Great weekend in Paso Robles!

Karl and I drove down to Paso Robles, CA, this past weekend, driven by our love of wine. Every time we visit Karl's grandparents in Wisconsin, we enjoy some excellent wines from Paso, so we decided that it was time to visit it for ourselves now that we live here. I have sprinkled some photos from the trip throughout this post, and a link to our Kodak Gallery with pictures from the trip is at the bottom of the post.

We drove down on Friday after school and it took about 3 and a half hours. We ate some yummy Mexican food at a restaurant called Lolo's, then continued on to our bed and breakfast, Hollyhock Farms. We had great hosts, Dick and Kim, who made phenomenal breakfasts for us on Saturday and Sunday mornings. They have an organic farm on the property, so all of the food was fresh from their farm, from the figs to the tomatoes to the eggs to the potatoes!

Aside from the great B&B that we stayed at, we visited a total of 12 wineries. Yes, 12! We had expectations of visiting six to eight, but they were all so close together that it was easy to visit many more than we planned. Overall, we felt the quality of the wine in Paso was better than that of Napa or Sonoma, the tasting rooms were much less fancy, and the people were more "real". Also, several of the wineries let us keep our tasting glass after the tasting, which was a nice treat. Here's a list (and a link to each website in case you are really interested) of the ones we visited, along with a quick thought about each one:

1) Turley - Three words: best Zinfandel ever. And no, I definitely don't mean white Zinfandel (eww). I'm talking bold, robust, spicy, velvety DARK RED Zinfandel. It was to die for. If you ever have a chance to drink Turley Zin, trust me, do not pass it up!

2) L'Aventure - great little winery in the middle of nowhere, all Bordeaux style wines since the winemaker moved to Paso from the Bordeaux region of France! We probably would've enjoyed it just a bit more if it hadn't been so crowded, but excellent wines, no doubt.

3) Linne Colado - this winery was under construction and the tasting room was shoved into the barrel storage barn. The tasting room was way too crowded, which definitely affected our enjoyment. We didn't buy anything here and we both agreed they were charging too much for their wines, which were good, but not as good as what they were asking for them.

4) Four Vines - we started visiting wineries based on the recommendations of the people working at other wineries. Four Vines was recommended and therefore we visited it. Great Zins, reasonable prices, and a fairly no-frills tasting room with a very personable guy pouring for us. We were fans (though I wasn't a fan of the wine they called "Maverick"...can you guess why? haha)

I couldn't get away from Mavericks on this trip! Ahhhh!!!!

5) Zin Alley - we never would've gone to this one had a worker at Four Vines not recommended it. It was a "one man show" and the production facilities, tasting bar, and barrels were all in a small barn. The owner/winemaker poured for us and he was definitely entertaining. I was very pleasantly surprised by the quality of the wine! We bought a bottle of the Nerelli Generation 4.

With the owner of Zin Alley.

6) Denner - this was definitely one of our favorites. The wines were excellent, architecture of the building was beautiful, and the lady pouring for us was very friendly. I would definitely recommend this one if you ever visit Paso.

7) Opolo - we couldn't visit Paso and NOT go to this one...Karl's grandparents always treat us to some excellent bottles of Opolo when we visit them, so we were very excited to visit it in person! The wines didn't disappoint...we bought a bottle of Cab Franc.


8) Dunning Vineyards - this one was recommended to us by the owners of the B&B. It was a very small winery where the owner actually poured for us. The wines were so-so, but they had a nice picnic ground where we were able to enjoy a late lunch!

9) Tablas Creek - a beautiful tasting room with four tasting bars - this was a definite "plus", as some of the wineries seemed to get a little too crowded for the space they had for tasters. The guy pouring for us was very friendly and knowledgeable, and they had a lot of wine varieties that we haven't seen very often such as Tannat and Mourvedre. We bought a bottle of Tannat.

10) Tolo - a cute little winery in a small red house, and the tasting room was in the kitchen! The wine maker was there while we were tasting and he didn't look much older than Karl and me. They also had some uncommon wines, mostly blends, and we bought the Asini.


11) Justin Vineyards - I have had this wine before and it is pretty good, but after going there I probably won't buy it again. The employees were kind of snooty, and after visiting we heard some negative things about this place. I'm glad we didn't buy anything...


12) D'Anbino Winery - last but not least!!! This place was great because we didn't even expect to go to it...we had some time to kill before dinner and ended up going here for a little bit because they were open late. The owner is a musician and actually did all of the music for the movie Dirty Dancing, which is one of my favorites. Needless to say, I had a lot to talk about with him! haha The owner and his son were both very nice people.

We drove up Highway 1 along the coast for our drive home and it was gorgeous. We were able to see some elephant seals, mountains, the ocean, and plenty of beautiful sights. To see all of our pictures from the trip, just visit my Kodak Gallery, which has tons of pictures from the weekend.



More updates to come later in the week! :)