"where
each sip takes you
to a place like no other place on
Earth"
|
Calcareous
Vineyards and Winery on top of the
great limestone mountain of Templeton
Gap - where Dave makes lunch for us on
Thursday
|
|
|
Gianni
Manucci, Wild Coyote House of Reds owner and
winemaker hosts a barrel
tasting.
|
Villa
Creek in Paso
Robles is one of new wine country California
Cuisine restaurants.
|
|
Our
adventure begins (and ends) in Big Sur, where
the deep canyoned sea, more than mile-high
mountains, and corridors of coastal valleys
combine to create the most unusual vineyards
in the world.
Where
wine tastes, once again, like old grapes
grown in great earth.
Did we
mention wine-paired local, seasonal food
created en route by our own five star
chef?
|
Heller
Estates Organic Vineyard in
Cachagua Valley inside the folds
of the Santa Lucias
|
Get
ready to taste wine in a place like no place
on Earth.
|
Our journey, a two-day one-night
circumnavigation of the Santa Lucia
coastal mountain range, goes clockwise
from Big Sur through bucolic pastures and
ranches to the rarefied Carmel Valley
village of art and wine.
Carmel Valley
backcountry
On
backroads we venture into the pastoral
Carmel Valley, which inspired John
Steinbeck, and looks little changed since
the Nobel and Pulitizer Prize winner wrote
Grapes of Wrath and East of
Eden.
Through
a rolling landscape, we go, past rivers
and savannahs, and ancient oaks, through
rugged Arroyo Seco and on the Lucia
Highlands.
We
press on deeper to vertical vineyards in
hidden coastal canyons of Paso Robles,
oldest, biggest, most diverse California
wine region.
|
A
new generation of vintners began only two
decades ago to realize that the rare soil,
unusual climate and unique terrain added
up to a wine district to rival the famed
wine regions of France and
Italy.
Now,
with more than 180 wineries in 14
viticulture zones and countless
mesoclimates, (each capable of producing a
different wine) the region is one of the
world's best fine wine
terroirs.
Mary Roos of Heller Estates Organic
Vineyards and Winery
And
Paso Robles, an ex-cow town named for oak
trees, and once known for plonk, gives its
good Spanish name to a 614,000-acre
American Viticulture Area like no
other.
|
John Tilling holds court
at Calcarous
"Capture
this experience while you can ...
where owners still pour for you
behind the wine tasting bar,
engaging you with tales to regale
and connect. Sip their wine and
carry their romantic stories of
hard work and great passion back
to your own everyday life."
-James
Barlow
"California Dreaming: The
Winery Estates of Paso
Robles."
Food
& Beverage
World
SaSanta
Lucia Highlands appellation is
fast becoming
legendary for its pinot
noir.
To
Paso
(as
they call it here)
we will go to gain a sense of
the whole...
the
next epicenter of the land of
food and
wine...
|
|
"This
... is only the beginning of our
Paso Robles AVA story."
Thomas
J. Rice, Ph.d & Tracy G.
Cervellone Paso Robles, An
American Terroir
|
|
|
Not
the usual sip-and-go wine tour, our
multi layer Big Sur Wine Expedition
makes time in between wine tasting,
fine dining, and seminars by local
experts to:
•
Trace the local history of the grape
from Franciscan padres in 1771 to
the present.
•
Explain how the unusual calcareous
and limestone soil, up thrust from
the sea floor 30 million years ago,
influences the wine in your glass
today.
•
See how plate tectonics crinkled the
land into meso-climates to shape a
region like nowhere else on
earth.
|
|
|
•
Experience the topsy-turvy
40-50-degree diurnal temperature
change that gives Paso grapes that
juicy boost.
•
Traverse the Templeton Gap, a dip in
the coastal range (where soil
compares to the Rhone Valley of
France) that ushers cool coastal
fogs into 100-degree valleys to pump
fruit full of flavor on extra long
growing season.
|
|
Justin
Vineyard in Templeton Gap by Paso
Robles
The
New American Terroir
|
On
this heady down-to-earth
wine adventure you will
meet, talk and shake hands
with innovative vintners
who dare to blend Old World
passion with New Age
technology to create
world-class artisan wines
with lush mouth-filling
flavors.
