In March of 2017, after many trips to Napa and Sonoma, my husband and I decided to try a wine region that was new to us. We went out for three days only, not knowing what to expect, or how much we would enjoy it. We have now been to Paso Robles from Texas five times in the past six years. (We only missed 2020 because…well… you know…)

Each time we go back we have some experiences that we just NEED to repeat and some new places we must try. A few years back, the Bear (my husband Richard) started following several Paso blogs, podcasts (Where Wine Takes You is a GREAT one), and he learned of the Paso Robles Wine Country Virtual Auction. One night we were watching TV, and he called to me… “Did you SEE this lot? We should bid on it.” There it was, “A French Affair to Remember for 6.” The description looked like something out of a dream! Go with six people to Benom in Tin City, followed by L’Aventure and end with Clos Selene – all with tours led by the winemakers and winery owners before reuniting with them for dinner at Las Petite Canailles. I couldn’t even imagine how amazing it would be if we were to “win” that bid. I mean, we would be drinking for the children, right? We LOVE the Fabre/Asseo wines and people.

So, with the help of a friend, we bid. Lo and behold, last year in 2022 we won, and we made the trip ours!

But as can happen over a year, plans change. Life happens. Only four of us ended going on the trip instead of six, and the guest list changed entirely. Still, the two friends who were willing to accompany us (Ben and Katie) were a HUGE part of what made this one of the best trips the Bear and I have ever had in our lives…

For the weeks before we went, I saw this ATMOSPHERIC RIVER heading towards Paso. Brutal rains, damaging winds all heading that direction…. Oh… my… The Friday before we left, roads were washed away. Paso had received more rain in days than they had in years. Oh…my… Still, we had been planning this trip for the last year. Nothing would deter us. Over the weekend, they dried out a bit. So, EARLY Tuesday morning (our flight leaving Austin at 6 AM), we set off for what would be a wild first day in Paso (and a reintroduction for our friends who hadn’t been in 20 years.)

Day One: Travel Day

The direct flight to San Jose was uneventful. We landed at around 8 o’clock; then, headed out to get our fancy rental minivan. At the San Jose airport, you have to walk across the street to get to the rental car center and the rain, albeit not heavy, was literally coming down sideways in an incredible wind. What a start!

So the Bear did some white knuckled driving for about 3 hours to get us down to Paso safely. (At one point we stopped in Gonzalez for some ice and road snacks, and when we opened the front doors to the van, it felt like they might be ripped off!)

By the time we made it to Paso we were feeling a little peckish. so we stopped into Thomas Hill Organics for a nice bottle of Tablas Creek white to whet our Paso palate and some snacks to start our base. (The butternut squash soup was YUMMY!)

We had time to drive over to our place to stay for the next three nights. In the past we have rented a VRBO when it’s just the two of us. It’s right above BL Brasserie. It’s called Park Place. It’s cute and comfortable. When we had a very generous friend pick up the tab, we got to stay at Hotel Cheval. This time we stayed at The Piccolo. It’s a newer, boutique hotel. The rooms are plenty spacious with more of an urban vibe. It has a cozy wine bar in the lobby; upstairs has a rooftop bar that is open to the public. We spent so little time in the hotel that where we stayed didn’t matter as much as where we went. Each morning an adorable little box of wrapped pastries, apples, and apple juice are hung on the door. The hotel is full of cute touches, and it’s very conveniently located just off the square. Maybe a little expensive for what it is? That’s up to the individual.

We only had one visit on our list for that day, Denner. To me, Denner is one of the most breathtakingly beautiful vineyards I’ve ever seen. The drive up to the fascinating building is USUALLY so dramatic. I had chosen it to show our friends how Paso had grown in the last 20 years. On THIS crazy, rainy day… maybe more dramatic than we would have expected? We were cruising in the mini van through nearly flooded, muddy streets. When we arrived at Denner, the entire building was shaking as the doors were being blown open with the force of the wind… But, once inside, we had warmth, a fireplace, and wine. All was well.

I don’t talk about the wines that much when I blog. I have friends who are wine experts and many who collect. For me, I love a good experience. I’ll simply say that none of the wines were bad. Some I loved and bought; some were not to my taste. This is always true. For me, though, although I have had wines from all over the world, the ones that stick with me most and the ones that are most suited to my palate are those of the best winemakers in Paso.

It had been a LONG day, so it was back to downtown to grab a glass of wine with the hotel’s sommelier, Brice, before facing the rain for a couple of blocks and a craft cocktail at the Alchemist’s Garden and dinner at The Hatch (where the mushrooms are an ABSOLUTE must.) Then, we ended with JUST ONE MORE drink at Fish Gaucho… because the first day in Paso is a good time to get your liver in shape. There are just so many good places on the square that it’s sad to miss any of them! And, okay, confession… our hotel lobby had a Moet vending machine… so MAYBE I just had to buy one little split for breakfast champagne. Wouldn’t it be wrong not to?

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Day Two: The first full day

On this trip, The Bear had only one NEW place in mind to visit. I did as well. His was Torrin. It is an ultra small production at a gorgeous facility out on Peachy Canyon. I will say that getting there was an adventure, too. The weather was a little foggy and there was still standing water on the roads. Otherwise, it was gorgeous. My GPS, however, was not functioning well and the bear does NOT like to be late, so the speeding around those wet curves while I was trying to redirect us made for quite a start. Still, the experience at Torrin was amazing. EVERY wine was good and interesting. And, although we had vowed NO MORE WINE CLUBS… Sometimes, you just can’t help it! (In our defense, it was actually our friends who joined, and we just piggybacked on with them.)

Next up, we had planned to have a picnic experience under the oaks at Alta Colina. That actually happened by a happy accident! We looked on the website to try to book the experience, but the dates and times didn’t look like they were going to work out. I happened to mention this on on the Paso Robles Wine Fanatics page. The winery co-owner, Bob, reached out to me and told me to get in touch with his daughter, Maggie, and they’d make it happen for our dates. Then, Nichole from L’Aventure ALSO saw it, and said she’d arrange it! What fun! In the end, although the day was gorgeous, it was too wet and cold to actually have our picnic on top of the hill, but we still had an amazing walk through the vineyard up at the top with Maggie before having our Red Scooter lunch delivery back in the tasting room with Bob (and of course, the greeter dog, Honey!)

