An Overnight getaway to the coast

Mom came in town this week. It's been nice to have someone else around the house for a bit. Two weeks ago today is when I dropped Mike off :-( I'm making it through okay. This was good timing for her to come and visit though. I'm going to be in AZ in another 2-3 weeks for a bit.

Anywho, when Mom comes to visit we usually try to head down to Santa Barbara to visit her brother and his family. So that's just what we did. Yesterday morning we got up and headed south. But we didn't just drive straight there, we stopped a some wineries :-)

Stop #1: Niner Vineyards
Tasting Fee: $10, waived with 3 bottle purchase

I had been here once before and remember it being good. Mom had run into a wine distributor that told her if she was in the area she should stop here and try the Sangiovese. So that's what we did. We stopped and tasted one white and four reds. I remembered the wines being good, but it did not remember them being this good. Everything we tasted was nice and easy drinking, but could easily be paired with food for a slightly different flavor. 

We were the only ones in the tasting room at 10:45 am :-) and the gentleman that served us was really nice. We had a good time chatting, and he actually sent us in a different direction for the rest of our adventure. We had planned on hitting a few other wineries in Paso Robles, but he suggested we try Edna Valley which was another way to head south to Santa Barbara. So, after buying one of every bottle we tasted plus an additional Sangiovese, we headed to the Edna Valley.

Stop #2: Tolosa Winery

Tasting Fee: $8, waived with purchase

I liked this door.

Our first stop in the Edna Valley was to Tolosa. We had been informed that the Edna Valley dealt more in the white wines and Pinot Noir varietals of wine. Tolosa shown in those varietals. While I am not usually a fan of white wines I did enjoy one of the Chardonnays here. I purchased a bottle of their Syrah however because I enjoy drinking red wine. One of their Pinot Noir's was very good but it was about $50 a bottle, much more than I like to spend. I would recommend stopping in here if you are in the Edna Valley for wines. I would not put high praise in their customer service. Other than pouring our wine for us and telling the name, the woman behind the counter was not very friendly or talkative. 

Stop #3: Sextant Wine

Tasting Fee: $8, or $12 for reserves; tasting fee is not waived unless you purchase 12 bottles =0

We were starting get hungry and were unsure if we were going to stop at another winery or just get some lunch and move on to Santa Barbara. However, when we saw this cute little old barn we just had to stop. Mom and I enjoy wineries that have a smaller atmosphere, where you are more likely to talk to the person pouring your wine and learn a little about the winery, the wines, and the owners. We found that at Sextant. As with the other two stops we were the only ones in the tasting room. The gentleman that was pouring for us was a retiree who was doing this to pass the time during the day, and he just enjoyed wine and chatting with people. Sextant has a nautical motif (Mom and I didn't know what a sextant was; in case you don't know either it is the way in which they navigated and charted on the seas in the old days). 

We very much enjoyed that atmosphere at Sextant. We also enjoyed many of their wines. Since we had two people tasting we paid for one "Main Deck" ($8) and one "Upper Deck" ($12) tasting and shared. From the Main Deck flight we purchased a bottle of the 10knots Chardonnay and Wheelhouse Zinfandel. From the Upper Deck flight we purchased an Atlantis (red blend) and Holystone Zinfandel. 

It was not time to stop for lunch.

Stop #4: Ventana Grill in Pismo Beach

Price: $10-$18 for entree

The view from our table.

View looking out the other direction.

While at Tolosa Winery we had asked for a lunch recommendation along the coast with a bit of a view. We were not steered wrong. The view during lunch was amazing. The food was decent as well. I had a skirt steak sandwich that alright. Mom had a chicken sandwich that was very good. However, I will be coming back here to try their mexican dishes. We say many of them come out of the kitchen while we were there and they all looked very good. The lunch salads also looked incredible. For the location the price was not half bad. Sandwiches were about $10-$14 and for the fish dishes you were looking at a few dollars more. All in all, a great place to relax and watch the surf.

Stop #5: Doug and Jane's

Priceless time and fun!!

I always love coming to Doug and Jane's house and spending time with them and their kids. It is just so much fun. The town of Santa Barbara is amazing. We always have wonderful food. We just have a genuinely good time. The evening we were their Doug (who always makes amazing food!) made a Moroccan Lamb dish and black peppercorn salmon. Oh so yummy!! We had a lovely evening chatting and drinking tea. The next morning we had coffee at Via Maestro, and Jane's brother dropped off these from his bakery:

After some coffee, Mom and I started to head back up the coast to home. 

