McPrice Myers may be the best winemaker you’ve never heard of…yet.
But, before I get into a discussion of our visit, I have to go back to August of 2009.
We had been locker members of All Corked Up for several months, but had not really done a lot of socializing there. Most of our time had been spent in the Cellar Lounge watching the Lakers. But in August of 2009, All Corked Up was having a barbecue which we had decided to attend, and the manager Jennifer had the dilemma of figuring out who to sit us with. Well, she settled on Chuck and Heidi Wiedeman along with others who quickly became our friends, and the rest truly is history.
Chuck and I soon starting discussing wines, then narrowed it to Paso Robles, and then Chuck mentioned McPrice Myers. Well, I was frankly somewhat flabbergasted, as I had not yet met anyone who knew of McPrice Myers, let alone a fan of his wines as I was. This conversation was truly a bonding experience, as we both thought very highly of the Rhone-varietal wines that McPrice produces.
I had actually made and unfortunately canceled a couple of appointments to visit McPrice, both when he was operating out of a cooperative in Santa Maria and later when he took over the Garretson tasting room in Paso Robles with his partner in the Barrel 27 project. In the meantime, Chuck had visited him a few times. So when I learned we were all going up to Paso, it was only natural to schedule an appointment, one I was sure I was going to keep.
So, after J Dusi, late Saturday afternoon, we went over to Barrel 27, but not to taste the Barrel 27 wines [which are very good] but to spend time with McPrice Myers and taste the wines he bottles under his own name.
McPrice met us in the tasting room and took the eight of us back to the barrel room, where he tasted us on all his current releases, as well as providing tastes of wine still in barrels. All his wines are consistently excellent, with a terrific balance between great fruit and complexity. I pretty much lost track of time, but I expect we were there almost two hours, tasting the great wines, and discussing winemaking issues.
Our long day of wine tasting was complete. We went back to the Stahlys’ house to relax, with a little more wine and cheese to hold us until dinner. After a great dinner at Il Cortile in downtown Paso Robles, we called an end to our first day in Paso Robles.
To be continued…
Michael Perlis provides outsourced controller services to businesses that do not need a full-time controller. He balances this with his interest in wine: reading and writing about it and, of course, drinking it. He is still trying to figure out how to combine these two pursuits. Feel free to contact him about either at mcpfinancial@aol.com or michaelthezinfan@aol.com. “It is common practice for wine industry workers, wine writers and winery club members [and members of their party] to receive complimentary tastings and discounted purchases. Unless it is otherwise noted, it should be presumed that this is the case.”
