The Official Wine Thread

[NJE66]

 

[jcman311]

Very good.

 

[Numbernine]

I recently started drinking a bit lately, mostly with meals. I live on the central coast of California and was wondering if I could get some recs on good regional reds from anyone familiar with this area.

 

[jcman311]

I recently started drinking a bit lately, mostly with meals. I live on the central coast of California and was wondering if I could get some recs on good regional reds from anyone familiar with this area.

PASO!!!!

I’m no expert but a lot of wine out of that region exhibits similar characteristics of being rather fruit forward, full bodied and complex. Some find it a little sweet but not myself.

@Omega Male and @Piobaire could probably breakdown other regions more in the central coast.

 

[ericgereghty]

Dug this one…

 

[Numbernine]

PASO!!!!

I’m no expert but a lot of wine out of that region exhibits similar characteristics of being rather fruit forward, full bodied and complex. Some find it a little sweet but not myself.

@Omega Male and @Piobaire could probably breakdown other regions more in the central coast.

Yeah i drive through Paso Robles all the time and the market here I shop at daily has a huge wine selection (the family actually owns a winery in the Santa Cruz mountains) but the selection is overwhelming. Anything specific?

 

[jcman311]

Anything specific?

Honestly no, nothing specific. The wine I posted today (Quench and Temper - a play on metalwork) was $44 and considered a Paso region (Adelaida district) or Templeton. It was great. But cheaper wine would probably have very similar characteristics. When I see Paso or similar region pop up on a menu I usually choose it and I am never disappointed. Like I said, the region certainly exhibits similar characteristics.

California Wine Country | Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance

Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance is a non-profit trade association aiming to strengthen awareness and attract wine enthusiasts to Paso Robles Wine Country.

pasowine.com

There are some heavy hitters from the region. Denner, Austin Hope, Turley, Booker, Daou, Herman Story, Ledge and Saxum are probably some of the favorites of this thread but if you have a market and someone with some knowledge locally just ask them for recommendations. Tell them what you like and price ranges. Wine is always approachable and people are almost always very knowledgeable. The last thing we want is to turn away someone on a bad recommendation and price.

 

[Omega Male]

I'll just throw out some names of good producers (that don't have wait lists of years and/or cost $100+). @jcman311 has already mentioned most of the big hitters.

The Ojai Vineyard
Desparada
Beckmen
Tablas Creek
Epoch
Sans Liege
Deovlet
Margerum
Au Bon Climat
Brewer Clifton
Dragonette
Fess Parker
Zaca Mesa
Foxen
Solminer
Stolpman

My recommendation would be to also sign up for a couple of email lists like www.wineaccess.com and www.sommselect.com. They do a good job of offering interesting wines at various price points and explaining what is unique about each.

Cheers!

 

[Piobaire]

Don't forget Epoch, Linne Calado, Domain Serene, Villa Creek, L'Aventure, Sea Smoke, Sextant, and Jack Creek to name a few more.

 

[Numbernine]

Thanks guys thats plenty to work with. My market has a wine guy, it used to be the owner, I'll check with him too.

 

[ocooney]

Thanks guys thats plenty to work with. My market has a wine guy, it used to be the owner, I'll check with him too.

My $.02

There’s a ton of good ones in Santa Cruz.
I like Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyards. They have a tasting room in a complex on Ingalls St. there are a few others in the complex. Go do a tasting at a few to figure out what you like. Storrs has an interesting portfolio. Check out the shop at Soif…they have an interesting selection.

 

[domdomdomdom]

New (sort of) to these forums and I'm happy to see there's a wine thread going strong. Some bottles from the weekend (I should note that I'm definitely not always drinking perfectly aged and cellared burgs):

We finished these off with an 08 Taittinger CDC and an 08 Cristal which were both showing well

 

[Omega Male]

Russian River pinot. The proprietor lives in our neighborhood and lets the local store sell it for $20 less than his cellar door price, so it's a bit of a steal. Very Burgundian.

 

[NJE66]

Humble weekday food wines, Rioja '16 yesterday, Argentina Cabernet sauvignon 2011 today

 

[domdomdomdom]

Humble weekday food wines, Rioja '16 yesterday, Argentina Cabernet sauvignon 2011 today

I've still yet to explore South American wines in general, what do you find different about a cabernet sauvignon from Argentina as compared to CA? Or even in comparison to multi-cepage wine from BDX?