Paso Robles Wine Festival 2009 Part 1

This week we’re going to have a lot of stuff about wine at weirdcombinations because the WC tasting crew has just returned from an excellent weekend in Paso Robles, CA, enjoying the annual wine festival. We hope that you were there too, like we suggested.

Paso Robles is a wine region on the Central Coast of California which has been producing wines for decades. It’s been only fairly recently that the region has been getting the national and international recognition that it deserves as producers of fine wine.

This is the third year that that the WC tasting crew has attended the wine festival. And it was better than ever! The region is thought to have a similar terroir to the Rhone in southern France. In fact, Syrah and Rhone blends have been a mainstay for Paso Robles though this year it seems that more and more producers are presenting cabernet sauvignon and Bordeaux style wines too. Quality has been getting better and better every year.

The wine tasting festival takes place in downtown Paso Robles in an open public square off of Spring and 11th Streets on the third Saturday in May each year. Tickets were $60 per person (including handling fee). With admission, you get a souvenir wine glass, free water and all of the wine tasting that you can handle.

Since over eighty wineries and vineyards were represented, it helps to have a plan to hit the places that you want to try before you get too inebriated. We strategized the night before at the beautiful Cambria home of Linda and Ken (thank you so much for having us stay with you!) and were able to narrow the list down to about a dozen must-taste places. For the most part, we avoided places that we had been too before, like Tablas Creek or Adelaida.

There was a heat wave this week so it was a ferocious 101F at the festival! Though we were sweaty, we were not daunted by the challenge. We just slathered ourselves up in 70SPF sunscreen and went, well, wild.

I’ll list the wineries that we tried, some of the specific wines that we tasted and our overall recommendations. These are simplified into three categories: “skip this one,” “try again at the next festival,” or “go to the tasting room.” I’ll include some of our comments and general observations, too, with a lot of silly pics. I’ll cover about half here and the rest in part 2.

You should try to get to Paso yourselves and taste these delicious wines yourselves! Some of these wines are available at your local wine shop. Most of the wineries here have wine clubs or will ship orders.

Brian Benson Cellars

We were excited by this one because of the wine festival brochure. The winery is operated by a single individual, Brian Benson, and they produce a very limited quantity of wines; only about 1,000 cases per year.

Their zinfandel was “peppery” and we liked it. The syrah had a distinct “Paso Robles” flavor, was dark and good. Overall the tasting crew liked it though with one voice of dissent. This was the first winery we tasted at the festival so we were the most sober. This one is worth checking out again at the next festival. I bought a bottle of the syrah at the PR Albertson’s supermarket for about $30.

L’Aventure Winery

L’Aventure is owned and operated by a French ex-pat, Stephan Asseo, living in Paso Robles with experience working in Loire, Burgundy and Bordeaux. Whit recommended this one.

2008 Rose was chilled perfectly, which was amazing in the brutal heat. It was a lovely pink and tasted “delicious.”

2006 Optimus, a red blend, was “very French.”

We liked this place and the charming Frenchie accents of the pourers. We’d recommend trying out the wines at the vineyard.

Anglim

This winery purchases outsourced grapes for their wine production. They were very friendly and even had an after-the-wine-festival tasting at their nearby wine shop. We met Jasmine and Prof. T there. One of us ended up buying a couple bottles of their yummy syrah and another joined their wine club.

2006 Cameo, Paso Robles, blend of marsanne, roussane and viognier. Hegui sneered while saying that it was “too sweet.” It had a pale color with a melon taste. “I love the marsanne flavor.”

2007 Viognier, Bien Nacido Vineyard, Santa Barbara Co. This one was very pale yellow and tasted off dry.

2008 Rose, Paso Robles, a blend of Grenache, mourvedre, syrah and viognier. This had “too much viognier” for Hegui. It was “sweet but with a punch of heat” at the end.

2006 Cerise, French Camp Vineyard, Paso Robles, a blend of mourvedre, Grenache, syrah and viognier, was just “OK.”

2006 Grenache, Paso Robles, was “young” but “good.”

2003 Reserve Syrah, Best Barrel Blend, Paso Robles, 98% syrah, 2% marsanne. This had a dark color, with tobacco and leather notes. This had the “classic syrah” taste. It was big and chewy. We loved this wine!

Anglim is worth a visit.

Caliza

This winery won a few awards at the 2009 SF Chronicle tasting. They only offered reds. These were all very black in color, perhaps due to small amounts of tannat in the blended ones. We were excited about trying the syrah!

2006 Azimuth: a syrah, Grenache, mourvedre, tannat and Alicante bouchet blend, won a silver medal. This was very thick and dark. It had a smoky taste.

2006 Syrah won best in class for syrah at SF Chronicle competition. It was “super dark,” with stone fruit. It had a viscous, silky, chewy body.

2006 Companion: a blend of cabernet sauvignon, syrah, mourvedre and tannat, won a silver medal at the Chronicle competition. It was “smooth” with a bitter finish.

This winery is worth re-tasting at the festival.

Chateau Margene

This winery was recommended to us by our host, Ken. Also, I’d read in a book about Central Coast wineries that the owners, Mike and Margene Moony, are interested in making expensive fine wines for the discerning drinker. Very hoity-toity!

2006 Cabernet Sauvignon had a cherry flavor; it was just “good” though, and tasted a “little light.” Perhaps it needs more age?

2006 Paso Cuvee, a blend of 83% zinfandel and 17% syrah had a dark color, tasted fruity and “sour.” It was served refrigerated, likely due to the hot weather, but this limited its taste-ability.

The guy that poured this wine was completely clueless about all of the wines. However, he was so smoking hot that it didn’t really matter. Unfortunately, three of the four of us agreed that he was the best thing about this winery. Skip this one.

Thacher Winery

Whit had heard about this one. It has an abstracted drawing of a cricket on the label, which might have been the reason that he was so excited about it. I’m always drawn to cute labels on wine.

2005 Syrah. This was very dark, almost a purple color but had a “sour” taste.

2005 Zinfandel. This had a cherry color with “nice” body but a short finish.

2006 Zinfandel. This also had a cherry color, was more caramel and a longer finish. We preferred it to the 2005.

We’d re-taste Thacher at the park.

Cass Winery

Our friend, Holly, recommended trying this one.

2006 Rockin’ One, was 50% syrah, 34% mourvedre, 14% Grenache and 4% petit sirah. We found that it was too young.

We’d re-taste Cass at the park.

At this point the heat and lack of hydration was starting to get the best of us. There was a live band playing in the middle of the park. We got more water, some sourdough baguettes and some Pasolivo olive oil and had a short break in our tasting to rejuvenate.

wine tasting part 2