Out at Vina Robles

We went to Vina Robles Hospitality Center just East of town on the 46 to taste a little bit of wine (well, that’s what we do).  http://vinarobles.com/.  We’ll start with the grounds – beautiful!  Lots of beautifully landscaped space to enjoy while sipping on your wine, or listening to the live music events they have every few Sundays.  Moving into the Hospitality Center – wow!!!  A breathtaking building that’s got an impressive amount of wine and food related things to peruse and purchase.  Now move on through to the tasting bar, which is situated in a huge part of the building that happens to have a HUGE window overlooking their vines.  Not a bad way to spend a little time sipping, huh?  I’ll admit, the first time we came to Vina Robles, we were a little overwhelmed with the hugeness that is the Hospitality Center and slightly underwhelmed with the wines.  That was a couple of years ago, when they first opened, and this visit was the complete opposite!  We found the space to be very comfortable (but still huge) and the wines to be very good!  They’ve got 3 different tastings that you can partake in – the complimentary tasting, the estate tasting, and the signature tasting.  We picked one of each of the latter and dove in.  Now, we were here on a mission…we’d been invited by Martin, the Director of Hospitality, to come and do a tasting.  He walked us through the wines, where the grapes were grown, what style the winemaker had been working towards, and just a bunch of other great info that added to our experience.  Knowing that we’re big Petite Syrah fans, Martin brought out some newer vintages and a barrel sample for us to try side by side.  How fun!!!  Just a really great tasting experience, thank you so much Martin!  And thank you, Shelly for putting up with us, you were great, too!!!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPGhTp_HolM[/youtube]