From there it was time to go back to the room to quick change and get ready for crazy dinner experience #1 in Tin City. We had been to Six Test Kitchen two years prior. At that time, I blogged and said “If Michelin ever came to Paso, this place would get a star.” Turns out, I know food and service. Michelin did… and Six Test did. I was excited to try it again! But, we had to keep our momentum going, so we made a last minute reservation to pop in to try out Jacob Toft where we have been members for the last several years. We started a lovely tasting with Fizzle before I spotted Kelly Toft. I meant to just say “hi,” but was pleasantly surprised when she chose to sit down and conduct the tasting herself! It was yet another show of how wonderful the people of Paso are. In fact, when we started running a little late, she made a call down to Turtle Rock to let them know we’d be on our way soon. I always love Tin City tastings! Well-made wines in easy, personable tasting rooms. It really isn’t a complete visit to Paso Robles without checking them out. We have tasted at Turtle Rock twice before. We weren’t able to last year because after their 100 point score, they sold out of ALL their wines. We got to taste this year, however, and we still love them!

Feeling just the right amount of buzz and starting to get hungry, it was time to go through the parking lot to Six Test. I’m not going to lie and say this kind of dining experience is for everyone. If you love a perfectly cooked 18 oz ribeye with an amazing baked potato more than anything else for dinner, this may not be for you. If you enjoy stuffing yourself with bowls of beautiful pasta, this may not be your thing. If you think over $200 a person for dinner is insane, this isn’t your thing…

What I AM going to say is if it IS your kind of experience, this is one of the best. It’s a chef’s table restaurant for no more than 12 where the food is assembled with precision in front of you. Chefs use tweezers and ultimate care to make sure that every bite is perfect and beautiful. You have to pay for the meal in advance, you usually have to book more than a month out, and it takes around three hours. It is not meant to be just a meal: it’s meant to be an event, and it truly was. I’m going to be completely honest here – this is the second time we went. The first time, I LOVED the wine pairing. This time, it seemed like it was trying a little too hard to be interesting or different, and it wasn’t as much to my liking. BUT I’m a traditionalist in many ways when it comes to wine. Others, who like a little more adventure, may greatly enjoy it. Wine is so subjective. Most of the staff has changed, but the food was still just as interesting and incredible this time as it was the first. The service was also as phenomenal. (I laugh a little when I say this because I watched the movie The Menu last night… and I definitely recognize the satire. Still, this was SO GOOD!) Feel free to checkout the slideshow:

Spent and satiated it was time for bed. (Well, PRETTY much… I did have to sneak off from the pack to go have one glass of champagne with Brice in the hotel bar… but THEN bed.) After all, the upcoming day was the reason we were in Paso Robles…

Day Three: The French Connection – The Piece de Resistance

So…this was it. The reason for the trip. Today was they day we collected our auction lot. We decided since we’d already started out with “going big,” we’d go ahead and get a limo and a driver for the day. Lush limos and John did a great job, and even upgraded our little group of four to a nicer vehicle.

Our first stop of the incredible day was to be Clos Selene. We had tried to go there WAY back on our first trip when they were in Tin City, but they were in the middle of bottling and not able to take us. We did go to see them in 2018 when their winery first opened. In fact, I went back to my old blog and saw that we were there on March 15 that year! (This year we were there on the 16th).

I hadn’t checked my email, so I didn’t see that Guillaume had emailed saying that since we couldn’t tour the vineyards (too wet from all the rain) that he had changed our tasting to a barrel tasting and our time from 9:30 to 10:00. Ooops! But even though we arrived half an hour early, he was still such a generous and kind host! We waited for just a few moments and had a chance to look at our gorgeous wine and cheese pairing and watch some cats stalk birds in a tree…

Then, out came Guillaume. He’s a sixth generation winemaker, the first of his family to move here from France. If you don’t know the whole Asseo/Fabre story, it’s so sweet. It’s all about love for the land and love for each other that has this whole “French mafia,” as Paso calls them, all intertwined. Guillaume worked with Stephan Asseo at L’Aventure before returning to France to marry Solene. Meanwhile, Arnaud met Stephan’s daughter, Chloe. Now both couples live and work in Paso. (The whole story is longer, but it’s on all of their “About Us” pages.)

Okay, so, I’m going to get a little fangirlish and borderline inappropriate here, but for those who haven’t met the Fabre brothers… Um, as the French might say… Oooh la la… (I didn’t take this picture. I stole it from Arnaud’s page. Arnaud is on the left, Guillaume is on the right.) They’re both about six foot three and French and SO NICE. Anyway, I digress.

We began our tasting with a few whites before Guillaume invited us back into the barrel room to try anything we like. He was climbing around like our own personal version of cirque du soleil going up to the fourth row of barrels while holding a wine glass and a pipette. Even in barrel, the wines were showing their characteristics – so clean and wonderful.

As we finished our tasting there and purchased our wines, Guillaume mentioned seeing us at dinner that night and asked us what wines we would like him to bring. He told us he would bring along one of his sparklings for us to try. By the time we left, we were hugging like we were old friends. He sent us off to his brother in Tin City.

Benom is such an INTERESTING place. Benom is a partnership between Guillaume and Arnaud. Guillaume makes the wines, Arnaud sells them. Beyond that, Arnaud is also an importer, collecting his favorite wines from his favorite places and selling those to the public. So, at Benom, you get to taste both kinds. The cellar there is IMPRESSIVE. It is meant for people who are well versed in wine to look at and say “Oh, wow….” and we did. Much as with Guillaume, Arnaud asked us what we’d like to try, and again… what we would like him to bring with him for dinner. I truly loved that they acted as though they were genuinely looking forward to dinner together that night as much as we were! It could be an awkward situation to have to go break bread with strangers, but never for a moment did any of them act like they were anything but delighted to get together later.

From there, just a quick stop at Etto to build that pasta base before one more taste. I do wish there were more food choices in Tin City, but Etto is quite good! It was VERY quiet the whole time we were in Paso this week It made the events feel extra special.

