The Paso Wine Fest 2025

Paso Fun Barrels

Despite the wastelands, and human detritus, I walk the five minutes it takes to get from my hotel's front door to the location of the Paso Wine Fest, and then it feels as though I've walked into a world of wine joy.

Tickets are checked, glassware is given out (unfortunately mine broke the minute I got it back into England) and all is done by the smiling helpers who are working this festival. In fact, it's quite difficult to tell who is working the event and who is here to enjoy themselves, because the smile appears to be the currency of the day and everybody wear one. Everywhere I look, every verbal exchange I make is met by such a cheerfulness that it's positively infectious, and before I've even stepped under a large structure that proclaims the start of the festival I'm beaming with expectation.

My tactic is to explore, way up and then decide where to start, but this approach changes as I enter the first location and see table after table heaving under the weight of bottles and other goodies ready to be sampled. I'll never try everything!

This view is reinforced when I walk outside and see an area with a stage, a variety of very large marquees, and swaying crowds eager to join the fun, Paso Robles style.

The event may be not as big as VinParis but the French don’t provide happiness in abundance. To tell the truth I know which most of us would prefer.

Glass of Red in Red

Man of Mystery 1

In the end I try about 40 wines. I would have tried more but time just wasn't long enough, and the wineries that I intended to visit were just too popular to go near, and then if you did you had to wait until the pourer came your way.

I would love to say that all the wines were top notch and deserving of good homes, but it just wasn't the case (is it ever?) although there were enough to make me want to seek out Paso wines in the near future. I curse that it took me so long to spend more time here.

I've listed a wide variety of wines on the next page and hope to come across them again. I would welcome them with an open glass, and excited palate.

The growers of Paso Robles seem to have found a point of difference that enhances the hot growing conditions of the area and the favoured varietals seem to come from the Rhône. At the Paso Wine Fest these are in such tasty abundance.

After a while I notice that my palate was waning under the continuous onslaught of Viognier, Grenache and the odd Albarino, and I decide to search out wines that might be going against this particular grain, and I find quite a few of these really interesting, and in my review of the wines tried you'll find som mentioned there.

Before I continue let me assure you that the quality and quantity of good wines being produced by the fine growers of Paso Robles really surprised me, and the one or two I'd had before this visit can be considered as the tip of a very large, and interestingly, tasty iceberg of excitement to be sought out.

If you add the sheer warmth and generosity of a people who are enjoying their best lives in a great area, then not only is Paso Robles a must visit area, the Paso Wine Fest should be near the top of everybody's list of must-attend wine gatherings.

All I Need

Somethings Should Never Change

This isn't just a wine festival in the conventional sense of the word. It's a celebration of discovery, enjoyment and confirmation that this place resembles how Napa Valley, and to a lesser extent, Sonoma, used to be before the experience tickers, trend-sniffers, and quick stop crowds pitched their tents, threw down their coin and swamped those places.

But back to this little find. There were prizes to be won. Unfortunately, the case I could get a discount on and the tasting room experience I so would have liked to enjoy will have to be left unclaimed because I wasn't in town long enough. Still they’ll make great souvenirs, along with the easy going conversations with producers who welcomed my interest and cemented a feeling that I want to know more than those unclaimed prize tickets can give me.

All too soon the event was over. The palate was flagging like an overworked racehorse, and my mouth was tighter than a stretched elastic band, and as I headed out through a sea of smiley Californians who continued to laugh, dance long into the night without the aid of a safety drink, I knew that I'd made my first great discovery of this trip!

The Mystery Man 2

Looking For The Mystery Man