Why You Need to Drink Wine in Paso Robles Before the Region Really Blows Up

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These 14 wineries are just a starting point.

https://www.thrillist.com/drink/nation/best-paso-robles-wineries



Think the only place to find world-class California wines that compete with other global wine regions like the Rhone Valley in France or Piedmont in Italy is Napa Valley? Think again. Taking a gorgeous drive down the coast from the famous wine region north of San Francisco, passing Monterey and Big Sur, you’ll enter into a once-sleepy Central Coast almond farming community known for its thermal hot springs that is gaining global acclaim: Paso Robles.

Paso Robles—pronounced row-bulls and referred to more casually and simply as Paso among locals—had a reputation for producing high-alcohol red wines, particularly cabernet sauvignon and zinfandel. But over the last decade, a collective of wineries has quietly moved away from those overly tannic or fruit bomb wines to create gorgeous, layered, nuanced wines that have caused people rethink to Paso.

In a region with more than 200 tasting rooms and 11 diverse viticultural areas enjoying the maritime effects of the Pacific Ocean, producers experiment with dozens of grape varietals. You can taste more than 60 single varietals and blends including syrah, grenache, mourvedre, roussanne, petite syrah, viognier, grenache blanc, sauvignon blanc, clairette blanche, and yes, zinfandel and cabernet.

“We’re an enormous grape growing region and Paso is a little harder to define,” said Anthony Yount, winemaker at Denner Vineyards and Sixmilebridge as well as his own labels Kinero Cellars and The Royal Nonesuch. “Napa is cab. Sonoma is pinot and chardonnay. Paso does a bit of everything.”



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