Paso Robles

We're headed down that way tomorrow night. Staying in Cayucos until Tuesday. Anyone one have any "musts" for winery visits or restaurants?

Thanks!!

Mike

Mike, hopefully someone with extensive experience can comment, but I'll just say I highly recommend Tablas Creek. Not just for the quality of the wine(high), but for the enthusiasm/dedication/
geekiness of the staff. Very different from the Napa tourist factories.

A couple of years ago an article appeared in the NY Times detailing a
writer's search for tacos between LA and SF. We were in CA soon after, detoured to Cayucos visit Ruddell's Smokehouse. Gringo tacos, but well-worth the detour. I was especially fond of the smoked pork tacos, piled high with meat, lettuce, apple, and more. A smoked ahi taco wasn't far behind. Just a shack by the beach.

If you haven't been to Tablas Creek, it's a favorite of mine, and I think as wine visits go, it's one of the best out that way. It's a nice ride out of Paso heading west, so allow yourself some time, if that's where you're starting from.
It's been some time since I've been up that way, but there used to be place called "McPhee's" close to Cayucos that had some good chow - maybe aka McPhee's Grill or Ian's.

In Paso proper, there's a new placeI haven't had a chance to try yet, but I hear good things. It's "Artisan" - I have a friend working as a server there and she raves. There's also old favorite Bistro Laurent.

What brings you down our way?

edit to correct: It's not McPhee's - that's in Templeton. The place in Cayucos I was trying to remember is Hoppe's Bistro - check it out.

Thanks for the tips, guys!

It's my younger daughter's spring break and I wanted to go somewhere that didn't involve a plane flight. My wife suggested Hearst Castle as Isabella just finished a report on Julia Morgan. The bait for me was the opportunity to hit a few wineries while we're down there. We were looking to stay a bit further north, but a friend recommended Cayucos, so there we'll be. It's a short trip - we'll head down tomorrow, stay two nights, and then head up to Monterey on Tuesday. As you can probably tell, this has been a bit of a last-minute vacation plan.

But the only flights involved will be flights of wine.

I agree with the Tablas Creek visit, I like their wines. You must visit Meridian Vineyards because I work there. There are plenty of wineries here to overwhelm you. Here are some more that I have had a good experience at in the past.

J. Lohr
Nadeau Family Vintners
Norman Vineyards
Tobin James Cellars
Wild Horse Winery <---- I used to work there.
Adelaida Cellars
Caparone Winery
Dover Canyon Winery
Dunning Vineyards Estate Winery

I have had wines from the following that I felt were good but have not been to their tasting rooms.

JUSTIN Vineyards
L’Aventure
Linne Calodo Cellars
Peachy Canyon Winery
Villicana Winery
Wild Coyote Estate Winery

That should give you something to keep you busy for a while.

Sounds like we'll definitely have to stop in at Meridien, Duane! Look for a geeky guy, a pretty blonde woman, and a little blonde nine-year-old girl. That will be us.

Thanks for the other reccos as well!

We also had a great visit to Tablas Creek when I was down there a few weeks ago - by appointment admittedly but John, the tasting room manager really looked after us in the midst of loads of other visitors on a Saturday morning. The other tasting room we went to was Peachy Canyon who specialize in Zinfandel - they were friendly, but I wasn't overwhelmed.

Had to post mainly, because we drove up Highway 1 with time only for a couple of stops but one stop I chose to do was a completely amazing experience as long as you are prepared to do some explaining to your young daughter! We stopped 4.4 miles north of Hearst Castle (as recommended in the Lonely Planet California Guide) to see the Elephant Seal Colony that established itself there in the mid 90s. At this time of year (unless it's already too late) there are several hundred elephant seals on the beach with everything going on from Birth to Death including seeing the huge Bull seals fighting and some rather violent sexual activity! Be warned some of the babies are dead - as I said everything is there. It is a truly extraordinary sight and the walkway they've built from the car park means you are really close up to the seals.

Enjoy the trip!

We also had a great visit to Tablas Creek when I was down there a few weeks ago - by appointment admittedly but John, the tasting room manager really looked after us in the midst of loads of other visitors on a Saturday morning. The other tasting room we went to was Peachy Canyon who specialize in Zinfandel - they were friendly, but I wasn't overwhelmed.

Had to post mainly, because we drove up Highway 1 with time only for a couple of stops but one stop I chose to do was a completely amazing experience as long as you are prepared to do some explaining to your young daughter! We stopped 4.4 miles north of Hearst Castle (as recommended in the Lonely Planet California Guide) to see the Elephant Seal Colony that established itself there in the mid 90s. At this time of year (unless it's already too late) there are several hundred elephant seals on the beach with everything going on from Birth to Death including seeing the huge Bull seals fighting and some rather violent sexual activity! Be warned some of the babies are dead - as I said everything is there. It is a truly extraordinary sight and the walkway they've built from the car park means you are really close up to the seals.

Enjoy the trip!

Thank, Wink! My daughter loves animals and is not nearly as put off by the more violent side of nature than my wife is. We'll keep that stop in mind as we head up the coast.


Mike

I second the recommendation of Tobin James, and also would add Eberle and EOS if you have time.

