THE CALENDAR IS RAPIDLY FILLING ©

            My email is being flooded with wine events of interest here on the Central Coast. So, time to make a list and check it twice. The details and ticketing information are varied and often have a complex set of offerings. Rather than try to present that much information, I'll provide the links to the source of the ones you may find of interest.

The next two events on the Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance (PRWCA) list are Blend Fest, February 19-21 and the March 18-20 Vintage Paso Zinfandel Weekend. The first is held on the coast in the lovely area around Cambria and was  a recent addition to the Alliance line up that proved popular when begun last year. It can also be tied to travel plans including the Hearst Castle and San Simeon. Zin Weekend also offers a travel double header as the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival is held in the same time frame and is offering (link via the event details) a special screening of the sequel to the SOMM movie on opening day after a seminar led by Master Somm Fred Dame. A fellow Central Coaster and former wine director of Monterey's famous Sardine Factory restaurant, he is in part to blame for my entry in SOMM-ism. The weekend has some structured aspects but is free form in terms of planning visits to wineries rather than a large tasting format. Get all the facts and figures at www.pasowine.com and check out the site for suggested itineraries, lodging and dining options and a wealth of useful information on the area.

The Garagistes take their show back to Solvang for the annual Southern Exposure  tasting of small lot wines that are rarely available for tasting or purchase. Held February 13-14, ducats and info are found at their site, www.garagistefestival.com.

In Paso, at Broken Earth winery, on February 14, our local Rhone Rangers will hold a morning seminar followed by lunch (limited seats). Then a grand tasting of the wide variety of wines made from Rhone based grapes. Their site is at www.RhoneRangers.org where details and tickets are available.

Santa Barbara is the venue for a Winter Wine Classic on February 20th (www.californiawinefestival.com) and a Spring Weekend of April 21-24, provided by the area vintners (www.sbvintnersweekend.com). More about wine events in the county can also be found at www.sbcountywines.com. Another major area tasting is the World of Pinot Noir, March 4-5, at the Bacara Resort. This is an international event with Pinots from Burgundy, NZ and all U.S growing areas. A great look at the varietal, combined with educational sessions and some very nice dining events. Full WOPN details can be found, as well as tickets,  at www.worldofpinotnoir.com.

Growing annually as an industry must-do, WiVi Central Coast Conference & Trade Show,  will be held at the Paso Robles Events Center, March 15-16.Though the event is geared to wineries and growers, it has also provided tastings and seminars of interest to people who are oenophiles and might be something you'd enjoy. Check out the program at www.wivicentralcoast.com.

The Paso Robles Cab Collective will bring the SOMMs back to Paso for this year's edition of Cabs of Distinction, April 12-14. This is limited to trade and media but a public tasting is slated for later this year. Their site is www.pasoroblescab.com.

Check my prior post re: Hospice du Rhone  and Food & Wine's Pebble Beach event. There are many marketing sub-set groups that post smaller, winery oriented events. You might want to look at: www.montereywines.org, www.slowine.com and www.santamariawines.com.

DETAILS & TICKET OPTIONS ANNOUNCED FOR HOSPICE du RHONE ©

                The highly anticipated return of Hospice du Rhone to Paso Robles is now in the process of lining up seminar speakers and a few other small details. The event will be held at the Paso Events Center (fair grounds), April 14-16 with the Thursday offerings yet to be set. I'm guessing that there will be some local eateries holding wine & dine events.

Details on the weekend agenda, as well as tickets are now available (www.hospicedurhone.org). The all access pass must be purchased no later than April 7, unavailable at the door. But this is a likely sell out.

The full pass is $995 and includes two seminars daily, breakfast, lunch and tastings on Friday & Saturday, plus a BBQ dinner on Saturday, keeping you busy from 8 AM until after dark. Lots of fun, education and opportunities to taste some great wines from both the Rhone and local sources of the same varietals. Various other ticket options for individual parts of the event are also offered.

Hospice brings back the triumvirate of  major single focus tastings on the Central Coast, along with World of Pinot Noir (info on next year's WOPN event are now on line) and the Chardonnay Symposium. All are wonderful experiences that encompass both local and world wide producers.

You might also want to check you plans for March 31-April 3, when the fanciest wine event in this region (Napa Valley Auction may be even more "pinky up"), the Pebble Beach Food & Wine Festival. There's no lack of fun times in our part of the world.

