A Weekend in Paso Robles

A co-worker asked me for some suggestions on wineries to visit in the Paso Robles area.  We are not avid Paso Robles wine tasters but since we have relatives in San Luis Obispo and our daughter was a student as Cal Poly SLO, we did get to pass through Paso Robles quite a few times in the past 5-6 years and many times I was granted my wish for a stop or two.

 

For those of you who have visited the Paso area you know that it is not one big valley like Napa or two or three distinct areas like Sonoma.  Paso Robles is currently one huge Appellation (Viticulture Area) although things are in the works to break this up into as many as eleven AVA’s.  The area is a pretty hilly area with many different valleys and different topographies.  The main distinction is that there are wineries on the East side of the freeway and wineries on the West side.  The total area is about 1,000 square miles or roughly 33 miles by 33 miles.  My guess is that 2/3rds of the wineries are on the West side and in general I think that is where you are going to find more and better options.  We’ll break up our suggestions by West and East.

 

 

East Side Wineries-

I think one of the ‘must’ stops if you are going to the East side is Eberle Winery.  I can’t begin to count how many wineries we have visited where we found out that the winemaker got his or her start at Eberle Winery.  Eberle is one of the older wineries in Paso and is one of the first wineries you come to as you are heading East on Highway 46.  Eberle sits high on a hill and is a good spot to get started.  Tasting is complimentary and they make a wide variety of wines.  They have a nice outdoor area and a large tasting bar.  They also offer tours which can include a cave tour.  Their Estate Cabernet runs $34.00
 

 

J Lohr is another winery that has been established a long time and they make a lot of wine.  They have a very nice tasting room not too far from the freeway.  They make four or five levels of wine and also offer complimentary tasting on the lower level wines.  I would suggest tasting the Cuvee or Limited wines.  J Lohr has substantial vineyard holdings in the Paso area and also Monterey County as well as some acreage in St. Helena (Napa).  You can find Cabernets under the J Lohr label from $17.00 to over $50.00.

Other wineries on the East side that we have visited and liked are Bianchi and Pear Valley.  Biachi has a very modern tasting room situated on a large man-made pond.  It is also an excellent picnic spot.  Another winery over here is Tobin James.  Tobin James is the fun spot to go to.  At one visit I asked him if it was his goal to hire just good looking women and he said ‘heck yeah’.  The place has a great party atmosphere and can get rowdy at times.  The winery has a western theme and Cabernet’s run from $18.00 to $28.00 (James Gang Reserve). 

One winery we have never visited on this side of town (and a bit south) is Wild Horse.  This winery used to be owned by Kenneth Volk and had a great reputation.  It is now owned by Constellation (Clos du Bois, Mondavi) and I am guessing still makes some pretty good wine.

Grounds at Tablas Creek

Moving over to the East side-
 

There are actually quite a few that we really like over here.  A couple we have mentioned before in previous posts and a there are a few others that we have tasted at and liked a lot.  Some of these are great places to visit because of the views and others have just solid wine.  Some have both.

I think my ‘must’ visit over here is Tablas Creek.  Tablas Creek utilizes mostly Rhone Varietals (no Cabernet) so if you are looking for Rousanne, Marsanne, Grenache and Syrah and a bunch of blends this is the place.  I think the tasting fee is about $10.00 and the wines run from $20.00 for the lower end blends up to maybe $45.00.

 

 

We also like Halter Ranch.  If you are going to do a property tour anywhere this is the place (advance reservations required).  The ranch property and facilities are amazing.  The wines are good also and the picnic grounds are great.

 

Justin is probably the most well known of the Paso wineries and their Cabs have really made a name for themselves.  Their basic Cab goes for $25.00 and the Isosceles, the Cab they are most known for, goes for $62.00.  I think their tasting room is temporarily in the former Wine Club (member only) lounge so it may be a pretty good room to taste in.     

