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!

When I logged in, I realized that it had been seven months since the urge to blog overcame me.  I think maybe my sanctimony got the best of me…  Although I am relatively good with words, hearing my own thoughts on things appealed to me less and less as I realized more and more that I wasn’t changing the world the way I envisioned with my pithy observations…

…BUT…

The whole time I was on THIS trip… I kept thinking… “Oooooh!   I want to share this with someone!

So… here I am… back and in technicolor with my pas de deux (or Paso Part II…  or Paso retread… or whatever you want to call it!) I wrote my first blogs about it this time last year, and now here I am again!

Last year, Richard and I flew in to Burbank and took a little detour through Santa Barbara.  This time, we flew in from the north in San Jose (Yes, we knew the way).  Again, we took an ultra early flight so that we’d land in California in the morning.  We decided to detour into Monterey for a little brunch and a look at the bay.

As it would turn out, Cannery Row is not really my thing.  It’s really just a bunch of shopping.  Great for those who like to spend their money on inedibles ;-).  Edible shopping, though:  Schooners is in the Monterey Plaza Hotel and Spa.  The restaurant itself is nothing special to look at.  My omelet was wonderful…. my bloody mary spicy,  the place itself is kinda old and run-down.

The view from the outdoor decks, however, was a spectacular start for the trip.  We could hear the bark of the sea lions and the sound of waves lapping on the rocks.  It was a good way to remind us we were on the left coast and back in one of our happy places. Knowing that neither of us were much for shopping, we began the two hour drive to Paso.

This is not through the scenic part of the state. Since we knew that Highway 1 was closed at Big Sur, our travels took us through such lovely areas on the one-oh-one as Soledad (made famous in Of Mice and Men) and KingCity–boring, flat farm land where the only radio stations you can pick up are Tejano and Christian.  Still, we were on our way.

We went back to the same apartment we stayed at last year.  It’s a small one bedroom right on the edge of of the square in Paso.  It is about 1/3 to 1/2 of the price of staying at a hotel: you don’t get housekeeping or fine linens, but it’s really decorated nicely and all of the convenience makes it so worth it!

Walking down the stairs takes you directly to an amazing little French restaurant, Bistro Laurent.  The apartment itself is actually right above the wine store.

Then, we knew we needed to shop for the trip.  When we go, we tend to do breakfast in the apartment; then, we pack a picnic lunch.  This (in theory) cuts down on our spending because we don’t stop to eat lunch.  It also maximizes our time for wine drinking!  I bought a great collapsible cooler off of Amazon and packed it in our suitcase.  It was perfect!

Our first food stop was at Di Raimondo’s Italian Market to get cheese.  Lots and lots of cheese!   (and olives and salami and nuts and crackers).  It’s a great little place.  You can go in and taste as much as you want before ordering.  You can also order on line.  I may have to get the Red Witch again.  It was FABULOUS!  There was one group in line in front of us–a group of cousins who decided to do their first ever cousins’ trip.  No joke, they took about an hour to order and probably got a grand worth of cheese.

It was taking awhile, so I was feeling parched.  I left the bear at the store to eat cheese, and I went next door to Chateau Lettau for my first taste of wine of the day.  I’m not going to use this blog to review wine because all I ever really say is “I liked it” or “I didn’t like it” but it was a very cool tasting room where I learned the phrases I was going to hear most in Paso for the week were “right on!” and “of course”  (of course was said in lieu of “you’re welcome”).

Then, it was time for our first tasting appointment of the trip, Herman Story,. This was our only repeat winery from last time. They are right there in Paso.  Anytime you say the name of their winery or their wine maker, Russell From, to anyone in town, you are greeted with a big grin, a shake of the head, and a roll of the eyes.  His wines and his personality are big and bold.  Take a minute to visit the page and read his wine notes; you’ll see what I mean. I’m not doing wine reviews, BUT his grenache is NOT for the faint of heart!  They were gearing up for the release party that Sunday which is known to include keg stands, zoo animals, and plenty of rumors!   We just love them and their wines!   We were even allowed to join their wine club, which is technically closed.  They’re good people and good to us. The tasting room is nothing but a tiny bar in the front of a location next to Dan’s tires.  The place is all about the wine–no fancy trappings of the winery for them.

