California Central Coast - Paso Robles

Recently completed a circuit of central California, and the first stop was Paso Robles. I wasn't expecting a whole lot, I imagined it being a little rundown and dull like some parts of Sonoma with none of the glitz of Napa and most of the wine being high octane Zin fruit bombs. But wow - the scenery was beautiful, the wines were much better than I expected, many of the tasting rooms where modern and dazzling, and you had none of the tour buses, crowds and in your face commercialism of Napa.




We stayed just outside of town at the La Bellasera Hotel. Very nice but a little tired for the price. Excellent breakfasts and great coffee, this is the California scramble with chorizo, tomato, onions, salsa verde, avocado and sour cream (but no huevos rancheros on the menu dammit!!):


The concierge suggested Destination Drivers as driver and winery guide. Our driver was great, we sat down with him for half an hour before starting and came up with a custom tour based on our preferences. It's kind of a jigsaw puzzle because the better wineries have limited tastings and don't open every day, definitely do your homework before you just head over to a specific place. We limited our tour to estate wines, and our favorites were Turley, Denner, Linne Calodo (for you linguists out there, the name drove me nuts too - it's not you, it is definitely made up gibberish I don't care how they spin it ha - but the wine was amazing), Justin and Calcareous.

We only visited wineries on the west side of Paso, which is the hilly part of the region. The east side is flat and mostly larger mass production facilities. I was unimpressed by any of the whites we tried, but the region isn't know for their whites anyway. I'm not a huge fan of Zinfandel but there were I couple I liked. But it was the Rhone and Bordeaux blends that were the real eye poppers. I easily blew the wine budget for this trip, I wasn't expecting to like these so much oh no!!! I had Safe Haven Wine ship everything home, you can drop off your wine to their warehouse in town or they'll come pick everything up at your hotel. Very simple and it all arrived quickly and in good condition.

I'd always assumed that UC Davis is where all these California winemakers learn their craft. But in Paso it seems they all went to Cal Poly, which is 30 miles south in San Luis Obispo. We popped down there for lunch one day, and it's just always astounding how the microclimates change so rapidly in CA. Paso is almost desert-like, the day time highs hit the upper 90s by late afternoon but the mornings were sweater cold in the 50s. SLO is higher altitude and the daytime highs there were in the upper 70s. CH rec'd Novo for lunch, food looked better than it tasted. I disobeyed my iron law of restaurants - if the menu spans multiple cuisines, they won't do any of them particularly well. This menu was a jumble of new Cali, Asian and Mexican with listless college kids as the servers. We made a meal of Asian dishes, they were ok but awfully bland. Beautiful dining area right on the creek that runs through downtown, the setting was the best part of the meal:




Had a couple of great dinners in Paso. Had Italian at Buona Tavola our first night. Seemed odd that with a great wine region right outside their door that they have a deep wine list that's 95% Italian imports, but it makes sense after tasting the wines around here. They're mostly big powerful reds that would overwhelm most Italian cooking. We loved every dish here starting with mushroom bruschetta, then an arugula & parmesan salad, and orecchiette with brocolli raab & sausage. The produce in CA is incredible, these ingredients were delicious and the chef knew what he was doing. Very fine meal:




Another fine meal was had at Artisan, which is right on the main plaza in Paso. This is modern CA farm to table etc whatever, but yeah I never tire of pristine California ingredients. The chef left things pretty alone much with a minimum of shock and awe. Couple of wine flights, they included some nice stuff from wineries we hadn't visited which was nice. Great oysters from the Pacific, just 30 miles away. Forgot the exact provenance of this pig, but I'm sure it was immaculately local and it paired very well with the peaches and goat cheese. Finished with a nice deconstructed strawberry shortcake, very good I'd definitely recommend this place:





So, well fed and fortified with plenty of good wine, we left Paso happy and sated and headed east to an easy three hour drive to Yosemite!

I love that area, though it has been a long time since I was last out there. I remember my favorite tasting room was Tobin James.

Fast Eddie-

Great post. Thanks for sharing!

Just returned from Central California. A couple of noteworthy meals.

Cambria - Medusa's Taqueria on the main street is a little hole in the wall with fantastic salsa, guac, beans, everything.
Cambria - West End has a great owner in Carol and great steamed clams. The sautéed mushrooms very good also and seem to be a popular app out these parts.
Cambria - Sea Chest serves only seafood. Best Calamari I have ever tasted. Beware, it is cash only and lines out the door every night.
Pismo Beach - Splash has award winning clam chowder with Pismo clams. Must admit it was some of the best.
Nipomo - Jocko's is Santa Maria style meats cooked with red oak. Again, lines out the door.

Hearst Castle a must, wow.