If Napa is wine country then Paso Robles is wine province. Paso Robles is nestled in the rolling foothills of the Central Coast's Santa Lucia Mountains located mid-way between Los Angeles and San Francisco. It may be smaller then Napa but it still has over 200 wineries and lodging is much cheaper. We stayed at Adelaide Inn http://www.adelaideinn.com/ both trips out there. It is very affordable and centrally located between both the east and westside wineries. The people there are very helpful and give you various free tasting cards.
The first night we arrived around 4pm, we learned last time that this quaint little downtown area shuts down early so we got settled in and headed out for dinner. we stopped at Clayhouse Winery located downtown before dinner to pick up a couple bottles for the hotel. We are trying to cover all the restaurnts so asked around and took the locals top recommendation; Il Cortile Ristorante on 12th Street in downtown Paso. It was fabulous!
Day 2- Hearst Castle Day. We purchased tickets ahead of time, it was highly recommended to do so, so this took a little planning. It is about 20 minutes from our hotel, since we booked the 2pm (or so I thought) Grand Tour we decided to not waste good tasting time so we left early and stopped at some westside wineries along the way after breakfast sandwiches and coffee at Amsterdam Coffee House, our only duplicate visit. We started with Tablas Creek Vineyard, this was also highly recommended to us so it was at the top of our list for this trip. After 20 wineries in 3 Paso visits, this was our favorite in fact we joined the VINsider club. We stopped off to see the elephant seals then headed to Hearst Castle. The evening ended with dinner at Robert's Restaurant & Wine Bar.
Day 3- Union Road Winery Tour day aka Eastside Winery Tours. Our hotel gave us a card the was free tasting for select Union Road wineries plus some even gave a discount on wine purchases. This was an epic tasting day! We came home with numerous bottles of wine, 1 jar of bolognese sauce, 1 bag of pistachios and a private number for a local driver in case we need a ride. Needless to say we took a long water break and a dip the hot tub before ending the night at Artisan.
Day 4- Breakfast at Vic's Cafe and a stop at We Olive (olive oil tasting was all we could handle). We headed home with 2 fancy mustards and a jar of Chardonnay Almond stuffed olives.
