I believe when I left off on my review of the Central Coast Wine Tasting Experience we had completed Day One. I failed to mention that near the tail end of Day One with damn near 35 shared one ounce tastings in our collective bellies The Lovely Girlfriend was a little more than nicely toasted. I'd say she was lit up like a Christmas tree but as we weren't yet in the Christmas season, rather just days away from Thanksgiving so let's go with she was glazed like a turkey. This created in her a hybrid wino/sophisticated drinker of sorts. Gulping down pours so fast it barely glanced off her taste buds, rambling on about the jammyness of the blend and occasionally asking other vinophiles in attendance "What are you looking at?" and "Wanna take this outside, old lady?" Thankfully no one was foolish enough to take her up on the offer. She's surprisingly strong for a tiny girl.
After Thanksgiving, as we were driving south on the 101, we decided we had such a good time on the way up we'd do it again on the way down. We cashed in some more of The Lovey Girlfriends hotel points, this time getting a very nice room in Morro Bay, and started searching for wineries. Thankfully, this is not a difficult search in Paso Robles.
Our first winery of the day was Rabbit Ridge. It wasn't our original destination winery, that was further down the road. I've bought bottles of Rabbit Ridge in Trader Joe's before and always had good luck with it so I figured since we were driving by why not check in. Absolutely worth the stop. They specialize in Zins and had about thirteen bottles open for tasting with very little concern if you stuck to the six or seven on the menu. The tasting room is actually in the barrel room which for some reason I always find very cool. The owner (or perhaps co-owner), a very nice woman, was doing the pouring and had some pretty long arms. Great wines at very reasonable prices. I'd highly recommend this place. After buying a case of their 3Clusters Syrah at a Black Friday sale price of 100.00 (normally 400) we vowed that would be our only purchase of the day.
Mondo Cellars has to have one of the most amazing views of any winery in the area. At the very top of a hill, outdoor tastings (no fee!) in a bar/restaurant setting, a really fantastic setup. Great wines, a little pricier than Rabbit Ridge but within reason. We left with a bottle of The Trunk promising ourselves that we had absolutely, positively, bought our final bottle of the trip. It was only because they did free tastings, we declared. Buying a bottle in return for the gratis vino is the respectful thing to do.
Down the road a bit we hit Chronic Cellars. This was our original destination, recommended to us by a number of people while on Wine Tasting Day One. I can see why it's so popular. Chronic does a tasting room the way a fraternity house might organize a tasting room. There is a pool table, some borderline trashy ladies (I don't remember if they worked there or were passing through but there were a lot of them), loud music and lots of Ed Hardy-esque art of the walls. Sadly, most of their wine was only decent. The bottles the wine came in, however, were very cool. Lots of work went into these labels. More work than went into the wine, I'd be willing to bet. We bought a bottle of what we felt was their best - just for our friend Dead Red, it was her birthday and the label reminded us of her (a skeletal remains version of her, in a hat). If it wasn't for her birthday we would have never bought another bottle. That's it. Just tasting fees from this point on.
Across the street from Chronic is Vines on the Marycrest. Simply put - great fucking wine! This is an absolute mom and pop shop and it was quite possibly the best wine we tasted (right up there with Dark Star) on our trip. The tasting room is not only also the barrel room but it's also in the crushing room and the bottling room. It's one whole wine making operation in a barn, laid bare for all to see. If you are into that (and we are) it's a blast to see. While we were tasting, the winemaker was washing out bins and working the crank on the press. I can't stress this enough - every wine we had was fan-freakin-tastic. They specialize in Zins and blends and holy crap were they tasty. We limited ourselves to a single bottle of 'Round Midnight. Just to support the owners. They're a nice couple and they were from Culver City. Otherwise we would have stuck to our vow of no more purchases. Again, helping support local business over some giant wine conglomerate, it was the right thing to do.
On the top of a twisty dirt road stands Le Cuvier. If you are hungry and in need of a quick tasty snack while tasting -go here. They offer free food pairings with each of their tastings. It's a good thing that they do because honestly their wine wasn't that great. Actually, let me amend that, their wine was a lot to handle. Super powerful, alcohol heavy wine. And expensive. We did not buy a bottle here. Finally.
We were going to head for Morro Bay at this point but instead I got talked into driving clear across town so we could visit Silver Horse Winery. The winery we were supposed to be visiting when we went to Wild Horse instead and got served average wine by that asshole. (See why it pays to be nice to people, dude? I've now negatively mentioned your winery twice in this blog and I've got a readership of dozens. Literally, dozens.) As it turned out, Silver Horse was worth the trip. It's two wineries in one. Tassajara is also in the same building. Both had some great wine. Since it was the day after Thanksgiving they had assumed it was going to be slow so they only had one person working the two tasting rooms. It wasn't slow. It was packed. The woman working (don't recall her name) was crazy busy but also extremely nice. Knew loads about the two wines and poured tastings like it was dollar drink night at the college bar. Your glass was never empty. We bought a bottle of Tassajara but only because she was so nice, gave us so many additional pours and had been sweet to the Dog when the Lovely Girlfriend had stopped in a couple of months ago. Otherwise we would have absolutely stuck to our no buying more wine rule.
On the way out back from Silver Horse/Tassajara, as the 5pm, last call on tastings bell was tolling we came upon EOS. We didn't want to go in but their was still time for one more tasting, what choice did we have?! EOS is just OK. I don't remember tasting anything exceptional. They were nice enough to let us have a tasting well past their last call so they've got that going for em. We bought a bottle.
