My Favorite Wineries in...Paso Robles
Part 1 of a series
Living in California, I spend an unusual amount of time visiting wineries throughout the state. (Unusual is maybe not the word. Wonderful might be the word I’m looking for, lol).
I live within a reasonable drive of literally hundreds of wineries. Some wine regions are close enough that we can drive over in the morning, do a couple of tastings, and drive home. Some require an overnight stay. Paso Robles is about 4 1/2 hours south of Sacramento, so it’s in the latter category. It’s essentially halfway between Sacramento and Los Angeles, and not far from other Central Coast wine regions like the Santa Ynez Valley and San Luis Obispo (SLO).
We’ve now visited Paso four times, so I wanted to share my favorite wineries in the region with you.
Note: some of the photos and videos I have from these wineries were shot on my iPhone and intended for Instagram Stories, so they’re tall. Apologies for the awkward black bars on the videos.
This was the first Paso Robles wine club we joined on our first trip to Paso in 2018. I can’t even remember how I first heard about Tablas Creek, but we love it there. They offer tastings at their estate, so it’s out in the countryside. You have to drive on a very windy road to get there, so don’t be in a hurry!
They have an indoor space for tastings, but they also have an extensive outdoor area with lounge seating. If the weather is cooperative, being outside is lovely. If you do sit outside though, be sure to pop into the indoor space, because they sell lots of kitchen items and cookbooks in there.
Tablas Creek grows a wide variety of Rhone varietals. It was founded in 1989 and has always been a partnership between the Haas family of America and the Perrin family of France. If you happen to drink a lot of Chateauneuf-du-Pape wine, you might be familiar with Château de Beaucastel—that’s the Perrin family.
Tablas Creek was the first (and is still sometimes the only) winery to produce certain Rhone varietals, and they have developed an extensive quarantine system to bring in new cuttings from France to California. Environmental stewardship is really important to them, and they’ve implemented a number of organic, biodynamic, and regenerative practices to their vineyards. They have also been a pioneer in experimenting with alternative packaging for wine, because glass bottles have a huge carbon footprint.
Tablas Creek grows 16 different grape varietals, using some for blends and some for single-varietal bottlings. Some of our favorites among their wines are their red and white Côtes de Tablas blends, their (more expensive) Esprit de Tablas blends, and their single-varietal Mourvèdre, Counoise, Grenache, Tannat, and Vermentino. They also make an excellent Grenache Blanc that we picked up on our most recent trip in November 2023. If you ever visit Paso Robles, Tablas Creek is a must-visit!
Sort of on the other end of the spectrum from Tablas Creek is Aaron Wines. Their tasting room is in an area called “Tin City,” and it’s cozy and charming. It seats maybe a dozen people inside, and several more on the outdoor patio. They have a turntable and vinyl collection in the tasting room, and whoever’s on duty that day gets to choose the records.
I first heard about Aaron Wines from a friend of mine in the wine industry in Santa Rosa. I fell in love with their wines and their vibe immediately, but we didn’t join their wine club until our third visit, when my brother’s girlfriend offered to share the membership with us. (We already have four other memberships, and we can only drink so much wine!)
Aaron Wines is owned by Aaron Jackson, and he’s the winemaker. It’s a small operation focusing on a handful of grapes (many of them also Rhone varietals): Petite Sirah, Syrah, Mourvèdre, Grenache, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Viognier, Pinot Gris, and Chardonnay. Some of their wines are such small production, they sell out well before the next vintage is available.
I would say most of the wines they produce are bottled as single varietals, with a couple of blends regularly made. Our favorite blends are the Citizen (Syrah and Petite Sirah) and Trespasser (Petite Sirah, Syrah, and Mourvédre). The single-varietal bottlings are also in most cases single-vineyard. They bottle several different Pinot Noirs, and the best way to know which ones you like best is to go there and taste what they have on offer! On our most recent visit in November 2023, the Derbyshire Pinot Noir was our favorite.
We’ve only been to Eberle once, but I would definitely go back. Not only are their wines really good, but they have a super cool cave that you can tour. (You can reserve the cave tour ahead of time, and it’s probably recommended. We just chanced into one when we visited in summer 2021, probably because they were still recovering from Covid-era drop-offs in guests visiting.)
You might recognize the Eberle label because it has a boar on it. And there’s even a boar statue out front that you can pose for photos with!
In downtown Paso there are a ton of small tasting rooms. You could honestly never leave downtown and experience a bounty of wine options. We happened upon Cloak & Dagger one day when we had time to kill before dinner. The owner may or may not be in the clandestine services (meaning the CIA, the NSA, or similar). All the wines have names like Cryptology, Invisible Ink, and The Assassin. Good stuff, and would definitely visit again.
Admittedly, the only reason we went to this winery was the free tasting passes provided by our Airbnb host, but it turned out to have really good wines, and a LOT of sculptures. Their grounds are extensive, so I recommend leaving yourself plenty of time to wander around either before or after your tasting. Weather-depending, you can do your tasting outside in the sculpture garden. (Mind you, it gets hot as hell in Paso Robles in the summer. We’ve been in July twice, and it’s usually triple digit temps.)
Justin might be the most famous Paso Robles winery. We visited on our first trip there in 2018 but haven’t been back, primarily because we always go to Tablas Creek and Aaron, and we also want to try new places.
Justin was also sold in 2021 to Stewart and Lynda Resnick, who own the POM Wonderful brand (among other things) under the umbrella of The Wonderful Company. They are the opposite of environmental stewards and are infamous water-wasters. So that’s another reason we haven’t been back to Justin. The wines are still good, we just choose to drink wine made by people who actually care about the environment.
Turley actually has two locations: one in Paso Robles and one in Amador County, which is the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains (the mountain range where Lake Tahoe is, for context). We’ve been to both locations, but we were a little disappointed by the Paso Robles tasting experience.
The wines are good, but I wouldn’t call them great. They’re definitely not as good as Tablas Creek or Aaron. We also didn’t have great service, which never helps with the experience. Personally, I wouldn’t go back to Turley, but I’m glad I’ve been so I know what it’s like.
Another winery that I had been wanting to visit for a while is Halter Ranch. We finally made it there on our last trip in November 2023, but again, it wasn’t really anything special. They do have a full restaurant on-site, which is good if you are looking to also have lunch. Halter Ranch is basically across the street from Tablas Creek (way out in the country), so it’s easy to do both of them in an afternoon.
The wines are quite good, but they are expensive. The least expensive bottle that was offered at our tasting was $82. Those are Napa prices, not Paso prices. So we didn’t buy anything. (For context, most of what we buy at Aaron is in the $60 range, and at Tablas Creek, you can get amazing wines for $30.)
Okay, so I haven’t actually been to Daou yet, but only because I can never get a tasting reservation! It’s a really popular winery, and for good reason. I’ve had their wines before, and they’ve been excellent. Maybe one of these days I’ll finally get to visit the winery. Sextant is another one that’s on my list to visit. If you’ve been, let me know what you thought!
There are a LOT of wineries in Paso Robles. We’ll need many more trips to get to even half of them. If you’re interested in poking around some others, here’s a link to the Paso Robles wine tourism site.
Oh, and if you also want to eat dinner in Paso Robles, there’s no shortage of good restaurants, but two of my favorites are The Alchemists’ Garden and The Hatch.
Cheers!
Risa
With a name like Eberle, it’s got to be good 😁