Last Wednesday, my friends and I returned to the Central Coast area for our annual wine and food sojourn. For the first time in 10 years I did not focus on tasting notes on specific wines tasted over the course of 4 days. But my general impressions and thoughts might be helpful for others looking to visit the area.
On Wednesday, we hit the ground running in Paso Robles, meeting with Linda Baer at Peachy Canyon winery. I had not had a Peachy Canyon wine in at least 15 years. Linda gave us the history of Peachy Canyon and the Chronic wines (think they have a sense of humor with wines called “Sofa King Bueno” or “Sofa King Suite”- say it fast and you’ll get it). Linda walked us through the barrel tasting of numerous wines - cabs, cab franc, zins, a reisling, and caladoc (come on, every has caladoc in the cellar). Linda has a great sense of humor and we had a great time starting off here. (Thanks, Linda for a great time - beware the rooster!).
From there we attempted to visit Terry Hoage, but when we pulled up to the winery we were told they were not open. So off to 15C wine shop for some tapas, beer and wine shared on the patio. The bar at the Villa Creek restaurant called our names so off we went for some pre-dinner martinis (a mistake felt the next morning) and then to Il Cortile for dinner. Except for a “discussion” with the staff about a corked bottle of Chianti riserva (which they ultimately agreed to replace - I’ll never understand why there is an argument with a customer over wine that the restaurant will receive credit for sending back to the distributor), the food was excellent. The stand-outs were the pappardelle with wild boar and the beef cheek ravioli.
The next morning after a jog into town, latte on the square and a quick breakfast at Chico’s it was off to Villa Creek to catch up with Cris Cherry. It has been interesting to watch the develop of Cris’ wines over the past 4-5 years. The current releases are much more structured than in the early years - there have been some changes in fruit sources, increase in the use of whole clusters, concrete tanks and carbonic maceration. We tasted through the current releases, starting with the 2010 James Berry Roussanne. I prefer my roussannes with a few years of age on them, but this drinking pretty well out of the gate (a bottle was drained quickly at lunch). This was followed by the 2009 and 2010 Garnacha, 2009 Damas Noir and 2009 Granadina. All were very good and screamed for food (which is a good thing in my book). Cris also treated us to some barrel samples as well as a parting bottle. And he also shared some classic jokes. If you’ve never been, I highly recommend a visit - it is highly entertaining on several fronts.
From there it was off to Farmstand 46 for lunch. Though the bread does not seem to be the quality it was 2 years ago, it was a great afternoon to hang out on the patio in the sunshine slurping down the VC Roussanne with some tasty sandwiches.
On the way south to Buellton, we stopped at the new Sans Leige tasting room on the main strip in Pismo Beach. Pouring the wines was the wife and partner of winemaker, Curt Schalchlin, who could not have been more pleasant. The current lineup was poured, consisting of 2010 Sancha (grenache blanc), 2009 Cotes de Coast ( (white rhone blend), The Offering (a GSM+ blend), and the Groundwork (pinot noir). The wines were well made but in a bigger style than I am looking for these days.
75 degrees and sunshine, what to do, but head to a bar next to the pier for some oysters and a few beers. Not a bad way to kill a few hours. Then off to Buellton and into Solvang for our dinner at Root 246, which was the most disappointing meal of the trip. The quality and creativity have fallen off of a cliff since we were there last 2 years ago. Still a very cool space, but it was nearly empty. A pedestrian menu at best. And the most expensive meal we had.
The next morning we headed to meet with Joe Davis of Arcadian for lunch and tasting. Having only had a few Arcadian wines in the past (the distributor went out of business a few years ago), I knew the wines to be well made but otherwise didn’t have any expectations. Joe was a few minutes late, so we met and tasted a few wines with Chris Bratcher. Chris is working with Joe and is making his own wine under the Bratcher label. We started with a 2007 Arcadian Sleepy Hollow Chardonnay and later tasted Chris’ chardonnay and pinots. After Joe arrived with sandwiches, we sat for about 4 hours and were schooled and reveled with stories. Joe’s depth of knowledge is incredible and his wine making philosophy unique (his current releases are 2007s for chardonnays and pinots and 2006 for his syrahs). We tasted from various 01, 02 and 05 pinots, and the 2005 Sleepy Hollow Chardonnay along with the 2007). Fantastic wines with incredible balance. He not only educated all of us on varying topics but made a believer out of us (as evidenced by our library purchases the next day at the tasting room). Highly recommended to all that enjoy more elegant and balanced wines. (Thanks again, Joe!)
