notes on paso robles trip with mary weekend of 4-5-08

we went wine tasting and places that stood out were:
denner–the current grenache is so amazing. much better than the RP 92 syrah blends.

grey wolf–quiet little place with very friendly pourers and interesting history. most importantly, the wines were big and bold and kicked ass.

hug–edgar the pourer there on a sunday morning was a class act and the pinot and rose were showing well. even better was his own 50 case project called E2 (dont know how to type ”E squared”). really glad i got the chance to grab a bottle of that… 

longoria–in los olivos. easily the highest quality thing going on in that area.

tolo–wow im glad the lady at grey wolf turned us on to this place. funny little tasting room serving an absolutely killing NV chard bottled in Feb 07 but blending vins 00, 01, and 02! viscous and not overly sweet, but complex instead, this wine blew us away. we were also taken aback by the 01 asini, a sang/zin 60/40 blend with 15.8% alcohol that spent over 6 years in barrel, WTF! complex and delicious wine.

disappointments were:

garretson–met mat who is clearly a very nice guy, we were there for a club member bbq. the food was simple and good, but the wines were not showing well. super salty/alcoholic they lacked nuance and made me decide i will cancel my membership. RP has lost his mind with these wines and they are just big scary monsters that are way too hot and sweet and awkward. the saving grace was a pleasant rose and some old grenache blanc he had going begging.

beckmen–completely underwhelmed with this place (off the beaten track in los olivos). ive enjoyed some of their whites in the past but the reds are all fake sweet and too hot.

epiphany–really enjoyed their sweet rousannes and marsannes in the past, i dont get at all what their doing with this current vintage. strange bad wine.

opolo–the height of mediocrity, the staff in the tasting place were very nice, but nothing could get me to like this bland unappealing juice. yawn.

we went to several others but they werent worth noting either way as great or bad.

wine in paso was significantly and consistently much better than that of los olivos, where we had stayed before
and stopped on the way up to have lunch and taste with friends.

we stayed at an amazing place:

http://www.ameliasloft.com/

this place rocked big time. very cozy and inexpensive as well. would like to stay there again.

we had a really mediocre meal friday night at justin winery’s deborah’s room. while the food was standard boring fare
the reds were pretty kicking (save the dessert wine trash) and i was surprised having hated an older isoceles i had last year
and bad things i heard about the recent quality. the current cab and isoceles they served with dinner was very good. so go for the wine and skip on the food.

better choices for food are:

artisan at 14th and park which serves a perfect cuban sandwich for lunch and

basil which is a thai place near the movie theater downtown that is definitely a notch above your
average local thai place. we were very impressed with the food there.

there is also a terrific candy store with a very big selection right next store to the thai place that is fun to shop in.

one of the coolest things we did while there was go to this place:

http://www.franklinhotsprings.com/
there is mud in the floor of the hot springs pool so naturally you take the mud out and rub it all over yourself and then
lay out in the sun and let it dry. it’s supposed to detoxify you. so mary and i did that and it was awesome.
i bought 2 cases of wine so maybe ill try and plan a big paso robles tasting dinner some place in LA soon…

 oh speaking of great places to eat in LA, some friends and i went to sona on la cienega in hollywood area and it
was pretty amazing, probably the best food ive had in LA ever. cant wait to try it again and order off the menu (we had the
9 course tasting).