Inside Paso Robles

The Alluring Secrets of Paso: Now, Then and Always

By Melanie Webber 

I first discovered Paso Robles and the Central Coast nearly 20 years ago, when a close friend moved to the area from LA and, like all who first experience its joys, I felt it was my special secret. As someone who spent a good part of my youth in Georgia, I was enchanted by the California version of Spanish moss weeping from grand oaks that gnarled across Paso’s golden hills, and that stooped their branches over rocky creeks.   I had never seen it outside the South, but this was a kinder, gentler version, still mysterious, but plush and pale green, not the haunted dark wires that drip down in the South.

Back then, the wine industry was just getting going and Paso's oaken landscape was not as blanketed with vineyards as it is now. My very first wine tasting was at Adelaida Cellars, pioneers back then, and I was hooked.  I fell in love with Paso and the treasures that surrounded it, from the awe-inspiring views, to the sweet and winding cow-fringed country roads; from the mission in SLO to the hot springs of Sycamore, the guano ‘snow’-covered Morro Rock, the lost-in-time beach town of Cayucos and the British-tinged charm of Cambria.   I loved the fogs that rolled in across the hills from the west, woolly ghosts with ice on their breath, and the gold-parched, sun-drenched hills to the east. I loved having breakfast at the Paso Robles Inn with its bubbling artesian springs, hanging out in Paso’s elegant town square, devouring gravy-slathered biscuits at Hoover’s Beef Palace.  I loved Paso’s cow-town feel, the down to earth people, the freshness of its farm air, and the wine… 

Like so many before and after, I felt that Paso and its surrounds were MY secret. When I would tell people in LA (although I had been warned not to by my friend, who feared a stampede of tourists) that I had been to Paso Robles and the Central Coast, they would say “oh yeah, right Monterey, Big Sur, I been there” and I would think to myself no you haven’t, but didn’t correct.

While much has changed in the past 20 years – Paso has indeed been ‘discovered’ as a stunning travel destination and celebrated as one of the most important wine producers in the world, its once bare golden hills and meadows now boasting row after row of vineyards, the town offering up an array of culinary delights and artisan shops – there is still much to discover. 

So, when my Central Coast friend decided to start a wine festival dedicated to small lot, artisan winemakers, it took little persuading for me to jump in. My task? To share a Paso ‘secret’ with the world, this time its over 125 garagiste winemakers. 

What an irony…. the ones wanting to keep this amazing treasure of a place secret, now having a hand in letting its secrets out. But, lack of awareness was one of the key challenges facing the area’s small-lot winemakers. Anyone who has had anything to do with making wine (let alone distributing and marketing it) knows what an all-encompassing task it is (not to mention the labor involved for those with their own vineyards).  Who has time or resources for marketing? These operations are so small and focused more on quality and passion for the art, than on telling the world.

The secret of these garagiste winemakers was one that we felt privileged to hold, but for them to survive, of course, the world needed to know.  So, when festival co-founders Stewart McLennan and Doug Minnick decided, in 2011, to take that task on, and recruited Lisa Dinsmore and me to help make it happen, we threw our hearts and souls into it, not having a clue whether the festival that we put together in less than five months would attract the world --- or remain a secret.  

We had no problem getting garagiste winemakers on board (parameters – no more than 1200 cases); and some of the area’s most famous winemakers (Saxum’s Justin Smith, Four Vines/Cypher’s Christian Tietje, Lone Madrone/Tablas Creeks’ Neil Collins and Adelaida’s Terry Culton) were right there to help us with our opening seminars. But, when we pulled open the heavy wooden doors of Windfall Farms stallion barn that first crisp November morning, we wondered if there would there be anyone there except for our remarkably dedicated army of volunteers?

Well, indeed there was, and one of our proudest moments was hammering a sold out sign into a Windfall pasture, although we were sad to turn people away.

There is, in my opinion, no better way to experience the wonders of Paso Robles than at the annual Garagiste Festival (held November 7^th – 10^th this year), an event that keeps it intimate, enables wine lovers to interact directly with the winemakers, offers its attendees multiple new discoveries and is a true celebration of Paso’s quintessential local artisans, both wine and food, and set in some of its most stunning landscape. 