L’Aventure was our final scheduled stop for the day. Our friends who were with us had been there once twenty years ago when it was just a tiny tasty room, and it had been the Bear and my very first winery on our first visit in 2017! When I was looking back at my blog from then, I realized I tried one of the same wines on that trip that I had this week, and it was my favorite this time around! (It was the 2014 Estate Cuvee in case anyone is looking to send me a gift. Ha!)

Chloe and Stephan were busy with partners, but Chloe stepped out to say, “hi” and told us she’d see us later before passing us off to Ray Stone – a literal genius tech guy who did well for himself, retired before 40, and became a full-time winemaker. He was willing to answer any question and let us delve in as deep as we liked as we entered Stephan’s own private area in the L’Aventure caves for a tasting.

Again, we bought another bottle… or more… and bid adieu until later that evening. The Bear wanted a nap. But to not lose our inertia, Ben, Katie, and I did a quick change and hit the town, Katie gamely walking the streets of Paso in her strappy stilettoes! We tried to go to my favorite wine shop, Taste in the Alley, but due to staffing shortages, it just wasn’t happening. It seemed most of the tasting rooms were also closed. (It was around 6 o’clock.) So, we ended up in the Cattleman’s Lounge at the Paso Robles Inn drinking savory cocktails – a fun contrast to the elegance of the day.

Then it was time to meet back up with our amazing hosts. We walked just down the block to Les Petite Canailles (or LPC to those in the know). The chef at LPC is Julien Asseo – son of Stephan, brother of Chloe, and he is a classically trained French chef with a pedigree of working at Guy Savoy and Joel Rubuchon – Julien has a Michelin mention of his own at LPC. We did the “Trust Us” menu with Julien. I was talking so much to his family that the Bear had to take all of these pictures, and we trusted Julien so much we had no menu at all. But believe me when I say that this was one of the most fun meals of my life. Four hours of CONSTANT conversation, the bottles of wines kept being popped open, the peas, the farro risotto, the lamb, the savory dessert. All of it! Beatrice and Stephan were able to stop by and say “bonjour!” Arnaud even bought and shared one of his favorite wines of the year that wasn’t part of the amazing selection that the French mafia had brought with them. It was an out-of-this-world event and one I’ll remember for the rest of my life.

Check out the slideshow above to see.

Stumbling back across the street in the dark, our only plan for the next day was to sleep-in, checkout, and travel, back…

But…

Day four: Unexpected travel delay

We woke up to seeing that our flight was going to be almost two hours later than expected. In Paso, what else is there to do but hit one more winery? I mentioned earlier in this blog that the Bear had one new spot he wanted to try on this trip. I had one, too, but it hadn’t fit in to this point. Now, it did. I made the executive decision to call Sixmilebridge and head out that way for one last hurrah.

They said they didn’t have a tasting available until 10:30. Yet, they were still so friendly when we showed up just a few minutes after 10:00. It was St. Patrick’s Day, and we had no idea how serendipitous this was! We were ending at a winery owned by an Irishman, making Bordeaux style wines in a winery that incorporated an Irish motif! Slainte indeed! As we sat to try some Pasodeaux (that’s what I’m calling it; maybe it will catch on…) Jim Moroney told us the story of his great grandfather and a massacre, which is always the way to start St. Patrick’s Day! The property was beautiful, the wines were fun. And, remember, we started at Denner where the winemaker creates Rhone style wines (Paso Rhonles? maybe that will catch on, too) and we were now ending at Sixmilebridge where the SAME winemaker creates Bordeaux. I like having things wrapped up in a neat bow…

Then, finally back to town for one more very tasty meal at BL Brasserie to end our French experiences.

We will continue to travel the world (literally -Italy in less than three months) looking for wine centric vacations, but we will keep coming back to Paso for a long, long time. The wine, the food, the beauty, the people… Truly Paso is special.

A trip to Paso is never complete without a Tin City day. This is a gathering of some experimental wine makers and some small producers, often from the best vineyards in Paso. These are the people who don’t own their own vineyards; instead, they source their grapes from other places. There is a really interesting documentary/commercial about it free on Amazon Prime.

Our first stop may be my favorite wine in all of Paso. It is excellent. The most important cult-wine out of Paso is arguably Saxum. Most of the Saxum wines come from the James Berry and G2 vineyard, and so do most of Turtle Rock’s. Don Burns is an assistant at Saxum and has been friends with Justin Smith his whole life. Burns’ winery is newer and smaller.

We were lucky enough to have his charming wife, Claudia, as our wine host on what was supposed to be a blustery day but turned out gorgeous. (I have extraordinary luck with weather almost all the time.) The wines were quite the big start to the day and nothing short of sensational.

We didn’t go to anyplace we hadn’t been before in Tin City. We did go back to our favorites, and some of the ones we order from most often, so stop two was Jacob Toft and a tasting with Fizzell… We last tasted with him three years ago. The story in Tin City was different than it had been at the other wineries. The other vineyards mentioned that COVID really hadn’t put a hurt on their profits. In fact, many of them had the best years they had ever had. Tin City was a different story. These smaller producers need the foot traffic and on-site buyers, so being shut down for three months hurt them quite a bit.

One of the main things for Jacob is diversification. He sources from the best vineyards all over the central coast and does a variety of fantastic wines. He never wants to own a vineyard. He wants to stick to being a fantastic winemaker with relationships with some of the best vineyards. We’ve never been disappointed by a Jacob Toft wine or the experience at the winery.

Since we’ve been before and buy from them quite a bit, we had the privilege of trying some of the back vintages, too. I’m not even sure how many wines we tried, sharing some, having some one our own. I do know we bought half a case. We had agreed to buying one case total before we went… Well, we bought TWO cases total… I’m not sure where we’re going to put it… I guess we need to get to drinking!

We had another appointment in about half an hour. so we ducked into McPhee’s Canteen to split an awesome lamb burger before ending our wine trip at Desparada.

The winemaker at Desparada is the wife of the winemaker at Herman Story. She uses different grapes from many of the same vineyards, so it’s fun to see how they can be treated differently by two different styles. There was a rowdy group next to use that had a few too many spirits at Wineshine before making their way in, but it was still a good time with tasty grapes.