Stop #6: Hendry's Dog Beach

Mom brought her itty bitty dog with us for out little trip. (Sunset stayed home with some friends of hers) Rosie has seen the snow but hadn't been to the beach yet, so we decided to introduce her. She wasn't too sure of the waves. We had to drop her and run to try and get some pictures so you can see just how tiny she us up against the waves in the background.

Stop #7: Splash Cafe in Pismo Beach

Price: $3 for a fish taco - $7 for sandwich plates and chowder in a bread bowl

Said to have world famous clam chowder this was somewhere we needed to check out. Mom and I usually go to Brophy Brothers in Santa Barbara for clam chowder but didn't make it there this trip. This place had great reviews and came recommended by a few friends. Unfortunately I would disagree with the best clam chowder ever. For me it had way too much butter and that was about all I could taste. The bread bowl, however, was good. They butter and grill it! We ordered salmon tacos as well. They were stuffed to the brim and very, very messy. The salmon was good, but the avocado and cilantro relish on top was amazing. This is not somewhere I would go out of my way to go to. 

We made it back home and picked up Sunset from her friends house. 

Everybody had a great little overnight!!

Our first trip of 2011: Paso Robles Wine Tasting

It was Mike's last weekend in town. We wanted to get away for a night or two; we decided that Paso Robles was a good place to go. We had thought about going up to San Francisco but since we only had one night that seemed like quite a drive. Plus, we love Paso and hadn't been there in awhile. It seemed fitting to head that way for our last trip stateside together.

Since it was just the two of us, we picked a road we had never been down before. We like to try new wineries when we go ourselves, get a taste for all that there is out there. So we chose Peachy Canyon Rd and started out our day...

Stop #1: Stacked Stone Cellars
Tasting Fee: $5, waived with purchase, no military discount

(being the amateur photographer that I am, I was messing with setting on my camera and totally over-exposed all of my pictures from here)

The owner, Donald, was in the tasting room pouring. He has lived on the property for 35 years, but has only been making wine for the last 12 years or so. Mike and I always enjoy small places like this where you can talk to the owner and learn about the history of the wines. The wines were pretty good, he had a few Zinfandel's on his list that even I enjoyed (and I'm not a Zin gal). The location was very pretty, Donald was saying that during the summers he will sometimes have live music in the evenings. He also said that there were lots of weddings they hosted on the property.

The price for wine was anywhere from $28-$45 or so. We didn't purchase anything from here mainly because we were trying to save money, and because we have so much other wine at home. We both agreed, however, that this was a place to bring people back to or even go back ourselves one visit.

Stop #2: Calcareous
Tasting Fee: $5, waived with purchase + military discount

Set back in sprawling beauty of the Paso Robles countryside, Calcareous sits upon a hill. They have this gorgeous patio for you to buy a glass of wine and enjoy the wonderful California sun. They also have a limited lunch menu here, which Mike and I didn't try but it looked good. Plates were about $10-$15.

 Now on to the wine. As some of you may know Mike and I are not huge white wine fans. Often times even Chardonnays can be a little too sweet for how we like our wine. That being said, the Chardonnay at Calcareous we both really enjoyed. It was nice and smooth, a little sweet but it also had a little bit of that buttery taste without going overboard. We enjoyed their red wines very much. Our favorite was the Syrah, and we ended up brining a bottle of that home. Neither one of us was a huge fan of the Meritage blend. The bottles of wine ranged from $28-$40

Wine tasting side note: Sometimes the people you meet and start talking to are just as interesting as the different wines you are tasting. At Stacked Stone there was one other guy tasting while we were there, his name was Keith; one of his friends sons was about to graduate for USNA and the other son was trying to get in there. We ran into him again at Calcareous and he was asking questions that the gal serving had to pull out a spec sheet on the wines to answer...this peeked our interest. We asked Keith where he was from and what he did. Keith is from NYC and is starting up a food and wine tasting website. He and about 5 friends, all of whom were trained or had experience in culinary and viticulture were starting a review website. They were traveling around the states, and had one international guy, who were doing reviews to get their website started. Said website is www.hungrykeith.com and is set to launch on April 1, 2011. We had a lot of fun talking to Keith, not the namesake of the website he informed us, and Mike and I both decided we want his job. We told him some of our favorite wineries in town, and a few of our favorite places to eat as well and we went our separate ways. Until...the next morning we were at Trader Joe's and who should run into none other than, Keith. I'm excited to check out the website when it launches in April. 

