TASTEMAKERS

Girls Trip Wineries in Paso Robles

From Spill

16 wineries

Paso is the cheap version of the good trip

Seventeen tasting rooms sit within a third of a mile of the downtown park. Most tastings run twenty five to forty five dollars, against a hundred and up in Napa. You get the same long lunch and the same golden hillside, for roughly half.

Do downtown on foot the first day and drive out to the estates on the second. That order matters, because the estates are where the group will want to linger.

Downtown, on foot

Forlorn Hope Wines pours on Park Street with a walk-up sidewalk bar and private rooms behind it, which covers both moods in one building. Martha Stoumen Wines is twenty five dollars, has food, and takes dogs. mid•point winery, which used to be Rotta, farms organically on vines first planted in 1891 and pours for twenty five dollars with a patio.

Cordant Winery is twenty five dollars for Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Rhône styles. Tudor Wines is in the historic Acorn Building. LXV Wine runs a restaurant alongside the tasting room and does spice pairings.

Dracaena Wines is a husband and wife team, a food chemist and a microbiologist, doing Cabernet Franc. That is a better story than most of what you will hear all weekend.

Forlorn Hope Wines

Outdoor seatingRare varietals

Martha Stoumen Wines

Natural wineBoutique

mid•point winery (formerly Rotta Winery)

Outdoor seatingDog-friendly

Cordant Winery

Focus on whitesFocus on reds

Tudor Wines

Walk-ins OKCozyFamily-run

LXV Wine

Has wine clubTours available

Dracaena Wines

BoutiqueRoséWalk-ins OK

Day two, out of town

J Dusi is female-owned and keeps a family winemaking line going that started in the 1920s. Tastings start low and the patio is the point.

Cass Vineyards grows Rhône varieties on the property in east Paso and has a real kitchen, at twenty five dollars. Niner Wine Estates makes wine only from its own vineyards and cooks from its own garden, at forty. ONX Wines farms eighteen varieties across Willow Creek and Templeton Gap, with food, a patio, and a picnic area.

J Dusi Wines

Outdoor seatingScenic views

Cass Vineyards and Winery

Scenic viewsGood for groups

Niner Wine Estates

Dog-friendlyFamily-run

ONX Wines

Scenic viewsTours available

If the group wants the big one

Austin Hope does a guided tasting seated among the vines with food, and it is the closest Paso gets to a Napa-scale production without the Napa bill.

Le Vigne pairs wine and cheese with vineyard views for twenty dollars. Four Lanterns is on the west side, run by two people who left corporate work in 2013, with food and a picnic area.

Same weekend, half the money, nobody notices the difference by Saturday night.