He Said Today, She Said Yesterday, Michael and Eve on the Paso Robles Grand Tasting

PASO ROBLES WINE COUNTRY ALLIANCE GRAND TASTING TOUR 2013

www.pasowine.com

Ever take the trip up to Paso Robles? How many wineries do you visit in a day? Three, four, five? Or do you “power taste” through a lot more? How many could you taste if they were all in one room?

Contributing Editor Michael Perlis

Periodically, the Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance takes their show on the road. In February, about 40 wineries showed up at the Bookbindery in Culver City to share their wines with very appreciative guests.

Eve has already reported on this event, and listed all the wineries involved, so I won’t bother boring you with that, although if you are interested you can go back to her article or check out the www.pasowine.com website. I’ll just report on those that I enjoyed the most…

Alta Colina Vineyard & Winery
www.altacolinawine.com
Great Rhone wines. The 2010 Toasted Slope Syrah was my favorite.

Bon Niche Cellars
www.bonniche.com
The 2010 Escaliers blend of Zinfandel, Malbec and Petit Verdot was interesting and delicious, like a mouthful of chocolate.

Caliza Winery
www.calizawinery.com
Another great Rhone producer. Their Azimuth blend of Mourvedre, Syrah and Grenache is typically my favorite from this winery, and the 2010 continued that tradition.

Cass Winery
www.casswines.com
Ted Plemons always puts on a good show and pours great wines. The Syrah was excellent as expected, but I have to admit that the Cabernet Sauvignon surprised me. I am admittedly not usually a huge fan of Cabs from Paso, but this one was great!

Cypher Winery
www.cypherwinery.com
Sadly, when I went to refresh my memory on what was poured by Christian Tietje, I noticed that Cypher was not listed in the tasting program. But I can tell you that we tasted his Mourvedre, Zinfandel, Anarchy red blend, among others. Not surprisingly, all were excellent, as Christian has apparently taken the freedom he achieved from the sale of the Four Vines brand to really focus on his wildly popular delicious-incredibly-fruit-forward-but-not-over-the-top wines. Okay, I admit, I’m a fan and a club member.

Epoch Estate Wines
www.epochwines.com
One of the top producers of premium wines in Paso. Mostly Rhones, but they also make a great Zinfandel and Tempranillo. They were pouring their 2010 Veracity and 2010 Estate Blend, both red blends and both excellent.

Nicora
www.nicorawine.com
Nicolas Elliott has received excellent training, currently at Torrin. His skills are evident and the two blends I tasted [one 95% Syrah and 5% Grenache and the other 95% Grenache and 5% Syrah] were both incredibly well made. Definitely my most exciting find of the day!

Stanger
www.stangervineyards.com
Stanger always produces very high quality wines on a consistent basis. The 2007 Syrah stole the show for me this time, and helped to remind me that I need to age my wines a little bit.

I highly recommend you go to the www.pasowine.com website to be informed of future events.

Michael Perlis has been pursuing his passion for wine for more than 25 years.  He has had the good fortune of having numerous mentors to show him the way, as well as a wonderful wife who puts up with him. After a couple of decades of learning about wine, attending events, visiting tasting rooms and tasting as much wine as he possibly could, Michael had the amazing good fortune to meet Eve Bushman. Now, as Contributing Editor for Eve’s Wine 101, he does his best to bring as much information as possible about wine to Eve’s Wine 101 faithful readers. At the same time, in his day job he provides outsourced controller services to companies that do not need a full-time controller. One day, he hopes to be able to combine these two pursuits. Feel free to contact him about either at mcpfinancial@aol.com  or michaelthezinfan@aol.com.  (2013 Update: Eve and Michael announced Eve Wine 101 Consulting.  Info is here: http://evewine101.com/press-releases/)