So back to wine tasting...

Stop #3: Chateau Margene at Limerick Rock Orchards

Tasting Fee: $10, waived with 2 bottle purchase

As soon as you start walking up you notice a sign that says dogs must stay in cars :( I can only guess their winery dog is not friendly with other dogs. Onto their wine. For $10 you only got to taste 4 wines, and each bottle was over $50 to purchase. Needless to say when we say that Mike and I said we weren't buying any no matter how much we like them, which it turned out not too much. They were all good, but not great or amazing. The Petite Syrah was our favorite but at $52 we weren't going to purchase it. So we tasted our four wines and left none-too-impressed.

Stop #4: Poalillo Vineyard and Winery

Tasting Fee: $7, waived with purchase

We were on our way to Justin Vineyards for lunch and wine tasting when we saw this brightly colored house from the road. We saw that it was a winery and we decided to slam on our break and pull down the drive way (as we were tasting 3 other cars did the same thing).

They have a lovely picnic area just outside the tasting room that overlooks some of their vineyards.

 This sign hangs on the wall just to the left of the door to the tasting room.

Server, and owner, 82 year old Charlie. Charlie is in the process of retiring and handing the business over to his daughter, who lives in the large brightly colored house that you see from the road. 

We had so much fun at this winery. Charlie used to be a photographer for magazines and newspapers in the 1960s and 70s. He even has some of his photography hanging up in the tasting room, one of them is of Bobby Kennedy and family! We enjoyed the company as well as the wines. We both even like the rose wine they have, which is a huge rarity for Mike and I. We will definitely come back here and bring some people with us. Like I said before, Mike and I enjoy these small tasting rooms where the owner is the one pouring the wine. So fascinating to listen to their stories and the history of the wines.

Stop #5: Justin Vineyard
Tasting Fee: $10, includes glass

We are members, we love this place, we have been here many times. This time however, we went with intention of having lunch at Deborah's Room the Michelin Star restaurant at Justin. We have tried many times but it has always been closed, and it skirted us again. They were closing early for a wedding on the other side of the winery. They did however have a few pizza doughs left and some soup, so we got a Margherita pizza and carrot soup and then ate on the patio. Even for it being somewhat of a "to-go" lunch it was still good. Someday we might be able to actually eat in Deborah's Room and experience that, but it's going to have to be another time.


This was the first time we stayed the night in Paso Robles. We got a suite with a jacuzzi tub at the La Quinta. We will probably stay there again in the future. It was nice, they had a breakfast buffet, and...they are pet friendly! Well all La Quinta's are pet friendly. But I plan on doing another wine tasting trip with Sunset and I might just stay the night.


The next morning on our way out of town we ran into Keith, as I mentioned before. He told us that we showed try Turley Wine Cellars. He is not the first person to have recommended this winery so we decided we would stop on our out of town.

Stop #6: Turley Wine Cellars
Tasting Fee: $10, waived with purchase + military discount

Turley is known for their old vine Zinfandel. And by old vine they mean vines that have been there for 120 years. Now that's old. This trip seemed to be a lot of wineries that specialized in Zinfandel wines, which usually I am not a huge fan of. I don't know if I'm getting used to them and liking them more or if these few wineries just had really good Zins, maybe a bit of both, but I liked a Zin at every place we went this trip. Turley was no exception. We actually bought a bottle of one of their Zins to open up when Mike comes back home in the fall. Their wine bottle prices range from around $30 up to around $50. 

It was another successful wine tasting trip. We found some new wineries that we are excited to take people that visit back to. So who is going to be my first visitor and my next Paso Robles wine tasting partner??

It's been a week...let's go to Paso again!!

Yep we went again...only a week later! This time we went with Kevin and Jackie, who were getting ready to move and had never been! Our other friends Paige and Greg went with us as well.

Stop #1: Eberle

Great place. We've been here numerous times before! It's got great wines and a great military discount (40%!!!!!) One time we went and they were grilling tri-tip, ribs, and duck sausage but every time we went back they never had it...until this time!!! This meat is amazing. The duck sausage is a little spicy. The tri-tip is cooked perfectly. I haven't had the ribs but they also look really good. The bigger guy in the tye-dyed shirt is Gary Eberle, the owner of the winery. He was out there cooking and grilling throughout the day. 