From there, we traveled to Albertsons’ to get bottled water (We have a rule; in order to prevent hangovers, one must slam a bottle of water between each winery.  We’re professionals!), breakfast stuff, and any other necessities.  We checked out the local wine section there to choose an inexpensive local bottle or two to go with our pizza since that’s what we’d decided to have for dinner that night.

Upon returning to downtown Paso we went to OUR wine bar.  The friend who told us we had to go to Paso last year also told us of this bar:  Taste in the Alley.   They specialize in local wines,  but they also have wine from all over the world.  It’s a unique concept.  You can take any wine from their wall.  All wines have a by the glass price and a bottle price.  Once the bottle is open, it goes into their tap system.  From the tap system you can construct your own flights and taste as many as they have already open.  Larry and Kitty are there most nights and VERY knowledgeable about all of the wines in their shop.  They’re world travelers and collectors themselves.  It was a great place to end EVERY night.  We asked them about their pizza suggestions, and we went over to Artisan. 

Like many places in Paso, Artisan has an excellent cocktail program.  I actually went with a cider while we waited (more on that on day 4!)  We brought the pizza upstairs to enjoy with a bottle of Field Recordings Fiction.  We decided we weren’t QUITE done for the day and wandered down the stairs to the restaurant to see if we could just have dessert.  We could, and it was DIVINE!  I had assorted macarons paired with a true champagne to end the night.   YUM!

So… after waking up at 3:45 in the morning, our full first day was done!   We had a HUGE four days scheduled thereafter.  We love to make the most of our vacations and we sure did this time!

I look forward to sharing the rest with you as well!

 

Since I started telling people where The Bear and I went, I’ve had so many ask me “Where in California is that?”  Other than some smaller airports (San Luis Obispo about 30 miles away), there’s no quick way to get there.  This small farming community is about 30 miles from the coast and about halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Regardless, it’s totally worth the drive from either direction.  And we were definitely gung ho for our second day in Paso.

By the time the sound of the delivery trucks began at 6:30 Wednesday morning, I was already feeling bittersweet.  I had not planned enough days.  Hearst Castle was just down the road.  The beach at Cambria was only 30 miles away.  I had heard that SLO was a lovely little art town.   BUT I love needing to plan for another vacation and all the wineries we missed, so we could go again.

As for THIS morning, we got up, got dressed and were  at Andrea’s On Pine the moment that they opened for breakfast at 8:30.  Andrea was in there making french toast casserole and preparing with her mother for some  ladies’ luncheon that they were having later that afternoon.  They offered coffee, tea, juice for breakfast… when I ordered a mimosa at 8:30 AM, I created quite a stir!   “Our kind of girl!   Way to get the day started!”  Well, I was on vacation.  I thought you were supposed to do that!   🙂

With The Bear on a conference call for work, we started off toward our 10:00 appointment at our first winery of the day, Epoch.  I have been pronouncing that word wrong my whole life.  I always thought it was eee pock, but it’s pronounced epic, and our experience there truly was.

The link to the winery above will direct you to information about the tasting room. It’s only been open for two months and is the coolest tasting room I’ve ever been in.  It is in the location of one of Paso’s original wineries from the early 1900’s on York Mountain.  The original building had been destroyed twice in the past, once by tornado and once by earthquake.  When Epoch rebuilt, they tried to use as many of the original features as they could, including the fireplace, the bricks, and the redwood.

There were walls where the stone was original.  When they deconstructed and moved the wall, they actually numbered all of the stones to be sure that they went back in the same spots when the wall was reconstructed.

Also keeping with the original, the wine press as suspended from the ceiling on rails.

The original wine press was done before they had electricity so that they could just slide the press over the barrel and let the juice drop using gravity.

This whole tasting involved a history lesson with outstanding wines.  I loved the format as well.  Our tasting was all set up for us.  Our host took us over and pointed out that there was a photo album about the construction of the winery and literature pertaining to the wines we were drinking.