Lastly, I note that there are some new lodging options available when planning to come to Hospice du Rhone. Several hotels have blocked rooms and rates shown under the "home" tab on the website, click on accommodations for more info. One of the major new locations has not yet done so and there are many B&B style operations in the area if that better fits your style.

RHONE RANGERS CELEBRATE ANOTHER SELL OUT ©

            Last February 15 Broken Earth winery was filled to bursting with fans of the nearly two dozen grape varieties found in wines based on those grown in the Rhone Valley of France. So, you might want to check their web site (www.rhonerangers.org) before Christmas if you want to attend in 2016!

This year, the event will be held, at the same location, on Valentine's Day.  Guys, here's your chance to get something for your sweetie other than heart full of chocolate! Tickets have gone on sale with both a full day of seminar and vintners' lunch, followed by a great tasting. There are all inclusive or tasting only tickets, and full details,  at the site above.

GARAGISTE'S #5 WOWS FANS OF ARTISIAN WINE ©

            I know this how? Because my new hero, Erik, told me, "It's awesome, best ever." So, you might well ask, why is he a hero? OK, here's the story. But first, the back story. This event uses stemless  glassware made by Stolzle, which is important to this tale. The taster crowd at the Fest has a tradition of clapping and cheering when someone drops and breaks their glass. This had happened two or three times before Eric gave me his review. As I turned away to let someone into the table I tagged an elbow and dropped my glass to the concrete floor. Dang, I thought! But when the bottom of the glass hit pavement, it just bounced. I made a move to catch it but down it went, then up again and I hadn't quite caught up. The third hit finally did the job and I bowed to the cheering crowd, skulking away find a replacement.

Fast forward to nearly the end of the tasting and I see Erik coming along across the aisle. Suddenly his glass makes a break for freedom. Hits, bounces. And again. And again, at which point Erik snatches it in mid-air. A three hopper and the glass is still intact and back in service. While Erik (whose last name I never got) pulled off a good save, what about that Stolzle? I highly recommend those of you with friends having bad hand/glass coordination get some of these beasts.

If you haven't been exposed to the Garagiste movement or their tastings and programs, put it on your to-do list. And get The Dirt online by signing up at www.californiagaragistes.com for news about the organization.

This year's version started with a winemaker's dinner on Thursday and a meet and greet event Friday evening. Held at Broken Earth Winery, it was a sell out and featured out-of-area wineries in the group. Saturday began with two fully subscribed seminars. The first was on the use of the aroma wheel in helping your appreciation of descriptors used in wine jargon. The second was a three maker panel discussion of current trends in using stems and seeds during the fermentation. Opinions on this have varied over the years and an option that doesn't lend itself to large production wineries. The process adds subtle changes to tannins and structure of the wines. If the technique is of interest, Kaena Wine Co., Paix Sur Terre & Golden Triangle wineries were the wines presented. All are very low production but some delicious samples were tasted.

The main event included nearly five dozen wineries with twenty or so varietals in the mix. Several food vendors also offered product to sample, ranging from olive oil to brownies. I didn't get a head count but think this was the largest crowd ever but a change in tasting table layout made it seem less crowded than last year. And if three to five hours of wine tasting hadn't worn you out, there was the After Party with beer from Paso's "Barrelhouse" micro brewery. Loud and proud AC/DC tribute band High Voltage kicked out the jams so the ladies could dance and the guys sit and watch, just like junior high.  A fun and well done festival, with a great and knowledgeable group of wine lovers in attendance. Can't wait for #6.  

KNOW THY MEDALS ©

            When I received a recent copy of The SOMM Journal it included the results (Gold or higher award) of this year's San Francisco International Wine Competition (www.sfwinecomp.com), I searched for winners from the Central Coast. I like to be aware of how the region fares against other areas of California and in this case the world. But the more I dug into the details the more I scratched my head.

Those of you who make regular visits to tasting rooms have seen bottles on shelves with medals and ribbons displayed. Wine club members are constantly reminded that such and such a bottling was an award winning wine. Or it received a score in this or that prestigious trade publication.

What you may not know is that to get this recognition the winery has to decide which ones have real marketing value. Then fill out often complicated paperwork to submit the wines, which also requires multiple bottles of the wine that need shipped within a time window. All at the expense of the winery. This can easily run into a lot of wine and related expense considering wine judging is coming close to being a spectator sport in terms of games played.

