlot was the better wine, even though the cab has taken more awards. They were out of their syrah (as we came to find out, many of their neighbors were sold out of syrah as well), but had plenty of their zinfandel. As zin lovers, we were not impressed with their offering. We enquired about the name "Dark Star," and the fellow (who wore a ZAP shirt, by the way) told us only that it was about a two-hour story. We declined, but did glean that it has to do partly with the Crosby, Stills and Nash song by the same name. See more at: http://www.darkstarcellars.com/ |
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Peachy Canyon Long known for their zinfandels, we stopped and tasted five different ones. We were both surprised when we were told that one of the wines was produced from vines that were a mere three years old. The surprise changed to wrinkled noses and dumping from the wine; stemmy and green tasting, it wasn't very nice. The same vineyard has some older vines, but they too didn't measure up. We tried a couple more. Their Dusi Ranch zin is nice, but Ridge is still a better buy. Their "Especial" zin is unfortunately priced at around $28 but is jammy, full-bodied and a beautifully-structured and delicious wine! See more at: http://www.peachycanyonwinery.com |
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Castoro Cellars ("Dam Fine Wine") Just up the road from Peachy Canyon is one of the oldest zin producers in the area, Castoro Cellars. We'd picked up a bottle of their Paso Robles zin a couple of years ago when we were in San Simeon. It was inexpensive and as it happens, we didn't get around to drinking it for some time. When we did, we were amazed at how good it was! So, we had to stop here to see if that was a fluke. Castoro makes perhaps a half dozen different zins. While they have changed the label, they still put good stuff inside the bottle, and the current release of Paso Robles zin is a great bargain at around $13 (cheaper in town, but more on that later). Very friendly staff with a lot of knowledge about the wines, the vineyards and even the family. (I asked why they have a beaver chewing on a grape vine, and the answer is that the owner was once nicknamed "Beaver" because his toddler brother couldn't say "brother," which became "bubba," which became "Beaver"... an interesting story even if it doesn't entirely make sense). See more at: http://www.pasowine.com/wineries/castoro.html |
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Wild Horse Getting back on Hwy 101, we headed south a couple of miles to Templeton and took Templeton Road out to Wild Horse vineyards. We have enjoyed their pinot noir in the past (which varies quite a bit from year to year) but didn't know a lot about their other wines. On the way, you realize that there are no other wineries in the immediate vicinity, nor is it right off the highway. It doesn't take long to get there, but you realize that one has to WANT to go specifically to that winery, rather than simply passing it in a row with other wineries and saying, "Why not?" A long arbor leads you into their smallish tasting room. At Wild Horse, their only mission is to make good wine. While they make a fair number of Rhone style wines, they also produce chardonnay and pinot blanc as well as the aforementioned pinot noir. The fellow at Dark Star had said that the viognier at Wild Horse was perhaps the best wine he had tasted all year (the date being January 2nd notwithstanding, he meant 1999), but we were dubious. We had hosted a viognier tasting ourselves a few years back and think we can tell a good one from a mediocre one. We were therefore completely amazed at the wine... it stands up with the very best viogniers either of us had ever tasted. At $25, it isn't cheap, but is in line with most of the better ones (La Jota, Calera, Arrowood, Phelps) that California is currently offering. Viognier is our favorite white, to be sure, and this one might well make us dump a decent red just to taste some more! 'nuff said! As it turns out, we didn't have a bad wine at Wild Horse. All of their wines were flavorful, fruity, complex and worth drinking. |
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Eberle We were the most skeptical about Eberle wines. The owner is head of the Viognier Guild that holds an annual event in California at different venues. Their wines are not readily available here in the Bay Area, and those that you do see tend to be pricey. We found out why. They make excellent wines. Pricey, yes. If you have the budget, then we recommend giving them a try. If not, they still make a few VERY nice wines that are fair-to-middlin' value. Their syrahs (two from nearby vineyards) are quite different, but both have wonderful flavors and show typical syrah/Rhone characteristics (spice, mushroom, leather, tobacco). |
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Better Prices! Generally speaking, we try to buy wine at the winery if we like the wine, but limit our purchases if we think that there is a good chance to find the wines at a better bargain conveniently. Of the two large supermarkets we found in Paso Robles (Raleys and Albertsons), it was Albertsons who had the better prices and better selection of wines. We enquired about a Safeway, but it turns out that the nearest Safeway is some 42 miles north. Many of the wines we tasted were from $1 to 4$ cheaper at the grocery store (typical), so it is worthwhile checking out this resource for local wines if you taste in the area. Finding the exact wine you want might be a problem ("What?? No Wild Horse viognier??"), but they do have a good selection all the same. -- Tom Regner & Susan Mountain |