Just got back from a wine tour in Paso Robles about a week ago...so I figured I'd share some gems we found with you all.

We'd gone to a few places in Paso a few years back, and quite enjoyed Tablas Creek, and [url=]Opolo[/url]. Tablas makes some quite good whites, Rhone blends. Opolo is best known for their great Zinfandel. A few years later, they do not disapoint. Tablas still makes great white wine blends, and Opolo continues to produce terrific, big, tasty Zin.

The new gems we found included Adelaida, while a pricey, we really enjoyed their Reserve Syrah, and Rhone style whites.

Pipestone was another favorite...one of the few stops in which nearly every bottle we tried was quite excellent. Their a husband and wife micro-winery, and do pretty much everything themselves. All organic. Just darn good stuff. Again their Syrah was my favorite. Their Zinfandel is somewhat unusal in that it was a bit sweet. Very jammy. It could almost be drunk as a desert wine. It would certainly need to be paired with some very spicey, bold food. Very tastey though.

Zenaida Cellars was good too. We really enjoyed their Cabs, I particularly like the 2002 Estate Cab, which at $22 was really reasonable.

I saved our favorite for last. Dover Canyon Their Viognier was good, but their "White Bone" white blend was outstanding. What really blew us away though was their Zinfandels. Simply amazing. I had no idea Zinfandel could be so good. The '06 "Cujo" is their entry level Zin, and it alone was the best Zin I've ever tasted. Then I tried their '06 "Old Vine", which was even better. Lastly we tried their '06 Reserve which was outstanding as well. We stopped by on Friday, and immediately bought several bottles. We had our full limo tour on Saturday, hitting a bunch of vineyards, and then decided we had to go back to Dover Canyon on Sunday before heading home. We bought another full case then. Sooo good!

A quick note on some places that didn't float our boat so much...

Four Vines...not bad wine at all, I actually enjoyed their Chardonay quite a lot, but nothing really stood out from their wines, and they were pricier than any place else we visited.

Still Water...their wines again, weren't bad at all, but nothing special. They do also make their own olive oil from 100+ year old olive trees on their property, and THAT was very tasty. It's also one of the most beautiful properties we visited. Well worth stopping by for the views, and olive oil. The wine though...eh.

Midnight Cellars. Bleck. I think they cater to people who tend to not like wine. It all tasted like watered down juice.

If you get a chance to visit Paso Robles, do it! It was a blast!