 

A couple of wineries with great views are Daou and Calcareous.  Both wineries obviously come from some big money.  I think the road up to Calcareous cost more than many winery facilities.  My guess is that five years down the road Daou will have a reputation equal to Justin.  Calcareous also makes the Twisted Sister line of wines.  Cabs at Calcareous run from $20.00 to $56.00 and at Daou the Cabernet is $28.00.  I think Daou’s top wine is a Syrah based blend called Celestus at $46.00.

 

Tasting Room at Carmody McKnight
 

A winery that we have visited many times is called Carmody McKnight.  This winery has a great story involving a helicopter crash and an old film actor, so if you are all the way out to Justin this is a good spot.

 

We also like Opolo.  A friend’s daughter worked in the lab here and I remember pretty good wines.  We have not been to Turley in quite some time.  They are a bit south in Templeton and are known for their Zinfandels.  They do not have much of a website so I don’t see much about them.  I know they also source grapes from the Hayne vineyard in Napa, one of the top Napa Valley Zin vineryards.  Another winery worth mentioning is Niner.  We have not visited Niner but have seen them at many events.  We have been told their tasting room is fantastic.  And two last wineries worth mentioning are Peachy Canyon and Castoro.  The wineries both put out reasonably priced wines and have a $5.00 tasting fee. 

 

Vitals-

 

East side-

Eberle- 3810 Highway 46, Paso Robles (PR), 93446, 805-238-9067, www.eberlewinery.com

J Lohr- 6169 Airport Road, PR, 93446, 805-239-8900, www.jlohr.com

Bianchi- 3380 Branch Road, PR, 93446, 805-226-9922, www.bianchwine.com

Pear Valley, 4900 Union Road, PR, 93446, 805-237-2861, www.pearvalley.com

Tobin James, 8950 Union Road, PR, 93446, 805-239-2204, www.tobinjames.com

Wild Horse, 1437 Wild Horse Ct., Templeton (Temp), 93465, 805-788-6300, www.wildhorsewinery.com 

West side-

Tablas Creek- 9339 Adelaida Rd., PR, 93446, 805-237-1231, www.tablascreek.com

Halter Ranch- 8910 Adelaida Rd., PR, 93446, 805-367-9977, www.halterranch.com

Justin- 11680 Chimney Rock Rd., PR 93446, 805-238-6932, www.justinwine.com

Daou- 2777 Hidden Mountain Road, PR, 93446, 805-226-5460, www.daouvineyards.com

Calcareous- 3430 Peachy Canyon Rd., PR, 93446, 805-239-0289, www.calcareous.com

Carmody McKnight, 11240 Chimney Rock Rd., PR, 93446, 805-238-9392, www.carmodymcknight.com

Opolo- 7110 Vineyard Dr., PR, 93446, 805-238-9593, www.opolo.com

Turley- 2900 Vineyard Dr., Temp, 93465, 805-434-1030, www.turleywinecellars.com

Niner- 2400 Highway 46, PR, 93446, 805-239-2233, www.ninerwine.com

Peachy Canyon- 1480 N. Bethel Rd., Temp, 93465, 805-239-1918, www.peachycanyon.com

Castoro Cellars- 1315 N. Bethel Rd., Temp, 93465, 805-238-0725, www.castorocellars.com

 

The Halter Ranch (Experience)

Paso Robles, CA

 

We had the opportunity to stay at the Halter Ranch Vineyard Farmhouse while we were in Paso Robles a couple of weeks ago and it was one of the best wine country experiences we have ever had.  Halter Ranch is a ten year old winery in the heart of the Westside Paso wine country.  Their closest neighbors are Adelaida and Tablas Creek which were reviewed last week.  The Halter Ranch is a 1,000 acre property with 280 acres of vines.  The property dates back to the 1880’s when it was established by a San Francisco businessman as a cattle ranch.   A grand Victorian farmhouse was built on the property in 1881 which burned down in 1885 and was rebuilt.  This farmhouse with many improvements over the years is the first thing you see when you arrive at the property.  Farming and ranching were the mainstays of the property until June of 2000 when 900 acres of the property were purchased by the current owner Hansjorg Wyss.  Mr. Wyss had seen the area years earlier and had put word out that if a property like this became available that he would be interested as he had a strong desire to be a producer of world class grapes and wines. 



