CHANGES COMING TO HISTORIC PROPERTY ©

The wines of  historic Hoffman Mountain Ranch (HMR) vineyards were the first commercial offering from the Paso Robles area. It was developed from a 1,200 acre walnut ranch purchased by well known Beverly Hills cardiologist Dr. Stanley Hoffman in 1965. Planted to 120 acres of Burgundian (and other) varietals and with Andre' Tchelistcheff as his consultant, wines were first offered in 1972. Hoffman's two sons had been mentored and formally trained and were responsible for the vineyards and production, which grew to 400,000 cases by 1982 - this would still be sizeable for local wineries. The vineyard portion of the HMR property grew to include 419 planted acres.

About the only other Paso Robles exposure to the mainstream market at that time was a Zinfandel made by Ridge but sourced from the Dusi ranch near Paso, beginning in 1967. Even three decades after the initial Hoffman release, there were only 65 wineries in the area. In the next ten years, that number neared five times as many!

In the early days of vineyard expansion, the planting concentrated on the east side of town, where rolling land was easier to plant in quantity and more easily adapted to mechanical harvesting techniques. But Hoffman had picked his hilly site in the west side hills because of the limestone found in the soil. He enjoyed wines from Burgundy and believed that to be a basis for good Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. His versions of those wines found favor with critics, and others began to plant in the hills with the idea of being estate wineries rather than grape growers. Even in 2002, about 60% of the grapes grown in the Paso Robles area were shipped to large production facilities, a trend which is still strong but infused with many smaller operations making small lots of award winning wines.

Unfortunately, HMR is not among them. In 1976 an actual winery (vs. a make-do facility initially used) was built on the ranch. But, Paso Robles was not really on the wine radar nor Pinot Noir the varietal getting market share in those Cabernet/Chardonnay, Napa-centric days. HMR was not able to compete with that market focus. With so few wineries on the Central Coast at that time, the logistics of distribution was also a likely hurdle to sales and the operation shut down in the 80’s. The original ranch was parceled out to various owners over time.

 The actual HMR vineyard fell into a sad state over about ten years of neglect.  In 1994 it was purchased by a neighboring property, Adelaida Cellars, which primarily produced cabernet. The HMR vineyard was rescued and an estate bottling of Pinot Noir now bears that designated (and trademarked) label. The nearby site of the old winery was not included in the vineyard purchase and was most recently operated as Twilight Cellars. That parcel bordered the Daou Vineyards which recently acquired 200 acres of land related to that site, along with the winery & tasting room. They plan to develop that land and plant it to primarily Cabernet Sauvignon for the Bordeaux style blends for which they are best known. Meanwhile, Adelaida is planning to develop 23 acres of their "Surf Song" block to enable expansion of their current offerings. It is good to see such a landmark name and pioneer vineyard owner continues to have a place in Paso.

RESOURCES (PART III) FOR PLANNING TOURS & TASTINGS ©

Pacific Coast Wine Trail (pacificcoastwinetrail.com) - This group represents a rebirth of a small group of wineries near Cambria, on the Hwy. 1 coast, thirty miles north of San Luis Obispo. I previously referred (first part of this series, Sept. 24, 2012) to what was once called the Cambria Wine Trail appearing to have gone away. But it has come back as a group of six wineries that grow and purchase a wide variety of grapes from the Paso Robles and Monterey areas. Some of the offerings include Tempranillo and Albarino along with Rhone varietals and Cabernet plus Chardonnay and Zinfandel. The tasting rooms begin on the south at Harmony Cellars neat the junction of Highways 1 and 46W, continue into the village of Cambria with Blackhawk and Moonstone Cellars, the new Stolo Family Vineyards, Twin Coyote Winery and ends with Hearst Ranch Winery.

There are several wineries in San Benito County but no active marketing group. Some can be found by a search for San Benito Wineries but a good general search tool for the various regions in California, including this area is found at cheers2wine.com .

Santa Cruz (santacruz.winecountry.com & scmwa.com) - Most of the actual wineries in Monterey County are actually south of Monterey, along the San Lucia range. Even though Santa Cruz is on the north side of Monterey Bay, the wineries are in the mountains north of the town. Therefore the clusters of wineries are more than an hour from one another. So, I struggle a bit in considering it part of my Central Coast focus. Yet there are some excellent wines there and if you are coming from San Francisco, it can be worth a side trip to some of the tasting rooms. I'd also suggest looping up to the 380/280 (if from SFO) south on the 1 to Pacifica and on to Half Moon Bay. There you can take Hwy. 92 back east to the 280 or take the scenic and winery friendly Skyline route (Hwy. 35) which offers several options. One being going through Saratoga to Los Gatos and Hwy. 17 into Santa Cruz and then Hwy. 1 toward Monterey along the bay. A very scenic drive will be your reward.