And so, this is the magic of Paso and the Central Coast: although today, there is more to love, more vineyards, more wineries, more garagistes, more restaurants, more festivals and events than ever before, it still feels like that privileged secret it was to me nearly 20 years ago.  Paso Robles, full of intimate charms, stunning natural beauty, diverse terroir, world-class wines and friendly people, continues to yield new discoveries for those that visit – all while remaining a place that each visitor feels is his/her own special secret. 

For tickets/information about the Garagiste Festival, held November 7th - 10th, go to www.garagistefestival.com

Garagiste Festivals are produced by Garagiste Events, a non-profit dedicated to furthering the education of future winemakers and those training for employment within the wine industry.  Proceeds from the festivals are donated to the Cal Poly Wine and Viticulture Program.

As part of The Garagiste Festival team, Melanie Webber spearheads Public Relations. Her public relations agency, mWEBB Communications, Inc., won a 2011 American Business Award for PR/Communications Campaign of the Year. A lover of all things Central Coast, especially the wines, she recently received her WSET Level 3 certification.

Harvesting in Paso: Garagiste-style

by Terry Nozick

If you have ever wanted to work harvest at a vineyard, you just might find your opportunity among the many small wineries in the beautiful countryside in and surrounding Paso Robles. It’s here that many of the “garagiste” winemakers produce artisanal wines in small batches – technically no more than 1,200 cases – operating, in many instances, on budgets fueled mainly by love of “terroir” and a passion for the grape.

Harvest for a small winery can present many challenges. Unlike industrial-sized vineyards, most of which are machine harvested using large, trained harvest crews, most of the smaller vineyards are meticulously hand-picked. This can be back-breaking work, with long hours, continuing for several weeks as different varietals reach maturity.

In some cases, small owners rally their family, friends, wine club members, and just about any one who will volunteer to help bring in the harvest.

I spoke to some of the winemakers who will be pouring at this year’s Garagiste Festival about how they manage their harvests. Vines on the Marycrest owner and winemaker Victor Abascal, who has 13.5 acres under vine, can attest to the fact that there are challenges for small wineries as their crops reach maturity, noting that it’s getting harder and harder to find help during harvest.  For him, harvest is a no-frills, just-work situation.  “The goal is always to get fruit into the winery as fast as possible,” he says. Abascal usually does the picking himself, with help from a neighbor’s farm hand.

Abascal also purchases grapes from other vineyards, some days picking up two or three lots of grapes, which “is always an adventure,” he says.  “Just pulling or hauling the fruit back to the winery is one of my main challenges. My vehicle is under-powered to say the least. Some of the vineyards I purchase from are not easy to get in and out of, with 2000 pounds of grapes on a trailer.”

Guillaume Fabre of Clos Solène does things a little differently, but faces similar challenges, some of which are self-imposed, as he is very particular and meticulous. He rents a couple of rows of different varietals from a vineyard on the west side of Paso, amounting to three acres. He manages 100% of the growing, farming, and spraying himself. Come harvest, he hand-picks at night to keep the fruit nice and cool. Because of his meticulousness, Fabre works with the same small crew each harvest. “I’m really a farmer,” he explains, “and I love to grow vines as if they were human beings. A lot of steps need to be done and when you are small, you can push the limits.” Larger producers, he says, just can’t do this.

Hoyt Family Vineyards is a one of the larger garagistes in terms of acreage, with approximately 140 scattered throughout the Central Coast and Malibu. They have an all- inclusive approach to harvest, inviting friends and family – including their children and childrens’ friends, who take the day off school – and pretty much anyone who wants to come to help their small hired crew. They  turn harvest into a fun-filled, festive morning, followed by a taco party lunch, which apparently is a draw for the harvest workers in the area as they come back for it every year, says owner Carol Hoyt.

“We usually try to harvest on Saturday,” says Hoyts, but “grapes don’t always cooperate.” But, she adds, people love to come to her harvest, and she welcomes pretty much anyone who is interested.

