Further Paso Robles Tips

They say God is in the details and I tend to agree. After all, a missed reservation can make the difference between a lovely meal and the mall food court. And a corked bottle of wine can cause an awkward evening or a great one. (If you don't believe me, just ask the pourer we met in Solvang who lamented a corked bottled resulting in a failed seduction.)

In interest of filling in all the blanks regarding Paso Robles, particularly since the Uncorkeds are currently planning a trip of their own, I thought it might be helpful to cover a few tips that were left out of previous posts. Lucy can be accused of many things, but poor attention to detail is not one of them.

Although I've been to Napa and Oregon wine countries and returned home with a few glasses, I was surprised by the sheer number of glasses that we accumulated in Paso Robles and Santa Barbara County. I believe the final count was around 19. Several of the glasses were Reidels and most of the others were a very good quality. Like our newest children, we welcomed them into our bosom and wanted them all the make the journey back to St. Louis safely. We shipped some home and packed the rest in the soft sided rolling cooler we had purchased at Rite Aid using a wine case box, Styrofoam peanuts, and the wine bottle bags we'd accumulated on the trip. When we got to the ticket counter we asked the nice lady to make everything fragile and she did. Everything arrived just fine.

In terms of shipping, I highly recommend Weeden's Parcel Service in Paso Robles. Weeden's is a sheltered workshop offering jobs to members of the community who otherwise might not have them. Additionally, they were extremely helpful making sure everything was well packed and very economical. They also sell various packing boxes and the wonderful (and recycled!) Styrofoam peanuts we used for our wine glasses. If you are visiting both Solvang and Paso Robles, I would suggest shipping your wine in Paso. We were quoted $70 to ship one case in Solvang as opposed to around $38 at Weeden's. Ridiculous!

At most of the wineries, the tasting fee is $10 per person although it varied from free (Wild Horse Creek Winery) to $25 (reserve tasting at Tastes of the Valleys). In some cases the fee was waved with the purchase of wine, but it seemed less common than in Napa or Oregon to do so. (Of course at almost every winery we did get a glass so there was a built in "extra" with most tastings.) I would suggest bringing several 5 & 10 dollar bills. That way if you decide not to buy anything at the winery, it's a faster and smoother process to pay and head off to your next destination.

Bring clothes of varying weights. The temperature varies so much between the Santa Barbara area and Paso Robles that the weather forecasts two daily temperatures, one for coastal and one for inland. While driving along, our car's thermometer would fluctuate as much as 10 degrees in a 20 mile radius.

A cooler is a must. It's easy to pick one up, inexpensively, at any of the stores around town. I would encourage everyone to get water, extra crackers (not all tasting rooms had them and they are very helpful for clearing the palate), and something to snack on if you decide to visit a few more wineries before lunch or dinner.

If anyone needs more information about what we tasted at each winery or what we rated each of the wines, just let me know by responding to this post. I'll be happy to provide more detail about any of the places that we visited.