Paso Robles Wine Tasting

Last weekend, I went on a great getaway to the Central California Coast. As with many of my trips, wine was near the top of the agenda. We drove down on Saturday morning and spent the day wine tasting in the Paso Robles wine area. We didn't have any specific wineries to visit, we would just drive and see where the day took us. With 250 wineries in the area, we didn't have far to look. Here's the wineries we visited and some of my favorites.

Doce Robles - The first winery we stopped at. I don't really remember anything standing out about this place. I blame the fact that we got up so early to drive down. Definitely will have to stop again when drowsiness is not a factor.

 

Summerwood - As you pull up to this winery, you notice the gorgeous wisteria overhanging the porch. The Vin Rouge wine was a big favorite here.

Peachy Canyon - I'm always a fan of Zins. And when a winery has six available for tasting, I am hooked. Plus the tasting was waived with bottle purchase. So I *forced* myself to bring some 2008 Westside Zin home.

Veris Cellars - You know my favorite kind of wine tasting? Free Wine Tasting. Combine this with cheap bottles of flavored sparkling wine (Peach, Raspberry, and Almond) consider me in love.

Eagle Castle - Not one of our favorites for wine, but the location is just awesome. There were two weddings being held at the castle that day and I couldn't imagine a cooler place to get hitched.

Dark Star Cellars/Brian Benson Cellars - I didn't actually taste any wines here, but I was excited for two reasons: 1) Any where you can try different wineries without having to drive to another place is already tops in my book and 2) the incredible bottle designs at Brian Benson Cellars.

Niner Wine Estates - Another place I didn't try very many wines. But it's a great space and when you look out towards the hill you see the most awesome tree design. I <3 it.

Donati Family Wineyard - Our last stop of the day. The people were super friendly even though some of our crew were feeling the effects of visiting 9 different wineries. Was a fan of the Sorelle Per Sempre wine ('Sisters Forever') and might have to look to get some in the future.

Nine wineries in six hours. Definitely one of my best tasting experiences and it's just getting me prepared for a couple of more weekend tasting adventures in the next month. So have you visited Paso Robles or tried any wines from the region? Any great places we missed?

I had many, many First Sips

I love going to Lodi, CA for wine tasting. Now everyone talks about Napa and Sonoma when they mention California wine areas, but Lodi has a special place in my heart because 1) It's super close. Seriously 10 minutes and I'm there; 2) It's far less pricey than the Napa and Sonoma areas (usually); 3) It's the first place I ever tried Old Vine Zin.

So, when my friends mentioned that they have a weekend called First Sip, I knew that it was going to be great. The wineries had only started storing the wine in the last few days, so it was a great chance to go an experience newly barreled wine. There were 40 wineries offering food, tastings and drinks, so what a great way to spend the weekend. Here's a run down of the places that I went and my thoughts (if I can remember them......we went to a lot of wineries):

Berghold Estate Winery - Recently my parents mentioned they were interested in getting an old school bar put into their house and I was super impressed with the huge one on display at Berghold. The place has a lot of cool antiques. The cabs were our favorites there.

d'Art Wines - Our first stop of the day and also our first barrel tasting. It's fun to taste the barrels, cause it's still so much like juice. This place also had some delicious lemon olive oil. One of my friends bottled his own bottle, however, it was just basically filling up a bottle and using the machines to put the cork and label on.

Harney Lane Winery - One of my favorite. The wine is seriously so delicious, I can hardly stand it. It's one of the newer wineries and I have a bottle of their zin waiting in my wine rack.

Jessie's Grove - I know they probably hear this all the time, but when I went there, I couldn't stop seeing Jessie's Grove to the tune of Jessie's Girl. I don't remember a lot about this one, it was near the end of the first day. But they make the Earth, Zin and Fire wine that I've had before.

Macchia - My friend is a wine club member here. They have a ton of yummy zins with cool names like Mischievous, Ambitious, Voluptuous, Victorious, etc. They also have a wine that raises money for breast cancer research called Boobylicious. They have a delicious sweet muscat called Sensuous, that I have waiting for a day when it isn't so could outside! Can we also talk about how they had a taco truck on premise and had delicious $3.00 burritos. Seriously, I kind of dream about those burritos to this day.

Michael David - Amy has already shared her love of the Petite Petit and I'm a wine club member here. A favorite of mine.

Periano - Amy recently talked about The Other wine. These are my everyday wines. They have a bunch of decent relatively cheap wines. We bought a case to split and the grand total was $6 a bottle. Awesome.

Dancing Coyote Wines - They had a moscato barrel tasting which was so super sweet and yummy. They also have some very cool labels. This was a second day stop so I didn't buy anything that day, but I'm definitely going to have to next time.

Vino Piazza - Again this was another stop, but holy cow they have a ton of wineries all nestled together. They had a really cleverly named wine that I cannot for the life of me remember that I totally wanted to buy. However, my 9 bottle purchase the day before made me a little gun shy. However, that just means I'll have to go back.

I so should have kept better notes, cause I know we made it to like 4 other wineries that I don't remember! Which just goes to show you how awesome it was right? Now I've just got to get prepped for the next Lodi Wine Event. Will it be Wine and Chocolate or Zinfest? Stay tuned.

My Weekend

When I first traveled to California to see if I wanted to move here, I made my way to the Lodi area and tried my first Old Vine Zinfandel. Ever since then, I have been hooked. And while I didn't move to California just because of the wines, it sure didn't hurt. 

So you can imagine how excited I am to be spending the next two days hitting up the Lodi Wine region for The First Sip. There are 40 different wineries that are giving tastings, food, music and other awesome activities (barrel tasting, grape stomp, music). I'm really excited to get some of the first sips of the 2010 vintages. 

Now, the key is to keep the number of bottles I purchase under control. Fingers crossed. I hope to keep good notes and to offer a great writeup after the event. However, I've got me a designated driver.......so fingers crossed.

UnCorked results

What a fun event. There was a live auction as well as a silent auction. I'd never been to auctions before so this was interesting to watch. Booths of wine and beers were set up for tasting. Local restaurants also had booths set up with small meals or hors'd'oeuvres. I got to try salmon tartar which made me real excited. I see it on top chef all the time and now I've tasted. I was under the impression that the salmon would be raw and the chef said it was cooked just a little bit. It tasted pretty cooked to me, but it was very good.
I mostly sampled wine while there. Not too many stood out. I tried Bogle's Pinot Noir which I'd heard of before but had never bought a bottle. It was ok. Not too exciting. The unseasonal warm weather put me more in a white wine mood. I sampled a couple pinot grigios that were ok as well. What I really remember enjoying was Giesen Sauvignon Blanc. Something about the sav blanc's lately, I must be in a mood. This bottle has made the list to buy in the future to do a real review of. From what I remember of it now is that it smelled very fruity but had that nice sauvignon bite that toned down the fruit just right. I guess back to the liquor store to see if I can get it locally.

UnCorked

I'll be attending thison Friday with a neighbor. Should be fun! I'm going with a neighbor who is interested in trying new beers. I'm up for both really. I just hope everyone is healthy enough for me to leave for an evening.