Paso Robles Wine Region

We drove the short distance from Solvang to Paso Robles yesterday morning, stopping to do some shopping along the way.  We thought of trying to do some wine tasting after we arrived but John needed to do some research first because there are just too many wineries in this area to risk finding a good wine by random tastings. We did enjoy a quick walk around the downtown, checking out the restaurants, window shopping and enjoying the afternoon sun.

John made a few calls early this morning to see if we could taste some wines by appointment rather than picking open tasting rooms.  We were hoping for more personalized descriptions of the wines, information about their winery productions and about their vintner.  We were pleasantly surprised when we got appointments easily and definitely enjoyed the private tastings.

This morning we visited Terry Hoage Winery and enjoyed their selections of wines, tasting not only their most recent releases but some from their library of older wines.  Of course we bought a case to be shipped home.

Next was Law Estates.  Oh my, their facility was huge and very modern. They have over 55 acres of vines but have only produced two vintages, 2010 and 2011.  They started planting in 2007 and after only 3 ‘leafings’ they were able to bottle their first wine.  Since this is such a new winery, we didn’t expect much but were pleasantly surprised.  We were ushered into a large, lovely room on the second floor with windows showing off the view of the vineyard. A table was set with glasses to taste four wines for us and another couple.  This tasting was a side-by-side tasting so that we could taste all four wines next to each other and do a real comparison.  Of course, we bought some wine from them.

Denner Winery was our last stop as any more than that and our palates go numb.  This place was fairly new and set up for lots of visitors but there were only 8 of us at this time.  We got to sit outdoors and they served us at our table while we took in the postcard view across the way.  We tried really hard to like their wines, but could not find one we wanted to buy.