11 New Paso Robles AVA’s Approved

Personally, Paso Robles might be the most interesting growing region in California.  It's fascinating to me as a region which is largely without a massive local market (Santa Barbara has Los Angeles, Napa and Sonoma have San Francisco) as well as being relatively new to the internationally recognized wine scene.  More so than any other region in California, Paso Robles is judged solely based on what's in your glass and little else.  That's important and how the region evolves, will be fascinating to watch as time goes by.

Video Transcription:

Hey, guys. Mark Aselstine with Uncorked Ventures. So the most interesting kind of wine to come out over the last few days is Paso Robles. It has been in the process of applying to have a bunch of new AVAs set up through the TTB over the past probably three or four years or so. The vineyards in the area feel really strongly that having a larger number of AVAs will help explain the type of wine that's going to end up in your glass more so than just saying Paso Robles.

Quite frankly there's a huge difference between the type of wines being made in East side Paso versus West side Paso in large pat due to the temperature variance that goes on. Paso is a number of miles inland and across small mountain range. That kind of good stuff. Like a lot of kind of famous wine country happens to be, there's an area called the Templeton Gap that helps both rainfall and kind of cloud cover and fog get through.

So the interesting thing is TTB finally went ahead and approved 11 new AVA's for Paso. There's two that kind of stick out right away to me. First is the aforementioned Templeton Gap. There's going to be the coldest climate in vineyard wines made in all of Paso, probably more similar to Napa or Sonoma as far as style and some of the stuff you're probably used to in Paso Robles. Second of all, there's an Adelaida District. So if you know the history of Paso Robles, Adelaida is probably in the top five, certainly among the pantheon of kind of the most famous wineries. Grapes are sold, in large part, being on Adelaida Road, or this kitty corner to Adelaida Road, all that kind of good stuff. So to have an Adelaida District, in my mind, makes so much sense. So, new AVAs coming to Paso Robles. Thanks for the time. Mark Aselstine with Uncorked Ventures.