Now to remind everyone, the Paso Garagiste Event was created and organized by an amazing group of people: Stewart McLennan, Doug Minnick, & Dan Erland Anderson, along with the fabulous Lisa Dinsmore. All have a passion for wine and specifically passion for wines from the Central Coast. The team brought their many talents from their varied backgrounds together to create the fabulous event - and this event truly is a welcome addition to the "typical festival schedule" for the Paso area.
So here we go - onto the blog!:
As I approached Windfall Farms in the morning, I was stunned - yet again - by the beauty of the place. It is a 724 acre piece of property that is still used as a thoroughbred breeding & training facility. The buildings are incredible - most are made of brick and have fabulous steeples - which make you think you're in England. The views on the property are simply stunning - and since we're in Paso, the property is surrounded by vineyards.
Here are a few shots of the property:
I arrive around 9 am and everyone is running around setting things up. I was lucky as my job for the morning was to be the personal assistant to the winemakers who were speaking at the seminars. For the first seminar that would be: Justin from Saxum Wines, Neil from Tablas Creek & Lone Madrone, & Terry from Adelaida Cellars. Then the second seminar/barrel education class would be lead by Christian from Cypher Winery & Ryan Render of Rendario Vineyards. So my job was greeting them when they arrived, setting them up with coffee & water, and chatting it up with them. Hard job, eh? :)
So I know Neal, Christian and Terry already, but I haven't had the opportunity to meet Justin before. I mean, my goodness, his James Berry Vineyard wine won "Wine of the World" (yes, the WHOLE world!) in 2010. Now I always jokingly say, "I hate Justin Smith. He's an amazing winemaker. I hear he's an extremely nice guy. He is gorgeous. His wife is gorgeous. His kids are gorgeous. Even his dog is gorgeous. " At this point, my friend Stew would interject - "Yeah, I've even met the dog. He is pretty gorgeous." I'm totally joking of course but I was super excited to finally meet the man himself - and yes, he truly is a really nice guy.
So the first seminar beings with Stew asking Neal, Justin & Terry questions about life in the wine world. Here's shots of the action - I love Neal's grin & beanie:
Stew asked great questions covering topics such as this year's harvest, what's it like to balance family life against the harvest season, describe a varietal (that Stew chose) & their vision of how to grow that varietal and make wine, etc. the best way possible. Terry's varietal was Pinot, Justin's was Syrah, and then Neal's was....wait for it....Tannat, of course! Oh, that made me very happy as I think you all know by now, I'm obsessed with Tannat.
The class went really well - lots of jokes and laughter, excellent questions & answers, and Stew even opened it up for questions from the audience. Really fun.
Afterward I was able to snap a photo of the panel all together. Here it is from left to right: Neal, Terry, Justin, Stew & Doug:
Now before the event had happened, we were all a little concerned about making sure Justin wasn't swarmed after the talk as he needed to take off to continue working harvest. In fact, we had heard a joke about someone just wanting to touch him, to make sure he was real. I told Justin the story and asked if I could get a photo of me touching his arm, proving he was a real human being and not just a supernatural hologram. Here is the fabulous photo:
That photo completely cracks me up!
Now if you know me, you know I've been on a quest to try as many wines as I can from the Paso area, searching for the great ones. Though I've been exposed to some amazing wines, I have never fully been able to answer the question of why certain wines are so spectacular and why most wines are simply bad. I told Justin about when I first had Herman Story Wines, I was on the floor, completely blown away about how amazing they were. I had heard Herman Story wines were similar to Justin's so..... I asked Justin, since he is considered one of the best winemakers of the world at this point, what is it that he does that makes his wine so amazing? He laughed and said he couldn't really answer that as there are so many factors that go into it. But he said that he and I must have the same palate (did you hear that? Justin said I have his palate!) and that he makes wines that he loves, and he's lucky enough to achieve that. I talked about James Berry Vineyard and he did say, as so many winemakers do, "It really does start in the vineyard. I do as little as possible to not interfere with the wine - and make sure I don't screw it up!" What a humble answer from such a talented guy. I told him I still think it has something to do with the fact that he's surrounded by fairies & butterflies and he lives in some magical world. Just saying.....
Next up: we'll talk about Christian & Ryan's seminar that was an educational class on wine barrels - how different barrels affect the taste of the wine. That said, I'm running short on time and will save it for the next blog. For now, I will leave you with this photo of Christian from Cypher Winery:
Next blog hopefully coming soon!
So nice you got to meet some of the Paso Robles rock stars!
ReplyDeleteNice post! It was a fun day!
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