We headed for Morro Bay with a trunk full of wine and a vow that even though we were going to do more tastings tomorrow in the Solvang/Buellton area we would procure no more bottles. And we meant it!
PITTSBURGH -14 over Cleveland - I hate giving up this many points with a wildy inconsistent offense like the Steelers have but Cleveland is horrible. Awful. Bottom of the barrrel.
Last week - 10-6
After Thanksgiving, as we were driving south on the 101, we decided we had such a good time on the way up we'd do it again on the way down. We cashed in some more of The Lovey Girlfriends hotel points, this time getting a very nice room in Morro Bay, and started searching for wineries. Thankfully, this is not a difficult search in Paso Robles.
Our first winery of the day was Rabbit Ridge. It wasn't our original destination winery, that was further down the road. I've bought bottles of Rabbit Ridge in Trader Joe's before and always had good luck with it so I figured since we were driving by why not check in. Absolutely worth the stop. They specialize in Zins and had about thirteen bottles open for tasting with very little concern if you stuck to the six or seven on the menu. The tasting room is actually in the barrel room which for some reason I always find very cool. The owner (or perhaps co-owner), a very nice woman, was doing the pouring and had some pretty long arms. Great wines at very reasonable prices. I'd highly recommend this place. After buying a case of their 3Clusters Syrah at a Black Friday sale price of 100.00 (normally 400) we vowed that would be our only purchase of the day.
Mondo Cellars has to have one of the most amazing views of any winery in the area. At the very top of a hill, outdoor tastings (no fee!) in a bar/restaurant setting, a really fantastic setup. Great wines, a little pricier than Rabbit Ridge but within reason. We left with a bottle of The Trunk promising ourselves that we had absolutely, positively, bought our final bottle of the trip. It was only because they did free tastings, we declared. Buying a bottle in return for the gratis vino is the respectful thing to do.
Down the road a bit we hit Chronic Cellars. This was our original destination, recommended to us by a number of people while on Wine Tasting Day One. I can see why it's so popular. Chronic does a tasting room the way a fraternity house might organize a tasting room. There is a pool table, some borderline trashy ladies (I don't remember if they worked there or were passing through but there were a lot of them), loud music and lots of Ed Hardy-esque art of the walls. Sadly, most of their wine was only decent. The bottles the wine came in, however, were very cool. Lots of work went into these labels. More work than went into the wine, I'd be willing to bet. We bought a bottle of what we felt was their best - just for our friend Dead Red, it was her birthday and the label reminded us of her (a skeletal remains version of her, in a hat). If it wasn't for her birthday we would have never bought another bottle. That's it. Just tasting fees from this point on.
Across the street from Chronic is Vines on the Marycrest. Simply put - great fucking wine! This is an absolute mom and pop shop and it was quite possibly the best wine we tasted (right up there with Dark Star) on our trip. The tasting room is not only also the barrel room but it's also in the crushing room and the bottling room. It's one whole wine making operation in a barn, laid bare for all to see. If you are into that (and we are) it's a blast to see. While we were tasting, the winemaker was washing out bins and working the crank on the press. I can't stress this enough - every wine we had was fan-freakin-tastic. They specialize in Zins and blends and holy crap were they tasty. We limited ourselves to a single bottle of 'Round Midnight. Just to support the owners. They're a nice couple and they were from Culver City. Otherwise we would have stuck to our vow of no more purchases. Again, helping support local business over some giant wine conglomerate, it was the right thing to do.
On the top of a twisty dirt road stands Le Cuvier. If you are hungry and in need of a quick tasty snack while tasting -go here. They offer free food pairings with each of their tastings. It's a good thing that they do because honestly their wine wasn't that great. Actually, let me amend that, their wine was a lot to handle. Super powerful, alcohol heavy wine. And expensive. We did not buy a bottle here. Finally.
We were going to head for Morro Bay at this point but instead I got talked into driving clear across town so we could visit Silver Horse Winery. The winery we were supposed to be visiting when we went to Wild Horse instead and got served average wine by that asshole. (See why it pays to be nice to people, dude? I've now negatively mentioned your winery twice in this blog and I've got a readership of dozens. Literally, dozens.) As it turned out, Silver Horse was worth the trip. It's two wineries in one. Tassajara is also in the same building. Both had some great wine. Since it was the day after Thanksgiving they had assumed it was going to be slow so they only had one person working the two tasting rooms. It wasn't slow. It was packed. The woman working (don't recall her name) was crazy busy but also extremely nice. Knew loads about the two wines and poured tastings like it was dollar drink night at the college bar. Your glass was never empty. We bought a bottle of Tassajara but only because she was so nice, gave us so many additional pours and had been sweet to the Dog when the Lovely Girlfriend had stopped in a couple of months ago. Otherwise we would have absolutely stuck to our no buying more wine rule.
On the way out back from Silver Horse/Tassajara, as the 5pm, last call on tastings bell was tolling we came upon EOS. We didn't want to go in but their was still time for one more tasting, what choice did we have?! EOS is just OK. I don't remember tasting anything exceptional. They were nice enough to let us have a tasting well past their last call so they've got that going for em. We bought a bottle.
We headed for Morro Bay with a trunk full of wine and a vow that even though we were going to do more tastings tomorrow in the Solvang/Buellton area we would procure no more bottles. And we meant it!
PITTSBURGH -14 over Cleveland - I hate giving up this many points with a wildy inconsistent offense like the Steelers have but Cleveland is horrible. Awful. Bottom of the barrrel.
Last week - 10-6
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