Day 21
Yesterday was a Travel Day. It was probably the shortest one that we have had to date. It only took two hours to travel westward towards the Coast and the Paso Robles Wine Region. We are staying at one of the Harvest Hosts locations, Tobin James Cellars, and we are one of six traveling RV’s that are parked along the perimeter of the big field across the street.
The Paso Robles region is probably the third most popular wine growing region in California behind Napa and Sonoma. Maybe I should have said, grape growing and /or wine producing? I’m fairly sure that they do not grow wine anywhere! 😊
Anyway, there are over two hundred wineries in this Region, and most are smaller, family-run operations.(Napa and Sonoma have around four-hundred wineries each). Of the two more well-known areas, Napa is the more established commercially while Sonoma is a little more like Paso Robles in that you will find a more laid-back feeling there as Sonoma, like Paos Robles, has a bit more family-run vineyards.
Enough about comparing regions! I am so far from being a wine snob that it is almost comical that I wrote even that! Suffice to say that it seems that no matter where you go, there is a local winery that produces some nice stuff. We have a local one in Texas, Saddlehorn Winery, that (according to more experienced wine aficionados) has some really nice wines.
If you like wine, and you want to watch a good movie, dial up “Bottle Shock”. It is a true story about a winery from California that won a blind taste test against the finest French wineries. There’s nothing not to like about this movie!
Our goal was to come over to the Coast and visit this area between Loa Angles and San Francisco. We are about eighty miles north of Santa Barbara. It is easy to find on a map. We decided to have our Wine Tasting after we explored a bit so we headed further west until we hit the Coast. I looked for the “Coastal Access” signs that dot Route 1 and we followed them as they led us through a little sea-side neighborhood. We emerged at a small parking lot near a preserved area of land the was supposed to be developed. This afforded us a nice walk along the cliffs and we were treated to the sights that you now see before you in the photographs.
It was the perfect first encounter of this Coast that I wanted for my California Neophyte that is traveling with me.
No crowds.
No rushing.
And not much sun.
A little brighter would have been a little better, but we’ve had such great weather that we really couldn’t complain. Besides, as we were leaving we were able to watch the coastal fog actually roll in giving it all a surreal aspect that only heightened the experience.
Back to the Winery we went having decided that not being able to see the water as we went along was not the best way to drive the Coast. Paula had a very nice Wine Tasting and I had a Coke. As I alluded to before, a Tasting would have been wasted on me!
The place was quite busy for a Tuesday afternoon. They had seven different bartenders helping with the tastings. Mind you, if this were a regular bar where one just gets a drink, well, they’d be crazily over-staffed. But when you really only get a sip or two and someone needs to engage you on the finer points of the vintage that is in front of you, then their staffing was perfect. We had a really good time and met some of our RV neighbors from the Parking Field.
Armed with two new bottles of Tobin James Cellars wine, we headed back across the street to store them away in our wine cellar which is underneath the seat of our dinette.
They are safe and awaiting the proper time to be consumed.
Probably today.
