Day 5. Paso Robles day one
Edna Valley – A stop for the wife who drinks a lot of the basic Chard as an everyday drinker. I was honestly a little surprised by the overall quality of the wines here not expecting much. Huge vineyard holdings at roughly 1300 acres most of which can be seen from the tasting room.
Ancient Peaks – Most southern vineyard in the Paso district. Known for Oyster Ridge. Lower tier wines were good value. Found the pricier wines (Renegade, Oyster Ridge) more interesting.
Clay House – Another stop for the wife and her pursuit of low priced whites for daily drinking. She likes a lot more than me. I found the Grenache Blanc to be good.
Tablas Creek – A destination stop. Gorgeous facility and wines that really suite me. Equally thrilled with reds and whites here. Best part of the tasting was when they poured some older vintages of the Esprits (red and white) side by side with the current release. Best appreciation yet for how these wines improve with bottle age. One major complaint was that the tasting room staff kept pushing the wine club and kept telling us about critic scores. Sorry but in my opinion if a winery is as accomplished and respected as Tablas it’s tasting room staff should reinforce that perception, not lower it by trying to hard sell me. While this happened at a few other places, the worst display of this behavior was Tablas.