Grapeline Wine Tour In Paso Robles

A Grapeline Wine Tour

Today I’m doing a wine tour with Grapeline Wine Tours. The weather is clouded over when I open the room shutters masquerading as curtains, and a cool 66º F / 19º C. It is forecast however to become sunny and 83º F / 28º C by mid-afternoon. And indeed it did.

I was texted to be ready ten minutes before my 10.25 am pick-up time. I waited outside the motel office. But there was still no sign of the bus by 10.35 am. Then I saw a Grapeline bus drive by. Has he forgotten me? I was just about to call their office when a bus pulled into the motel parking lot.

Driver Michael gets out: “You must be Ian”. I concur then comment that I saw a bus drive past minutes earlier. He concedes it was him but he was “asleep at the wheel” and had indeed forgotten me… Luckily he ‘woke up’ and drove around the block to come and get me.

Glunz Family Winery

There are 8 of us in total on the tour and we will visit three wineries today. Michael gives a quick overview of each and then we set off. First up is Glunz Family Winery & Cellars. One of the owners is on hand to give us the start to the tasting. The first wine is a Sauvignon Blanc. They only have seven acres of vines and buy in most of their grape juice.

Glunz Winery tasting notes

We then follow the owner into their production facility where he shows us around. We then sample a Sauvignon Blanc that was pressed only yesterday, a day old ‘wine’. It was obviously not ready but he wanted us to see and compare it to the finished wine. We move on to a vat of Cabernet Sauvignon grapes that were picked a week or so ago. They are fermenting in the vat. He shows us how they turn the grapes, a process lasting two weeks.

I’m amazed the vat is only covered by a cloth lid, which is a tight fit, but not fully sealed. The building is temperature controlled to 65º F / 18º C he says but it seems odd to  only have a cloth lid – the building must be susceptible to flies and other insects I’d have thought. There was a guy in the building bottling up new wines as well.

We went back to the tasting room to sample some red wines. The owner had to leave and he handed over the tasting to one of his staff. We got to try another four wines: Pinot Noir, Zinfandel, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon, so five in total.

Tasting completed, we went outside to eat our provided packed lunches, pre-ordered when booking. We sat at long tables under cover to avoid the sun. I had a roast beef sandwich and it was very good. I even got another free glass of wine to have with lunch.

Tobin James Cellars

We arrived at Glunz at 11 am and left for the next winery at 12.45 pm. We had a good amount of time there, the wines were good, and the ‘guides’ very knowledgeable and helpful in answering questions. It was also good to see something different about the production methods.

Next port of call is Tobin James Cellars. This ‘winery’ does not have vines and seems a much more commercial outfit than Glunz. Michael said they are one of the biggest wine operations in California.

Tobin James tasting notes

They also do tasting differently than anywhere else I’ve been. Firstly we were all standing around an ‘island’ bar in the middle of a large room, and there are other islands too. The lady server stands in the centre. She tells us we can sample between six and eight wines. In fact, I got to sample more than that. She’s not counting. Sample sizes are still small but just not restricted to the measly three samples in Napa and Sonoma.

By now our group are quite chatty, about all sorts of stuff, as you might expect. It is a good tasting and there are some nice and interesting wines. There is good advice from the initial lady server, who then went to lunch, whereupon a guy took over.

I tries some whites wines, a nice rosé and then onto the reds. As mentioned, the servers weren’t be counting how many samples any of us have, but I am conscious of not getting blind drunk in the middle of the afternoon. The last bottle I tried was a $150 Petit Syrah Blue Moon Reserve. It’s not bad but not worth $150 a bottle IMHO. Before that, there were some very nice wines I tasted.

Bianchi Winery

Bianchi Winery tasting notes

Onwards to our last stop, Bianchi Winery. There was not a lot of effort from this lot. They sat us at a table and just brought the wines. And all a bit haphazardly. A lady starts to talk to us but then a somewhat dumb, and not really with it, guy takes over. He hadn’t kept track of where we are in the tasting sequence of our five wines. There were also long delays between samples.

Michael re-appeared to see where we were up to. He seems dismayed we’re so behind and no-one is taking ownership. We’re in no rush however. The samples are actually quite good when we got them, and the good chatter amongst the group continued.

We eventually returned to the bus and made our way back to Paso Robles. I’m dropped off back at the Stables Inn around 5.15 pm. It was a good tour, much better than the ones I’ve done in Napa and Sonoma, primarily because the wineries here let the wine flow, at least in terms of number of samples served, but not necessarily in sample size.

California Coast Beer Co.

There’s a couple of hours downtime to recuperate before I leave for the California Coast Beer Co. It is a 13 minute walk but I opt to Uber it for $7. When I arrive I discover it’s quite a big place inside. There were a couple of inside bars plus outside seating and a small stage where a band called Rumor are playing live tonight.

I chose the bar nearest the stage so I have Rumor as background music. During the evening I talk to four different bar staff. They were all extremely friendly, chatty and helpful. I can’t remember that happening in a very, very long time. A super staff attitude all round.

There is a really buzzy atmosphere in the place as well. I choose an IPA (MT IPA) and BBQ Pork Sliders to eat. They were very nice but did not have enough sauce. I mentioned it to server #2 and she immediately went to the kitchen to get some more sauce for me.

A Bit of Chat

I was sitting on my own at the bar after I arrived. At some point in the evening, a young lady, probably mid-30s and on her own, sat down two stools to my right. She seemed to know one of the servers but over the next hour or so, she glanced my way a few times.

