ROAD
TRIPS
Paso Robles
By Jenise
Stone
“Actually,
I like a little ass in my wine.”
So
said winemaker/proprietor Andrew Murray, attempting to
bottom-line (sorry, can’t resist)
what sets French syrah apart from the clean-cut American
style that he makes.
I was in central California two weeks ago with nine members
of my old Los Angeles wine tasting group and we were on
our way to Paso Robles to taste wines for a couple of days
where we would, as old friends always do, run lines like
that into the ground.
There
are nearly 100 wineries in Paso Robles. Many have been
scoring well with critics. But I don’t pay attention
to critics, I talk to people whose palates I trust, and
these are the names of the Paso wineries most recommended
to me for this visit: Saxum, Linne Calodo, Fratelli Perata,
Garretson, Justin, Tablas Creek, Le Cuvier, Hug, Pipestone,
Denner, Victor Hugo, Windward and L’Aventure.
Paso
Robles is a warm climate wine appellation located about
halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco
where
classic Rhone varietals like syrah, grenache, mourvedre
on the red side and viognier, marsanne and roussane on
the white have made themselves at home. So much so that
the area’s spring Hospice du Rhone celebration attracts
winemakers and wine tourists from all over the globe. ‘Warm
climate’ means that the grapes get riper so there’s
more sugar to convert to more alcohol, such that Paso wines
routinely exceed 15%. And this creates some ripe, saturated
flavors that make Paso wines distinctive.
Ass,
some will be relieved to learn, isn’t
one of them.
The
wines of two of Paso’s best,
Tablas Creek and Justin, have found their way to Whatcom
County.
Justin
Justin
is without a doubt Paso Robles’ first and
biggest success story, with wines known around the world
for their fresh and modern, but not over the top, style.
(If only I could say the same for the yahoos who poured
for us there.) The 05 Mourvedre tasted of sweet light red
fruits and nutmeg. The 05 Chardonnay was crisp like a good
green apple. An 04 Tempranillo, the grape that makes Spain’s
Riojas was a solid red wine that tasted more like a syrah
blend than a wine from Spain. The 04 Cabernet Sauvignon,
available at Haggen Fairhaven for $24, hit all the right
notes for cabernet without going overboard. I personally
preferred it to the 04 Justification, the junior of their
two signature reserve red blends (the other is the collectible
Isosceles, which is never poured in the tasting room).
And the 04 Syrah, also available at Haggen Fairhaven ($26),
is a stylish, well-balanced wine full of black fruit and
bacon notes. The Cabernet and Syrah are both wines to drink
now through 2011.
Tablas Creek
Beaucastel
is one of the Rhone’s most legendary
wines, and when it’s owners decided to start a California
winery from scratch they came to Paso Robles with cuttings
from their French vineyards. Those vines were planted in
1987 and then patiently propagated to fill the 120 acres
of grapes that make the wines in the Tablas Creek portfolio.
Tablas Creek wines are made in a restrained and ageable
old world style, and every single wine poured for us in
the bright and charming tasting room was classy and without
fault. We sampled about ten, but I’ll just mention
some highlights. The 05 Cotes de Tablas Blanc, a white
blend of that includes viognier and roussane, was a zippy
blend of white nectarine and lemon flavors. The 05 Rose
(made mostly of mourvedre and syrah) was a revelation with
watermelon and sage notes. Roussane is a grape that Tablas’ vigneron
only bottles as a single varietal in the warm years when
this last-to-ripen grape builds huge character from the
long hang time. 2003 was such a year, and this Roussane
(available at Purple Smile Wines in Fairhaven, $26) is
a rich, Viscuous wine showing honeysuckle, pear, almond
and lemon. Among the reds, Tablas Creek makes a lively,
generously styled wine for early drinking, and bestows
the Beaucastel name on their top of the line Esprit that
is made for cellaring 10-15 years. Haggen Fairhaven has
the Cotes du Tablas Rouge in stock at $23, while Jeff Wicklund’s
Purple Smile in Fairhaven has the top-of-the-line, Chateneuf
du Pape-styled (and best vintage ever for this wine) 2003
Esprit de Beaucastel (50% mourvedre, 27% syrah, with the
rest grenache and Counoise) which has briary blackberry,
grilled meat and sage notes. I have the 2000 (the first
year this wine was made, the vines had to mature to produce
grapes good enough) in my cellar, and I can hear those
2003’s calling to me all the way from Birch Bay….
Btw,
Jeff invites all to drop by and try another Paso Robles
winery whose book he has an area
exclusive on, Four
Winds (hold the ass jokes, please). I’ve not had
the pleasure of tasting them, but he describes them as
the bigger, more in your face style (pretty much the opposite
of Tablas Creek) of Paso Robles wines.
Tell your friends you saw this article on Taste of Whatcom.com
-----------------------------------------------
(10-21-2006)
Jenise
Stone is a wine enthusiast and avid foodie who lives
in Birch Bay, Washington. She can be reached by emailing jenise@tasteofwhatcom.com.
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