You
will visit eight select
artisan wineries to enjoy
private, informed tastings
of wines little known
beyond the region, always
sold in private wine
clubs.
You
will delight in discovering
small Tuscan-like wineries
that stay small on purpose
to focus on creating
original critically
acclaimed handcrafted wines
in limited
release.
|
|
|
Your
tastebuds will never forget
that first taste of those
fruit forward, bursting
Syrahs, Cabernets, and
Zinfandels.
Or
delicate Pinot, crisp
Chards, and Chenin
Blanc.
In
this realm of the senses,
you will touch good dirt,
inhale salty Pacific air,
sweat in hot Paso heat,
shiver in coastal fog, and
understand why the wine of
Paso Robles tastes so good
in this, the new American
terroir.
And
each sip takes you to a
place like no place on
Earth.
Rick
Carroll
|
|
Limestone soils nurture
Paso Robles' vineyards
|
WeOlive treats
Dave to Olive Oil tasting in Paso
Big Sur
Wine Expedition Itinerary
Wednesday,
August 18
Leave Big
Sur 9 am -
Gourmet
croissants with locally grown fruit, greens and
locally made cheeses for breakfast with
sparkling Merlot mimosas en route to Carmel
Valley - Nature and Culture History narrative by
your guide continuous on the way
9:30
Arrive Heller
Estates
wine grape growing orientation - Chenin Blanc,
Chardonnay, Meritage, Merlot and Cabernet
Sauvignon tasting
9:50 Short
walking tour of wine and art in Valley Village
with tasting at Georis, Talbot, Parsonage and
Lyon's Heart Gallery.
10:30
Boekenoogen Syrah tasting - the Chardonnay that
earned a Wine Spectator 96 rating and sublime
Rhones from their Lucia Highlands
vineyards
11:30 am
Arrive Cachagua Valley Heller Estates organic
vineyard for tour, barrel tasting and lunch
prepared by our chef
2 pm Hahn
Estates vineyard in Lucia Highlands for terroir
talk by vineyarist and tasting overlooking
Salinas Valley and clear out to Pinnacles
National Park
On our way
to Paso we visit Mission Soledad, see a Spanish
land grant adobe, and hear stories of the
Indians and the Padres where California wine
making began in 1771.
Further on
we stop at the Rios Adobe and San Miguel Mission
for a special peek into an old cultural
clash.
4:30 pm
arrive Paso Robles, for check in -
Paso
Robles Historic
Inn
- Settle in your
Deluxe
Mineral Spa Suite overlooking the
gardens
6 pm Free
time walkabout Paso Robles square - cheese and
olive oil tasting - visit from selection of 18
wine tasting bars on the square. We meet in the
bandstand/gazebo in the Plaza Park for an
orientation with our recommendations for wine,
cheese, olive oil tastings and three restaurants
for dinner.
7 pm
Dinner (independent of the tour) at
Artisan,
Bistro
Laurent,
or Villa
Creek
restaurant
The
Rios Adobe in San Miguel
|
Thursday, August
19
9:am Ride into Templeton
Gap
Breakfast at Mt. Olive
organic farm
Mt. Olive organic farm
10:30 am
Wild
Coyote House
of Reds
Barrel tasting with wine
maker and owner Gianni Manucci
"Tuscany meets
Taos"
Tasting and talk with
the owner-winemaker Gianni Manucci a rancher
and architect
11:30 am
Adelaida
Vineyards and Winery
12:15 Tablas
Creek
Vineyards
& Winery Tasting
2 pm Calcareous
Winery
vineyard tour and talk with vineyardist, tasting
and Lunch prepared by our chef with view of the
appellation
Boeknoogin tasting room,
Carmel Valley
4:30 pm Grand Finale
Tasting in the seaside Treebones Organic
Garden
What we have learned and
how to select your wines seminar with wood-fired
appetizers by our chef
Redwood Grill Big Sur
Smokehouse appetizers
6 pm Dessert, Port and
story telling at Big Creek University of
California Ecological Reserve
Note: Schedule
subject to change without notice
Itinerary subject to
change
Seaside organic garden
at Treebones for wood fired dessert with
port
|
WINE, FOOD &
HISTORY
Fine
wine is not the only regional speciality in
Paso, where bistros begun by young chefts create
new entrees out of local fields to pair with
local wine.
