The center
piece of the Paso Robles Wine Alliance annual event schedule is Wine Fest
Weekend, the subject of my posting on March 22. And yesterday (May 18) was the
day of the central event, celebrating its thirty first year. It actually out
dates Paso Robles becoming designated as an American Viticultural Area by one
year. The three day weekend event will be ending as I write this and nearly
every winery in the PRWA is offering Fest related specials, as was also done
Friday with many winemaker dinners taking place that night as well as the
reserve tasting and auction. Forty two
wineries picked a single wine for the tasting, broken into four categories;
Library, Reserve, White & Rose and Futures. Several local restaurants
provided food to accompany the selected bottlings.
An auction followed the tasting, with a lucky few adding a
case of unreleased, rare older vintages or reserve editions to their cellar.
Prior to the Saturday Grand Tasting, local winemakers offered a one hour
seminar on the Paso Robles AVA. By 11:30, as the seminar ended, the length of
the street along the City Park was already filled with main event ticket
holders. Those with early (premium level) entry passes anxiously waiting to pick
up a glass and looking at the guide map to find their choices among the sixty
three wineries pouring samples.
That number represents about one half of the PRWA members,
who were also manning their tasting rooms. It is an incredible effort. Many of
those pouring were also featuring music or BBQs etc. at the winery as well as
taking part of the park tasting. Streets were closed, shuttles run, security
team in place, police presence (mild), volunteers taking tickets/checking ID
and answering questions, water/bread/cheese stations and the band in place.
Also the food trucks and restaurants offering complimentary bites, porta-
potties, first aid, information & lost and found booths.
The gates opened at noon but a lot of people had already
made new friends while in the line, comparing notes or asking about other's
knowledge of their wines of interest. In my case, a future blogger who may move
to the area. A new twist this year was placing wineries in areas of the primary
style of what they make. Of course many producers offer crossovers of this
scheme and blends are popular as well. But, Rhone, Burgundy, Zinfandel,
Bordeaux type varietal groups were located to allow you to concentrate on a
favorite grape as much as possible without having to wander all over the two
square block sized park. People seemed to think it was generally helpful.
My point of entry took me between Zin and Bordeaux areas
while those going through the other glass station's route entered via Rhone. In
my post mentioned above, I explained how I approach trying to make the best use
of more wines than it is possible to taste. I'd noted the wineries I had in
mind in the guide and circled them on the map. Some selections were those I've
not tasted and others were visits to old friends - I was able to get to about
six locations per hour and twenty three total visits. Using the 4S's (sniff,
swirl, sip & spit) method (generally), I was able to sample about four
dozen wines. My only suggestion here is that there was no standard use of rinse
water, dump buckets or spittoons. And many people just don't like the idea of
spitting things in public. I guess they didn't play baseball as kids. Nor,
luckily, do they indulge in that other favorite past time common in the big
league. But I digress.
The only option in many cases was to dump on the grass. The
PRWA had promoted, and did a good job of servicing, public purified water
stations and asked people to stay hydrated and bring reusable water bottles. I
did so and had my own source of rinse/drinking water and support the idea on
several levels. The forecast for the day started out with possible 100 degree
temperatures. It turned out to be a pleasantly breezy 80 something and the
tasting booths generally offered partial shaded areas throughout the day. Still
warm for drinking any alcohol and the dehydrating effects it has. I did not see
a lot of others with reusable containers but the water stations were used with
wine glasses by many.
If you have read my postings in the past, you know my efforts
are not geared toward wine rating. I can say that I was highly impressed with
both the variations within style and the interesting and very high level of
quality of the wines I tasted. Primarily I tasted reds with a refresher white
here and there and sticking to one or two
wines per booth. There are a couple of labels I would mention in this
case. I'd been impressed the first time I tasted them and this chance didn't
change my mind; RN (Roger Nicolas) Estate wines are made by a former
chef/restaurateur from France. His focus
is on food friendly wine from Bordeaux style blends, which include Syrah in
some wines. They are elegant and lower in alcohol than many wines made on the
Central Coast. Hoyt Family Vineyards is another small producer that holds up
well across the range it makes. I was drawn to them because of my exposure to
wineries in the Malibu area, where they grow their estate Chardonnay. They now
have a tasting room in Paso and use local grapes for much of their red
production, made by Carol Hoyt.
Also, by luck of where I stood, I was walked through the
full range of Niner wines by Amanda Cramer, the winemaker, and the winery's
vineyard guru. That included a Grenache rose' in a dry style and a refreshing
version of Sauvignon Blanc that were my only samples of those styles for the
day. It was nice to see that level of attention to the tasting crowd being paid
by top level representatives from the winery. I also caught up with some Aussie
friends I'd worked with at another winery and who moved to the new Broken Earth
operation a year ago. Winemaker Chris and do-it-all wife Ursula Cameron were at
the booth and while catching up, reviewed their latest efforts. Chris has made
a lot of well received wines in this and other areas and now has a historic
estate property to work with. The Tierra Rejada ranch included one of the first
large, modern commercial vineyard planted in the area and provides over 500
acres of Harold Schwartz's original 2,500 acre spread. Schwartz was also one of
the founders of the Wine Fest. With enough Petit Verdot to play with, he has
done some varietal bottlings, which is not that common. You might enjoy
checking them out if you have the opportunity.
Even after the main crowd joined in at 1 PM, the flow was
better than I expected. People were polite in taking their sample and standing
aside to allow others to access the table and, a few popular brands sometimes a
bit crowded, there was little need to wait to make a selection. Plus, the
tables were quite well staffed with informed help, so those wanting to linger
or discuss did not become a problem. The other interesting thing to me, as I
solicited comment from other tasters, was how few people were locals. The
younger crowd was often from nearby but the more likely serious wine buyers I
met were from Sonoma, Sacramento, LA, Fresno, Bakersfield and several from out
of state. They were here, and in hotels and restaurants, for several days and
bought tickets for the related events and visited several wineries while here.
All good stuff for the area economy.