Submission to these events is a risk reward proposition and you have to pick your poison. With that in mind, let me run some facts by you. In the above referenced tasting, Anthony Dias Blue who is the Executive Director of the publication mentioned and a highly respected wine writer for many years, offered the following in his preface to the results.

The number of wines submitted was a record 4,902 offerings from 26 countries and 29 states, judged by 50 palates. Cabernet continued to dominate with 544 tasted, nearly a case per judge. The tasting uses a 100 point scale and uses the typical award of a Double Gold when all those on the panel (of course the judges are broken into smaller tasting groups) rate it the highest in the group being judged.

There were 254 of those awarded along with 538 Gold, 1,742 Silver and 1,568 Bronze. Thus, only 800 (16%) of those submitted didn't medal. This begins to look like those Participation trophies given to a 12 and under soccer team. And devalues the real merit of the awards. But all the consumer sees is that the wine was given this prestigious medal. If only 16% didn't get anything but another 16% received Gold or Double Gold, how good an indicator is the ranking?

Well, one might assume the submissions were all exceptional offerings to a top flight judging. Could happen that most were superior products. So let's look at a couple of examples. And also consider that it is possible that some rare category, say Best Sangiovese Blend, had few wines entered.  The judges all agree that one wine is the best of the lot but score the wine as an 86. Is this really a wine that merits a Double Gold? In this case, because they also award the best of varietal/type, the winner was a home boy, August Ridge 2010 Jovial Reserve, Paso Robles. This is a winery I enjoy and with which I am familiar. So good on them for a tasty and unique offering. I would guess that this category could include some Super Tuscan style entries and be more competitive than I suggested. But that is unclear in the way results are presented.

A couple of others include the Best Syrah + Best in Show Red. Also a Paso Robles wine, sort of, from Jeff Runquist, a 2013 Syrah. Jeff is a very accomplished (28 Gold & 80 Silver medals in 2012) winemaker with a serious resume (see jeffrunquistwines.com) and a winery in Plymouth, Amador County in the Sierra Foothills. He has a unique network of growers and uses those contacts to bring in grapes of 20 varietals and 9 AVA designations. His Syrah and Cabernet connections are from growers he knew from his days making reds in Paso as winemaker for Jerry Lohr. So, yes Paso is the AVA for the label but they take quite a ride for Jeff to use the grapes. Interesting that with all the wineries making Paso grown Syrah in this area, Jeff "crushes" them. Sorry, couldn't resist. Still, kudos to him.

And, to continue to blow the local horn, the Best of Type includes (also Double Gold) Balleyana 2013 Firepeak Chardonnay from Edna Valley, Cass Winery Viognier 2014 Paso Robles, Santa Barbara White Rhone Blend "Marcella's" from Fess Parker 2014. Also an Albarino 2013 from Wedding Oak in Edna Valley, Sangiovese 2013 by Gary Eberle, grapes from Wine-Bush/Hidden Valley in Paso and Best Nebbiolo out of Santa Ynez winery Old Creek Ranch, Estelle Vineyard 2009. The list goes on, check the referenced web site, but 39 top medals (15%) went to Central Coast wines and most were in the $28 to $36 range with several under $20.

One of the strangest categories was sparkling wines. The Best Brut & Best Sparkling was Champagne Collet 2004 Millesime Brut, France $96. But there was a Gold given to a $600 Blanc de Blanc NV from Armand de Brignac, France, which was alphabetically listed just above Barefoot Refresh NV Perfectly Pink, CA at $8. This I find difficult to understand and may indicate a flaw in what it takes, or should, to medal. And most of the really big money wines from cult labels avoid these tastings as they add no cachet but could be a bad miss. So, Know Thy Medals or Caveat Emptor.

SLO HARVEST, GARAGISTE FEST & HOSPICE RETURNS ©

          Most of the grapes have been harvested and the reports are generally coming in as much less crop than typical but also concentrated flavors that should turn into an excellent vintage for the Central Coast. With the ongoing lack of rain, this was to be expected. And as the weather has cooled just a bit, it is a busy time for wineries getting all the juice fermented and dealing with tourists who love the harvest season.