We then drove to Los Olivos to see if we could catch Larry Schaeffer at Tercero (no luck) or Mikael Siguoin at Kaena (again, no luck). We tasted a few wines at Kaena - 09 Larner Grenache and 08 Hapa red… The Grenache seemed a bit off - disjointed, huge fruit and heat. Not a typical Kaena wine from my experience. The Hapa was much more in line of what I expect from Mikael’s wines - more balance though still a mouthful of dark red fruit. Then off we went.
Upon the recommendation of Cris Cherry and almost everyone else we talked to, we bailed on our scheduled dinner at The Ballard Inn (should have bailed on Root 246 instead) and headed to Full of Life Flatbread. For those that don’t know, during the week this place is a frozen flatbread prep operation that opens for restaurant service on weekends. We arrived early and enjoyed a beer/cocktail or two on the “porch” (yes, a constant theme to fully take advantage of the weather), and watched the constant flow of people into the restaurant. A short while later we were seated (it is first come, first served) and the smell from the wood fired oven permeated everything. Everything is prepared in the oven. The stand-outs were, well, everything. From the oven roasted mussels, to the artichoke salad, to the pork and butternut squash flatbread, to the sausage flatbread to the, well, you get my point. And the s’mores dessert was incredible. They also served a bacon cake, that was a huge chunk of spice cake with chunks of bacon it it - I liked it, others not so much. We brought and finished the leftovers from the Arcadian visit. Seated next to us was Mikael Sigouin (karma?) and his lovely wife and kids. Andrew Murray was also dining, and probably a few other winemakers that went unnoticed to us. After chatting across tables we moved in with the Siguoins and hung out for an hour or more. Mikael shared with us the 07 Hapa and 06 (?) Beckmen whole cluster grenache, both of which were drinking well from my samples (I was occupied playing “cork football” with the kids). (We did discuss the 09 grenache we had at the tasting room and Mikael thought it had to be an off bottle IHO his '09s have been his favorite/best to date). Still not sated, we hit the again nearly-empty patio at Root 246 for a night cap.
Saturday morning we treaded to the Wine Ghetto in Lompoc. First up was Flying Goat. Though it was rumored when I called earlier in the week that winemaker Norm Yost might be there, he wasn’t. So we tasted the blanc de blanc Goat Bubbles (nice and steely, but a shortish finish), and, IIRC, the 2009 Rancho Santa Rosa, and the 2008 Dierberg and Rio Vista Dijon pinots. The most restrained and my favorite was the Dierberg - the other two seemed larger scaled, one of which had a strange metallic/mineral finish.
We headed next door to Palmina and tried the “regular” tasting. I had been looking forward to this, not having had a Palmina wine for 6 or so years. It was a white that I really enjoyed. However, the current lineup was hard to gauge. The whites came across a bit strange - one was so floral it was like sticking your nose in a peach-honey jar but the palate was almost austere. And the reds were so young and painfully tannic that it was hard to discern much from them, even with the cheese and salumi provided.
Leaving, we spotted the Arcadian tasting room across the driveway so we headed over there to sign up for the Grand Cru Society. While there we tasted through several more wines and placed an order for some of the library selections. In particular we were interested in the 2005s after Joe told us it was the perfect growing year for him and he thinks they are the best wines he’s made. Then it was off to Sissy’s for lunch. All I can say is that the burger special was killer.
Our Saturday night plans were to attend a fundraiser at Talley Vineyards. Brian Talley is a friend of a good friend of ours and his mother, Rosemary, was kind enough to send us an invitation. The charity event is to raise money for college scholarships for local high schoolers in honor of Brian’s sister and father. The event was limited to 75 people and the theme was “Cioppino and Pinot”. We started with a glass of sauvignon blanc in the tasting room before heading into the winery for the dinner. In addition to the privilege of attending, we were also privileged to have Brian share a 9L of 2000 Rosemary’s Vineyard Pinot with us. Despite having to work the local crowd, he and Rosemary made sure we were enjoying ourselves, had enough to eat (the cioppino was killer) and drink. The 2000 Rosemary’s was drinking marvelously and was a perfect match for the stew. We also had a bottle of the 2009 Estate and 2007 Rincon Vineyard Pinots which were very good but, without the age of the Rosemary’s, showed more up-front fruit and structure. Being from Ohio, I think we won the award for having traveled the furthest to attend - to the shock and astonishment of all of the guests we talked to (to the point that it was comical). Not having had quite enough, the night was finished with more Flying Goat Goat Bubbles blanc de blanc, gazing at the amazingly clear starlit sky.
Sorry there’s not more detail on the wines consumed, but them’s my general impressions and recollections and I’m sticking with ‘em.