Thursday September 26

Today was winery tour day in Paso Robles. We had a good night's stay in the Bordello Room at the guest house at Tobin James Cellars.

Here is Linda all ready to go for breakfast.

We drove into town and had breakfast at Chico's. We had been there three years before and remembered that the breakfast was very good. Brian had picked out some wineries to visit that he had not been to before. Our first stop was at Wild Coyote. A definite New Mexico theme in their combination winery and B&B.

They only produced reds which we did not think were worthy of the $35 - $50 price.

Down the road was Adelaida. A huge estate that was also a big producer of walnuts and almonds.

They had a cute alpaca and llama out front.

We tasted several of their wines, a lot of varietals we had never heard of but were interesting. When the person that was doing our tasting service found out we were from Niagara, she asked if we would like to try some of their icewine. Not true icewine I found out. It never gets cold enough here. They just leave the grapes on the vines till late in the season then chuck them in the freezer before pressing them.

The next stop was Whalebone winery, named after some of the fossil finds on the property. Chris and Linda are pointing out some fossilized whale bones in the rock.

We sampled a number of their wines accompanied by the cat that like to stretch out on the tasting counter.

Our last stop was Opolo Winery, owned by some Croatian Serbs. Lots of interesting varieties. We did end up buying a few bottles of their Albarino.

Here is Linda checking out the grapes.

We decided to curtail the tasting and found a nice little Cantina for a late lunch before returning to Tobin James Cellars. We relaxed in the room and deck for the remainder of the afternoon. Later, we ventured into the winery to make our selection of wine to buy (the rooms were “free” as long as we bought a quantity of wine). 

This involved another session at the tasting bar. The manager made sure we got to taste EVERYTHING including their $150 reserves. We lasted until closing time at 6:00 pm, loaded up our cases of wine and made the wise decision to order in some food for supper. Had some great Italian food, watched the football game and got to bed in good time, ready for tomorrow's trip to Kings Canyon National Park.