we've got great wines on the central coast. our two biggest areas are called "paso robles" (which is actually made up of several small towns including paso robles) (more valley, aka hot in the summer, so it has more cabs and zins) and "edna valley" which is just a name of the region south of san luis (more coastal, so it has good chards and pinot noirs).

one of my best friends works for a very big winery (tho he hates me to tell everyone, as i am prone to do) and he knows all about wine. but he knows it in the least pretensious way, plus he prefers beer, so there is a very cool down-to-earth, doesn't buy into the snobbery of it all quality to him.

well, my dad and his gf are hugely into wine and have been talking about coming up for a visit. so i aligned their visit for a time when shane would be in town -- today -- and we all went wine tasting.

it was such a blast. we actually only went to three vineyards, but each was so good (two stood out), and being there with shane added such a nice dimension to it -- it was just a blast.

anyway... we've never really talked about wine on the list, but i thought i'd mention a couple of these places to you, in case anyone's interested or looking for a new wine to taste, etc.

first stop was justin.

justin really needs a new web site -- but man their place could not be nicer. it's so hip and funky and quaint and cool. it was the perfect first stop. plus it's one of my dad's favorite wines. PLUS justin baldwin himself came out and poured for us about 10 minutes after we got there. awesome!

six bottles of the 1998 isosoles cost $200, but they only made 8000 cases and it hasn't been released to the general public yet, so shane said buying it was an investment. ;) i was actually car sick (windy hilly long roads) when we arrived, so i didn't taste -- couldn't taste without possibility of hurlage -- and am still kinda bummed about that. shane's promised me some, though, if he ever opens a bottle. ;)

1997 justin isoscoles (sp?) has won about a half a million rewards (scored 95) and has been served at the white house.

the coolest part for me (remember, i wasn't tasting, just trying to change my green coloring) was the grounds, architecture and the interiors. so very cool.

you can stay here, too. cute rooms. quel romantic.

second stop was norman.
(no real web site)

i had never heard of norman before, but i am a bonafide fan now. art norman also poured for us. in fact he spent quite a bit of time with us and kind of hit it off with shane, so we ended up getting a private tour AND tasting with mr. norman where he actually makes the wine (we tasted right out of the barrel). he is a really nice man. down to earth, scientist type with two dogs that worship his every step (they were cute).

the cool thing about norman, is that their wines are 100% cab or zin. in other words, the law only requires your wine to be 85% of what it says on the label. if it says cabernet sauvignon (sp?) only 85% of the grapes have to be that... the other 15% could be thompson seedless from fresno for all you know. or they could be chard, zin, whatever. i thought it was really cool that for their cabs and zins they do 100% varietal -- AND they are all estate -- meaning that all the wines come from their actual winery (usually those cost a lot more).

two more cool things about norman: instead of paying the royalties to call their special blended red "meritage" they call thiers no nonsense red. :) it was scrumptious (yes, this is an official wine tasting term.... as of right now) so i bought a bottle.

the other cool thing is their zin that they call "monster." mr. norman named it monster after a customer came in for a tasting, tasted the zin and proclaimed loudly, "that zin's a monster!"

i figure any place that calls their wine monster is cool with me.

third was peachy canyon.

they should have been closed for five minutes by the time we arrived, but the tasting staff (two community college girls) grimaced and beared us. and by the end i think they even liked us. :) by the time we got to peachy i noticed my taste buds were kinda tuckered out. :) but i still tasted and their zins were really tasty, but i bought the coolest bottle of port. man, it was soooo good after all those dry wines. the port was just lovely! yum-ola!

check out a couple pictures of the paso robles wine area.

thank you for reading the wine report, aka what i did on my february weekend by marya figueroa. next week we will travel to bubble gum alley for the stale chewing gum report. yummy.

m.

Previous ||| Journal Archive.