My mom and I had made a trek down to the San Luis Obispo area over the weekend, because one of her pieces of jewelry was showing at the San Luis Obispo Museum of Art! It was an honor that they had chosen her piece, so we decided to make a drive down there in person to check it out. We headed to the Artists’ reception at the museum, and I saw a fantastic array of art- ceramics, metalwork, tapestries, paintings from artists from all over California. And there was my mom’s jewelry, in a glass case!
After the reception ,we spent the night in nearby Arroyo Grande, and got up the next morning with the singular goal of scouting out some great local wineries in the area. I’d heard good things about the quality of wine in the Edna Valley and Paso Robles area and was hankering to check out a few places.
The terroir in Edna Valley and Paso Robles is wildly different. Edna Valley is marked by long, warm days, cold nights, and ocean breeze. Due to the cooler climate, it’s ideal for growing fussy grapes i.e. pinot noir and riesling. Paso Robles is marked by hot and dry weather and long summers- so it’s better known for varietals such as Zinfandel which thrive in hot weather.
Our first stop was in Edna Valley, at Wolff Vineyards. I picked Wolff because it had stellar Yelp reviews, and was a SIP certified operation (Sustainably produced). The grounds were beautiful:
And we started with a flight of 5 wines- a riesling, a chard, a few pinots and a red blend. The standout was the Riesling- it had notes of citrus, passionfruit and mineral. I liked the fact that unlike many California Rieslings, it had low residual sugar so was not overpoweringly sweet. I picked up a bottle for around $20 and mom did the same.
Our next stop was at Tolosa Vineyards, because I had tried a fantastic pinot noir the night before from them at a local restaurant. This was quite a different experience than Wolff- the winery grounds looked slick, and commercial, with a very modern looking tasting room.
I tried a flight of 4 wines- one chard, 2 pinots, and a red blend, and I loved the second pinot I had, the 2011 Pinot Noir ($30). Tolosa is also sustainable as well and does not use insecticides or pollutants when they are growing grapes, and the very friendly woman who conducted our tasting also mentioned that they tried to use rainwater as well to minimize water waste.
We left the Edna Valley area and decided to make one stop in Paso Robles, to try a few different varietals of wine. Yelp came to the rescue again, and we made a stop at the 5 star rated Ecluse Vineyards. Ecluse mainly specializes in Rhone varietals and Zinfandel. Paso Robles was HOT- over 90 degrees and according to the guy in the tasting room, this was “cool climate” for Paso this time of year.
This was by far my favorite stop on the trip. The wines at Ecluse were delicious, the tastings were free, and I even got the opportunity to do a barrel tasting! I left with a bottle of the 2011 “Ensemble” which was an award winning blend of Petit Verdot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. In general, I will definitely be making a return trip to the Paso Robles area and Edna valley again for wine tasting- it makes me think of what Napa and Sonoma were like 20 years ago before the area became so commercial.
Leave a Reply