Who is new/hot/must see in Paso Robles

We’re going to have about a day in Paso on Monday and/or Tuesday after driving our Son up to Cal for college. Any suggestions on visits to somewhere new, different or just extraordinary. Don’t tell me about Saxum or places not open or where I am not on a list, and I’ve been to many of the Board favorites such as Denner, Linne Collado, Herman Story, McPrice Myers, and Booker.

Thanks

Daou Vineyards is a bit of a drive, but I think they’re doing some good stuff with Cab & bordeaux blends, especially as their estate vineyards come on line. Lone Madrone & Kenneth Volk is a good stop on 46 West…good variety there and always something different. If you end up out at the NW end of Vineyard near Tablas Creek, Le Cuvier and Tolo are doing interesting things with long neutral oak aging. They can be hit-or-miss for me, but I’ve also had some great bottles - a 2001 Tolo Cab (my last) was fantastic a couple of weeks ago and still has a long life ahead of it.

Thanks Bret. Forgot about Tolo. Not sure if we’ll get that far up Vineyard but we’ll see what happens. Lone Madrone to me is hit and miss, but they do have some nice wines.

Lone Madrone and Kenneth Volk have both been hit-or-miss for me too - both are certainly places to find “different” wines, though. Volk’s Malvasia Bianca is one of my favorite offbeat whites.

We’ve actually been in kind of a rut lately when it comes to our visits to Paso…can I ask what some of your favorites have been?

Agreed about the Volk Malvasia Bianca, floral and fruity with a nice acid finish. I was surprised how much I enjoyed his Pinots as well.

Taste Anthony Yount’s wines – his label is called Kinero.
Try out Graves Winegrowers – give 'em a call to make an app’t.
Try out Ranchero Cellars – made by Amy Butler: give her a call to make an app’t.

All of those tastings would occur at the Denner facility (although maybe not Ranchero Cellars, as I seem to maybe recall that Amy recently opened a tasting room).


Dover Canyon is always worth a stop, imo; hit and miss, but the hits are home runs.

Tablas Creek is always worth a stop.

Terry Hoage is making some excellent wines.

Thanks for the suggestions Brian. I’ll make some calls as soon as our schedule is tightened up. Hey Kimberly, been a long time! The Malvasia Bianca is the best thing that they make - quite good. Say hi to John!

So we had an hour last Monday, and a few hours Tuesday to explore Paso. On Monday, we visited Daou, Chateau Margene and Dover Canyon. Since we were at the end of the day, some things were not open.

Daou was heavily under construction but we found the place. I really wanted to like the Cab Merlot blend but didn’t. The Petite Sirah blend was the best thing they had going.

At Chateau Margene, we did like their Bordeaux blends which was unusual as I firmly believe that Paso has no business growing Cab - stick to Syrah, Zin, Grenache, (and some mixing grapes) that you do best. Their Petite Sirah was also good.

Dover Canyon was fun. The tasting room rep was friendly and though we arrived after hours did not rush us in the least. The wines were all serviceable, though nothing stood out as amazing. What was interesting as I really liked their zins and I had moved away from Zin. Theirs were not the raisin/prune style like Opolo Mountain Zin, but were full bodied fruity wines.

Had a WONDERFUL dinner at II Cortile.

On Tuesday, we started out at Kenneth Volk; I had them mixed up with Lone Madrone as far as the Malvasia Bianca. I was confusing the La Mezcla from Lone Madrone. The Volk Pinot was nice, as was the Mourvedre. I did not care for several of their varietals.

Next was Red Soles. I liked their Zin program, which again was a bit of a surprise. They also had a good Petite Sirah. What happened to all the Syrah from the area? Not present in those rooms we visited.

We tried to go to Croad and Caliza, but they both were closed. Out of curiosity we tried Veris - way too many wines to try, Again, serviceable but nothing jumped out as great.

Last stop before Lunch was Aron Hill. The wines were all good - but again I thought something was missing.

Lunch at Farmstead in the old Rotta Grocery location, Some great sandwiches.

One thing I liked from the short trip was liking ZIn again. Since I still have several cases of Zin in the cellar, I need to open some up.

Shoot - way late here (sorry) but would have thrown out Epoch Winery. Cool location, the juice is quite fine, and the Staff is equally chill. Maybe next go round.

Cheers,

M

Don’t forget Peachy Canyon. Leenda’s hot, loves offlines and wears some of the best bedazzled outfits. flirtysmile [cheers.gif]

The restaurant is Il Cortile and it is superb.

Even though the topic is over. I’ll second Epoch and Daou.

Fyi. Daou is building a sperate tasting area for members, i guess simliar to what denner has. Quite excited to see it opening weekend is in line with harvest fest weekend.

And in my opinion we make some excellent Cab. [berserker.gif] newhere

+1

Oh you guys… blush

So, next time in Paso need to check out Linda’s Cab (and outfits)? Will do.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Wow, I think you’re the only person I’ve run across who’s also tasted at Aron Hill. My feelings on their wines were pretty much the same as yours, although the term “good” has to be used in the macro sense — they are not fine wines, by any stretch of my imagination.

I’m bummed nothing at Dover Canyon wowed you — they usually have at least a couple on pour that really impress me. Do you remember what you tasted there? (I know this post is quite a time since your tasting, but I rarely pop into this sub-forum)

Epoch would be absolutely right up your alley, Bruce! Nice suggestion, Mike. Only thing with them is sometimes they don’t have any wine to taste (very limited production, and I think they sell-through via their list).

It’s also worth mentioning that they’re fairly pricey…$80/bottle or so at retail. The one I tried at Tastes of the Valleys several months ago (I don’t remember which) had some nice complexity, but struck me at the time as big and ripe and extracted, too much so for my taste. They were newly released at the time, so maybe they’ve settled down…

that’s a pretty bad retail price on the epoch. I’ve occasionally seen 'em pop-up for $50 - $60.