We headed back to the apartment after to prepare for our final dinner at La Cosecha. We had stopped by in the past for appetizers or craft cocktails, both of which were excellent, but we wanted to have a meal. La Cosecha is the sister restaurant to Il Cortille, one of the more popular fine dining restaurants in Paso Robles. Both have the same owner and the same fantastic chef. Il Cortille is Italian La Cosecha is Latin inspired. All of the restaurants are currently requiring reservations and allowed only 25% indoor seating. We were happy to sit outside in a lovely parklette. We were MOSTLY wined out (although we did push through and have a glass each at dinner – ha-) but we started with cocktails, a bone marrow appetizer, ceviche, and a beet salad and finished up with the paella of the day. Such a great grand finale!

Then, it was time to go back and prepare for the two hour and forty minute drive back to the airport at 6 AM the next morning. The drive back feels like it takes FOREVER. This time, however, the flight was direct. (Thank goodness no Denver… huge snowstorm there!) And now… that’s the end of the blogs. (For the very interested our first trip is here. Our second trip is here.)

We’re thinking our next wine destination may be Washington sometime this summer. It was fantastic to have this break from life in the middle of the year and Paso, as always, was amazing.

We decided to start our third day with some familiarity. On our first visit in 2017 we joined one winery, Linne Calodo. This continues to be one of the most respected wineries in Paso. It is nestled in the forest and doesn’t have the sweeping views of some of the others, but it’s a lovely experience.

They were perhaps the most COVID cautious of any of the wineries. We had to fill out contact tracing forms and our wine host never came within 6 feet of us for any reason. It was a cool day but the sky was completely clear making the sun blazing hot. It was good to be able to taste the wines from our most recent shipment because Richard likes to wait a few years before we can open them up. (He’s right, of course, they’re better when they have some time in the bottle, but they’re so good it’s hard to wait!)

We were going to be a little early for our tasting at Kukkula, but they were kind enough to allow us to have a little picnic before doing the reserve tasting there. This tasting was a lot of fun at an amazing winery. Kevin, the owner and winemaker, is a first generation immigrant from Finland. We sat with him for a few hours while he shared his wines and told their stories. His amazing house sits at the top of the hill behind the winery. He built his house, the winery, and the barrel facility all with his own two hands (and a lot of money and some friends!) His wife and kids work in the winery as well, and it was a fantastic experience beginning to end.

With some time to spare before MY dinner pick, we went back to Paso and just behind our apartment to Straight Out of Paso. This was another project by Edgar Torres of Bodega de Edgar. These are the more typical Paso wines at a very laid-back fun tasting room.

We decided to get a Lyft to Tin City for dinner that night. Paso is a small city and Lyft drivers are scarce, as we were going to see on our ride home. Our driver came earlier than scheduled, so we decided to take advantage of the time and walk over to Tin City Cider for a palate cleanser before heading to MY pick of the trip. Dinner at Six Test Kitchen. I could do a full four part blog on this dinner alone. The tickets for dinner (yes, tickets for dinner) go on sale on the first of the month. According to the sommelier, they are often sold out by the end of the week. This is a three-man show, one chef, one somm, one sous chef. There is no support staff, just them. They do one seating a night, starting promptly at 6 o’clock, for a maximum of 12 people. All plating is done on custom made pottery right in front of the guests, and these three men do all the service.

It’s hidden in one of the tin buildings in a parking lot of the Tin City industrial complex. (Our Lyft driver called it wine Disneyland, which is the perfect name.)

You definitely wouldn’t know it was there unless you were specifically looking for it. But the atmosphere inside was beautiful and such an interesting experience. The dinner music was Pandora station ZZ Top playing the classic rock of the mid 80s. It made such an interesting dichotomy with the elegant plating and the food.

The food was fantastic! We love to travel for food experiences. We have been to multiple world-renowned restaurants, and this was one of the best experiences in my life, both in quality of food and in the experience of the meal. We have been to 1, 2, and 3 Michelin starred restaurants in many other places. This one matches and surpasses many of those. If Michelin made it to Paso, this place would be in the guide for sure!

After an amazing two hour extravaganza, we waddled out to the street to wait for our Lyft. This was more of an experience than we would have liked. First, one picked up, but canceled after about a half hour of waiting. We started to consider the 4.4 mile walk back to the apartment (which may have been a good plan after such a marathon meal). Still, eventually we found someone and made it back.

We thought about sitting out on the deck, but it was a little loud and little chilly so we sat inside and increased our buzz with one last bottle of wine before getting ready for our last day: Tin City day.

On our first day, we decided to start at an east side winery with west side wines…Those experienced in the wines of Paso know this is part of the largest region in California. They really only started growing wine in the 1990s. To be honest, some of this area is used for making the bulk wines that go into boxes and the cheaper grocery store varietals… BUT many of the west side wineries are dedicated to quality wines, often Rhone varietals, that can age with the best of them.

Our first day, however, we traveled to Spain in California by going to Bodega de Edgar. The reason we chose this winery actually had nothing at all to do with wine. The first time we traveled to Paso, we kept passing by the winery when their tasting room was on the west side… and were drawn to it because of Edgar Allan Pup. Now known as the dearly departed Edgrrr… who we were lucky enough to get to have for 12 years.

Our second day started in an industrial area. The views were for later that day. The tasting was in a beautiful little concrete garden area outside. It was brisk but sunny. In general, I don’t talk about the wines much in my blog. I’m not a Sommelier. I just like wine. These were different than a lot of the wines we had in other places… instead of French varietals, these are Spanish. Still, they have the very juicy quality that is typical of Paso, just applied to Old World grapes.

We had the chance to chat with Edgar himself for a bit. We asked if we could picnic there, but with COVID restrictions and for various other reasons, few of the wineries allowed that this time around. We knew we had to go back through downtown Paso to get to our next winery anyway, so we decided to go to picnic at the park. We had 20 minutes to do that… so there was no leisurely picnic. Still, it’s a beautiful square and a place to be. I didn’t get any pictures from THAT day because we were shoveling food in far too fast to stop for photos… but I wandered around the square on a cloudier day. It’s so hard to get pictures that show how cute and charming it is.