I loved this method.  We were able to sit and drink at our own pace, while reading about the wines.  Every so often our host would stop back to check on us.  I learn best by reading and asking questions, so this really worked for me.  The fact that the little books were so well written and put together didn’t hurt at all.  It was great fun.

When this tasting was over, we had a little bit of extra time before our next scheduled tasting.  We asked where we might go on the way, and we were directed to Denner.

I had never heard of it before, and I’m so glad we went.  This had to be the most gorgeous property I’ve ever seen.  The spring colors were all in bloom, and tasting on the patio was an absolute joy.

It was the perfect stop on the way to our piece de la resistance..   Law

To get to Law you have to travel up this very narrow, winding road.  The trees scrape the roof of your car, and you’re surrounded by scrubby bushes and airstream trailers.  At any point I expected to hear the banjos playing in the background.

At the very top of the hill, Law appears.

You walk in to face double glass doors with barrels behind.  A long, dark, staircase is immediately to your left with an arrow pointing up, “Tasting.”

When you reach the top of the stairs, the angels sing.  Okay, not literally, but it is a GORGEOUS room with floor to ceiling glass walls looking out across the stunning vineyards.

Chris has us all set up in front of the fireplace, and we’re waiting for three other guests to arrive to begin our tasting.  Law was started by husband and wife geologists who happened to come into some money (translation:  they struck oil).  They fell in love with the Rhone valley while bicycling in France.  When they came to Paso, they found much the same climate and soil; so they started their winery here.

When our tasting began, we were joined by three men in their 70’s.  Two of them were former lawyers.  All three were current characters.  🙂  They had the wine snob thing down PAT!  I realized this was the first we had seen of this attitude in Paso, but they meant no harm and were quite entertaining.

We bought another couple of bottles and decided that we should probably go ahead and pack up our wine to ship back.  One of the wineries had been kind enough to offer to ship our mixed case for us.  As we were gathering, we got a call from Desperada

Desperada is Vailia’s project.  She’s Russell’s wife from Herman Story. Although their tasting room was not officially open on Wednesdays, they were willing to take us.  So, there was no time to stop for a picnic.  I just ripped off pieces of brie, gouda, and sopressa and handed them to The Bear as we hightailed it over to Tin City.

Tin City is a place for winemakers without property for a winery.  A lot of these are younger and newer people who have apprenticed with some of he more renowned wine makers in the area.  They come to this little industrial park on the east side to get started.

Since most things were closed, we only had a chance to try Desperada, Onx, and our one NON wine tasting at Tin City Cider.  Created by wine makers, these were the best ciders I’ve ever had.  When we come back next time, I’d like to dedicate a day to Tin City alone.

With a full day of tasting (and our trip *sniff*) behind us, it was time to head back to the square and the one dinner reservation we made.

Since I finally had The Bear on board with the whole progressive dinner idea, we started at La Consecha for a drink and a bite. This place had the largest cocktail menu I had ever seen.  I loved that the bartender was making his own infused liquors back behind that bar.  This was the sister restaurant to our grand finale restaurant right down the street.

so… after the most decadent piece of “cheese toast” ever… we walked down the road to one of the best reviewed restaurants in Paso:  Il Cortile.

This place is Italian fine dine with everything that you’d expect in that name.  It has house made pasta, shaved truffles, rich sauces, the works.  It’s more northern Italian style than southern.

We were seated on a screened in patio.  Richard picked a 2010 Barbaresco to accompany our meal–getting away from the Paso grapes for a bit.

We ate everything too fast to take pictures, BUT we started with a lovely beef carpaccio in an incredible truffle cream sauce.  I ordered gnocchi in Gorgonzola cream and Richard ordered a steak.  I saw the man across from me eating fettuccine with truffle sauce and decided I must have it.  Our waitress said  that we could get a half order and share it.

It had barely hit the table before we scarfed it.  Hands down the best pasta dish I have ever had, anywhere.  Every part of it was divine.

The night was ending, and so was our trip.  We waddled back to Taste in the Alley for one last glass before going back to our adorable little apartment to pack.

