Vini-culture

Doyce beat me to the wine post for this year’s KOA, but I’ll throw in my own two cents (before I read his).

First off, I need to find a decent wine program that syncs between the PC and Palm. I need to start tracking some winery names, favorites, etc. Call it a surfeit of good wine, or approaching senescence, but my memory on the subject just ain’t hacking it. (And, yes, I can hack, so to speak, a spreadsheet or raw DB that will sync back and forth. But if there’s something out there free/shareware already, I’d sooner use that. Maybe.)

We went wine-tasting both Saturday and Sunday. The first day was a big pack o’ three cars, a dozen of us in all (including Jackie, who came along as a designated driver, Godluver). Sunday was Margie and I, my Dad, and Doyce & Jackie — a bit tight of a fit in the Sable, but after the first stop there was plenty of conviviality to make up for it …

Saturday

Justin has two things going for it: it’s easy to get to (furthest northwest winery in the Paso Robles wine area, and a lovely setup. They have a nice restaurant, a nice B&B, and it’s all very refined and chi-chi. The wines themselves are decent, but pricy, like the place itself. I think we picked up a bottle of the Obtuse, their dessert wine, but that was it.

Tastings in the PR area are usually $5 for 5-7 different wine samples. That usually includes the glass, which isn’t a bad way to accumulate a few wine glasses (though transport back to Colorado is problematic). I’ll note differences in the prices below.

Justin’s tasting room, expanded from a few years back, is all business — pony up your finif, get a glass, get your pourings, buy your bottles. That their wine descriptions on their web page are part of the Internet store is pretty indicative. Very Napa-like. I think we’ll give it a pass next year.

Tablas Creek is owned by a French company, and for the second year running they went out of their way to be hospitable. They set up a separate table for the group, and the server kept up a nice running patter about the winery, the company, the wines, etc. Afterwards, since we indicated we’d tasted last year (during 110-degree heat) in the barrel room, he took us on a mini-tour, discussed the earthquake damage from last year, and won a bunch of converts.

The wine itself? Not bad. Very French, some non-traditional (for California) grapes (Mourvèdre, Counoise, Roussanne, Viognier, Marsanne), and, to be honest, not altogether to my liking. I toyed with two bottles, ended up with one, a nice white, of all things, (though the rose was surprisingly good).

We’ll be back. Heck, Margie’s talking about inviting them up to the camp next year, to provide a tasting in situ.

Linne Calodo is a small, still-starting-up label. Two years ago, we tasted in the owner’s back yard, up overlooking the wooded hills. They have a facility open to the public now.

The good news is that they’re still friendly, and the wines are still interesting and complex. They didn’t have their best out on tasting, which is a shame, but what they had was still good. We’re members of their wine club, so we didn’t pick anything up, but we will felt positive about it. But …

The bad news is that the wine remains more than a bit pricey, and the tasting room was $5 for no glass, $10 with a glass thrown in, and only three wines to taste. I think some folks were a bit discouraged by all that. I’d like to visit at least one more year, but I’ll admit that it may be better drunk than visited.

Bonny Doon is a fun place, and one of the wineries whose wines are (some of them, at least) available in Colorado. The wines themselves tend to be light, frivolous, and amusingly decorated, and the tasting room itself is much the same (at least their one in Paso Robles; presumably their main digs in Santa Cruz is much the same). They handle large crowds well, and your $5 nets you several different wines (and they’ll likely open up something for you if you ask). They have a pretty keen set of t-shirts, too.

Jackie fell in love with the place, and walked out with more bottles than we did, which astonished everyone to no end. I’m considering looking at their club to see if it’s worth joining.

Sunday

Penman Springs is over on the east side of the 101, hot and dry, and off the beaten path. It’s a small, family winery, and its tasting room resembles a lot of those of the Front Range wineries here in Colorado — a dressed-up room of the main office, with interesting nick-nacks for sale.

The tasting was complementary (though no glasses), though the wines were undistinguished — quite slurpable, but nothing you’d much remember the next day. We picked up a Muscat dessert, which was nicely aromatic and sweet.

They also sell a wide array of flavored oils, and both we and the Testerfolk grabbed some very scrumptious garlic oil.

Clautiere Vineyard is just down the road, also off the beaten track. The PR Wineries brochure describes the tasting room it as “Edward Scissorhands meets the Mad Hatter at the Moulin Rouge,” and certainly the place was a hoot to visit. It’s all done up kind of cabaret modern, lots of blacks and greys, interesting lights, and spots of color. Some of those spots of color are neon wigs, which we were all invited to try on and have our pictures taken with. Lots of fun, in both setting and people; Claudine Blackwell, one of the founders, was there, and we enjoyed chatting with her.

The wines were not bad, either — nothing great, but I picked up a bottle of red (the Bon Mon Rouge, I believe) that was tasty, and I’ll keep my eyes open for the label.

Bonny Doon (redux). We swung past here quickly to buy some more wine. Don’t ask.

Changala Winery has their tasting room in a chocolate and ice cream shop in downtown Templeton (where, rumor has it, my great-grandfather used to drive up from Santa Barbara to buy grapes for his own winemaking). It was, alas, closed — the tasting counter, at least, though we bought some ice cream and chocolate (being a bit peckish after not eating for at least two hours). The wine list looked okay, and inexpensive.

Peachy Canyon was our fill-in stop after the last. Margie and I belong to their wine club, too (get the impression we like wine?), which means both that we get plenty of it, and that we get a nice little discount at the wine shop …

Actually, as we were the last visitors of the day, and the folks there were relaxed, they were very happy to see us. Indeed, when they heard that I was a member, they opened up the tasting from the normal “any seven wines on this list of twenty or so” to “taste whatever you want.” Which was excellent tactics on their part, since it meant that we’d be, ah, mellow enough to buy more wine.

Which we did. Peachy Canyon specializes in Zins (my personal fave), though they mix other reds. Indeed, they had some final cases of very nice 2000 Especial zin they were offering for 50% off for members, which was a deal too good to pass up. So we didn’t. Some additional bottles were picked up, including a couple by the Testerfolks (Doyce actually liked their port, which is unheard of). Standing around chatting with Doug Beckett, one of the family owners, didn’t suck, either.

Peachy Canyon is reasonably available in stores here in Colorado, but not all their product. Good stuff, though. I’m glad we visited, and plan to do so in the future.

And from there we merrily (quite merrily) headed back for camp, and a nice dinner.

Between Margie and me, and Doyce and Jackie, I think we ended up with three cases of wine being transported back one way or another. Which is a fun (if unusual) way to wrap up a camp-out, let me tell you.

(A word to the wise, btw, if you are designing a winery website. Flash and fancy graphics look really spiffy, but they’re a PitA to navigate through, unblock popup filters about, etc. Stick with HTML, folks. Thanks.)