Our next stop was Calcareous. Any time any part of the address says Peachy Canyon or Adelaida on the address, you will know that the place you’re headed is absolutely gorgeous. Calcareous was the only winery that was SLIGHTLY disappointing to me on this visit. The place was absolutely gorgeous, no complaints there. It was, however, pretty busy; and the service had that rushed corporate feeling that I don’t really like. I like the smaller more boutique type places where the wine hosts are invested in the wines. I’m not a fan of the “Here’s your wine; this is the blend” approach where they just drop it off and run on to their next table. Still, the weather was PHENOMENAL and the view was outstanding. The wines and the experience were just okay.

After there, it was off to Alta Colina. Very few winery “experiences” were available because of COVID. In general, I like to do something beyond the regular “these are our wines” tastings. That’s one of the reasons we hesitated from going. I would have loved to do one of their experiences. Still, this was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. While it didn’t have the sweeping views of Law or Dauo, it was still a spectacular drive to get there and a wonderful tasting. We had seen the name of the vineyard on some of our favorites wines, so it was quite a treat to taste their take on their grapes.

When we were younger and dumber, we used to run through 6 or 7 wineries a day. Now, three is pretty much our max. We take the time to enjoy the experience. We could choose to experience more things like zip lining, shopping, the beach… instead we do nothing but wine all day. Three days is about the maximum our palates and livers can handle! After a wonderful visit at Alta Colina we made our way back to town. We still had awhile before our dinner reservation and were feeling a little peckish, so we walked across the street from our apartment to The Alchemists’ Garden. This one is new to us this time in Paso. It used to be the Villa Creek restaurant. This is a very cool, woman owned, craft cocktail centric bar/restaurant. We enjoyed two wonderful types of popcorn, deviled eggs and some funky cool drinks.

From there, it was on to Richard’s number one pick for Paso restaurants: Les Peitites Canailles. (If you’re a Paso local, you call it LPC.) It’s a little French restaurant with a heck of a pedigree. The chef, Julien, is classically trained in France. (He also happens to be the son of one of the premier winery owners/wine makers in Paso, Stephan at L’Aventure). He was a sous chef at Joel Robuchon in Vegas before becoming the executive chef at Guy Savoy. His wife also excelled in the hospitality industry. Eventually, they returned to Paso to raise their family and open their restaurant. It was less than half a mile from our apartment, so we walked down the street and dined outside under a tent. I loved that there were dogs EVERYWHERE, including at this lovely little restaurant. I’ll be honest, I’m not generally a huge fan of traditional French fare. I’d like to grow the appreciation, but it’s all a little heavy for me. Still, our mushroom tart was excellent, and who doesn’t like Joel Robuchon potatoes? The wine list was quite extensive… more than 40 pages. It includes wines from the whole world but was definitely Paso centric.

On our way back to the apartment, we made a quick detour to Taste in the Alley. This was one of the things I missed most during the COVID trip. Normally, it’s a wine bar where you can pull anything off the shelf and open it up and have a glass. If you don’t finish it, it just goes in the tap for others to order glasses later. It’s a super cool concept. Usually, we finish every night there. Now, however, it was reduced to just a wine store. Still, they had some great past vintages, and we picked up a bottle of Denner which was one of my favorites from trip number one.

Full of wine and food, we went to bed ready for day full day #2.

We had hemmed and hawed quite a bit before deciding to go through with this trip. In reality, we were supposed to quarantine for 10 days upon arriving in California. The California variant of COVID is newer and not well-known. Still, we also knew we were going to be outside the whole time, we have been half vaccinated, and at some point getting on with life is important… so we went, and I’m glad we did.

No one ever likes their travel to be “interesting,” and our first day travel was. We set our alarms at 3 AM to get to the airport in time for a 6 AM flight. Then, at 3:55 I got the text from SWA. “Your connecting from from LAS has been cancelled.” Cancelled? Oh no! Not delayed. Cancelled. So, now what? Luckily SWA was wonderful as awesome and rerouted us through Denver, giving us preboarding status so we didn’t lose our early bird. Although we got into San Jose an hour and a half later than expected, it was no big deal. We hopped in the rental car and took off for our 2 hour and 40 minute journey into Paso Robles, California. This was to be our third time to what is now our favorite wine region.

We don’t like to waste the time, money, or calories on breakfast and lunch at restaurants when we’re in Paso, so our first stop was the cheese shop to pick up picnic supplies for the next four days.

We absolutely love Di Raimondo’s right there on the square in Paso Robles. They are very knowledgeable about pairings and helpful and were able to get us set up for the week.

This was also our third stay at our little apartment, Park Place, above the Bistro Laurent wine shop. It has dedicated free parking and it’s right at the edge of the square so it makes for easy walking to everywhere. When we got to the place it was hailing, tiny sand sized pieces of hail… and that was the ONLY bad weather we saw for the whole trip. We ran upstairs to throw our suitcases down before making the 2 minute trip to the first winery…

Herman Story… right next to Dan’s tire shop… with no view of which to speak other than a street and some hills off in the distance. This was our first stop for this trip. Since we didn’t get into town until after two o’clock, we knew this wasn’t the day for going dashing off to the west side. Besides, we LOVE Herman Story. We have been to Herman Story on all three trips, and we became members on our second trip. These are big, bold in-your-face reds that don’t pull any punches. Because of COVID, all tastings were outdoors, which was VERY nice. Herman Story set up a little section right outside their shop with picnic tables and heaters. Surprisingly, we needed the heaters. The temperature was in the 40s.. and the big wines were a prefect way to start the trip.

From there, it was off to Albertsons to get our staples for the week. Then, it was dinner time, Richard has been listening to a Paso Robles wine podcast: Where Wine Takes You, and one of the topics of conversation is often where to go for dinner. Many suggest the Thai place Basil in downtown Paso. Since it was literally .1 miles from our place, sounded like a great excuse to walk around downtown and pick up a bite. Up until a week before we went to Paso, all of California was relegated to outdoor dining. The county of San Luis Obispo had improved from purple to red COVID status before we went, so they were allowed to have 25 percent indoor dining, but we still chose to have all of our dining outdoors. Paso “pivoted” quickly to this model and the city was very supportive as they allowed for “parklettes” outside the restaurants. Yes, it made parking more challenging but took on an almost magical quality at night.