My mom always said that a trip was the perfect length if you wanted ONE MORE DAY.  Well, I wanted three more days.  Three more on this trip.  I wanted a day to go to Hearst Castle and the Cambria coast.  I wanted a day to just hang out on the square. I wanted a day in Tin City.  I wanted a day to go to San Luis Obspo.  I wanted a day to go to the other wineries… Oh, wait… that’s FIVE.  I needed five more days.  I needed a week.

The good news is that Paso Robles will still be there, and I know we can go back.

So the next day we left for little Bob Hope airport and drove through the beautiful hills of Angeles forest.

We took a quick jump to Las Vegas; stayed there for enough time for slot machines to swallow $40.  Then, we were home again.

Nothing like traveling to whet your appetite for traveling!  I can’t wait for the next trip!

The sound of the delivery trucks began outside our open windows at about 5:45 AM on Tuesday morning.  That’s not really a big deal for The Bear or me…  gave us some time to do some Facebook perusing and talk about the day before we gathered ourselves together to get a start.  Plus, since we’d been up at 3 AM the day before, it was almost luxurious!

We wandered slightly off the square to Touch of Paso for some tasty breakfast fare.  I started my day with a hibiscus (cranberry juice and sparkling wine–quite lovely).  From there we continued our wine country tradition of going to a grocery store, picking up a Styrofoam cooler, and packing it with meats and cheeses for lunch.  We figured out some time ago that we don’t like the expense of stopping for lunch, nor do we like to take the time away from the wineries–especially when we’re not in town for very long.  This is harder to do in Napa because a lot of the places won’t let you picnic…  but it was no problem in Paso.

We realized quickly that we really liked the vibe of Paso.  Don’t get me wrong.  I love Napa wines and would go back in a heartbeat… but Paso isn’t about competition, as so many places told us.  They are about the OTHER “C” word (they liked that joke, too) :  Collaboration.

Our first stop was  L’Aventure.  This is a wine that we have taken down to Salt Lick in Texas multiple times.  It has just the right kind of spice for my palate.

Again, I’m not gonna give you my tasting notes except to say, yum…

Here, we first started learning about the Paso culture with Leanne.  Leanne is one of only eight employees at this winery.  We quickly found out this was a thing for Paso…  No huge sales staffs and tasting room attendants.  Everyone is involved in all the aspects of the wine.  They pick side by side with their winemakers.  The winemaker at L’Aventure is from France.   Stephan lives right on the property and settled in Paso because of the climate and soil that were so similar to the Rhone valley in France–  ALSO because he didn’t have to follow the very strict rules set by the French wine industry about what varietals (grapes) could and could not be blended.

We talked to Leanne about some of the other places we planned to go that day, and she complimented us on our choices.  Our next planned appointment wasn’t for several hours, so she sent us on our way to TH… or Terry Hoage.

This is another gorgeous property up a long dirt road.  The Bear had been wrong about Paso.  He told me that it wouldn’t be like Napa where every couple of hundred yards there is another winery… but it was.  We know we have to go back now.  Paso has over 250 wineries..  Leanne from L’Aventure told us when she moved back to Paso seven years ago (after being in Austin), she had no idea they were wine country.  Again, this region has been producing for only about 15 years…And, much like the Texas wine scene, there are plenty that are terrible. UNLIKE the Texas wine scene, however, there are  A LOT that are really exceptional.  I liked that about the Paso people, too, by the way…  When we’d mention Texas wines and talk about some of the good ones, none of these people turned their noses up the way I saw in Napa.  Several of the people said they had had some Texas wines that were quite good.

Anyway… I digress…  Terry Hoage.

So, TH was actually closed that day, but Leanne called ahead for us and someone was there.  (Leanne said that’s kind of a thing in Paso–call the places, and if someone is there,  they’ll usually let you taste.)

Our host didn’t have any bottles open that day; so she actually served us using a Coravin, which is a really cool thing if you haven’t seen it.  I think it was invented by a doctor, but I might be making that part up.  It’s a needle that goes through your cork, so you can extract just an ounce or so of the wine.  This is for very serious collectors who don’t want to open their $1,000 bottle of wine only to find that it still needed more time in the bottle.  You can take little bits out without oxygenating your wine.  Pretty nifty.

