There are several wineries in Paso Robles that are stunningly gorgeous; either the winery, the vineyards, the tasting rooms, or the scenic vistas. Some of those include Sculpterra, Villa San Juliette, Tooth & Nail, and the two that we had the time to visit, DAOU (and yes, it’s supposed to be in all caps), and Tablas Creek, one of the pioneer wineries of Paso Robles.
DAOU
As one of the early adopters of DAOU wines, it’s been a pleasure to see them grow and thrive on the remarkably scenic mountain where the tasting room is situated.
I wanted to make sure that Jamie and Shannon had the opportunity to hang out on the DAOU patio to enjoy the wines, the food, and, most importantly, for an early spring morning in Paso, the view.
We had breakfast, tasted through the wines, and spent too much money on several bottles because they were that good. The only problem with DAOU now is the cost of the tasting if you just want to taste through their offerings. That said, it wasn’t a problem for us because we wanted to eat and drink. We were there for a couple of hours, and loved every minute of it!
Tablas Creek
To say that Tablas Creek is the Rhône varietal pioneer of Paso Robles is a huge understatement. While their history can be read in detail on their website, the story itself is surprisingly simple. A couple of families, one French, one American, decided that Paso Robles was the best place to grow Rhône varietals in California. The full story is much more far-reaching than that, and it’s worth learning about.
While I’ve always been a fan of Tablas Creek, I really became a fan when I was able to visit the winery with the Wine Bloggers Conference in 2014 and learned about the grafting process, how the grapevines grew, decisions on harvest, etc., all from Jason Haas, son of the founder.
We decided to take advantage of their new seated flight tasting ($25 pp, free with $75 purchase which was easy). We tasted through so many wonderful wines, and I ended up buying more than I should have. As usual.
As you can probably guess, I’m exhausted! Yet, the weekend was wonderful, busy, and filled with great wine. Remember that some of these wines – such as from Epoch, and, well, all! – have 90-plus scores and are easily world class.
Enjoy the photos, and there’s more to come!