The Bl Brasserie patio is actually right at the base to our stairway, so it’s fun to be right in the center of things as soon as we descend the staircase.

We took our amazing Thai food back upstairs, popped open a bottle of Paso white wine and worked hard to stay awake until 9 PM. (Richard didn’t QUITE make it… after all we’d been up for 20 hours by that point…) We were ready for our first day of wineries!

After three straight days of continuous palate and liver practice, it was time for a day of rest and a little bit of sight seeing. The morning began with  more excitement than we planned.  Since we were finished buying wine, we were going to pack it up and ship it back to Texas.   When driving through Napa, there’s a shipping place on practically every corner.   Well, apparently the laws have changed recently regarding shipping, and none of the people who would ship in the past would anymore.  EEEEEEK!  You can check your wine when you fly; but without all the proper accouterments to pack it properly, getting it there in one piece can be dicey.  We could have direct shipped from the wineries, but with just 1 or 2 bottles from each winery that gets prohibitively expensive.  Luckily, one of the wineries from which we purchased was kind enough to help us out and only charge shipping cost to Fed Ex our two cases.  We felt QUITE lucky; we were able to get our spoils when we got home!

We did have 25 bottles of wine (one more than two cases), so Richard decided we would pack a bottle of white in our suitcase.   Several years ago we had a $100 bottle of red that broke.  Losing the bottle was sad.  It also stained all of our clothes AND the suitcase.  He figured white was a better risk.  (It made it home without breaking this time!)

That behind us, we started out for our day.

When we were in Paso last year, we realized that we’d like to spend some time in the towns of San Luis Obispo (known to the locals as SLO), the beach town of Cambria, and up to San Simeon for Hearst Castle and elephant seals.  We knew we wouldn’t have time to do all of those things, but we were going to try!   We set out for the day with big plans… Cambria for lunch, followed by Hearst Castle, then elephant seals, then drive down to SLO before back up to Paso for dinner.  We eventually found out we had bitten off more than we could chew… but why not dream big?

We began our 37 mile drive from Paso to Cambria at about 10 o’clock that morning.  It was a gorgeous day out, but already we could see the fog rolling in off the coastline as we drove.

We drove through Cambria, which looked like a really cool town for those who like to shop (we don’t), and along Moonstone beach to see the Pacific Ocean.  I had done a little research beforehand and suggested that we have lunch at a place called Centrally Grown.  It supposedly had the best views in the area.  When we were sat at a table about 100 feet above the ground and entirely surrounded by glass, I would have to agree this was definitely the case.  If we had more time, the store at the property and the expansive grounds would be worth exploring;  but we were on a mission!

We had pre-purchased tickets to our two tours from the Hearst Castle website.  The tours were $25 per person a piece, AND there was an $8 advanced service charge per ticket.  We probably could have waited to buy our tickets until we got there, but I would have hated to come all the way from Texas and not be able to tour.

We knew the tour that included admission to the castle also included seeing the 40-minute movie Building the Dream about the history of building the castle.  We decided we wanted to see that before entering the castle, so we had our timing figured out perfectly.  By the time we got there, the fog was so thick we couldn’t see the castle at all from the visitors’ center at the foot of the hill.  The movie was fascinating.  We boarded the bus for the castle.

On the winding path up the hill, Alex Trebek narrated what we COULD be seeing were it a clear day.  We got glimpses but never a full view.  Still, it was gorgeous.  We began our first tour, The Grand Rooms tour, as a slight mist was starting to fall.  Each tour is guided by a very knowledgeable docent who gives the history and the stories of what occurred in each room.

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“Case grande,” as it is known, was breathtaking from floor to ceiling.  There was not a blank spot on any wall or in any area.  Hearst Castle is first and foremost an art museum, including the statues and ceilings.  I considered going through and detailing every picture, but it truly is one of those “you have to see it for yourself” experiences.   The Neptune Pool outside has been empty since 2016 for repairs.  The repairs are actually about two years behind schedule.  Well, you know, contractors and government.  Am I right, or am I right?

Because of Richard’s epicurean ways and both of our wine interests, I also scheduled the “cottages and kitchens” tour.  There are actually about five different tours you can take, all at an hour each.  Hearst Castle has five “cottages.”   The largest is over 5000 square feet and was actually the one when Hearst stayed when he was at “the ranch.”

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I could have happily done a tour of the ceilings alone.  They are gorgeous!   We loved to hear the stories as we wandered outdoors of how Charlie Chaplin would hide inside the sarcophagus to scare guests as they walked by.  We re-entered Casa Grande for the kitchen and the piece de resistance, the wine cellar.

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I was shocked by some of the quite “modern” conveniences of the stand mixer and heated tables.  As we descended the narrow staircase around the elevator into the basement, I could smell the familiar aroma of wine.  Many of the bottles in the cellar are still full (although likely undrinkable), including a Hungarian dessert wine from the 1800s.  I also saw bottles of Dom Perignon and 1931 Domaine de la Romanee Conti, which would be around $15,000 a bottle at auction. Interestingly, William Randolph Hearst didn’t drink and would only allow his guests to have HIS alcohol (although David Niven was known to smuggle his own in and hide it under the bed.)  He would allow them about one glass a night.

We could have continued to peruse the grounds for as long as we wanted at the conclusion of the tour, but with the fog so thick, and a continuous mist, we elected to make our way past the indoor pool.  The Hearst family still has rights to use the pool after hours.  The floor is made-up of 24 karat gold.

On our winding road down the hill, Alex Trebek continued to tell us about the sweeping views we could not see.  We did, however, get to pass the zoo including the polar bear enclosure.  None of the animals are there anymore.  Some zebras and antelope escaped over the years and can be seen grazing with the herd of cattle that the Hearst family still owns on the mountain.

When we were going back to the car, it was later than we thought and raining relatively hard, so our plans of going to see elephant seals and checking out SLO were both thwarted.  We drove back towards our temporary home for our last night in Paso Robles.

We had reservations that night for The Hatch.  We had been dreaming of their amazing maitake mushrooms since last year.  Each night The Hatch has a special meat of the day.  Sunday night is prime rib and Monday is fried chicken.  We were there on Monday.  As we started with cocktails, our waiter let us know that on Monday they take the burnt ends from the prime rib on Sunday and use it to make a macaroni and cheese.  It was definitely necessary to try that along with our mushrooms and cocktails.