The most fun thing to me here (other than the taste of the wines, of course) was the NAMES of the wines.  Terry Hoage was an NFL safety for many years and often played where Buddy Ryan was his coach.  Each of the names of the wines have to do with something football related and ALSO with the winery itself. Terry came from a farming background; after he retired, he returned to farming. He also befriended Justin Smith of SAXUM (one of the premier Paso wineries) who served as his mentor.  Still, Terry planted the fields, built the tasting room, and made the wine himself.  I love that there were so many of these stories in Paso.

We still had some time before our next appointment, so we stopped by the tasting room at Turley. Turley is much bigger, more commercial, and more well known than the others we went to.  This is not to say it’s bad by any means.  Their wines come from many different regions of California.  In fact, the bottle we bought for our lunch was from Howell Mountain, one of our favorite regions up in Napa.  The feel at Turley was different– more Napaesque.  The tasting room ladies were nice, retired ladies.  But it did not have the same “This is OUR wine” feel that we got at all of out other choices in Paso.

Each place we went mentioned that with our taste in wine we should try Tablas Creek, which is also one of the bigger wineries.  They are the “parent” winery to basically everyone else in Paso.  They were the ones to bring the Rhone varietals (Grenache, Syrah, Mouvedre, et al) for the first time when they realized that not every area in California was right for growing Cabernet and Chardonnay.  We never made it over there since we were enjoying the small case production places, but I definitely plan to buy a bottle now that we’re back.

We had “killed” enough time by this point.  (It made me NUTS that Richard kept saying that… I didn’t want to KILL any time… I wanted to ENJOY all of our time…)  We made our way to Linne Calodo .  This would prove to be both Richard and my favorite wine on our trip.  We had agreed before we left that we MAY join one more wine club. (We have two Texas, one Sonoma, and one Napa right now.)  Linne Calodo proved to be the one we joined.

The building is a beautiful mix of traditional and modern…  complete with cables that are meant to bend and sway if they happen to encounter an earthquake.

Our tasting was with Kelly whose husband is also a wine maker, Jacob Toft.  His winery in Tin City was closed the next day, so we weren’t able to go.  He was at the place where we ate dinner on Wednesday.  Like I said, Paso is a small town.  One of the other tasting room hosts from Linne Calodo is the daughter of the couple who own Taste in the Alley–where we went every night…

So Linne Calodo is not a person, it’s a soil type.  Matt Trevisan is the wine maker.  He was a biochemistry major at Cal Poly and works with both the art and the science of wine.

I loved the names of his wines.  Each one comes from the personality that the grapes and the wine showed as they made their way from vineyard to bottle.   Most started out as working names, but they just stuck.   “The Perfectionist” for example involved getting the EXACT correct percentages of each grape to fit this one perfect taste that Matt had in his head.  I loved listening to Kelly talk with such affection and love for HER wines.  She spoke about how every person there had a hand in the wine making process.

We had one last stop at the end of the day…  back about two blocks from our little apartment in the more industrial area of Paso.  Right there, next to Dan’s tire shop, was Herman Story.

Now THIS was a party place.  We had actually scheduled our appointment several weeks before.  They were closed on Tuesdays, but were willing to see us.  When we got there, the door was locked, so we called.  Turns out they hadn’t put us on the calendar, but they were there, working in the barrel room, so Chris came up and let us in.

Chris was a burly East Coast guy with tattooed sleeves on his arms (tats were definitely the norm in Paso).  Loud voice, loud laugh… and these are BIG wines.

So… yeah… um… you really should read the descriptions… they’re hilarious, but you’re going to have to go to the link for that… I was a little blurry here…  so the notes are, too…  When I commented on how funny the notes were, Chris replied, “Yeah, that’s a whole lotta beer and marijuana that go into those…”  and that was the perfect way to sum up the Herman Story experience.  As goofy as the place is, these wines are serious.  These big boys get above 90 points from most of the major wine sources.  This is good stuff.