Every year for the harvest season Eberle comes up with a theme...this year was Spongebob... so here's their truck that goes through vineyards to load the collected grapes on:

 Stop #2: Twilight Cellars (previously known as Thunderbolt Winery)

Mike and I have been here before as well. Their wines are amazing, and they pair their tasting with appetizers! So you got little bites of food with every glass you taste.

A shot of our group:

 It was actually the Harvest Festival weekend in Paso. Twilight was letting you bottle your own wine from a barrel. So of course we did that! What fun... We got to fill it up from the barrel and put it into the wine bottles...

Then we had to put the cork in it

 We had lunch at the Odyssey World Cafe, great stop! None of us had been here before so it was a good choice and the food was amazing. I had lamb gyro and Mike had a lamb burger. I highly recommend this little cafe as an eatery. It's on the main square in downtown Paso.

 Stop #3: Sculpterra

Neat place, sculptures all over the place, very neat sculptures. But their wines...not impressive. They also have pistachio trees on their property and had those as snacks in the tasting room, and those, those were very good.

A little bit more of the harvesting at work

 Mixing up the grapes in the fermenting tanks

 Stop #4: Cass Winery

Pet friendly. 15% military discount. Great wines. Friendly staff. They also have a lunch cafe that had what looked like a really good menu. Might have to go back and try that someday, with Sunset of course!

A favorite pastime...

Yep, we went wine tasting again! The weather was nice, it was a little warm out at times, but we had a good time none-the-less. Mike and I went with my mom, Kate, Clay, Will and Leslie.

Stop #1: Maloy O'Neill

Tasting Fee: $5 (waived for military)

This place was so cute! They had a couple of bar stools on one side of the bar so you could sit and taste. They had a few whites, but mostly reds (Paso is more a red region). Their reds were good. A few of their blends were really good.

Here is the winery dog, Trixie I believe.

 And this little guy was just crossing the drive-way headed to get some wine.

 We went during harvest season so a lot of the wineries were working their presses and such. Here are the guys at Maloy O'Neill getting the juices out of the buckets of fermenting grapes.

 Stop #2: Pear Valley
Tasting Fee: $5 (waived for military)

This place was so pretty. It sat up on a hill and looked down towards the valley of Paso and the other wineries. Pear Valley had a greater selection of wines, they had whites, a rose, and a dessert wine. They were all pretty good. I didn't taste the dessert wine though (not my style). I'm not usually a rose drinker either but theirs is decent and I would have a glass of it.

Close up of the grapes (like I said we went during harvest season so their grapes all over the vines)

Stop #3: Rio Seco
Tasting Fee: $5 (waived for military + military discount)

Great wines, great company, and an interesting story. This place had a few good red mixes that made for easy drinking and a great table wine. Now for the story of this place...the current owners bought it from the state? how had acquired it after a police raid. Yes, a police raid. This property had at one point been a pot farm and drug selling location. If you looked around at this red barn you could see bullet holes from the shoot out at the police raid.

If you like port wine, they had a Zinfandel port that I hear was good.

Stop #4: Peachy Canyon
Tasting Fee: $5 (waived for military + military discount)

This winery is mostly known for its zinfandel's, which I'm not a huge fan of but they were actually pretty good. Their other reds were only ok. The place was pretty cute, I especially liked this sign which asked "Who's the skipper?" Gave me a little laugh.

 This building, now the winery tasting room, used be an old school house.

 Stop #5: Zenaida Cellars
Tasting Fee: $5

This place was very neat. The owner is a veterinarian in a town nearby. It had great wines. Everything I tasted here was amazing. Even their simple table wine was good.

 Stop #6: Edward Sellars
Tasting Fees: $5

This new tasting room was beautiful set in the middle of their vineyards. Gorgeous views. We came here  on the recommendation of another winery, but we weren't all that impressed.

Another successful day of wine tasting. All the stops were new places as well, which brings my grand total to over 40...only about 200 to go!!

VFA-125 drinks itself into oblivion...

VFA-125, the Rough Raiders, is being dissolved as a squadron on October 1. This is the squadron that Mike finished his training at here in Lemoore. As a last hoorah for the squadron they took the money for the patches and coffee and other such thinks and organized a wine tasting trip to Paso Robles...and of course Mike and I had to go along. The nice thing about this time was that neither one of us had to drive, they had rented a tour bus to take us for the day.

Stop 1: Castoro Cellars

(Tasting Fee is normally $3 to taste 7 wines for military, or $5 to taste 7 wines for non-military, they also have a 20% or 30% military discount if you purchase wines)

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!!!