Passion for Paso

A California region comes into its own

by David Marglin

UNCORKED

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In the early 1960s, a wine visionary named Stan Hoffman stood on a hill in California's central coast region, a land of high winds, sea air, and ranches, and saw its potential as a birthplace of great wine. Hundreds of miles south of the state's premium wine regions and populated mainly by farmers, the area -- called Paso Robles (pronounced passo roe-bulls) -- did produce bulk wine, but it had been ignored until then by "quality" winemakers. In 1965, Hoffman planted pinot noir and chardonnay at his vineyard, Hoffman Mountain Ranch, which became the first new winery in Paso Robles in more than 50 years. Unfortunately, Hoffman was forced to sell his winery because of management problems -- and Paso Robles was consigned to another 30 years of wine-world obscurity.

If things had worked out for Hoffman, he'd be in possession of some prime real estate right now. A lot of bulk wine is still made in Paso Robles, but some of the world's biggest winemakers have finally discovered the region as well. The great Napa Valley winemaking pioneer Andre Tchelistcheff called the area a "jewel of ecological elements." Beringer, one of California's most powerful wine companies, owns the Paso Robles winery Meridian (although its popular chardonnay is grown elsewhere); and Australia's Southcorp, famous for its Lindemans wines, grows a significant portion of its fruit in the region. France's Beaucastel, known for its distinguished Châteauneuf-du-Pape wines, owns Tablas Creek, where the company hopes to produce some of America's most prestigious and expensive wines. The famous Caymus is the quiet owner of a very high-end winery called Treana. Robert Mondavi and a few other big players have purchased land in the area. All signs suggest that this is becoming California's hottest new wine region.

I was lucky enough to discover Paso, as the locals call it, during its annual wine festival, where more than 15,000 people come from all over to drink wine outdoors in the center of town and hang out at the wineries. Folks in Paso like to drink, and they like big, potent wines. In many ways, Paso is similar to France's Languedoc-Roussillon region, where bulk wines reigned supreme until a few producers decided that they could make top wines there by cutting down on yields and focusing more on quality than on quantity.

Paso has a strong maritime influence and a series of micro-climates that make it ideal for growing certain grape varieties. For the most part, though, these aren't the pinot noir and chardonnay that Hoffman originally planted. (Although winemakers in Paso are starting to do some wonderful things with pinot noir, it's not all that widespread. And I'm not a big fan of most Paso chardonnay.)

The leading wine grape at the moment is definitely zinfandel. As far as many people are concerned, Paso's zins rival those made in Napa and Sonoma -- big, high-alcohol, fruit-wallop wines that are not for the faint of mouth. Paso is now known internationally for its zins, with lots of them being exported to England, Germany, and Switzerland. These aren't shy wines, but rather are big, bold, and almost over-the-top in style and alcohol content.

The leading zin maker in Paso is probably Peachy Canyon. It makes nearly 40,000 cases of wine, almost half of it zin, and its products are widely available in Massachusetts. The 1997 Snow Vineyard was a delightful surprise; let's hope we get some here. And at the Norman winery, winemaker extraordinaire Robert Nadeau (no relation to the Phoenix's restaurant reviewer) makes a 1997 zin playfully-yet-aptly named the Monster (***), which will bowl you over if you find it -- or if it finds you. Nadeau also has a very limited-production Family Winery; none of its wines, however, will make it to Massachusetts in the near future -- sigh.

Paso still has a frontier feeling to it; the winemakers are very supportive of one another, and they all feel as though big things are happening. Still, there are a lot of not-so-good wines made in Paso, so you have to be choosy. The wineries I liked the most, in addition to Peachy Canyon and Norman, were Dark Star, Midnight Cellars, Hidden Mountain Ranch, Justin, Tobin James, Dover Canyon, and Fratelli Perrata, which specializes in making Italian varietals such as nebbiolo and sangiovese.

There's one catch for us East Coasters. Most of these wines are so limited in production that they don't make it to Massachusetts -- and you can't legally get wine mailed to you in this state. But, locally, you can find J. Lohr's syrah (widely available for about $10.99), as well as many Justin and Peachy Canyon wines (the Incredible Red is a steal for around $11). Also, try the Ridge zinfandel, one of my favorites; the late harvest is a whopping 15.6 percent alcohol and is available for $27 at Martignetti's.

As for the others, keep your eyes open. My bet is that you'll see a lot of them around these parts within the next year. You can't go wrong with Paso Robles zinfandel, and the Bordeaux varietals, such as cabernet and merlot, are well made. But the most exciting wines may still be on the horizon. Everybody's planting some syrah, so look for more Rhone varietals to come out of Paso. For pinot noirs and wonderful nebbiolos (the grape used to make Italian Barolos), you will have to look a bit harder -- try the more comprehensive, higher-quality wine lists -- but it is well worth the effort.

They may be hard to discover around here for the time being, but it's likely that many great American wines in the next millennium will be made in Paso Robles. So get what you can for now, and keep your fingers crossed for the future.

David Marglin can be reached at wine[a]phx.com.

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