It had been a successful and fun first day for us.  I was quite proud that we DIDN’T do the seven wineries that had been our average in Napa.  We took the time to really savor and appreciate each moment.

We’re always super grateful to Lake Travis Wine Trader when we’re wine touring.  Richard cooks for tastings there occasionally and worked behind the bar on Sundays for about a year, so he has business cards.  When you’re “industry,”  the tastings are almost always comped… otherwise these trips would cost us close to $1,000 more…

With a successful restaurant hop completed the day before, we did more of the same on day 2.  We started across the street from our humble abode at Villa Creek  This is actually the restaurant for one of the wineries, but we didn’t do wine here… We had craft cocktails instead.

. Again, the spirits were local. The mixers were handmade.  Paso is serious about being a food and drink destination, and it was good.  Now, I will say the octopus here was somewhat tough and not my favorite… but the chicken liver mousse was as good as any I’ve ever had.  And, since it was taco Tuesday, Richard and I got one each, and they were both stellar.

After that we wandered back across the street to the little French cafe right at the base of the stairs to our apartment.  Bistro Laurent has been in Paso since 1997…  and they are a VERY traditional French restaurant.  We sat outside, adjacent to their wine shop.  I drank a glass of champagne, Richard a glass of white wine, as we enjoyed their amuse bouche and warm bread with butter.

…and when you’re eating French,  you should certainly have something with snails on it, so we shared the gorgeous escargots tart.

After that, we waddled back to Taste in the Alley, our mutually agreed upon evening “tradition.”  We tried the new stuff we had open, but I was rushing Richard back to the apartment so that we could finish our bottle of Turley from earlier out on our lovely balcony AND be back in time to see Survivor.

The balcony and the Turley were just as lovely as I had hoped.  It was 64 degrees outside, and listening to the hustle and bustle on the Paso square while smelling the French fare from below was the perfect ending to the evening.

As for rushing back for Survivor.  Yeah….  turns out it was TUESDAY night not Wednesday.  (I love losing track of my days!   That’s real vacation!)  So Richard went to bed, and I watched This is Us.  It was a rather disappointing season finale if you ask me.  But if that was the most disappointing part of my trip… that’s a pretty darned good trip!

So, we still have a day left in Paso… I don’t know that we saved the best for last… because it was ALL amazing… but the last day was incredible as well.  That will be the last blog of these three.

No Snapchat filter here… that’s me… in all my blue toothed glory after 2 1/2 days of some wonderful wine and spirits in Central Coast California… Richard looming in the background looking equally worn out.  So that picture is day three… but this story will tell you of day one…

This is unusual for me… no introspection… no deep thoughts… just a travel blog because I wanted to do one…  Peruse or don’t peruse at your leisure.

The bear and I began our love affair for one another and our love affair with wine at right about the same time.  All of our first dates were spent at The Tasting Room in Houston, Texas.  They have two locations… and we started learning about all the differences when we were there.

After moving to Austin, we got most of our wine education from Jane Nickels who shared her knowledge with us at a little wine bar downtown, Cork and Company.  (It’s closed now, but will be opening at a new location00we hope.)

We spent our honeymoon 10 years ago in Napa and Sonoma.

That’s us… first trip… end of another blue tooth day at Sterling ten years ago.

We went back twice after that…

Healdsburg, Napa, Sonoma in 2009

And again

back to Napa and Sonoma in 2014.

You want to take a trip there… we’ve got suggestions… we’ve got places.

But this time, we wanted to try someplace new.  Our good friend Steven went for HIS honeymoon just about 18 months ago… and had nothing but great things to say…  so off we went.

Now, Paso Robles is new on the respected wine scene… they have only been producing their big names since the mid 1990s…  They focus on the Rhone varietals (Syrah, Mouvedre, Grenache and the like).  It’s also pretty nice that the “entry level” wines for big names in Napa are around $100…  in Paso that’s the very top end.

