The last time we came to Paso Robles, we only had part of an afternoon at Tin City.  Since it was a weekday, most everything was closed.   We knew, then, that we would make an entire day of Tin City when we came back.

Sunday was that day.

I had mentioned before that the family tree of Paso wineries is more like a bramble bush… or a mangrove.  It’s all interconnected and crisscrossed.  Everyone has worked with everyone and still works with them on special projects at different times.

Tin City throws all of them together.  It’s in an industrial park on the east side of Paso (using west side grapes, of course 🙂  ).  There are a few places where you could get a car stereo system put in and things of that ilk, but it’s primarily about wine and a few brewers.  When we went last year, we had the privilege of tasting at Desparada (the wife of the winemaker at Herman Story is the winemaker there) and ONX.  Today we had quite a few more on our lineup.

So that the bear could enjoy the day as much as I did, we took an Uber for our 10 minute trip down the road.  As we are non-city folk, we managed to irritate our first Uber driver by trying to schedule a time…  instead, he showed up within 5 minutes, and we weren’t ready.  Oooops!   Now we know.  I knew enough to be worried that our rating as 5 star passengers may be tarnished by our ignorance.  I sure hope not!

Our first appointment of the day was at 11 AM at monochrome.  We chose them to begin because they are a “whites only” (yes, I’m aware of how wrong that sounds) producer.  We knew we’d be experiencing palate fatigue by the end of the day, so why not start there.

Monochrome is owned by a charming smarty mcsmarterson Stanford MBA, Dave McGee.  You have the opportunity to taste his 90 point + wines with him in an ultra sleek, modern tasting area that he shares with two other wineries.  His consulting wine maker has worked at some of the best wineries in Paso and in the world.  Monochrome experiments with the wine every step of the way.  They say that they modeled their wine making after Phil Spector’s 1960 “Wall of Sound” style of music producing.  They want to meticulously blend and layer and create something different than had ever been created before.

Our next appointment wasn’t until 1 o’clock, so we asked about some other places we should try.  Our next stop was a BIG departure from Monochrome.  We went from delicate whites to some reds that were not at all shy with Brian Benson.  Brian grew up in the wine industry, making his first wine when he was twelve.  On his 21st birthday in 2003 he released his first vintage of wine for sale.  We got a chance to taste with him.  He’s an artist and a hot rod builder.  I always love the stories behind the wine! My favorite here was S&M.   (What?!?!  It was!   I told you I love mouvedre.)

From there we made the trek back up the hill to the same building as Monochrome.  This time it was for Turtle Rock.  Turtle Rock was my destination winery of Tin City.  Each time we are at a winery, we ask about other wineries we need to visit.  Most mentioned this year was Turtle Rock. This is a winery owned by Don Burns.  He interned with his friend, Justin Smith at Saxum–arguably the best winery in Paso.  And some of his grapes come from one of the best vineyards, James Berry.

I bonded with our hostess in the tasting room.  She was a current senior at Cal Poly.  I could IMMEDIATELY tell that she was a former AP Language and Composition student,  (I was right) and that had been her favorite class.  She was also a 2014 high school grad, and that was one of my favorite groups to teach EVER.  She told us the story of how Don had reintroduced the Westberg label back on the the Paso scene and named his “Willow” wines after his daughter.

It was getting to be lunch time, so she generously offered their conference area as a place to picnic. We got a glass of wine and sat down to finish off our meat and cheeses.

From there, it was on to Richard’s “must visit” of the trip:  Jacob Toft.  Jacob is a producer known for his meticulous attention to detail.  He spent six years working for L’Aventure before opening up his own space.  He and his wife, Kelly (who we met last year at Linne Calodo) run the place in Tin City.  We got to taste with Jacob’s assistant, Fizzle. We ended up buying three of Jacob’s wines.  He also sources from the best vineyards in the Paso area, including James Berry, Stolpman, and Alta Colina.

Kelly came in and gave us some thoughts of where else we needed to go….  Since they were all RIGHT there and we had an uber to get home, why not? The first one we hit was levo.  Kelly said that Bret Urness and Jamie Traylor are up and coming winemakers in Paso.  The place was LOADS of fun to visit.  The chicks behind the counter were swilling wine and playing good music!  Fun visit!

Since it was our last drinking day…

Why not one more?  We went to have some grapes that were different than the ones we’d been trying all week.  Aaron wines are known for petite sirah and Aequorea (part of the Aaron label) is pinot noir. These were gorgeous, big wines in a lovely tranquil tasting room.

Now, we were truly crying uncle.  But we’re not quitters, so we did what all the winemakers do and ended at Tin City Cider.  We went there last year as well.  Tin City is a cidery owned by winemakers.  I love everything they do.  My favorite this time was Poly dolly.  It’s a mix of cider and rose.  Good stuff!   They have picnic tables outside, and it was a gorgeous day to take in some sun and some suds!

At this point it was time to take our “thank goodness we have an uber” selves back to Paso proper.  I introduced Richard to the concept of restaurant hopping around the square last year, so we continued this year.  We began with shared bites at Artisan before making our way to La Cosecha where we had only had cocktails a few nights before.  The extensive cocktail menu is so intriguing we had to come back for more!   I absolutely LOVE their glasses.  They are the best shape for someone who had been drinking all day!

They’re more oval than they are round.  Very cool!   From there, we tried to go to Hatch, but it was SUPER crowded.   All of the restaurants in Paso proper are extremely small.  No worries: we had reservations there for the next night.  My eyes were drawn to the Vegas-style bar of CaliPaso, so we stopped in there for a glass of wine before settling at Fish Gaucho where we had excellent duck empanadas and a queso fundido with chorizo!   Yummy.  We also got a little bit of sipping tequila that goes for over $100 a bottle.  In Paso they take their cocktails as seriously as their wine.  Everything is handcrafted and scrumptious.

Since it wouldn’t be a day in Paso without ending at Taste in the Alley we returned there for our penultimate visit.

We would head out the next day to Hearst Castle!   I was looking forward to a day with a little (A LOT) less drinking, but day four had been wonderful.

There are still so many more places we need to visit; we may need to go back next year!