Planning for Fun Times and Delicious Wines in Paso Robles

Lunch alongside the Vineyard

If you read some of my insane plans for travel to Paso Robles, you would know that there was no way I could do a tenth of it. Make that a twentieth. I wouldn’t have enough time for just plain FUN. Not enough time to savor the experience. Let’s talk about it.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, Paso Robles is a wine region in California. It’s halfway between LA and San Francisco. If you tell people you are going to Wine Country in California, they will nod, smile and say: “Napa.” Nope.

Paso Robles, with its insanely different pronunciations (say it how you want because no one will call you on it) also has an insane number of grape varieties and styles.

It’s fun!

You want Bordeaux style wines without the travel to France? (Read Cabernet Sauvignon/ Merlot blends.)They got ‘em.

Rhone style wines? (Read Grenache, Syrah, Morvedre blend, AKA GSM.)They have those too!

Italian grape varieties? Yep! Delicious zinfandel? Totally!

With planning the trip I had more maps than I knew what to do with!

Spoiler alert: wineries pay to be on some maps. The ones who don’t aren’t listed.

I relied on one basic map, the kind that I now know all the wineries aren’t on.

I wanted to get an idea of basic distances.

I did this without knowing the actual landscape. Not useful. At all.

Here are some wildly helpful hints for planning a trip to Paso:

Learn from my mistakes so you can have fun and good times in Paso.

While planning a trip should be part of the fun, don’t overdo it!

Keep it simple.

• Decide how long you want to be there.

• Book a hotel. Do you want downtown? In a vineyard? Inexpensive and you don’t care where?

• If there are any wineries you absolutely must go to, make a reservation if required. Find out what days and hours it is open.

• Oh, and check out real distances among the wineries.

• If you feel strongly about what style wine each winery makes, head to the ones you are more likely to enjoy.

• Understand that you may not have time to go to every winery or tasting room that looks interesting.

Brief time out to discuss reservations in general. There was only one winery that couldn’t take us as a walk-in while we were there. If you are going on a weekend, that may be a different experience.

In case you missed this in previous posts, there are wineries, vineyards and tasting rooms. Sometimes they are all together, and sometimes not. Tasting rooms in a town or city are usually only a tasting room.

Some wineries with tasting rooms suggested booking 6 weeks out. Insanity! That seems excessive. Is it major surgery, or a wine tasting? If you absolutely must go to a specific winery, then it may make sense.

If you have too many reservations, you must run from one winery to another.

If I’m having a great time talking to fun people and tasting good wine, I want to hang out. I want to enjoy the wineries I see, and not be on a strict schedule. This shouldn’t be speed dating.

Don’t be the guy with the literal spreadsheet seeing at least 5 wineries a day. Unless you are the guy with the literal spreadsheet who is happy doing just that.  Different people have different travel personalities. You do you.

I was really turned off by those wineries that wanted to charge before I even showed up. A reservation fee? What does that even mean? I can’t report back on this, because I refused to do it.

Can’t share a tasting? Ever? I do not like absolutes when making a reservation.

Wineries are absolutely entitled to run their business how they wish.

I, however, don’t have to go to them.

This should be fun!

Based on a recommendation, I called Justin Winery a week or so before we left so I could make a reservation.

If you can speak to someone at the winery when you have questions, that is great! Some of the wineries use only an online reservation system called Tock, and there is no one to speak to.

 I spoke to a concierge supervisor who was such fun to talk to we spoke for almost an hour. (Should he read this and want a shout out by name, let me know!) We talked about my thoughts about wine and not overthinking it. That wine should be fun and delicious and hopefully not break the bank. This was the dream!

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What I did wrong and how you can plan better:

After the lengthy conversation, I knew that I just had to go and experience Justin for myself. This was despite my better judgment about the winding roads to get there.

See if you can find Justin way west on this map. The one where I didn’t take into account the roads. Much of the writing on this map is from a helpful experienced Paso visitor, who made so many wonderful suggestions. I will discuss them on another post.

Justin Winery is indeed way west and is indeed through a very winding mountain road. It has an excellent restaurant, and I was warned that if you want to go for dinner, stay at the Inn attached to the winery conveniently named JustInn.  DO NOT go there for dinner and expect an easy ride home in the dark. At least I was smart enough to listen to that piece of advice.

I do not like steep mountain roads, often with no guard rails.

If, however you find mountain roads delightfully scenic, you will be viewing the driving experience differently.

More helpful hints:

• If you go to any of the wineries that are far west on either Adelaida Road or Chimney Rock Road, know that the trip from downtown Paso may be challenging. There are, however, many fantastic wineries with exceptional views.

• Schedule them on the same day if you can.

• Make sure they are open.

• I overlooked a lot of this. Don’t.

• Decide how important views are to you. There were wineries that were suggested for the views only. I was told to skip the wine. Hmm. Perhaps if I lived in Paso, but not for a winecountry visit.

On the day we went, almost all of the other wineries were closed near Justin. While Paso may be more crowded later in the week, many of the wineries are closed on Monday and Tuesday. Some are closed on Wednesday as well. Plan accordingly.

Now to the tasting and the food.

We shared the chicken sandwich, and the not to be missed truffle fries were substituted for the regular!

There is more of a variety for food on Thursday through Sunday.

We shared the premium flight.

I’ll explain more below.

If you are following my blog, you know that I look for value with wine. With the tasting at Justin, we wanted to taste the wines on the Premium flight. It turns out, we were offered a tasting of most of the wines on the regular wine flight as well!

You are tasting for enjoyment at wineries. Perhaps you will buy some of the wine. If you are within driving distance, you have a lot of options. Lucky you! If you live out of state and not within driving distance, it is not as easy. Enjoy the wine while you are there.

If you go to a wonderful place, expect to be treated wonderfully. Not better than any other people are treated; but there are wonderful places that serve you more wine than is listed, food you just have to try, and a welcoming attitude.

This is priceless!

As I’ve mentioned, it is never about just the wine, or just the food. It is the whole experience!

Savor it!

I did get that right.

More advice, suggestions and experiences from Wine Country in the next post. For all posts about Paso Robles, click on the tag below.