If you are not a fan of long blog posts I would skip down to my snippets below. It provides enough random anecdotes to help guide your next visit to Paso Robles.

Where?

In the 1850’s American Oil and Railroad tycoons pushed their work party towards the port at San Luis Obispo (think “There Will Be Blood”). As a side note grapes were planted. Note to self: this is the exact time Christian Missionaries planted grapes in Napa and thus vines in Paso can be just as old.

Quite a bit later, the founders of Tablas Creek brought samplings of the vines found in southern France and planted them across Paso Robles. This founder, whose name I am unsure of, noticed the climate to be similar to southern France and thus planted mostly Mourvedre, Grenache and Syrah. Paso’s landscape even has the same lush purple flowers as southern France, which have attracted the world’s elite to Provence since Roman times.

The wines are big. Very big. Probably my biggest epiphany during my tasting visit last weekend was that every wine was “good”. Even a vertical tasting of the acclaimed Isosceles Bordeaux blends from Justin were hard to differentiate. I do not think I had one boring wine all weekend.

I noticed a lot of mom and pop wineries. I got the sense that most of the winemakers were ex LA people who were attracted to the country side. I had only seen a handful of the wines on my tasting map available at my usual wine stores in San Francisco. I am assuming Paso wineries have better distribution in LA than nor-cal.

Some random points worth pointing out:

1.) An important distinction to make in Paso is the difference between west side and east side. The west side is hilly, chilly from the ocean fogs as well as wind, and contains limestone based soil similar to the limestone under the Pacific Ocean. The East Side, which can be found across route 101, is pretty much the same wine as anywhere on the Central Coast.

2.) I had no write-home-about Mourvedre’s. I thought Mourvedre’s were a hot weather grape?

3.) Tablas Creek Blends were HOT. Like crazy alcohol attack on the mouth. I was not a fan.

4.) Nadeau Wines were about as dense as red wine can get and the winemaker was a crazy chemist. He also provided the quote of the weekend when he tells some new tasters: “Tastes are $20 per person. Just kidding. This is not Napa.”

Part 1 of a few.