The first web site shown is an offshoot of Wine Country Magazines, these being regional in nature and noted below. The second site listed has over eighty members with links to each. Both sites offer general touring information on things to do and places to enjoy in the area.

          Santa Clara (santaclarawines.com) - What was once open farm land and orchards, most of the county has been covered up by progress, in the guise of San Jose. There are twenty two tasting rooms in this group, which is centered on the Hwy. 101 corridor from San Jose to Gilroy. Locations include Saratoga, Watsonville and Morgan Hill. There are some fine options that work well for the mostly travelling but tasting prone folks using this major pathway to or from the Bay Area.

          Livermore Valley Winegrowers Association (lvwine.org ) - Not so many years ago, the gravelly hillsides around Livermore was open land, best known for the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory and a growing bedroom community for the cities on the east side of San Francisco Bay. Forty wineries are involved with the association and there are more than fifty wineries in the AVA, which was officially recognized in 1982. For some time, since the 1880s when Wente, Concannon and Wetmore built wineries in the area, the first two (who survived Prohibition) were about the only know producers. Livermore wineries led the trend to varietal labeling of wines and in experimenting with less well known wine grapes. It is said that over three quarters of all the chardonnay grown in California traces its roots back to the Wente clone, originally planted in Livermore.

          Contra Costa  County - Tucked behind the east bay hills and north of Livermore is an area that was not well known as a source of good wine until recently. There is no official organization but the source wine-searcher.com lists four actual wineries in the area and there are many growers in the region. Details on the wineries can be found on the web site listed.

          Ventura County Winery Association (vcwines.org) - Many people only know about Ventura from a song that said a highway went there. But the association lists six members and there is also a  Ventura wine trail .com) with seventeen wineries listed. It includes Malibu to Ojai in that group but is a good source for other tourist needs such as hotels and dining.

          Malibu (malibuwineries.com) - While the beach colony and celeb lifestyle gets most of the attention, there is a large amount of lightly settled land in the hills and canyons above the beach. Most of the Santa Monica Mountains are federal lands but tucked away are several fairly new wineries. If your plans to visit the Central Coast include landing in L.A. consider that it is sometimes faster to take the "PCH" (Pacific Coast Highway - Hwy 1) to connect to Hwy. 101 in Oxnard, about 1/2 hour SE of Santa Barbara. Hwy. 1 actually borders LAX on the east but includes a lot of city surface driving of little interest. Get the 405 (Californians refer to many roads as the "the"), then west to Santa Monica on the 10 and north on the PCH. Doing this offers the chance to check out Malibu, including wineries and some excellent places to eat and comes back onto the 101 close to Ventura (above) and the many labels worth a stop in Santa Barbara.           

Resources and Guides  - Nearly every association offers newsletters, email blasts and on-line or by mail brochures. There are also various monthly or quarterly tourism based publications, some of the best know are listed below.       

            A good option for general information, especially for lesser known areas or wineries that don't work within an association is Californiawineryadvisor.com as is calwineries.com.

            Central Coast Food Tours (centralcoastfoodtours.com) - An interesting foodie concept that you may wish to utilize.

            Wine Country This Month, (winecountry.com) a magazine available in many tasting rooms, also provides an excellent source for maps in a larger format than some area brochures. It covers the San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara County wineries and offers a monthly e-letter at www.winecountrythismonth.com. Discount coupons for tastings and product are a nice feature. Different wineries (due to advertising basis vs. organization membership) are provided on these maps. Though there is a lot of overlap, wineries that use the magazine may not belong to the larger regional marketing groups. A recent edition, for example, showed about forty fewer PRWCA wineries that were listed in that association's guide but included an equal number of wineries in the AVA that were not members of that group nor on their brochure map. This can be helpful in locating wineries you may be looking for or make for a geographically easier group of visits.

            Visit Paso Robles (visitpaso.com) - The Chamber of Commerce visitors guide and travel planner covers many of the usual food, wine and lodging (many B&B) options but also branches out to farm stand and equestrian suggestions,  spas/salons & family fun ideas. Relocation help is also featured along with a wide ranging annual calendar of events.

            VINO  (vinopasorobles.com) - Fairly new on the scene and five issues under their belt, this is a seasonally (1/4ly) published magazine addressing wine and the associated lifestyle. Paso area events are covered, winery listings and a well done map are included. Other articles feature local chefs, dining options and profiles of those in fields related to the main theme. For example, a piece on an artisan vinegar producer is in the current issue.

            SLO Visitors Guide (slovisitorsguide.com) -  A quarterly magazine format publication focused on all the SLO County, going town by town. That includes the Paso Robles AVA south through the San Luis Obispo wine region as well as coastal wineries. The format offers a more  general overview of wine touring, lodging, restaurants, local attractions and events than wine association brochures. It is in wide distribution in hotels and many wineries.