The fried chicken was wonderful, served with an excellent homemade hot sauce.  Richard and I both got to try a wine from one of the wineries we didn’t have a chance to visit on this trip.  I had a fantastic Ledge rose and Richard had a Lefondusac cab franc to go with our chicken and our final meal.

We made our way back to our fifth and final consecutive night at Taste in the Alley to bid a fond farewell and “until we meet again” to Kitty and Larry.

The next morning we set off on the 2 1/2 hour journey back up the 101 to San Jose airport.  We had a minor delay on our flight to LAX because President Trump was flying in the area and the airspace had to stay empty.  We were on the ground in LA for only about 30 minutes before being back in the air to Austin.

Exhausted and happy, we had completed another spring break trip.  We’re already feeling some remorse that we don’t intend to return to Paso next year.  We think we’re more likely to go further north on the coast and try out Washington and Oregon where we haven’t traveled, yet.  Still, we love Paso, and we’re likely to return someday in the not too distant future.

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!

Saturday was to be our last day hanging out at the west-side Paso wineries.  It was only my 2nd trip to the region, and I already knew to be picky about my wines being from THAT side of 101.

Our first appointment was bright and early at 10 AM.  The last time we were in Paso, almost every winery we went to spoke of Tablas Creek.  The wine industry in Paso is relatively new.  Most of the wineries have only been around for about 10-20 years.  It was just your average farming community before that. Like most regions that try to grow wine in America, Paso began by planting the varietals that thrive in Napa/Sonoma like chardonnay, pinot noir, and cabernet.  The climate in Paso is MUCH different.  It is far more similar to the climate in the Rhone valley of France.  So began the Rhone Rangers.

Tablas Creek was the first to bring grapevine cuttings back from Rhone itself.  They took these cuttings to Cornell first and to UC Davis later where they were kept in quarantine for a decade before they could be released and used in vineyards.  Chateau de Beaucastel entered in a partnership with one of the founders of Tablas Creek, Robert Haas, to begin the vineyard in Paso.  Now Paso focuses most of their grapes on those Rhone varietals known as Chatauneuf du Pape or GSM (grenache/syrah/mouvedre).

I’m actually more an MGS drinker.   I like my wines heavy on the mouvedre.  Last year in Paso, I learned this was my favorite varietal, and it stayed the same this year.

At Tablas, we decided to go with the Collector’s Tasting to try some of the earlier Paso vintages.  It was fantastic.  We were seated in a private room with Leslie, the sheep lady.  Tablas Creek is an organic and biodynamic certified ranch.  Sheep, apparently, provide a lot of excellent fertilizer in the vineyards. Biodynamic wines involve all kinds of interesting/controversial methods like burying fertilizer in cow horns, looking at moon charts for picking, etc. etc.  It’s interesting, but the controversy involves  whether it truly makes a difference in the tastes of the wine.

This tasting lasted about an hour.  I learned all of the Tablas history, and I also got to learn about the Coriolis effect and its impact on wine.  I’m not as good of a sniffer as some, but apparently the wine releases different phenolics depending on which direction you swirl.  The bear and I were thrilled to see that a 2007 wine was on our tasting menu.  That’s the year we got married!   About 6 years ago we went out to Dunn in Napa and bought a 2007 which we opened on our 10th anniversary.  We’re hoping to open the Tablas Creek that we bought for our 20th.  (Richard said we need to keep an eye on their handy dandy tasting charts, and we might drink it on our 15th instead.)

From Tablas, we went to Daou.  This could just be my perception, but it seems to me that the Daou brothers are something of outsiders in the close knit community of Paso Robles.  Richard and I joked about Paso having a family bush as opposed to a family tree.  Everyone has worked for everyone else at different wineries and different collaborations.  Daou seemed to be the exception.  George and Daniel Daou are brothers who are engineers.  When they were in their 30s they sold their company for $700 million.  They used it to buy one of the most gorgeous wineries I have EVER seen in Paso Robles.

It is HUGE and ostentatious and gorgeous.  The 360 view from the tasting room is unreal.  Normally, you have to park at the bottom of the hill and take a shuttle up.  As it was raining, and somewhat early in the day, we were able to park at the top of the hill.

Unlike most of the other wineries in Paso, Daou focuses on cabernet, and they do a really darned good job of it.

For whatever reason, this was a “blurry” day to me.  :-).  I warned Richard when we left Tablas creek after having only one tasting that I was feeling a little fuzzy.  This continued for the rest of the day.  I tell my students that I don’t taste wine to get drunk, which is true.  Sometimes, however, it’s a side effect!

I was starting to get hungry, and it was beginning to rain.  I suggested we try to find somewhere to picnic, so we made a quick stop at Halter Ranch.  This is a relatively widely distributed wine and the only winery of the trip that ended up being like a “cattle call” tasting where you belly up to the bar and stand in a crowd of people thrusting their glasses forward.

There were plenty of inside picnickers, but not a whole lot of space for us.  We decided to take our chances and go down the road to a winery that had only been open for two weeks:  Paix sur terre.  Quite literally, they weren’t even finished with the tile on the floor.  This or Thacher (from day 2) was likely my favorite wine on the trip.  No surprise since the wine here was all mouvedre. Ryan and Nicole Pease are the winemakers.  Again, as part of the family wine bush, Ryan had worked with Linne Calodo and Epoch, both of which we visited and loved on our first trip.

Here we got to play with Kina, the wine dog, admire the art and sip the fine wine!   It was pouring outside at this point, so we ate in the car at the winery.  We bought two bottles of their wonderful mouvedre and will likely make it the second wine club we join since they don’t distribute their wines, and we want more.

From there, we went to the “happy coincidence” of the trip.  Last spring when we were visiting, we joined the Linne Calodo wine club, as it was our favorite winery of the trip.  We got an email from them a few weeks before which invited us to their release party.  We had booked the trip months in advance, but it just so happened we’d be in town on their release day, so we got a chance to go to our first California wine release party.

Because of the rain, they had to push the whole party into their barrel room — it was a great space for it.