Day 1

We wanted to spend as much of the day doing things as possible, so we took a flight at 6 AM out of Austin.  Now, this was also the day right after daylight savings had started, so that early morning flight felt VERY early.  We left for the airport at 3:45 AM.

Our flight left in plenty of time, and off to our halfway stop in Denver…  Quick 45 minutes in Denver… then in the air again…  to Bob Hope airport in Burbank/Hollywood. I had never been to this airport before and really loved it!   It’s super tiny…  the baggage claim is outside.  It felt like we walked a mile to get our rental car.  Poor Richard had to fold his body to get into the little Kia Sorenta… but all was well.

It’s 9:45 California time and off we go to our first stop–Santa Barbara. We’re there just before noon.  Several of our friends had suggested that we eat lunch at Cold Spring Tavern.  This is an adorable little spot… something of a Santa Barbara landmark.  The drive up through this hills into the heavily wooded area is just gorgeous.

We stopped at Sanguis where a few of our friends are members, and we were given the royal treatment.  It’s a TINY place and everything is done right there.  It’s only been around for about ten years and their wine scores hover in the mid 90s… for non- wine drinkers, that translates as REALLY darn good.  Because they’re so tiny, they’re quite difficult to find.  The winery is in a semi-industrial area on a nondescript road in Santa Barbara… the name isn’t on the door… just a number.  In homage to their biodynamic techniques, you pull an animal horn to ring the bell before Peter comes to the door to greet you.

We got a tour of the pristine facility with the most pristine crush pad I’ve ever seen… The walls are lined with vinyl records just sitting on the floor.  Jimi Hendrix and Miles Davis and the music is blaring through.  The tiny tasting room is just for the two of us and set up with a picnic table…

Each wine is more wonderful than the last.  Richard and I bought Pilgrim and Misfit…  I’m not going to do wine notes other than to say that these were DNS  (translation:  did not suck   The highest compliment you can give a wine  🙂  ).

We moved from here two hours up 101 to Paso Robles…  Sadly, the whole time we were along the coast, all we saw was fog… on both sides… but I THINK there was likely beauty beyond.

We rented Park Place right on the square in Paso Robles.  I HIGHLY recommend this spot if you don’t mind dealing with early morning ( 6 AM ish) street noise from all the delivery trucks.  Its location couldn’t have been more perfect, and it was completely adorable.

For years, I’ve been trying to sell Richard on the fun of restaurant hopping, and he’s never been into it.  He likes to sit down and get the whole meal experience.  I convinced him to do it my way… I likened it to doing a pairing menu with foods from many different chefs.  He said, “You should have explained it to me that way in the first place,”  because he LOVED it.)

We walked just steps from our front door to begin at Artisan.   Now, our friend Steven had told us this was a foodie town… but we didn’t know HOW foodie.  Richard and I both ordered a local beer (well, mine was cidre… but same idea)… and both were excellent.  While eating the best fish taco I’ve ever had (the pineapple salsa was KILLER) and a bacon tater tot, we asked the bartender about other places to continue our experiment.

He sent us on next to The Hatch where we enjoyed duck meatballs and the MOST amazing maitaki mushrooms that have EVER existed.  While there, we sipped on some of the local wines and confirmed our reservations for the next day.

We finished up at Fishgaucho for cocktails and chips and salsa…  Homemade chips and three different kinds of salsa greeted us… and Richard also got half a dozen oysters.  This is one of those laid back types of places… but the bartenders here are quite serious about their craft… Setting things on fire on the bar… and using only the freshest ingredients.  Every taste was perfect.

Finally, we went to the place that became our regular to end the night…  A Taste in the Alley which quite literally WAS in the alley.  Just a tiny wine bar specializing in local fare.  You could have a taste of any six open bottles for $15… or buy a glass or bottle of your choice.  The prices were right in line with retail price… and the owners congenial and knowledgeable.  We let our fatigued taste buds try about 12 more things before we called it a night.  (There was a Malbec from the Caymus family that was quite wonderful).

But after nearly 24 hours of being awake it was time for bed.

We had a BIG day on Tuesday…  It was to be a five winery day…

But I’ll save that blogging for tomorrow.  Time for a little vino now…