2014 Booker Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon The Ones, California, Paso Robles - Wine Review

Wow, who knew they could make a Cabernet this great in Paso Robles. Just a stunning bottle of wine that will no doubt earn a perfect score with just a bit more time in the bottle. Purple in color. The nose has cassis, baking spices, and a bit of cedar. Full bodied. On the palate, this has a lovely juciness to it. Lots of cassis fruit. An underpinning of earth with plenty of structure. There is a lot of oak showing but it all came together with some swirling in the glass. No doubt a couple of years and this will be close to or seamless. It works with food. Nice finish. As I said, a WOW wine.

Grade:

A+

Score:

Central Coast California

50 California Central Coast Wines You Should Be Drinking Right Now

The California Central Coast, identified as Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo (and its main wine region Paso Robles) and Monterey is California the way it used to be, or at the very least, California the way people want it to be: small towns, charming architecture, varied history of Missions and Indians, and coastlines for miles; a slow pace, clean air and a belief that no one real really works very hard. But the area has been home to grape growing since the Spanish brought vine cuttings from Spain via Mexico in the late 1700s and winemakers and vineyard managers have been working hard ever since. To celebrate this beautiful region IntoWine.com offers these 50 wines that represent the diversity of the California Central Coast.

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Top 75 California Wines to Try Before You Quit Drinking (a non-dump bucket list if you will!)

In my last article, I listed the Top 75 French Wines to Try Before You Quit Drinking . In this article I look at the “non-dump bucket” list for wines from California. This proved to be a different task. First, very few wineries have a long track record of making great wine. Secondly, while California is diverse, it does not have the diversity of climates and terroir and grape varietals of France. Still, it does produce some of the best wines in the world and any wine lover should make it a point to try as many of them as they can. Here is my list: 1. Shafer Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon – It’s hard to pick the first wine. This one is a great wine in every vintage and has been for a long time. Expensive but still possible to afford and made in large enough quantities to be found in grocery stores. Every lover of Cabernet should try this once.

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Discovering Paso Robles

In the summer of 2002, I embarked on a 3300 mile motorcycle tour of the California, Oregon , and Washington coasts, with strategic stops in the various wine regions along the way. The entire trek was amazing, but it was on this trip that I truly “discovered” the wines of Paso Robles. At the time, I knew the area as a producer of big, jammy zinfandels. What I quickly learned, however, was that the region produces an amazingly diverse collection of wines in as many different styles as there are vintners. It turns out that the varied topography of the Paso Robles AVA not only makes for great motorcycle touring, it has a microclimate to suit virtually any varietal you want to grow.

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Purchasing Paso: Buying Central Coast Fruit

Though it seems that Paso Robles has only recently burst onto the wine stage, the fact is that grapes were first planted in 1797 near Mission San Miguel. The first commercial winery was formed in 1882 on York Mountain. In the ensuing 210 years since the mission fathers started making wine the quality has exponentially improved. Paso Robles boasts nearly 26,000 vineyard acres and approximately 40 different grape varietals.

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Top 25 Most Awesome Tasting Rooms in California

Wine tasting is not merely the act of drinking wine, it is the total experience and that includes the physical space you are standing in when sampling Sauvignon Blanc or pondering Petit Verdot. Most wine tasting rooms seem like afterthought - a utilitarian, banal footnote to the wine itself. So...

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2014 Booker Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon The Ones, California, Paso Robles - Wine Review

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