{"id":636,"date":"2013-02-04T21:54:49","date_gmt":"2013-02-05T01:54:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fantastetic4.com\/Wordpress\/?p=636"},"modified":"2013-02-06T04:22:43","modified_gmt":"2013-02-06T08:22:43","slug":"2012-gms-tour-of-paso-robles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fantastetic4.com\/Wordpress\/2013\/02\/2012-gms-tour-of-paso-robles\/","title":{"rendered":"2012 GMS tour of Paso Robles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hill and Troya\u00a0got us a deal on the hotels and Doc picked the wineries. All I had to do was show up. Doc decided to go tasting at wineries\u00a0that made GSM’s (Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre) GSM blends are very popular in Paso.<\/p>\n

First stop was Kukkula. My favorites were the Pas de deux, Aatto\u00a0and Sisu. The 2010 Vaalea\u00a0was lite and refreashing\u00a0and at $22, a bargin. Kukkula\u00a0wines range in price from $22 to $40. Their GSM blend is the Sisu. The 2007 Sisu\u00a0at $30 is a good buy. On to Alta Colina. The 2010 Baja Colina\u00a0Rhone Red is their GSM blend. They only made 225 case and it is reasonable priced at $28. I liked their 2010 Ann’s Block Petite Sirah\u00a0but I thought it was over priced at $48. Next on the list was Villa Creek. My first impression was “expensive”. they have three GSM’s. 2010 Willow Creek Cuvee, 2010 Avenger and the 2007 High Road at $100. The High Road was my favorite but at $100???? Come on man. Next stop was Hearthstone. Their GSM is the 2008 Lodestone. It is 15% alc\u00a0and I bought a bottle for $30. Hearthstone also has a 2010 Pearl that\u00a0is 60% Roussanne\u00a0and 40% Viognier. If you like white wines, you will enjoy the florals and butter cream texture. $26.<\/p>\n

On a whim, we stopped at Windward. They only make Pinot Noir. We ended up leaving with two bottles of their 2008 Estate Monopole. We then headed to our last stop for the day, L”Aventure. L’Aventure’s\u00a0GSM blends were the 2010 La Suite and the 2010 Cote a Cote. These are small production wines and they are priced at $75 and $85 respectively. I enjoyed all of their wines but I thought they were a little pricey. If you like Roses ,like I do, then you will like the two they make. They have a Sangiovese\u00a0and a Grenache. I bought two of each.<\/p>\n

We ended day one of our tour with dinner at Villa Creek Restaurant in downtown Paso Robles. I had the Lamb shank. Tender meat falling off of the bone and then it just melts in you mouth. Delicious.<\/p>\n

We started day two at Kenneth Volk. One of our favorites. We picked up a bottle of the $36 2009 Tennat\u00a0and the 2009 Mourvedre. One of my favorites was the 2009 Bien Nacido\u00a0Pinot Noir. But at $60, I thought it was over priced.\u00a0 Niner\u00a0Wine Estates was next on the list.\u00a0 They did not have a GSM for tasting.\u00a0 They have a 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon for $32 that is very good.\u00a0 Zenaida Cellars was next.\u00a0 They have 13 wines on their tasting list.\u00a0 Zenaida is one of the few wineries that have moved away from corked bottles.\u00a0 The 2010 Wanderlust\u00a0is their GSM.\u00a0 I found it to be lite on the tongue with smooth texture.\u00a0 We left the winery with bottles of their 2010 Wanderlust, 2009 Fire Sign (Cab Syrah\u00a0Zinfandel\u00a0blend), and the 2010 Zinfandel. After our enjoyable time at Zenaida, we set off for Pipestone.<\/p>\n

Pipestone\u00a0Vineyard\u00a0is 100% solar and they use horses instead of tractors in their vineyard.\u00a0 Their GSM is the 2008 Rhone Style Red wine.\u00a0 It was fruity with hints of berries and aromas of red cherries.\u00a0 At $32 I thought it was a little over priced but I did buy a bottle.\u00a0 Next was Terry Hoage\u00a0Vineyards.\u00a0 What a find.\u00a0 They had four wines on their tasting list.\u00a0 2010 The Pick\u00a0(\u00a0a Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre, counoise\u00a0blend), 2010 The 46 (50% grenache, 50%\u00a0Syrah), 2010 5 Blocks (Syrah, Mourvedre, grenache, cinsault\u00a0blend), and the 2010 The Hedge (Syrah).\u00a0 Terry Hoage\u00a0is a small producer.\u00a0 They only make 200-250 case of each varietal.\u00a0 We loved their wines and we left with a bottle of each at $43 a bottle.<\/p>\n

We headed back to town to try some of the tasting room around the town square.\u00a0 If you like Spanish Varietals, you will love Bodegas Paso Robles.\u00a0 We stopped in at Parrish Family Vineyard and tried their 2008 GSM Rhone blend.\u00a0 It was nice but a little pricey at $34.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We spent the second night in Paso Robles at Cheval.\u00a0 Troya\u00a0and Hill hooked us up or this would have been out of our price range.\u00a0 The rooms usually rent for $250 to $325 a night.\u00a0 If you are one of those that can hang in that circle, I highly suggest you stay at Cheval.\u00a0 We grabbed dinner from the cheese shop next door and we sat outside by a roaring fire, next to our room, and enjoyed good company and good wines.\u00a0 A perfect end to a fun and enjoyable weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hill and Troya\u00a0got us a deal on the hotels and Doc picked the wineries. All I had to do was show up. Doc decided to go tasting at wineries\u00a0that made GSM’s (Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre) GSM blends are very popular in … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,22],"tags":[67,75,66,69,74,65,71,50,76,72,68,70,73],"class_list":["post-636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-braxs-blogs","category-paso-robles","tag-alta-colina","tag-cheval-inn","tag-gsm-blends","tag-hearthstone-vineyard","tag-kenneth-volk","tag-kukkula","tag-laventure","tag-pinot-noir","tag-pipestone-vineyard","tag-terry-hoage-vineyard","tag-villa-creek","tag-windward-vineyard","tag-zenaida-cellars"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fantastetic4.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fantastetic4.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fantastetic4.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fantastetic4.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fantastetic4.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=636"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/fantastetic4.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":645,"href":"http:\/\/fantastetic4.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636\/revisions\/645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fantastetic4.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fantastetic4.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fantastetic4.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}