Paso Robles, April 11-16

Wed took off on Wednesday, plowed through LA and finally broke out in the open, somewhere on I-5 North.

Looks like a runaway truck.

Surprised to see a Megabus. I thought they were only on the East Coast but here we are 40 miles south of Bakersfield, and there it was. Where was it going?

First stop this trip was Eberle.

One of the last places to offer free wine-tasting and owned by a Penn State Alumnus, Gary Eberle.

So here we are.

Gary played for PSU in the Early 60's and was drafted by the NFL but chose to go to grad school and then make wine. Good choice, Gary!

Brochelle was recommended by our server at Eberle, and it was on the way to our VRBO, so we had no choice but to stop.

They have nice wines and also set us up for a private tasting at "Top" Winery for the next day.

Zin, Chard, and more!

Our "home" for the next few days. We stayed here last Fall and really enjoyed it, so we went back.

Park and 13th (I think), downtown Paso, a block from our VRBO

On Thursday, we drove to Tin City and found Top Winery which shares space at Nicora.

Greg and Kelly met us there. They were already in the area at Cambria in celebration of their wedding anniversary.

We had a great tasting and enjoyed meeting and getting to know the owners, Stanley and Elena.

Then it was on to Onyx which looks like Onx. You have to look closely to see the "Y"

Later we got together at Allegretto Vineyard Hotel where Greg and Kelly were staying and where Helmut's daughter, Claudia, is the head of their accounting department.

After a couple glasses of wine with Claudia, we headed back to town and had a light dinner at The Hatch (our new favorite place) and after dinner drinks at On Bar, located where Villa Creek used to be.

Friday morning we drove out to Tablas Creek where we enjoyed a "seated tasting". This means you get to sit down and have the undivided attention of a wine person who can tell you about what you're tasting and answer questions.

You can choose to taste flights of whites, reds, or mixed. In our case we chose a white and red flight and then shared the tastings. Perfect.

And here we are.

And here we are again. Our server at Tablas, Ian, recommended we stop at Dilecta on our way to Opolo.

So we did!

Jack and Dilecta

And Greg, Kelly and Lorri

And the dog.

The vineyard in front of the Tasting Room at Dilecta

Hmm, not sure what's going on here. I don't see any support for trellising or any irrigation.

Lunch at Opolo. Seems like distilleries are popping up everywhere.

One of their column stills

and a pot still

At Opolo you can get a nice wood fired pizza and a bottle of good wine for a reasonably priced lunch, especially if your with someone who works in the "industry" and gets 50% off!

So that's my last photo with Greg and Kelly. We had a dinner of cheeses, meats, breads, olive oil, nuts, and wine(!) back at the VRBO. G&K left for Solvang Saturday morning.

Lorri and I drove to the very southeast corner of the Paso Wine Country because it was a beautiful day and we had never been there before.

We had a good tasting with Les, the owner (along with his wife) of Shadow Run Winery. They are small production and have about a seven acre vineyard.

On the way back toward town we stopped here where they grow and make wine from Italian varietals.

A long dirt driveway leads to the house and tasting room

Beautiful piece of property!

We stopped back at Tin City where we bought some supplies from "Etto", stuff for a pasta-based dinner at "home" in our VRBO. Tin City is jumping on Saturday, much more than Thursday when we were there tasting at Top.

Cocktails on our deck.

On Sunday, we went to the "pick-up party" for wine club members at Pelletiere.

We kicked back, enjoyed the wine and the music and the weather.

Bud break. That doesn't mean stop and have a beer, it means the buds are breaking green on all the grape vines like the ones you can see here.

Caliza has been recommended by several people that we've encountered in Paso, but we had never been there.

They make great wines and we enjoyed our time there. So much so that we joined their wine club!

Sunday evening we stopped for apps and drinks at Cosecho.

The same group owns Il Cortile, another good restaurant in town.

Finally we ended the evening at The Fish Gaucho, a fun place with good drinks.

I had the Smoke, Fire, Blood, and that it pretty much what it tasted like, but spicier!

Fun times once again in Paso. Great to see Greg and Kelly, also Claudia, and see some of the countryside, learn more about wine and wine-making, and add to our growing wine collection!!!