Tag Archives: wine

Paso…..yum!

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Well Paso never let’s us down. We love Paso for its down to earth mom and pop kinda feel. They have amazing wine where they have the right to be as snooty as Napa but they don’t act like it.
We embarked on a GSM tour but to be honest I fell in love with a few new wineries…….
We had a lot of tastings of some great wine but I will just discuss my favorites. First up Hearthstone vineyard and winery. We actually also bought a white (Pearl) in addition to their GSM (Lodestone). Josslyn was our host and she was fantastic! Friendly, funny and knowledgable. The wines were great and she was a great host.
Doc and I did purchase two reds (Willow Creek CuvĂ©e and Avenger) from Villa Creek winery but they were more expensive than worth the price. Don’t get me wrong they have some nice wine but worth close to half the price. They also have a restaurant in town that we ate at for dinner……ummmm it was amazing and worth every penny. Braxs had a lamb shank that was to.die.for! My pasta dish was scrumptious! A must try in paso.
As a last minute stop on our first day we went to Windward. It’s strictly Pinot. Very delicious Pinot I must add. A must stop if you are a Pinot lover.
We also stopped by a tasting room in town that Doc and I have visited before. Parrish Family Vineyards. This is actually the first place we discovered a GSM……we had it again (2008 GSM Rhone Blend) very good but they also make a Petite Sirah and a reserve wine called Silken that is another must try!
Last but certainly not least my all time favorite of the trip…….Terry Hoage. Amazing!!! I have been anticipating the day when we open one of the bottles we bought! I wanted to join the wine club on the spot but Doc and I have this rule that we don’t join until we have come home and tried it again…..ummmm maybe with clearer taste buds 🙂
They were pouring four reds. I believe the whites were either sold out or close to it and reserved for wine club only. All of the wines were like a silk sateen dress dancing on your tongue as it swirled over your taste buds. If you only check out one winery while stopping by paso this is it. Evan was our tasting tour guide. He was great, but the wine was so good we could have had no one there to help us along and it would not have mattered. Did I say I liked this wine….? 🙂
Now where to stay….we stayed at Paso Inn. Spacious room but plainly decorated. Comfy bed.
The second night we splurged and stayed at Hotel Chaval. Fabulous! Pretty room with a comfy big bed. Great fireplace in the courtyard where you can sit, laugh and enjoy your company.

Albarino at Cafe Sparrow

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After our own “ day that will live in infamy’ Troya and I decided that we would try to put everything behind us by treating ourselves a nice dinner with wine. What better way to drown away your sorrows. We have been wanting to go to Ma Maison for a while now but unfortunately it was closed on this Friday evening. We settled on CafĂ© Sparrow a local French country restaurant where we have had several fine meals. On this evening they had two fish specials, one a fresh salmon and the other a halibut, both sounded very intriguing. We ordered one of both along with a Mediterranean salad. Then came the fun part, choosing the wine they would go best with our dinner. They very pleasantly allowed us to taste several wines that they had available by the glass. We almost chose a Chardonnay from Sonoma until we noticed they had a 2011 Albarino from Abacela in southern Oregon. This wine has gotten some very positive press recently and even won a gold medal at the Sunset international Wine competition. We have tasted several Albarino’s before and they are typically a very clean wine with a nice balance of floral and fruit flavors. We could not taste this option because it was only available by the bottle but we thought it would go perfect with both of our dinners. We were surprised when we found it to be very tart with not much fruit at all. I initially felt that it was probably just because the bottle was served very cool and that it would open up as the evening progressed. Unfortunately this was not the case. Our dinners had some interesting flavors but nothing that either one of us would order again. I would like to try other wines from Abacela since they specialize in Spanish varietals, something that we both enjoy very much. They also have gotten quite a bit of positive write ups recently. I would like to find out if this is typical for their Albarino or if we just had a bad bottle.