Stop 1: Castoro Cellars
Mike and I have been here before and have always enjoyed their wine. They had a list of 17 wines for us to taste, 5 of them were whites and the rest were reds. You could taste all 17 if you wanted too, I think Mike and I each tasted like 10. We had "boxed" lunches waiting for us here and they were really good. Thick foccacia bread sandwiches and homemade kettle cooked chips!
Here are some of the people at the bar tasting. We were in a separate room from their normal tasting room.
Walking up to Castoro you walk through this gorgeous pergola that has grape vines growing all over it. The harvest time for grapes is September and October so the vines were had bunches of grapes rowing all over them.
If you enjoy reds I would recommend the Primitivo it was very good (we bought a bottle). I am not a huge white wine drinker anymore but I did try the Tango, which was a white blend, and thought it was very good.
Stop 2: Midnight Cellars
(Tasting Fee is normally $5 I believe, and they have a 30% military discount on any wines you buy)
This was a winery that Mike and I have not been too before, and we are always excited to try new places. Penguin (call sign of the instructor that organized the outing) is a member at this winery and really likes their wines...he is also a fan of Justin Vineyards so Mike and I feel like we can trust his recommendations.
The wine was pretty good. There were a few that we like quite a bit and then some that we didn't really like at all. They had about 8-10 wines for us to taste, including wines that they don't normally have open for tasting. The Gemini was very good and we got a bottle of that. They also had a Petite Sirah, which you don't always see on it's own and it was good as well so we got a bottle of that as well.
Stop 3: Opolo Vineyards
(Tasting Fee is normally $10, waived with wine purchase)
We had not been to this one either Penguin recommends their wines, as well as a few other people. They have one white wine and the rest were reds, I think there were 5 or 6 of them. These wines were pretty good. I'm not sure I would rate them as high as Justin Vineyards which is what some people were comparing them too. Their Syrah was great, and we ended up getting a bottle of that. I would come here again after a bit to bring someone for the first time, but not sure if it will make it on our regular go back to list.
We got to taste their wines in their wine cellar where they keep all the oak barrels and big stainless steel tankers as well. they had grape skins and just fermenting in some plastic crates that they opened up for us to see and smell which was pretty neat. They also were pouring us a wine that they didn't normally have open, and that was the Syrah...which we wouldn't have bought had we not tried it.
Stop 4: Vina Robles
Mike and I have been here numerous times and we love a lot of their wines. We didn't actually buy anything here, although at the end of the night we did get two free bottles of wine from here. Penguin had set up for us to have a catered dinner here before heading back to Lemoore. It was great good, and strawberry shortcake for dessert. The leftover wine that didn't get drank at dinner came home with Penguin since he had payed for it, and since their was like 8 bottles of red and 8 bottles of white he gave Mike and one of each so he didn't have so many.
This was a great trip for 125 to go out on. For the most part everybody got along great, student and instructor alike. Good times all around.
I'm so glad that the weather is cooling down a bit so that we can start doing more Paso trips again!!!
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