April 2013 – Paso Robles Wine

Bottles opened this weekend 4/27/2013

When you can’t decide which wines you want to open, open two instead. This would only apply if you are in a group of people that may accept more than one wine as a rule. For just me it’s one bottle of wine at a time due to the fact that it takes me nearly a week of half a glass at a time to finish a bottle of wine and the last thing that I want is wine going sour while trying to enjoy it.

The first a 2009 Niner Wine Estates Petite Sarah was made to go with a lean piece of meat, in this instance a Santa Maria Tri-tip from a local market near Pioneer, Ca. As a side note I will at some point be exploring the wines near Pioneer, Ca as I hear there are a number of really great white wines available in the area. If you are looking to make a trip to someplace outside of the Central California Coast and would like to visit the Pioneer area I would suggest a stay in Volcano at St. George Hotel, it’s a great place and really isn’t to far from Lake Tahoe if you’re just passing through on your way to ski Lake Tahoe or enjoy the Casino’s there.

The Sauvignon Blanc was equally impressive with a very fruity dry taste. It was almost sweet enough to be enjoyed as a desert wine, in fact I didn’t have any of this wine until I was into my fresh Central California Strawberries that were served as a side to the tri-tip mentioned before. I can’t wait to see what else Niner has to offer with their spring shipment of wine for the club members.

Wine Taste Awards

Awards mean a lot in the wine world, if you are into looking at awards and the person who did the tasting, maybe your tastes have been taught to be a snob, that’s okay however beyond that what do awards mean. Though there are certain criteria with wines made in different categories there is really no solid scientific way to grade wine so the award the wine won only means something on that day, time and place for that specific set of tasters.

Awards are displayed proudly by vineyards and their wine makers however is there a point at which you can make since on what you should really be tasting? Some of the awards may have been from prestigious tasting galleries and some may have been from the local county fair which I don’t have a problem with however you may not know the tasters and the tasters may not have the best pallet. I’m not saying that I have developed the correct pallet for wines, but I do know what I like and it’s not what the next person may like.

Awards, great as they may be, should be talked about in reference to the wines that you’re tasting and the wines that you can buy or get by being a club member, if your interested in history this should be offered by the vineyard or maker as a history book, but it’s not likely that you are going to find any of those wines still for sale, unless you are a collector with a highly developed pallet with money to spend on wine that has long since disappeared from the casual wine connoisseur electric cellar.

There are vineyards that wine a lot of awards, but how many compared to the one down the street? Which winemakers won them? How many years in a row?

Awards establish vineyard reputation but really what you want to know is about the maker and their pallet.

First Taste of Paso Robles Wine

My first taste of Paso Robles wine was at a wedding held at Vina Robles, what a great location to host a wedding at.

After the ceremony was a dinner catered by Vina Robles, with dinner came a great wine that I couldn’t place and couldn’t remember when I left, not because I had so much, just due to the fact that I have a hard time remembering details like this when I’m not in the situation writing it down like I do now when I’m tasting at a vineyard. Since the wedding I had been thinking about the wine and returned almost 1 year later and asked if they would be able to tell me which wines were served at the wedding, they explained they could look it up and I soon discovered one of my favorite white wines.

Since that wedding I have visited Vina Robles a couple of times, to taste their wine and take a couple of bottles home. While I usually find myself a proponent of Red wines, Vina Robles has started to turn me towards whites. Their “White 4” is the way to go and there Sauvignon Blanc, which is an estate wine, is also amazing and I usually end up taking one of each when I return.

Next time I’m there I’ll have to try another one of their whites perhaps the Viognier, which I have recently come to like from other vineyards.