Dinner – Paso Robles Wine

An Unfortunate Recomendation

Perhaps I will check next time before making a recommendation. I was asked recently to recommend a wine to someone who really doesn’t like wine and with recent experience my first thought was of Chumeia Winery, a weird name for a great and friendly winery, unfortunately this review is going to come to late to save the winery. Best red wine, if you had asked before their closing, in the Paso Robles area according to me was the Barbera both 2006 and 2007 years from Chumia Winery.

The person who I gave the recommendation to proceeded to drive the 2+ hours from their home to the winery in hopes of getting a bottle of this wine to share with a friend of theirs who is somewhat a wine snob. That didn’t work out due to their unfortunate closing, I don’t know what bottle or where they ended up going but info hope that it worked out and that good times were had around the dinner table.

There’s no real way to tell if a place will close before you are able to get backs high is one of the reasons that I taste the wine while I’m there that way I can take home a bottle or two of my favorites to enjoy while it lasts. If I have the opportunity to get back all the better but don’t ever count on having more of a specific year without having that specific wine and year on hand, something that a casual drinker would never really do since even opening a bottle of wine is a rarity.

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.

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.

Always a Joy to Taste

It’s always a joy to step into the tasting room at Vina Robles the host there is always a joy to chat with and the wine is always top notch. I am always willing to try the newest flight of the newest wines that have been release but I always come back to one of their staples. White 4 is always an enjoyable wine for me, a smooth taste ready to enjoy from the moment that the bottle is opened.

White 4 is not an expensive wine and since it is one of the Vina Robles staples you can almost count on the consistency of the wine even from year to year you can almost stop by and pick up their newest bottle without having a quick taste, however if you decide that you want to taste the wine before buying it the hoste will be glad to oblige, though a full tasting does have cost associated with it unless you take a couple of bottles home with you.