Our plan last weekend was to go taste at a couple of spots we had never been before. We decided to get a babysitter (our always awesome friend, Megan, I think Sammy likes her better than us anyways) and head over to Law Estate Wines.
It’s located on the west side of Paso Robles on Peachy Canyon Road, past Calcareous Vineyard. It’s a beautiful drive on the winding west side roads surrounded by green hills and vineyards.
The facility is quite interesting. It sits on top of a hill with amazing views and Paso friendly landscape…meaning low water usage, drought friendly. The facility itself kind of reminded Annie of Denner Vineyards. The simple, sleek lines are quite modern but inviting. Inside the tasting room the clean lines and simplistically modern look is comfortable and intriguing.
There is no “tasting bar” that I saw, instead they had our tasting ready at a coffee table that was surrounded by couches, right by the fireplace and beautiful floor to ceiling glass to catch the amazing hilltop views.
Amy, the one who sat with us and took us through the tasting of four wines, was very nice and provided us with great info on Law Estate Wines. The four wines we tasted were:
Beguiling – 94% Grenache, 6% Syrah – $65.00 – 391 cases
Sagacious – 44% Grenache, 42% Syrah, 14% Mourvedre – $65.00 – 351 cases
Intrepid – 100% Syrah – $65.00 – 359 cases
Audacious – 44% Grenache, 26% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Syrah, 10% Petite Sirah – $65.00 – 369 cases
All four wines were quite nice. Annie, not typically being a big Syrah fan enjoyed their 100% Syrah quite a bit, as did I. I’d have to say the Audacious was my favorite but again, all were quite nice. For a lot of you, including Annie and I, I know $65 a bottle is a bit more than what you’d normally spend but it was definitely a great experience. These wines would be great for the more serious wine drinker…not the one just trying to get buzzed.
I’m glad we finally made it out there and I really enjoyed our time. It’s definitely worth checking out and I can guarantee we will be hearing more and more about their wines in the future. Thanks again to Amy, it was great meeting you.
Some interesting notes:
The vineyards are at 1600 to 1900 feet.
They grow Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre, Cabernet Sauvignon, Carignan, Tempranillo, Petite Sirah, Petite Verdot, Clairette Blanche, Marsanne, Roussanne, and a field blend of Syrah and Viognier.
Their winemaker is Scott Hawley, who has his own label called Torrin.
As we mentioned above, the facility is pretty unique: The winery was designed by BAR architects using Scott Hawley’s wine making ideas and their clean and contemporary style.
Sustainability is important to the folks at Law Estate, in fact, they are in the process of becoming SIP Certified.
**Law is appointment only
Maybe it’s just me but I’m turned off by the way they work appointments and the $20 tasting fee for four tastes of $65 wine. Here their stuff is good though.
Jay, the wineries that do appointment only do so for different reasons…I’m not sure what their reasoning is. I admit that the appointment thing, the tasting fee, and the cost of the wine is not “typical” Paso but I for one am game to try any place once. Our one experience there was very nice. The people were awesome and we bought 2 bottles of wine. And so it goes.
Beautiful! Thanks for sharing, on my bucket list, my list keeps getting longer and longer…lol Cheers!
LOL…my list keeps growing too, Beverly. We don’t get out quite as much as we used to…probably a good thing. Cheers my friend. 🙂
Thanks for the heads up on the cost! I wouldn’t have expected to pay that much for a tasting or for a bottle. The wine has to be extraordinary for me to pay that much for a bottle but I’ll stop there one day to taste. Reminds me of Opus One in Napa/Calistoga. They charge $40 for a glass.
Pay, I guess you’ll never see me at Opus One. LOL. I hear you. I liek to go try things once to see what’s happening but this is a place I obviously won’t visit very often due to pricing. Annie and I love our wine but we’d go bankrupt drinking wines at this price on a regular basis…and by regular basis, I mean daily. 🙂
I don’t mind the price and there are quite a few places with $65+ wines. I just thought it seemed Napa-like with how it’s presented. I definitely could be wrong. I’m sure I’ll check them out eventually .
Jay, I totally understand your thoughts. Paso, in my mind, is a place where you can drink some really good stuff for $15 to $35 a bottle. The minute you get into $40 plus I wonder what the real difference is. I’m not a wine snob…plus my wife and I drink wine daily, so I don’t want to go broke enjoying fermented grape juice. On the other hand, it’s really fun to go try new places to see what they’re all about.