Paso Robles travel planner: hotels, restaurants, sights, and more
Click here for a
list of Sunset's favorite
Paso Robles wines
Learn more about the far out wineries of Paso Robles
Drive any Paso Robles backroad in spring, and you remember
why you love California. Here are the rolling hills, deep
green at this time of year with firecracker flashes of oranges
and purples from poppies and lupine.
Cattle graze the hills — after all, ranching was king in this
part of San Luis Obispo County for generations. And there are
wide-spreading oaks — the Spanish didn't name this "oak pass"
for nothing. But in between the oaks and the pastures are vineyards,
just leafing out, running with geometric precision across
the sinuously curving landscape.
Paso Robles has become one of California's most exciting
wine regions. Ten years ago, there were perhaps 35 wineries
here. Today there are more than 170. And the wines they make
are garnering increasing acclaim.
But Paso Robles — call it simply "Paso" if you want to sound
like a local — is also a wine region that holds to its own particular
style. Paso Robles is the wine country for people who like
great dining and welcoming inns, but also like open roads and
no crowds, who want to talk with the winemaker in the tasting
room, who still — and we know who we are — have to practice a
couple of times before asking for "Viognier." A wine region for
the rest of us.
 |
| Joao Canziani |
| Lush, grape-filled hills surround Justin winery. |
 |
|
The biggest wine country
The strategy for the perfect day of wine tasting in Paso Robles
is that you don't need a strategy. But you do need to make one
decision, and it is this: east from the town of Paso Robles or
west, because the region's wineries divide themselves pretty
neatly that way.
Head east first, following State 46 as it crosses the Salinas
River to lope toward the San Joaquin Valley. It won't take more
than a mile before you understand one thing that makes Paso
different: This is the most spacious of California wine regions.
It's partly a matter of sheer size — the Paso Robles appellation
takes in 610,000 acres — and partly a matter of topography. Most
other wine regions, it dawns on you, are tidy little valleys. Paso
is not. This wine country extends from the Santa Lucia Mountains
on the west to the Temblor Range on the east, and
stretches north and south with only the horizon to stop it.
There are a lot of good east-side wineries to choose from.
You'll want to try a Syrah at Eberle Winery — its founder, Gary
Eberle, is more or less responsible for introducing the grape to
California. Martin & Weyrich Winery has a theatrically Tuscan
tasting room and a sumptuous inn set among the vineyards. But
one of our favorite big players is J. Lohr Vineyards & Wines,
which occupies gracefully rolling terrain not far from Paso
Robles' tiny airport. The "J." of J. Lohr, Jerry Lohr began planting
vineyards here in the 1980s and has seen the region go from
unknown to underappreciated to applauded.
The east side of Paso, Lohr explains, is known for its hot
days and cold nights — the 40° temperature swings here are
some of the biggest in California. This climate shapes the east
side's richly red Zinfandels, Cabs, and Syrahs. Ideally, Lohr says,
Paso wines "have a really full, rich fruit flavor without an oversupply
of tannins."
A small town going upscale
As for the town of Paso Robles, for generations it was one of
California's classic ranch towns, a dependably laid-back outpost
of saddleries, feed stores, and John Deere dealerships. "I remember
when we first got here," says Justin Baldwin, an L.A. expatriate
who with his wife, Deborah, operates Justin Vineyards &
Winery. "Fine dining was the bowling alley. Specifically, the
tuna melt."
But the town of Paso Robles is changing too. Downtown Paso
retains the stolid look of a successful small town. Arranged
around a handsome central square, it holds blocks of historic
buildings — a few still bearing the scars of the 2003 earthquake,
but many nicely restored. If you're looking for a classic dining
experience, the old Paso Robles Inn has been spruced up,
with a good steakhouse and a cheerful coffee shop.
But there are more urbane options too. Vinoteca is a chic
wine bar that wouldn't be out of place in Napa. With an exemplary
list of local wines, Villa Creek is a hangout for vintners.
Not far away is a good French restaurant, Bistro Laurent. Proof
that in today's Paso Robles, joie de vivre extends beyond the
tuna melt.
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Into the west
On your second day, you can head west from Paso Robles on
Chimney Rock Road into the cooler, steeper reaches of the
Santa Lucia Mountains and the vineyards that call themselves
the Far Out Wineries of Paso Robles. The name somehow
echoes Tolkien, and you feel you've entered Middle Earth as
you twist and turn past hillside vineyards.
This is a world of smaller producers, crafting Cabs, Syrahs,
and white Rhône varieties that are among the best in the state.
One of the pioneers is Justin Winery. The first Paso winery to
break into Wine Spectator magazine's Top 100 list, it has
acquired a cult following for "Isosceles," an outsize Bordeauxstyle
blend. Outsize, too, are Justin's luxuries: The winery
compound includes a European-inspired inn and a first-rate
restaurant, Deborah's Room.
A few bends of the road away is Tablas Creek Vineyard. Many
Paso vintners are working with Rhône grapes, but only Tablas
Creek is co-owned by a real Rhône wine family — the Perrins,
who own the famous Château de Beaucastel in Châteauneufdu-
Pape. With their partners the Haas family, they landed in
Paso after scouring much of California for the chalky soil they
needed for their red and white blends.
Jason Haas joined the winery about five years back, after
graduate school in classical archeology. Moving with his wife
from Washington, D.C., to Paso Robles stirred some culture
shock, he says, but not for long. "I love what I'm doing," Haas
says, "and I couldn't do it anywhere else. We arrived in April and
we were amazed. By the sense of space. The air. The light."
Space. Air. Light. Those are, again, what differentiate Paso
from other regions. And what may keep it special. European
inns, French bistros — they're enticing, but they make you worry.
Part of what makes Paso Robles so much fun is that it isn't too
fancy, too precious, too perfect.
But talk to the locals and those worries mostly melt away.
"Most of the people you ask think the wineries are a good thing,"
says Doug Filipponi, a third-generation county rancher who
now doubles as grower and winemaker, producing wines under
the Seven Sisters and Los Padres labels. "It's brought a lot into
the community."
So maybe Paso is onto something. Drive out State 46, or up
Chimney Rock Road, and you'll see the vineyards and also the
grazing cows, the future and still the past, sophistication and
simplicity. For now, in Paso, anything is possible. Like spring, it's
all just beginning.
Paso Robles travel planner: hotels, restaurants, sights, and more