The Farmhouse

Hans is a Harvard educated Swiss born entrepreneur and the second richest person in Switzerland.  Hans put the property under the guidance of Mitch Wyss (no relation to Hans) with the goal of creating a world class sustainable vineyard property.  The property now has 20 different grape varieties planted.  The wine label was started in 2002 and the winery now produces about 8,000 cases.


We all have heard that it takes a bunch of money to get into the wine business and certainly a lot of money is being spent at Halter Ranch.   But I think they are very serious about doing everything right here.  I think a lot of thought goes into every aspect of the operation.  Sometimes there are these wineries that look like they have too much money but don’t get everything right.  This is not the case here. Every aspect of the property is tastefully done.  The Farmhouse while looking old is modern and tasteful on the inside.  The kitchen, bedrooms and porches were fantastic.  Some of the windows are original dating back to the 1880’s. 

The new wine making facility
 

But about the winery and tasting facility- I think this is one of those wineries where the Tour is a requirement (unless you just want to drink wine).  They offer tours on the weekends at 10am and 1pm and you walk through the ranch, across the bridge that spans Tablas Creek, and up the hill into the newly completed winery and caves.  The winery is state of the art and built to be able to handle approximately 48,000 cases (six time their current output).  The caves are the largest winery caves I have ever seen and at this point are not even ½ full.  You will be impressed.  We were there on a Sunday just a week after the last of the grapes had been brought in for the year and the winemaker, recently of Justin, (a highly touted Paso winery) was hard at work and we got to see some hands on winemaking in process.   Our tour guide had an intimate knowledge of everything Halter Ranch and answered every question our group came up with.  On the way up to the winery we passed a couple of old barns and other ranch properties that are in the process of being refurbished.  We also passed a couple of old airplane hangars the served as the original winemaking facility.  These originally housed planes that landed at the private ranch runway.

The tour ended with a stop at the tasting room.  The tasting room is located down below next to the Farmhouse and in another totally refurbished original ranch building.  The tasting room was busy but had lots of space both inside and outside.  Our guide served as our pourer for our group of ten. 

The tasting selection was mostly red wines.  The lone white, the Cotes De Paso Blanc, was a Rhone blend of Grenache, Roussanne, Picpoul (which I am not familiar with), Marsanne and Viognier.  It was refreshing and I’m guessing you will see varietal bottlings of these grapes in the future.  The reds included Syrah, Zin, Cab and three blends.  The blends were priced at $50.00 for the Ancestor (mostly Petit Verdot, Cab and Syrah) down to the Synthesis (mostly Cab) at $20.00.  The reds were consistently good although none of them stood out as being amazing.  I’m not sure the Ancestor is up to its price tag yet, especially in comparison to my benchmark $50.00 Napa Valley wines.  My guess is that the wines will improve over time especially with the arrival of Kevin Sass, the winemaker formerly of Justin, who arrived in 2011.  We had the $20.00 Synthesis at a family event recently and it was very good.

 

The bridge over Tablas Creek on the way up to the new wine facility

 

What we liked- Virtually everything about the place.  Like I said above, by taking the tour you really get to take in the whole place.  Everything, including the tasting facility, is very comfortable.  Everyone we met was professional, yet friendly.  But kind on a FYI- The Farmhouse is not for rent.  We were able to use it as we have some very good connections with someone that was the high bidder in a charity auction.

What we bought- Nothing this time but we will return with other tasters and would certainly buy wine from Halter next time we are in the area. I think in a couple of years you will also be able to find Halter wines on the retail market.

Vitals:

Halter Ranch Vineyard

8910 Adelaida Road

Paso Robles, CA  93446

(805) 226-9455

www.halterranch.com

Adelaida and Tablas Creek

Adelaida Cellars and Tablas Creek Vineyard

Paso Robles, CA

We spent last weekend in Paso Robles and for those of you who have not been to the Paso Robles Wine Country you will simply be amazed at the sheer number and variety of wineries.  I counted over 170 wineries on the Paso Wine website.  I am not sure how many of these have tasting rooms that are open on a regular basis but it is safe to say you could spend a week down this way and not get to most of the them.  Generally the area is pretty warm during the day but receives significant evening cooling since parts of the Westside area are not too many miles from the coast.  A wide variety of grapes are grown including traditional Spanish, Italian, Bordeaux and Rhone varietals.  We were not wild Wine Tasters on this trip but made it to a few wineries, some new to us and some that we had visited before.

