Monday, March 15, 2010

Day Trip! Paso Robles CA


One of Dan and my passions is really good wine, so when we got an e-mail from Justin Vineyards in Paso Robles that the 2007 Isoceles (their signature very yummy red blend) was ready, we pulled out the calendar and planned a day trip. Spring is ideal for this as the weather is sunny but not too hot -- comfortable for us and good conditions for wine transport. The picture above was taken from the Justin Vineyards parking lot.

Dan had called ahead to have 2-1/2 cases of Isoceles ready for us to pick up. We knew we would be tasting other wines in the Justin tasting room, so ordering 2-1/2 cases left space in one of the boxes for another 6 bottles of a possible new favorite. We hadn't taken the little red one on a road trip before and didn't know how many cases we could pack into the limited trunk capacity.




We had planned to get up earlier than we did, but we forgot about setting our clocks ahead -- oops! Got up at 7, had breakfast at a local diner and then hit the road. This is the prettiest season for a drive -- look at all the green around the highway! Usually, this is gold at best, but brown for most of the year.




Our California contented cows you see in all the ads on TV -- lots of green stuff to munch on!



Hills in the background, lots of wildflowers and the sky was such a vivid shade of blue!



As we approached Paso, there were ponds and lots of acreage planted in vines. There are many wineries up here and it seems like there are new ones every time we visit. We like the Central Coast wines very much and are members of three wine clubs in the Paso Robles area.


Through the door to explore all the goodies....



Before we go in, though, we have to look at the signpost and see what other tasting rooms we might visit while we are here.



One view of the Justin tasting room; through the door is a wonderful restaurant, Deborah's, named after Deborah Baldwin, co-owner of Justin's with her husband -- you guessed it, Justin!









These cases each contain three bottles of Isoceles, a vertical of one bottle from each of three consecutive vintage years.












We tasted some wines, purchased 6 bottles of 2007 Justification, another excellent red blend, and had to go through a little bit of angst fitting 3 cases of wine in the trunk! Then we were back on the road for a short drive to our next stop -- Pasolivo, a family owned and operated producer of extra virgin olive oils.

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for sharing! Enjoyed your photos. This is a wonderful vineyard!

    ReplyDelete

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