I loved the treat of having passed appetizers during the tasting, and the food was MARVELOUS… really!   It was a fun time.  As you walked around, if you could find Matt Trevisan, the wine maker, you could taste some of the older vintages of wine that he kept popping open.  I hope we have a chance to go to another release party sometime.

From there, it was time to go back to the apartment and get cleaned up for our second fancy dinner of the trip.

Before dinner, we braved the rain to walk across the street from our apartment to Paso Underground.   It’s only open for limited hours on the weekends and rotates 4 different wine makers that don’t have their own tasting rooms.  We tried Copia.  They produce less than 200 cases of wine.  At this point in time, his vineyard isn’t producing grapes, yet.  He uses grapes from L’Aventure, one of the best wineries in Paso, which we visited last trip. We also tried Edumund August which I loved! Ed Sauret is a former teacher and all around wine and restaurant guy.  He started his winery in 2008.  His winemaker is Jacob Toft, whom we learned about LAST year and tasted with on day 4.

From there, we went to Il Cortile where we had eaten last year as well. It’s an Italian restaurant with an extensive wine list.  It’s generally regarded as the best fine dining in Paso.  It did not disappoint this year either.  My favorite, as it was last year, was the appetizers.

This year we had fantastic octopus and risotto with shaved black truffles.  The taste of those truffles… mmmmmmmm….

I had agnolotti and Richard had pork shank for our main courses.  Both were rich, decadent, and wonderful.

Because it is our tradition, from there we wandered back to Taste in the Alley to have our last drink of the night.  Our final day of big west side wines behind us, we went to bed ready to traverse Tin City for day 4.

When you stay downtown, you wake up VERY early in the morning.  The rumble of the delivery trucks starts right about 5:45 AM…  but Richard and I aren’t late sleepers to begin with.  We have wine to drink!

I do like the laziness of our mornings in the apartment.  We have a couple of hours to Facebook peruse, loll around, step outside and enjoy the beauty of the quiet town.  The picture above is what we see when we go down the stairs and look across the street. Paso is still a relatively small town (about 30, 000 people), and it still has that small town feel.

I was ULTRA excited about day #2, and it most certainly did NOT disappoint.  I like wine, but I’m not GOOD at tasting.  I’m not skilled in picking out every little nuance from every little grape, so spending hours sniffing and swirling don’t mean that much to me.  I like the wine experiences; I left the research of the best”experiences” to the bear, and he never disappoints. For me, on this trip, Adelaida was the best of the best.

We did the “Vineyard Tour, Taste, and Tailgate.”  The very handsome, charming, knowledgeable (and British) Glen, took us on a two hour ranch tour at the second most gorgeous property we saw on this trip to Paso (most gorgeous is day 3).

As we drove, he told us the story of how the old Walnut tree farm became a winery.  He showed us the grafting of black walnut onto English walnut on the trees.  On the way up steep inclines, he told us of all all the different microclimates on the property.  We stopped at the top of the hill where the warm air allows chardonnay to grow best.

We had the opportunity to try the tasty, lightly oaked chardonnay from that very vineyard.  As our tour continued, we were able to stop and taste syrah while we stood on its soil as well.  Eventually, we settled at a picnic table under the shade of a tree to have some local charcuterie and taste some back vintages.   The tasting room itself is GORGEOUS as well if you choose not to do the whole tour.  This was one of my FAVORITE wine tasting experiences EVER.  I learned a lot, and I enjoyed it very much.

From there, we went to Clos Selene.  The link has a great video that tells the story of this very French winery in Paso.  When we tried to go visit them in Tin City last year, they were in the middle of bottling.  This year, they had their very own stand alone winery.  We had a chance to taste Guillaume Fabre’s wines from a quaint little patio.  The vines at this location are new and have been grafted onto older vines to take root and get some of their character.

We have been trying to cut back on our 7 wineries a day habit that we developed on our early trips to Napa, so it was still early afternoon at this point, and we had finished our “obligations” for the day.

Glen had mentioned a boutique winery, Thacher where we chose to have our picnic lunch and spend some time with the winery dogs.  This is not a wine you’re likely to find distributed most places, but it was a very lovely 10-year-old winery owned by a former brewmaster, Sherman and his wife Michelle. They only make 3400 cases of wine a year total.

I love going to the wineries for their stories!   I love that Michelle was there to talk to us when we first came in and introduce us to her dogs.  It had the BEST stools out on the picnic patio; I need them for my house.

From there, we had a little time left, so we went to one of the best-known, big boys of Paso, Booker.  We had tried to go last year, but they were simply out of wine. This was a nice tasting.  They don’t have any of their high end items to try on the tasting room menu, but everything was good, and we got to meet Brutus. Anytime you meet a wine dog is a good day.

By this time, it was time to return to our humble abode… get cleaned up… and head out to dinner at Somm’s Kitchen.

I am a self proclaimed foodie and have spent over $1000 on a single meal–more than once (Yes, I have some shame associated with this.) I must tell you that this meal ranked in my top five of all time.  No joke!

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We had 11 courses (all shown in the slide show above, thanks to Richard).  Every one was more delicious than the last, and all were paired with about a half a glass of wine.  You could at any time ask for more wine, and I’m sure you could have asked for more food.

When you walk in, you sit at a semi circle bar with about 12 other guests.  Ian is the sommelier who plates all the dishes while you are being served.  He tells you how he prepared each dish (cherries soaking for a week, foie gras strained and restrained over 10 times, pineapple sliced tissue thin with a mandolin).  At one point he stopped and gave us a breakdown of how to taste a wine that was excellent for experienced wine tasters and novices.  I learned I could tell how much alcohol a wine has in it by where I feel it when I sniff.

The meal may have been off-putting to some.  There was no menu.  There was no price list.  We didn’t get to make any choices at all, and we weren’t told how much it would cost.  The only thing that was asked was “are you hungry.”  We were!   We were not when we left.  We shared each of the dishes over about a 2 hour period.  The total cost was $250.  We thought that was MORE than fair.  The people next to us did not feel the same way, so it’s not for all people.  I would do it again in a heartbeat!

We waddled from there back to our nightly ending spot of Taste in the Alley.  We had our nightcap and prepared for Day 3!