Paso Robles: Caliza Winery

Last week Carl Bowker, head wizard at Caliza Winery, invited Annie and I over to their Friday night Spring Member Appreciation Event. Although we are not members (we’ve chosen to only be members at 2 or 3 places at a time) he invited for some strange reason…maybe he likes us…who knows.

Here’s the thing about Carl and Caliza, we have slowly gotten to know them over the past 4+ years; in fact, our very first blog post ever was about Caliza. That was back in January of 2010. Back when we were just young pups.

If you haven’t met Carl, I urge you to head out to Caliza sometime. He is a genuine guy with a great sense of humor and a vision of what he wants Caliza to be. We have enjoyed many, many bottles (for 4 years) from them and every single one has been good to outstanding. Another fact, when people come to me (which they do often) asking what wineries they should go to when visiting Paso…Caliza is always on that list.

So back to the point of all this. We go to the party last Friday night and The Pairing Knife food truck was there with some killer concoctions to pair with the Caliza wines. Here are the pairings:

2012 Kissin’ Cousins (62% Viognier, 26% Grenache Blanc, 12% Roussanne) and the 2012 Sidekick (60% Roussanne, 40% Viognier) were paired with seafood ceviche and olive tapenade crostinis

2011 Azimuth (42% Grenache, 30% Syrah, 22% Mourvedre, 3% Petite Sirah, 3% Tempranillo) was paired with grilled vegetable and mozzarella Panini on ciabatta with romesco spread

2010 Sympatico (75% Tempranillo, 13% Syrah, 12% Grenache) was paired with smoked pork tostada topped with slaw and chimichurri sauce

2011 Companion (52% Syrah, 42% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Tempranillo, 3% Petite Sirah) was paired with tri-tip slider on sourdough with “Companion” bbq sauce

So…jealous yet? Possibly hungry? Yeah, me too!

The place was hoppin’, the food was spectacular, and the wine was amazing. Caliza is one of the spots in Paso Robles that I would put my name on in a heartbeat when it comes to recommending to others. Be sure to check them out if you’re ever in Paso and say hi to Carl, Pam (his wife), Pam (not his wife), and Danielle if you go in. Awesome folks producing some of Paso’s finest wines…in my humble opinion.

Cheers!