So, there’s no shortage of need among the garagistes for ready, willing, and able workers at harvest time. Garagiste harvest is a whole other way to experience Paso Robles, and the opportunity rolls around only once a year, usually in October.  So, don’t be afraid to ask to participate. You won’t regret the experience, and you will have a new app
reciation for each glass of wine you drink. And to taste the fruits of garagiste harvests past, including Hoyt, Clos Solène, Vines on the Marycrest, and 63 other artisan winemakers, come to the Garagiste Festival, held November 7th – 10^th in Paso Robles. For more information, go to garagistefestival.com.

Terry Nozick writes a blog, www.truthnwine.blogspot.com, which is syndicated on
www.winewomenandchocolate.com. As a former high-technology writer and editor, she is happy to be pursuing her true passion, wine, particularly those from the small, artisan vineyards in California’s central coast. She received her WSET Level 3 certification in 2013 and is continuing her wine studies, both formally and informally.

We Want to Hold Your Hand

If you can’t attend Viticulture college, mentoring is a great way to go, and Paso’s Garagiste Festival is a great place to start...

It all seemed so impossible, so out of reach.

Driving past Paso’s beautiful vineyards those many years ago when I first started to explore wine country, I would dream of making wine. I had no idea how that was ever going to actually happen. I had no background in farming. Heck, I struggled to keep my houseplants alive. And let's not even discuss how I would ever afford that vineyard. 

That dream was filed away with a few other long-shots, like playing major league baseball and selling a million records (let's face it, I'm not exactly a pioneer when it comes to choosing dreams), but I kept coming back anyway. If I couldn't buy my own winery, at least I could hang out in somebody else's beautiful tasting room. That's one of the great things about the wine business - it's not quite that easy to visit the dugout at Dodger Stadium or backstage at Staples Center. So I hung out. In Paso. A lot. And I learned.

It seems obvious now, but it was a revelation when I first realized that I didn't have to own any land at all to make wine. Fruit was available for purchase! Excellent fruit, too! In fact, many of my favorite wines are made with sourced (i.e., not estate) fruit. It began to dawn on me:  maybe I could do it that way, too.

Yes, there was still much to learn, a garage to clean out, equipment to buy, stuff to move, and mistakes to make, but at least my winemaking pals and I had a way forward now, so we jumped in.

The past four years have taught us much, especially the fact that there is no end to learning. We've been extremely lucky to have excellent and generous mentors – Paso Robles is full of them - who have helped us in so many ways - including how to interpret chemistry numbers and how to react to those numbers to make the best possible wine. This kind of generosity is commonplace in Paso, by the way, and another reason why making wine in Paso Robles is the way to go, especially for we newbies.

Winemaking involves chemistry, there's no way around that. What each winemaker chooses to do with those numbers that come back from the lab is a big part of the creative process. How to protect the wine from spoilage, how to solve problems, how to intervene the least to get the most out of your fruit, these are the decisions a winemaker has to face each year. Grapes left to ferment without guidance end up as vinegar. The winemaker makes the choices that prevent that from happening, and in the best possible way.

The Garagiste Festival is about discovery, certainly the discovery of new wines and winemakers, but also discovery of the process of making wine. The more you know about what goes into making great wine, the more you can enjoy and understand that wine.

Whether you want to make your own wine or simply get a deeper understanding of the process, be sure to attend the Garagiste Festival’s Winemaking Symposium on Sunday, November 10 entitled. “Nothing’s Perfect - How to Manage and Influence Your Wines to Greatness.” 

We’ve arranged university-level instruction with Cal Poly professor and winemaker and Baker and Brain Wines, Matt Brain, along with renowned winemaker Adam LaZarre who will explore some of the common hurdles faced by winemakers and attendees will have the rare opportunity to taste the influences of various remedies commonly used to craft the best possible wine. All sponsored by the good folks at Laffort. Plus you will be introduced to some of the many supporting facilities in Paso that make it possible to turn the dream of winemaking into a reality.

