Paso Robles Wineries: An Area to Look for Value

A short introduction to two of my favorite Paso Robles wineries: Kinero and Atla Colina. Different setups to be sure, but both making some amazing wine at prices which are more than fair. Also, a few words on why prices in Paso Robles have yet to get out of control.

Video Transcription:

Hi guys. Mark Aselstine again with Uncorked Ventures. I'm joined today by two bottles of red wine, both from Paso Robos. I wanted to take a couple minutes to talk about Paso, and the general feeling of the wine industry down there, and what's going on. 

First, I should take a minute to introduce. Paso's a region in California. It's about equidistant between Los Angeles and San Francisco, about 200 miles from each. The good news with that is that they have relatively easy access to both markets. The bad news is San Francisco is still dominated by Napa and Sonoma. L.A., it's one of the most competitive markets in the country. As a wine maker, or a wine sales rep, if you had to spend a couple days somewhere, say in the middle of February, no matter what region of the country you are from, or region of the world for that matter, L.A.'s not really a bad spot. Especially when you can count on it being 75 degrees and clear. In any case, L.A. competitive. San Francisco's uber competitive, perhaps the most competitive market in the world. 

Wineries have this [inaudible 01:03] position. They're making great wine. They're making it at great prices, but they don't have a huge natural market like some others do. That has helped to keep prices down, and has helped to keep production sizes down while at the same time making world class wine. 

I think first we will start with, so this is a Kinero seller's bottle. I've talked about Anthony Yount in this space, and in other's before. He's the wine maker at Denner Vineyards. Anthony is somebody who I have a ton of respect for, and somebody who's really starting to influence other wine makers. I'm starting to have more and more conversations with folks from both the central coast, and even sonoma, saying "Hey, I spent a couple days with that guy last year, and he really changed the way that I make wine." I don't think there's any higher praise that someone can get. 

A minute about Denner. Robert Parker, of course, wine advocate, and probably the most famous critic in the world. At some point, a few years back, he was in 5 grand crew vineyards in California. That is, if we would take the French classification system and bring it to California, which 5 vineyards would he name? He named 4 up here in Napa and Sonoma, and then he named one in Paso. That's the James Berry vineyard. When you walk through the James Berry vineyard, something really interesting happens. You walk across a golf cart path. Really, about three feet or so, and then you hit the Denner Estate vineyard. 

Anthony is the wine maker at Denner. The Syrah and other stuff they produce is well worth a look. He also makes this small personal label called Kinero. Kinero up to this point has been focused exclusively on white wines. He tells the story that his dad didn't drink white wine. He wanted to make something that his dad would like. You're talking a more acidic chardonnay. He makes that grenache-blanc blend, which our most inexpensive wine club, our explorations wine club received this last month. This is the first red he's produced. It's from the Basseti vineyard. It is Grenache, which I think that a lot of people that know me or know me well think that I might be obsessed with the grape, especially when it's done well. This shows everything that's important and interesting about Paso. 

First, $40. I believe 47 cases produced, that's about 2 barrels of wine. It's a minuscule quantity, almost small enough to be almost a joke. We have it for our wine club members. Our premium wine club, our reserved wine club will receive it, and if you are a monthly special selections member, you'll receive it too. Other than that, sorry, there's just not much of it to go around. 

Basseti vineyard, they've got some pretty great Sera. I'm in essence going to tell you the story when were sitting across the dining room table from each other that they had these couple blocks that weren't working well for a couple of reasons that no one could've suggested or thought of before. They grafted over to gernache. This is not out for general consumption with critics. Antonio [inaudible 03:52] scored it 93 points for $40. It's just incredible. That's the short version. 

Secondly, I have a bottle here from Alta Colina. I've talked about Maggie and Bob and the folks of the Tomin family, and have done Ulticleana in the past too. Ulticleana's a little bit different. For Anthony and Canero, he's sourcing grapes, and I think he owns a small vineyard of his own. He's growing at this point. Ulticleana took a different perspective and a different path. They had a little bit more money behind them, of course. They've purchased this large vineyard block, and it's on the great side of West Paso. If you were to try to buy it today, you probably couldn't anymore because they've profiled Paso in the 8 or 9 years that they've been there has come up so much. Bravo to them for both planting the vineyards and the grapes for a while. Starting a small personal label. You used to go to a tasting room, and you used to drive into another winery, and then they were on the side that, of the tasting room that could seat four people. It's a really great experience. 

Now, they have a taste, shout it tasting room on the hill, so to speak. You meander up the hill, and then you can look down across part of the valley there. It's a Tessla charging station. You can tell that you found a winery that knows what they're doing. Ulticleana started, and had an assistant wine maker who I know pretty well. Jeff Cohn from JC Cellars. He really has helped form there style. Anything from Kinero buys some grapes from Ulticleana, and you hear that repeatedly. Ulticleana is thought of by folks in the industry as one of the truly great vineyards in Paso. They're also large enough that where they can sell it to a lot of people. I will tell you that I know for sure that if I owned a 200 acre vineyard, I would be happy selling 180 acres. If I was keeping 20, I don't know if it's 20 that they keep, but it's something along those lines. If I was keeping 20, I would be keeping either the best 20, or pretty damn close to the best 20. 

Alta Colina makes some incredible wine. I mentioned Robert Parker earlier. He is one of the ones who is the first ones, much to his credit by the way, being on the Ulticleana band wagon. I think the first year that they released, he gave them multiple 90 point scores across the board. Spectator, literally every critic, everyone who tries these wines loves them. 

This is a GSM. I mentioned that I might be slightly obsessed with gernache earlier. Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre. That's the classic thing in Paso. It might be what they're known most for. Sera might grow the best, but it might be GSM that really takes them to the next level as far as the quality of production. Yeah, Ulticleana. This is a 93 point wine from Parker. We shipped it for our reserve members, and it's something that I've had multiple people tell me "Hey, that was really really good." I think that's at that $50 price point, pretty incredible stuff. 

That's a short intro for a couple things that are going on in Paso Robos. There's literally dozens of other examples of really really great wineries that are outside of the general consciousness down there. Terry Hoage, a good example, ex-professional football player making great wine. Of course you have the Saxsum and Turley folks who are floating around, and there's many others. In any case, this is Mark Aselstine with Uncorked Ventures. I hope you enjoyed a short intro to Paso. I think the two things that really stand out to my mind are the wines are really great. That's first, and foremost, most important. Second, they are probably under priced, at least $15 or $20 per bottle when you compare to Napa and Sonoma. That's because they don't have a really true huge natural market within, where our wine maker could go for a day trip and sell 15 or 20 cases of wine whenever they need to. That keeps prices down. It keeps them out of the normal distribution cycles, and if your somebody who really likes fine wine, and you like supporting smaller, local, family run wineries, Paso is a great place to look. 

Again, Mark Aselstine with Uncorked Ventures. Hope you're having a good week.