Taking my wife to Paso Robles for a quick trip Nov 9th-11th to celebrate her birthday/getting engaged that same weekend last year. We only have time for dinner on the 9th so looking for recommendations in the area the night of the 9th and 10th. So would love recommendations for breakfast, lunch and dinner (We dined at Hatch once) across those two days. We are staying at the Allegretto because my wife found a Travelzoo deal so hopefully that’s a nice place to relax.
We know there is the Paso Garagiste Festival that Friday so we are thinking of checking that out. Has anyone been to it? Is it worth investing most of our day there vs going out to some wineries in the area? Neither of us have really wine tasted in Paso area. On the red wine spectrum we mostly drink Pinot, Zinfandel and Syrah on the white wine spectrum we enjoy Sauv Blanc, Viognier and some Chardonnay but we are open to checking out fun places that will showcase the areas best wines.
I have lots of notes on both wineries and places to eat in my write-ups on Grape-Nutz.com. If you search through my write-ups (Winery Visits and Wine Tastings by Ken Zinns) for “Paso Robles” or “Central Coast” you’ll find a lot of info.
I attended the Garagiste Festival in Oakland last year and enjoyed it quite a bit. Lots of smaller and under-the-radar wineries. I don’t know that I’d spend most of a day there if you have limited time in Paso - do some advance research and pick some wineries pouring there that look like they’d be of interest and focus on them, but listen for recommendations about others there too.
If you’re looking for Pinot Noir in the Paso Robles area, do not hesitate to check out Deovlet. The fruit comes from Santa Barbara County and both the Pinot and Chardonnay there are better than any others I’ve tasted in Paso Robles.
I see where I should have mentioned tasting rooms to visit, sorry about that. But yes we are looking for tasting room recommendations and dining options in the area. Willing to travel a little for something great if necessary. Thanks!
Thanks for the info Ken, I am looking at your site now to get some further reading. I agree we probably wouldn’t spend all day at the Garagiste festival, while it sounds fun our time is somewhat limited overall unfortunately.
Herman Story is right outside of the square. Right around the corner is Field Recordings (fun, hipster atmosphere with nothing over $40). Turley is outside of Paso a bit, but well worth the drive. I’ve wanted to check out Turtle Rock but haven’t made it there yet.
Lots and lots of tasting to be done in the area. If you want to keep it tight, visit Tin City. Nine wineries there I’d call excellent, and a few more that aren’t slouches either.
I would agree with Peter that Tin City is a place to check out - lots of smaller labels all within walking distance of each other.
For pinot, things are a bit thin up in Paso - Windward makes some nice ones from local fruit and folks like RN bring in fruit from SB County. But Pinot is certainly not what one looks for in Paso IMHO.
For zins, you have lots of choices - but an obvious one is to hit the Turley tasting room. They pour a ton of different wines from all over CA at this tasting room - and it’s on the way to Tablas Creek’s tasting room
The Garagiste Festival is pretty cool to go to - there’ll be over 60 wineries pouring at it. As Ken pointed out, many are much smaller and don’t have tasting rooms - there’s a chance that you’ll be able to find some discoveries there that you wouldn’t find elsewhere so not sure I’d write it off altogether . . .
Some great recs so far - I would second or third both Turley for Zin and Tin City for a number of interesting tasting rooms close together. We really enjoyed Aaron Wines, and as they specialize in Petite Sirah, that is in line with your preference for Syrah with a bit more inkiness and “dust”, to my palate. They make some really nice wines.
I also recommend McPrice Myers (I find their Syrahs and Grenache wines fantastic, and a pretty good price point given the quality), and Halter Ranch for a beautiful expansive tasting room and also really good wines given the price point, good Cabernet and good quality across the board. A bit larger and more $$ invested than the others, save for Turley.
Thank you for the food recommendation, we have it on the list to look through. Wine wise, we’re comfortable purchasing wines between $30-50 range, we are trying to save some money to rebuild out rental home that burned down in the Norcal wildfires. Style wise, we enjoy Carlisle/Bedrock style Zinfandel, Pinot wise we enjoy Dehlinger, Williams Selyem, Anthill and Littorai. Various Syrah’s as well nothing specific though but definitely north of the Golden Gate. We’ve had some Turley wines from list and other sources so might skip there but it’s tempting if we have time. Thanks for the recommendations thus far.
Thanks Larry, I appreciate the recommendations. Sounds like Tin City sounds like a destination to try. We are OK with not finding any Pinot, want to discover what the area shines in more than anything!
In my opinion - Paso is not the place for pinot. Very warm and sunny climate… the rhone varieties seem to flourish there.
The great part about California though - just drive 20min over “the grade” down to San Luis Obispo and the Edna valley for a completely different climate. Talley Vineyards makes some of my favorite pinots out of the Edna valley…