So the choice is yours, if you’ve got the same impossible dream I had, or just want to explore the world of wine in more depth, you can enroll at Cal Poly… or come to our Sunday Seminar.

For tickets to the Garagiste Festival Winemaker Symposium and all festival events and for more info, go to http://www.garagistefestival.com.

Doug Minnick is the co-founder of The Garagiste Festival, coming up November 7– 10 in Paso, with an added tasting event scheduled for Happy Hour on Friday, November 8.. Doug can be found this time of year punching down and pressing Cab and Pinot Noir in a garage with his fellow winemaking stooges, Ted Behlendorf, Dan Andersen, and Scott Gruber.

Go local, and go Garagiste, in Paso and discover local food and wine treasures

by Melanie Webber

Paso Robles is an ascendant star in the wine firmament, and yet the area is filled with many treasures - both food and wine – that remain undiscovered, even to those who live here. Making under the radar artisan wine treasures ‘discovered’ is what The Garagiste Festival is all about and, this year, we have extended this ethos to our winemaker dinner, held November 7^th -- starting with our Chef, Charles Paladin Wayne.  Chef Charlie is considered a treasure by anyone who has tasted his food, and is sought after by those in-the-know, perhaps because he keeps the food in the forefront and (even though he has been an area chef for over 30 years) his profile almost undercover.  He was instrumental to the success of our Garagiste winemaker dinner last year, which was brilliantly chef’d by The Taste’s Ludo Levebvre who, it is safe to say, was dazzled by the local producers that Charlie introduced him to. Charlie is renowned both for his artistry when matching food with wine and for his insistence on sourcing his produce, meats and seafood locally … well before ‘go local’ was a trend.

“I used to think it was a crying shame that, right here on the Central Coast, we had remarkable fresh fish and produce – much of which went straight to the brokers. Little of it stayed here, because there was no place for it to go -- for years we got only some of it,” said Chef Charlie, who executed his first ever winemaker dinner at Eberle Winery in 1987 and put his culinary magic to work at Justin, Edna Valley and Summerwood wineries before starting his private catering company. 

“As Paso became a wine center, it created the opportunity for many of our local treasures to stay home, and the recent ‘local’ movement has reinforced that trend,” continued Paladin.  “Now, we take our food right from the ranch and farm!”

Lucky Paso Robles!  As an Angeleno, when I am told that I need to go local for my foods, I’m game…but where would that be? The Hollywood Hills? Venice Beach? LAX? Hardly.  But, if when (!) I live in Paso, I will know where to go: my backyard – for food tasting as if I had pulled the carrots out of the ground, milked the goats, and harvested the oysters with my own hands. Fortunately, the wealth of local artisan producers do the hard work instead and, by all accounts, love every minute of it. For example, this year’s dinner features vegetables and herbs from Paso-based Windrose Farm; hand-crafted, cow and sheep’s milk cheeses from Paso’s Central Coast Creamery, and quacking-fresh duck eggs from Paso’s Loo Loo Farms, all featured alongside Paso AVA garagiste winemakers Bodegas M, Caliza, Clos Solene, Cutruzzola, The Farm Winery, and Paix Sue Terre.

The Undiscovered Treasures of the Central Coast winemaker dinner offers a unique opportunity to experience all of this in one place - a true taste of Paso terroir, both on the plate and in the glass. Join us on November 7th, and then stay for the festival where more local food producers will be featured alongside 66 remarkable garagiste winemakers.  Click here for the menu– and go Paso local with us!

For the full 2013 Garagiste Festival schedule and ticket information, go to http://www.garagistefestival.com/.

Garagiste Festivals are produced by Garagiste Events, a non-profit dedicated to furthering the education of future winemakers and those training for employment within the wine industry.  Proceeds from the festivals are donated to the Cal Poly Wine and Viticulture Program.

As part of The Garagiste Festival team, Melanie Webber spearheads Public Relations. Her public relations agency, mWEBB Communications, Inc., won a 2011 American Business Award for PR/Communications Campaign of the Year. A lover of all things Central Coast, especially the wines, she just received her WSET Level 3 certification.