I kept talking to the servers about all sorts. Then after another sideways glance in my direction again, I said something to Kate to open a conversation. We never stopped after that. I did elicit she was local but I didn’t get anything out of her about what she did, any family life or anything personal about her. Ditto from her to me.

But we talked about general stuff and I enjoyed her company. But then 10 pm came around and the bar closed. We left together and contrived to chat some more outside for about 10 minutes. She asked where I was staying and offered me a lift back there.

I politely declined and said I was OK to walk. The night air was about the same as last night, and I had my sweater draped over my shoulders. But Kate had put on a thick woolly sweater and I could see she was shivering. “I’m cold”, she said, then “Are you all right?”

I resisted the temptation to say I was built of strong Northern UK stock and not a Californian wuss. “I’m fine,” I replied, “But you should go, I can see you are cold.” We’d shaken hands and fist-bumped in the bar, so need for anything else other than “Nice to meet you” both ways.

“Get a little bit of Bourbon in ‘ya” *

One discussion we’d had in the bar was that I’d had enough beer wanted some bourbon. But the bar didn’t have a liquor licence. They are strictly controlled, server #4 told me. Bars nearby that have them always object if another bar applies for one, and usually succeed in blocking it.

My sub-text for not accepting Kate’s offer of a lift was that I wanted to try and find another bar for a nightcap. Given how well we seemed to get on, I don’t know why I didn’t ask her to come with me for another drink. I can only assume that given I was going on a blind hunt for another bar, and might not find one as everything seemed to close at 10 pm, and as she was clearly very cold, I sub-consciously figured she was best getting warmed up and not traipsing the streets at night with me. And oh boy, did I find a bar…

The Street Side Ale House and Eatery was busy. I sat at the bar with a seat between me and two Latino guys. I started talking to the barman about what bourbons he had, seeking to try something different. The Latinos hook into my conversation.

The one furthest away on the right was clearly top dog of the two, but leftie turned out OK as well. We hit it off straightaway somehow. To the extent top dog buys me a bourbon. He points to a bottle on the top shelf and told the barman to pour three shots. This emptied the bottle.

Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve

As he poured it, the barman said it was a rare bourbon. I’d never heard of it so took a photo of the bottle to look it up later. It was Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve, aged 15 years. To quote Wikipedia, “Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve is often regarded as one of the finest bourbons in the world, and its very low production and high demand can make it extremely difficult to find.”

I didn’t know the price in the bar but found this statement on a specialist whisky website: “15 Year Old Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve is often found for $50–$150 per shot at high-end bars”. Jesus wept… and I only met top dog five minutes ago.

Soon after, we got talking about phrases that get lost in translation between UK and the US. I told them the tale – absolutely true – of saying (in 1987) to a USA female colleague, when out in a bar on a group social night, “Do you want to make a move?”

In the UK, this means shall we go onto the next pub, or are we done for the night and it’s time to go home. A male co-worker quickly took me aside and explained that in the US it meant something else. Apparently I’d just asked her would she like to f*** me.

The Latinos, understanding this, completely broke up into fits of laughter. I, of course, embellished the story – not quite sure how now – to keep them paralytic with laughter for the next few minutes.

More drinks

When they’d calmed down, having downed my Pappy Van Winkle, top dog offered to buy me an Old Fashioned and asked what bourbon I wanted it made with. I’d tried this cocktail in Seattle a couple of years ago, so I replied, “Basil Hayden.”

This went down an absolute storm given that’s what they had in theirs alongside their Pappy Van Winkle chasers. Yes, they both already had an Old Fashioned when top dog ordered the bourbon chasers. These guys can obviously drink. It seems Basil Hayden is the go-to bourbon for an Old Fashioned.

A middle-aged couple sat down on top dog’s right. They soon became his new best friends, so leftie and I started talking about general stuff and just shooting the breeze.

We’d both finished our drinks. Leftie asks me what I want, “He’ll pay”, indicating top dog. Leftie works for top dog. He implied that top dog takes him to bars, he gets absolutely drunk every night, doesn’t care who he buys drinks for, nor when he wakes up next morning.

“There’s whiskey in the jar, oh, yeah” **

They are not locals. They live in Bakersfield, which they think is a “shitty dump”. His words, not mine. They are here doing a job for a few days. Didn’t ask what it was because it didn’t seem necessary, we were just having a great old chat.

If I have to ask what someone does for a living, I kind of think I’ve run out of things to talk about, not a good sign. Of course I am often the topic of conversation but I never raise that, it’s others asking about my travels. I ordered a Buffalo Trace, leftie something else. The barman presented him with a check, to which he just waved it away, indicating top dog will pay.

More chat, more bourbon disappears but then I think I should go to bed. I say to leftie, “I should say goodbye to your mate.” He says, “Don’t bother, he won’t remember you or the bar bill in the morning. But we still have to work somehow.”

I shake leftie’s hand and quickly walk out. I’ve had three bourbons without paying a cent, and a great time – but do feel a bit guilty later at not saying goodbye or thanking top dog. However, I trusted leftie’s advice. I’ll never see either of them again. Nor know whether top dog did remember me, or anything else about the night, the following morning.

I enter the night air. It’s not cold. Cool for sure. Can’t understand how Kate got so cold in such a short space of time talking outside the other bar. I have a pleasant walk back to the hotel. It was a great day and evening. The end of the road trip is in sight.

* Cruel World by Lana Del Ray

** Whiskey in the Jar by Thin Lizzy