Wine

For the past three years, the Nipomo Wine Group has been selling its Phantom Rivers Wine through its wine club and Web site, local wine retailers and a handful of restaurants stretching from Los Angeles to the Bay Area.

Not long ago, the powerful red wines of Toro, Spain, were incredible bargains. As the region has been discovered in recent years—both by winemakers from other parts of Spain and by consumers—some pricey new wines have emerged. But there are still some very good wines to be found for $20-$25.

It’s a common practice for new tasting rooms to open just prior to major event weekends so that as many customers as possible are exposed to a new winery and its wines.

It’s a 10 in Olympics judging, an 800 when taking an SAT or a 300 when bowling. It’s the perfect score. In wine, that perfect score is a 100 — particularly when judged by the Wine Spectator critic Robert Parker. And it is that perfect score that Justin Smith of Paso Robles’ Saxum Winery received last month for one of his 2007 wines.

When Signe Zoller started her custom winemaking service just over three years ago, she had no clients, no equipment, no staff and no office — except the one in her house. Much has changed in the last three years.

The adage, “two heads are better than one,” applies to solving problems and creating new products. It also applies to winemaking, according to Russell From and McPrice Myers.

Since Coy Barnes started his wine tour business, The Wine Wrangler, in summer 2004, he has been in relentless pursuit of growing the wine tourism industry in Paso Robles and promoting the awareness and understanding of Central Coast wines.

When Cris Cherry started Villa Creek Cellars in 2001, it seemed like a natural move. He had already found success in the restaurant business with Villa Creek in Paso Robles, which he started with his wife, JoAnn, in 1998. And food and wine go hand-in-hand, right?

The first thing you notice when you’re driving up the hill to Croad Vineyards are the somewhat perplexing signs that say “Kia Ora!” and “No Aussies Allowed!”

Walter and Roberta Weideman had the perfect retirement dream. After living in Northern California for many years, they bought a beautiful 14-acre property on the west side of Paso Robles in 2000.There they built their dream home — a Palladian-style villa, designed by Walter himself--and planted a new cabernet grape vineyard with their own hands. They even built a small winery on the property that would handle about eight barrels of wine.

For a small winery, opening a tasting room can be the ideal way to introduce new wines to the public and the most profitable way to sell them.

Winemaker Pamela Pietri is unconventional. As owner of Vinfuzion Winery, she has been making wine in Paso Robles for five years. But her road to getting there was just as unique as her wines.

As specialized winemakers in Paso Robles, each making their own premium small lot wines at Zenaida Cellars, Dorothy Schuler and Philip Krumal have a lot in common. They also have many dissimilarities.

Sherman and Michelle Thacher had been coming to Paso Robles for years. First when they were dating, and meeting there as a halfway point between her college town of Santa Barbara, and his home in the Bay Area.

Many of the wines we buy today in California are labeled with the name of the grape variety. That wasn’t always the case. Before the 1930s, most California wines were blends that carried generic names such as “Chablis” or “Burgundy,” even though these wines had nothing to do with the French regions of Chablis or Burgundy.

So you’ve spent days touring wineries and tasting wines, dreaming about the romantic lifestyle of a winemaker, and you’ve wondered what it would be like to be a winemaker yourself.

A reader e-mailed the other day to ask for some wine advice. Even though he knew from reading my column that I didn’t like oaky, buttery chardonnays, he figured I might be able to recommend some.

This has been an eventful year for winemaker Austin Hope.

If you have you ever looked at a piece of art hanging on a gallery wall or a colorful design on a wine bottle label sitting on a shelf and thought, “I could do that,” you now have your chance.

It was just a typical Wednesday evening for Rob and Pam Sharp late last year when they went to the Vinoteca Wine Bar in Paso Robles to support friends Jim and Maribeth Jacobsen and their winery Doce Robles.

Like many of his fellow winemakers who were just setting out in Paso Robles in the mid-1980s, Neils Udsen of Castoro Cellars started out with a meager budget.

John and Jill Backer’s winery is not exactly on the beaten path. Considered one of the Paso Robles area’s “Back Roads Wineries,” August Ridge Winery is on a fairly remote stretch of Highway 41 in the rolling hills of Creston.

I’m not much of a fan of heavy, high-alcohol white wines at any time of year, but I really avoid them when the weather gets hot. In summer, I look for crisp, flavorful whites that are refreshing, not exhausting. I tend to eat lighter foods, too, and these summertime whites pair well with salads and fresh vegetables.

It is a Cinderella story a winemaker can only dream about. In November, Carl Bowker opened the tasting room for his new Caliza Winery.

Most girls at the age of 16 are thinking about prom dresses, the latest hair styles, and boys. Not Janell Dusi. The granddaughter of legendary grape grower Dante Dusi was thinking about her barrel of fermenting zinfandel must.

Over the past 15 years, Paso Robles winemaking consultant Steve Glossner has developed a reputation for making high quality red wines for some of the most acclaimed wineries on the west side of the local wine country.

When Jake and Josh Beckett started researching new winemaking techniques for their new winery, Chronic Cellars, a little over a year ago, they came across a new trend in France: the use of fermentation tanks made of concrete.

Another new winery has joined the impressive lineup of tasting rooms along Paso Robles’ west side Vineyard Drive.

Some entrepreneurs have a simple dream of having their own business and making enough profit to keep them and their family happy.

If you ask Shannon O'Neill how many wines he makes, be prepared for a long answer. "I do seven cabs a year, five syrahs, three French blends, petit, merlot, a couple of zins, muscat, four desert wines, and a couple of whites," he answers. Is that it? "Oh, and we have malbec and tempranillo, too."