Adelaida which focuses on both Rhone and Bordeaux varietals and Tablas Creek which is all about Rhone varietals are two wineries that we visited.  Both of these wineries are old-timers in comparison to most of the wineries in the area.  Adelaida has roots dating back to the 60’s and Tablas Creek’s vineyards date back to 1985.  Adelaida’s first vineyards were planted in 1964 by Dr. Stanley Hoffman.  His Hoffman Mountain Ranch label was established and his winery contains the first large scale modern facility in the area.  In 1973 Hoffman hired Andre Tchelistcheff, the pre-eminent wine making consultant in America (BV, Heitz, Grgich).  Wines were produced under the HMR label through the 90’s and wines under the Adelaida label were first seen in the late 80’s  Throughout the 80’s and 90’s the HMR Pinot Noir received several big time accolades.   Tablas Creek’s owners had connections with a family making wine in the Rhone region of France and purchased the Paso Robles property because it had similarities with Chateaunuef du Pape, an appellation in the southern Rhone region in France known for Grenache, Syrah and Mouvedre grapes.

 Our first stop was Adelaida.  We were surprised by the crowd at the winery at 10:30 in the morning but after a short wait we were provided excellent service with Todd.  There was a $10.00 tasting fee with each fee being waived with a bottle purchase.  We tasted a couple of white wines, a Viognier and a Roussanne.  I did not think the Roussanne was as fragrant as most we have tasted up north but it was good.  I really enjoyed the Roussanne and thought it was full of flavor for such a light wine.  We tasted the full slate of reds.  We were not aware that Pinot Noir was a specialty since Paso really is not an area that we thought was known for this grape as it is generally grown in much cooler climates.  It was much different than your typical Russian River/Carneros version, being much fuller and darker in color but very good.  The white wines were in the $30’s and the reds in the $40’s.  We had spotted a red blend (Syrah, Cab, Pinot and Cab Franc) that we wanted to try which was priced at $20.00.  We had this last and although it was the lightest of the reds, it was good, and at $20.00 is getting closer to an everyday wine price.

We visited Tablas Creek the next day and fortunately we had a wine club member along with us so we received the full complimentary tasting.  We have been to Tablas Creek before and been impressed.  I think there are thirteen different grapes primarily grown in the Rhone region of France and I think Tablas Creek grows all of these and more.  They have a few lines of blends (Espirit de Beaucastal, which is Mouvedre based, Cotes de Tablas, which is Grenache based, and Patelin de Tablas, which is Syrah based) and then they have quite a few 100% varietal wines.  We tasted a bunch of them.  The Roussanne and the blends were very good and then we also tasted a 100% varietal called Tannat that we especially liked.  The tasting room was full but as members, or friends of members, we received excellent service.  Tablas Creek has excellent picnic grounds and another thing I think is pretty unique about Tablas Creek is that they have various Rhone varietal grapevines for sale.

With all the tasting rooms in this area we will really need to spend some more time down this way.  So many of the wineries are unfamiliar either because they are very small or just do not distribute their wines as much up north where there is so much competition.  There will definitely be more to come from us with Paso Robles wineries.

What we liked- The area is really nice country.  Lots of rolling hills and lots of other orchards amongst the vineyards. 

What we bought- Adelaida- A Syrah/Cab blend and that bargain blend, Tablas Creek- The Tannat and one other (Must have been a blend?  We were tired and this was our last stop).

Vitals-

Adelaida Cellars

5805 Adelaida Road

Paso Robles, CA 93446

(800) 676-1232

www.adelaida.com

 

Tablas Creek Vineyards

9339 Adelaida Road

Paso Robles, CA  93446

(805) 237-1231

www.tablascreek.com