On your night
in Paso Robles you are free to visit 12 wine
bars in the old town square. And, dine at
top-rated farm-to-table restaurants like
Artisan, Bistro Laurent, and Villa
Creek.
Special
wine-paired meals are prepared for you by our
award-winning Chef Dave Dildine.
A graduate of
the New England Academy of Culinary Arts, Dave
is the chef-owner of Big Sur Redwood Grill, and
former chef at Post
Ranch, Big Sur's
five star luxury resort.
Calcareous Wine Maker
Jason Joyce talks about the rare soils and
climates of Paso's Templeton Gap
|
He is
the caterer of choice for the U.S. Open and
Monterey Jazz Festival.
Dave will
prepare meals for you at:
• Heller
Estates
Vineyards
• Hahn
Estates
• J
Lohr Vineyards
• Calcareous
Vineyards
• Wild
Coyote Estate
winery
• Treebones
Resort
And, Dave
will delight you with treats on the trail.
On the trail, you sit down in vineyards, cellars
and wineries to savor Paso Vino.
Your guide is Jack
Ellwanger, founder of PelicanNetwork
- a popular
natural and cultural history advocacy for the
Central Coast.
|
|
Paso
Vino
What
media and critics
sayy
"There
are now a half dozen or so properties
producing revelations of elegance,
finesse, complexity and flavor
concentration ... and each year the
quality improves. Paso Robles remains a
work in progress, but I believe the
region already shows some of the most
striking potential in all of
California."
-Robert M. Parker Jr.
"The
Promise of Paso Robles" Food
& Wine
"In
a state known for Cabernet Sauvignon
and Chardonnay, the new crop of
vintners in Paso Robles are
self-described 'Rhone Rangers,'
plumbing limestone soils of the Pacific
Plate with Syrah, Grenache and Mouvedre
vines from the southern Rhone region of
Chateauneuf-du-Pape."
-Tracie Cone
"Paso
Robles: The Best Wine Region
You May Not
Know."
Associated
Press
"Paso
isn't Napa yet. But that's one of its
prime virtues..."
-Alan Farnham
"The
Next Napa" Forbes
Magazine
"Paso
already plays host to many
well-established names like Justin, J.
Lohr, and Tablas Creek. But there are
also little jewels - the boutique
wineries - waiting to be
discovered."
-Leslie
Jacobs
"Taming the Terroir of Paso
Robles"
Elite Magazine
"...
a topographic map reveals many parallel
east-west canyons, like a child's
fingers digging in sand, running
crosswise from the ocean through the
hills
..."
-Mary Baker
"Paso Robles: A Linguistic Geography
of Wine"
appellationamerica.com
"Look for
wines from California's Central Coast
to take their place alongside the
hallowed bottlings of Napa and Sonoma
valleys. No viticultural region in
America has demonstrated as much
progress in quality and potential for
greatness as the Central
Coast."
-Robert M Parker Jr.
Food & Wine
|
|
|
Rolling layered landscape of the
fabled Templeton Gap between Paso Robles
and the Pacific
|
|
|
|
Cost for Big Sur Wine
Expedition
2 days - all meals except Wednesday night in Paso
Robles "feee time"
including deluxe mineral spa lodging Wednesday
night is:
August 18 & 19 $579
Single Suplement $ 104
Triple occupancy minus $95
Your trip includes wine glasses
from each winery, a tasting journal and a tote
bag.
Tuesday
night option of wine paired dinner
with Big Sur's Sommelier to the
Stars, Toby Rowland Jones, and
wood-burning fireplace cottage unit
at the Big
Sur
Lodge.
Guided Natural and Cultural History
hike free to Expedition participants
that day. $160 per person based on
double occupancy.
|
Sign
up deadline is 3 weeks prior to
departure date.
Discount of 10% for sign up with
payment 5 weeks prior to
departure.
|
|
