Winery Reviews: Paso Robles

Over the last weekend we went to a number of wineries in the Paso Robles Area and tasted some fantastic wine.



Here are the places we went:

• Wild Coyote Winery
  We had a great time. We went to this and the next two wineries with Jeff, Pam and Harold. We got a personal tour of the new B&B they are building. Their wine is fantastic. We were especially impressed with the 2002 Zinfandel, which is a huge complex Zinfandel that just dances on the palatte. It is big without being too jammy, a wonderful wine.
• Carmody McKnight
  A very pretty winery with very good wines and excellent facilities. This winery is way out in the far west of the Paso Robles appelation. It is almost over the hill from Hearst Castle. The wines were pretty good and the Cabernet Savignon was much better than I expected.
• Norman Vineyards
  This is one of my favorites. You can skip over most of the rest of their wines and go right to the reds. Like Carmody McKnight they make a pretty decent cab. They make some great Bordeaux blends and some wonderful Zinfandels. We had had their monster Zinfandel the night before so we knew this was going to be great. To me the monster is the arctypical Paso Zinfandel. It is big and fruity but not too jammy. It has rich layers that sing a song of the oak trees and rolling hills and hot days and cool evening breezes. We love it. What we didn't know is they have an even better Zinfandel. They have one named Mephistopheles that is nicknamed "the panty dropper." It is huge and explosive on the pallatte. Their blends include the wonderful Bordeaux blend, No Nonsence Red and their even more wonderful blend named Crescendo.
• Castoro
  Harold, Jeff, Sue and I went there after lunch and maybe our taste buds were fried. They were consistently good, as usual, but nothing here tempted us to buy. We tasted the last of their Giubbini wines. This vineyard is going to be releasing its fruit in wines produced under a different label in the future. This Zinfandel was still good but not as jammy as I remember previous vintages to be.
• Tobin James
  Sue and I went there and the next winery on Monday. I wanted to go to Tobin James because Elaine had gone there and I knew they have signed copies of the book, Sideways for sale. I tasted Zinfandels and Syrahs their and was generally happy with them. I met a student at CalPoly SLO their and we discussed how working in winerys was the perfect student job.
• Garretson
  We saved the best for last here. This winery is in a very industrial area. Despite the fact that it is right off highway 46 it is off the beaten path and does not look like a winery at all. They only do Rhones, but they do that very well. Their Syrahs are the best I have ever had. They make a Syrah they call “The Bulladóir” that is absolutely amazing, it is the best Syrah I have ever had in my life, and is unlike anything I have ever tasted. The color is almost black and the nose is so unique that I can't describe it. This is a deep wine that has soul.