Coming up November 5-7 is the Garagiste Festival at the Paso Robles Events Center with side bar events at local restaurants. For ticket options and details on the event, see www.garagistefestival.com. There are full weekend passes, dinner on the 5th, main tasting, seminars and party involved and the group sent word out yesterday that the full pass tickets were selling out quickly.  If not familiar with the movement, the name of which comes via people making wine (starting with Bordeaux allegedly) in small batches in their garage. All the wineries participating make very few cases of their offerings and are not seen on the general market. Many are well known winemakers at larger facilities and do their own thing on the side. It was very popular with great attendance last year and many excellent wines were to be found. It also attracts a crowd that is more wine knowledgeable than general wine tourists. Plus there is a personal connection as the actual winemaker is usually pouring. Many of the larger tastings have to put tasting room or volunteer people at the booth due to volume.

            November 6-8 has another offering for the wines of the San Luis Obispo AVA, Harvest on the Coast. The opening dinner on Friday night is already a sellout but the main tasting on Saturday has tickets available. That also includes an auction event. And so does the Sunday Sliders & Wine event. Which is included for free in the full event ticket. Tickets and more information can be found at www.slowine.com. This takes place at the Avila Beach Resort who has special room rates for attendees.

            I am very pleased to hear that Hospice du Rhone will return to Paso Robles next spring, April 14-16 after a few years absence. They held a smaller, intimate version of Hospice at Blackberry Farm in Tennessee during that period and held the last one back in September of this year. Plans appear to have been to return there (per the resort's web site) next spring but a recent email blast announced the return to Paso. As the Central Coast is well known for producing wines from the nearly two dozen varieties grown in the Rhone Valley of France and the local branch of Rhone Rangers is very active, it seems logical to promote the local wines in the area. More details as available.

TRUCKIN' GRAPES, HARVEST WINE WEEKEND & DERBY

            I didn't mean to take July off but it flew bye and suddenly it is August and I've started seeing loads of early ripening whites being hauled to wineries near and far. More than half the grapes grown in Paso's AVA are sold to wineries outside SLO County. This is similar in all Central Coast growing regions. There is a sea of vines in south Monterey County on the Lockwood mesa as you drive the 101to or from King City. Pretty impressive and primarily headed for major labels outside that county. North Santa Barbara County is much the same.

First up, the annual Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance's final major event of 2015. Though always held the 3rd weekend of October, it is an early date this year, the 16th-18th. So not too early to make plans. Rather than a big central tasting event, Wine Weekend's focus is on special activities at the wineries. A wide range of options are available, throughout the now 11 sub AVA designations of Paso Robles. The PRWCA publishes a full listing of participating locations and what they have planned for your visit. This can be picked up at local wineries but should also be available electronically soon at www.pasowine.com.

I'm often asked about favorite wineries to visit. Like my children, I love them all the same. Perhaps since I don't have any. Seriously, from large production labels to those where a hobby got out of hand and is now a vocation, there are styles to fit what you are looking to see. Perhaps you want to concentrate on a varietal. The options cover such grapes as Zinfandel, Cabernet or Bordeaux blends, Syrah or Rhone blends and those that offer Pinot Noir. Even Italian specialists are found here. And the same is true of white varieties, including several wineries now making Albarino for example.

Maybe you want to know more about the Templeton Gap wines or those from the Willow Creek or Creston districts. And there are eight others to choose from! But the other question I get on a regular basis is from those with limited time. They have to be somewhere later but would like to do a tasting close to the hotel or where they stopped for lunch. There are several tasting rooms within walking distance, or a short ride, from City Park. The map in the PRWCA "Grow Wild" brochure has a detail of downtown Paso and includes restaurants and more. The booklet is readily available, including at the Association's office.

An option you might enjoy, is visiting the actual winery and tasting room of Derby Wine Estates. It is easily seen from many parts of town, located on Riverside just west of the railroad track. Look for the big square tower above the trees toward the south. Since some streets don't go through, the easy access is to take 10th west from Spring (main drag) St., cross the tracks to the dead end and go right (south) for a few blocks. Derby is a large grower operation with three distinct vineyards from the east side to the west side of the coastal range. They use only about 10% of what they grow for their own label. There are blends as well as an excellent Cabernet and several other varietals and a knowledgeable and friendly group in the tasting room. And it is all brand new.

The owners undertook a major project in purchasing the abandoned and fast fading Almond Growers co-op warehouse and processing facility. Though it may have been cheaper and less hassle to build new on their property along E46, a welcome sense of community committed them to a multi-year project to restore the landmark structure. It has been open for about a year now and they included an outside lounge area with a smoker. That is now a casual Friday site for smoked foods, wine of course and some music. Whether for a quick sample of local wine or an evening out, you'll enjoy yourself. More about the wines and events can be found on the web at www.derbywineestates.com.