Mike,
I don't recall your tastes well enough to make specific recommendations, but here are some general comments:

Tablas Creek -- of course. Go for the tour unless your family objects
Garretson -- Over the top winemaking for both red and white wines; interesting but overpriced
L'Aventure -- A Parker favorite, interesting mix of Bordelaise and Rhone wines, not bad stuff
Turley -- The only place you can taste Turley's wines in a tasting room
Justin -- Bordelaise varieties, well done if pricey
Linne Calodo -- Big Syrahs

The overall vibe is a trip back 20+ years in Napa: people are actually happy to see you and interesting in talking about their wine (as long as you're not there on a busy holiday or weekend)

Mark Lipton

Thanks so much for all of the help, everyone. As it turns out, we were only able to get to Tablas Creek, Adelaida, and Wild Coyote. I'll write up some short notes.

Hoping to see an update here. We are headed to Paso in 2 weeks. Hitting the big 40 and thought a little wine might be in order

Hoping to see an update here. We are headed to Paso in 2 weeks. Hitting the big 40 and thought a little wine might be in order

Hi, Tina!

All I can say is that we really loved Adelaida. They're west side and relatively high elevation, giving their wines a lean, mineral character that we like. They're close to Tablas Creek, which was also a good place to try a wide variety of wines.

Hoping others will jump in with more as there seem to be hundreds of wineries in the area!

Hello,

My wife and I have gone to a number of wineries in the Paso Robles area over the last couple of years. Our favorite wineries we've visited there so far include Justin, Silver Horse, Turley and Harmony. Justin has a nice tour of their facilities you can reserve to do along with their tasting. We like their Cabernet Sauvignon and red blends (Justification and Isosceles). Someone previously mentioned their wines are expensive, but I guess that depends on what you are used to paying. I personally think their Cab is as good as many that have cost me $10 or even $20 more a bottle. Justin would be a good place to visit in a loop with Tablas Creek and Adelaida (places we haven't been to yet but I've heard good things about and both are on our list to visit soon).

Silver Horse is a newish, attractive winery on the east side in an isolated area. Though we visited on a sunday afternoon last June, we were the only guests present (which we find kind of nice, as we get more attention from the server then). We particularly liked their red blend called Sage.

Turley is also an attractive winery down in Templeton. We also went there on a sunday afternoon, about a week after visiting Silver Horse, and it was fairly crowded, perhaps being closer to town and the freeway. They have great but expensive (for the area) wines. Though it was crowded, I enjoyed the company, as our server and a couple of young men standing next to us all turned out to be students from my alma mater, UC Santa Cruz. We discussed the college and how its changed over the years.

Harmony Cellars is on the coast. Their winery is in a rustic, barnlike building. Their wines are perhaps not quite as nice as those from the above wineries, but they are cheaper generally too, and they make decent every day use wines, mostly in the $10-$20 range. We visited them in August 2006, and like at Turley's, enjoyed the company of the server (a student at Cal Poly SLO) and other guests. Note, we generally prefer wineries where we are alone with the server, and either go during weekdays, or to small isolated wineries away from the crowds, or where you need appointments. This is because most of the time the fellow guests aren't as friendly as those were when we went to Turley and Harmony, but everyone just sticks to their own family or group. The absolute pits is when a limo or bus tour group comes in. For instance, we enjoyed the wines at Linne Calodo (though they are a bit expensive), but their tasting bar is small, and with a dozen guests it was overcrowded, and my wife and I ended up isolated in a corner and fairly ignored by the overwhelmed single server that day.

I don't have anything really to add here, only seconding the recommendations on Tablas Creek and Adelaida. We were on a very quick swing through the area on the way from the Bay Area to Santa Barbara and partly based on this thread signed up for the tour at Tablas Creek. I recommend the tour because it's a nice, informal one and although they've now outsourced their nursery business, that aspect adds a dimension to the tour you don't get elsewhere. I think it also gets you favorable treatment in the tasting room since by signing up for the tour you've identified yourself as a potentially hot customer. The $10 tasting fee is a bit rich but forgiven with purchase and with the wide range and high quality of the wines they pour, it's hard to imagine not finding something to buy. In addition to the usual suspects, we tasted offerings normally reserved for sale to wine club members, including a Tannat. It's definitely not everywhere that you can walk up and buy a Vermentino or Tannat vine, available here thanks to the nursery operation. In fact, a Vermentino was the featured wine of the month - a zingy, citrusy, minerally wine, a bottle of which served us well in the 93 degree heat we encountered in Santa Barbara the next day.


That was supposed to be our only stop but finding ourselves with time to kill, also visited Adelaida nearby. The tasting room help was neither as friendly nor as informed but the wine was excellent with the focus mostly on Rhones, as at Tablas. We were told on the tour at Tablas that they use native rather than cultured yeast and I read later that Adelaida did the same thing. I don't know if that's common in the Paso Robles area but perhaps that's a common thread. Whatever the reason, we came away very impressed with the quality of the wine in both places.

Thanks for the updated info. guys! So far I have made reservations for dinner at the Artisan. I will probably just print this thread out and take it with me