Our first thought when driving up to Adelaida Cellars was that the large hill covered with vines was planted in such a way that would cause terrible erosion if it were in Brazil. It’s a good thing that this is California then!
limestone wall on approach to Adelaida tasting room
We’d been enchanted with Adelaida since the Paso Robles wine tasting festival last year, where we tried their delicious “Version,” a Rhone-style blend. We liked it so much we ordered a few bottles via mail. I haven’t seen this wine at my local wine shops in San Francisco. This year, instead of tasting them again at the wine festival, we decided to go see it for ourselves.
It was a warm beautiful day. Adelaida is located in a very quiet area of Paso Robles, not that far from Tablas Creek, where we had just been tasting that afternoon. Aside from the wind blowing through the oak trees, it was silent. It’s quite hilly in a very scenic way. Maybe that’s one of the reasons that the wines come out so good? Walnut groves decorate part of the property when you first approach. At least that’s what we thought they were. We stopped to admire the scenery for a bit when we first got there. It’s such a lovely place! Fragments of what looked like limestone seemed scattered all about the grounds. Some of these had been stacked into low walls along the main drive.
lovely hilly Adelaida vineyard
The tasting room was cool and roomy. The staff was friendly and professional. We arrived just when a large group of rowdy folk showed up. Normally this would create a problem. However, we were given a lot of attention by two of the Adelaida personnel despite the big group adjacent to us. (Sorry I didn’t catch their names and felt embarrassed about asking after we’d been chatting for a while. Silly me! I looked for name tags but there weren’t any. One was an older gentleman with a charming accent from Australia of maybe England. The other was an attractive young man with dark hair. The younger guy seemed in charge and was kind of training the older. Both were pleasant.)
We tried several wines and ended up enjoying quite a few:
Vin Gris de Pinot Noir: Hegui thought that this was a good wine though “very alcoholic” and “sweet.” Jazz thought that it was off dry and somewhat bitter. It’s from 100% pinot noir.
Chardonnay HMR Estate 2007: Hegui says, “I don’t like chardonnay.” He thought that it had a bitter after taste. Jazz enjoyed the wine. It was not very oaky and had a long finish. It’s 100% chardonnay.
sampling the Adelaida vin gris
Version 2006: This is the Adelaide Rhone blend of mourvedre, syrah, grenache, counoise and cinsault. Both of us liked this wine. It has a creamy, caramel-y, very toasty flavor that was very enjoyable.
Syrah Anna’s Estate 2006: Adelaida describes this as a “sexy” wine in their tasting notes. We agree! Hegui thought that it had a “blood flavor that Bella Cullen would like.” Jazz found that it was a dark, bloody color, too. It has tobacco notes, and a subtle taste that was quite enjoyable.
Cabernet Sauvignon 2006: This was round in body. It had a classic Paso Robles taste in a cab. Hegui noted aromas of the German disgestif, Killepitsch, that we enjoyed on the past. Jazz found a chocolaty finish. We thought that it would improve further with more age.
Cabernet Sauvignon Viking Estate Reserve 2005: This was listed as the Adelaida “decanter special of the month” when we visited. This had a good nose though it was hard to pin it down. It was ready to drink now. The taste filled the entire mouth, especially the sides of our tongue. It was really good and the name is kick-ass!
Viognier 2007: This came last as a dessert wine. It was sweet. Hegui thought too sweet. It had a lovely bouquet. It brought late summer to mind with the taste of almost overripe fruit: sort of a prelude to fall.
We liked this place a lot. I ended up joining the wine club. They offer free shipping for wine club purchases right now. The tasting fee is $10 dollars but it was waived for us after I joined up. We’d definitely recommend this marvelous winery to our readers.
some flowers in the extensive gardens at Adelaida
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Syrah Anna’s Estate 2006: Adelaida describes this as a “sexy” wine in their tasting notes. We agree! Hegui thought that it had a “blood flavor that Bella Cullen would like.” Jazz found that it was a dark, bloody color, too. It has tobacco notes, and a subtle taste that was quite enjoyable.
This quote is so funny, as if the wine tastes like blood, now I am curious to see what does blood taste like? Wine?