I love Paso Robles, and its small-town feel is addicting. The wineries are lovely, and the friendliness of the people makes it a draw for me to visit on a fairly regular basis. “Real life” has an unfortunately annoying habit of interfering with my plans, but I do my best.
Paso is wonderful, warm, and classy: its wines are great without the “Napatude.” Except for maybe a couple of outliers, and they know who they are because they hone the snoot.
When I can’t visit the wineries, my favorite place to shop for local wines is Albertsons on Niblick. Grapes & Grains has recently opened and upped the ante on wines! And the workers there are as friendly as those in Albertsons, too.
It’s been open for about a month and already has developed an enthusiastic following. It has possibly the largest selection of wines, beers, and spirits as I’ve seen anywhere. I think it has nearly as many local wines as Albertsons.
Located in a renovated bank, its high-end items (which include Sassicaia, wine people!) are located in an actual vault which is open for browsing.
I’m not a regular spirits drinker – I could probably sell some of my old bottles as ancient artifacts – but G&G gives an excellent argument to experiment a little more. The selection of all types of spirits, including bitters, mixers, cordials, botanicals, waters, etc., expands the creativity possibilities for any bartender. The inclusion of many liquors and liqueurs expands the selection even more. Who knew there was more than one Lillet!
Their chilled wine coolers are large, as are the beer cooler and selection. I didn’t study the beers much because we were five minutes away from Firestone Walker and other places with freshly brewed beer on tap, but for an afternoon at home watching the game (any game. pick one), the choices seemed endless.
Its wine selection is off the chain. It not only has a good selection of local wines and a lot of imports; the “imports” include other areas of California, other states, and wines from other countries. If you decide to stop there, give yourself time. It’s worth it and a quick visit is not possible!
Debbie and I stopped there twice: once on the recommendations of several of our wine friends and again on the last day as I took advantage of their low price on Angel’s Envy. Yes. An absolutely killer price. IN CALIFORNIA! That never happens!
I plan to visit Paso several times this year, and now that I know this little gem is open, it will definitely be a destination stop for me! Their website isn’t completely live yet, unfortunately. Coming Soon!
