Day 4: We’re going down…to Paso Robles

Beautiful Highway 1

On another beautiful sunny California day, we headed South on Highway 1 to Paso Robles.

Highway 1 is a breath-takingly beautiful drive down the coast of California. It reminds me of the Chapmans Peak drive in Cape Town, with the mountains, cliffs and amazing ocean forming one after another picture-perfect moments. (warning: don’t take this road if you are in a hurry - we stood still for about 20 minutes twice during the course of the drive due to road works).

Looks a lot like Chapman's Peak in Cape Town

On our way down we stopped at a place where huge club of seals made themselves at home. It was just such an odd/cool/bizarre/weird thing to experience, they are all either lying on the sand or floating/swimming around in the sea, making odd noises, scratching themselves and just all together having the laziest lives of any creature that I have ever seen.

Some more Highway 1 prettiness

We stopped briefly at Hearst Castle, which was built by the newspaper magnate William Hearst. I’ve heard that it is worth going on the tour, as it is something to see because of its crazy opulence, but since we didn’t really have the time, a quick shop in the gift shop was fine by moi. I was thirsty and there was only one thing that could quench my thirst…wine…copious amounts of it.

Beautiful hilly drive toward Paso Robles

Paso Robles was a welcome sight. It felt like we were entering my kind of place. Beautiful hills, covered with vines and a promise of the sea nearby - just like Stellenbosch (the town where I went to University). Okay, the town itself is not as pretty as Stellenbosch, but the surrounding area is.

Tables Creek's sister winery - Domaine de Beaucastel

We went to 3 vineyards: Justin, Tablas Creek and Adelaida. I enjoyed the wine from all 3. There were a few stars, like Isocles from Justin. There were so many more wineries that we wanted to visit, but the time just ran out. We paid $10 per person to taste at each one of the vineries, so the cost added up really quickly, but at least you got to take the glasses home with you. (not really practical if you are on a fly-in, fly-out holiday, but fine if you are on a road trip. One thing that I must mention though, is that the wines in general, are really heavily priced. You would think that wines are cheaper on the farm, but it isn’t really. If find that the Californian wines are slightly overpriced in general, but there are quite a few wines that I would happily pay the big price tags for.

Each year the area of Paso Robles has a Rhone valley festival - which we off course missed by 2 (yes TWO) days. I was very upset, especially since a French wine-maker friend, Stephane, was at the festival. What a pity - NOT cool.

Adelaida's tasting room

Justin had great wines and apparently the restaurant is fabulous - unfortunately they’re only open for dinner. Tablas Creek has a sister winery in France called Domaine du Beaucastel. The wines are typical of the area and we enjoyed it a lot - but no restaurant. Then, we stopped at Adelaida - great wines - worth the stop and still - no restaurant. Note to South Africans: these wineries are not like ours where they all have restaurants and you can sit in the sun while sipping on the wine that you just tasted and stuff your face with lovely food. I had to be content with a packet of Cheetos that I luckily purchased at the Hears Castle gift shop. Not exactly the perfect accompaniment for the great wines that we tasted, but it did the job.

The lack of a fabulous lunch was a bit disappointing, but our meal that evening completely made up for it. We got a few recommendations from the locals, but because it was a Monday night, not all the restaurants were open, so we went to Villa Creek. The food was divine! We had:

Starters:

Tuna Ceviche, Blood Orange and Avo

Pear, Pancetta, nectarine and green leaf salad

Mains:

Gnocchi, Wild Mushrooms, Pork Ragout - the STAR of the show

Brisket stuffed Poblano Pepper, Mole

The food was amazing and the local wine just lovely. All-in-all - a great day and fab dinner!