Wineries and Beaches

by Eunice Kirby

Last September Steve and I spent three weeks in California. We go every couple of years as Helen, Steve's sister lives over there. Usually, we spend a few days with Helen then go off for two weeks or so on an epic 'road trip'. This year we decided to have a more relaxing holiday and spend most of the time staying with Helen at her house in Paso Robles. We flew in to Los Angeles and spent the first couple of nights in Redondo Beach, getting over the flights - one of those trips where if it could go wrong, it did go wrong! But we arrived safely with all our bags - on different flights but all eventually, at the same place at the same time! We also had to get used to the fact that the sky was blue and the sun was shining - after the 'summer' at home, this was something of a novelty.

We then drove north up Highway 1 / 101, passing through Santa Barbara just days before the fires took hold and crossed the highway, closing it to traffic. We arrived in Paso Robles where we spent fifteen days relaxing before we drove up 'The One' to San Francisco to spend our last few days in the city before flying home from there.

Paso Robles or The City of El Paso de Robles, to give it its full name, has grown a great deal since our last visit in 2004, although there are still only vineyards in the ten miles between Helen’s house and the city centre. There are a lot of large new hotels now open or due to open shortly. The city is almost exactly half way between Los Angeles and San Francisco on Highway 101, also known as El Camino Real or The Royal Road. It is also easily reached from Highway 1; just take the 46 inland south of Cambria or north of Cayucos, depending on which way you are travelling. We think that the area is becoming very popular with the residents of Los Angeles because of the vineyards. The San Franciscans can easily reach both the Napa & Sonoma Valleys but these are a bit too far for the Los Angeleans. Paso is only a half day’s drive away and ideal for a weekend of wine tasting.

The wineries vary in size from small to large; some offer only two or three wines to taste, others can offer fifteen or more to choose from. Most charge a small fee, usually five dollars, which you can have off any purchase or you get to keep the glass (we have a good selection now!) We visited several during our stay and learned some very useful wine facts e.g. dark chocolate completely changes the taste of red wine, improving it no end, in fact. If you open a bottle of red and are not too sure about it, offer your guests dark chocolate with it and they will think it wonderful! We were first offered chocolate with our wine at Justin Winery. They even sold tins of dark chocolate drops for you to buy - as did many others we found later. We particularly liked their Obtuse, a rich sweet red dessert wine. This is one of the larger but more out of the way wineries, set in lovely gardens and they have displays of the different sorts of grapes and the different ways of growing them - very useful if you are thinking of growing your own as Helen is. They also have an 'outside' dog to greet you as you walk through the gardens and an 'inside' dog who waits for you just inside the door.

The smaller wineries can be a lot more friendly. We called in at Falcon Nest on our way back to the house one day. We enjoyed the wines and talking to the owner who also kept hens and sold their eggs - she had a colour chart of the eggs, with the name of the chicken who laid each colour by it. We bought six eggs for breakfast and she asked us if we had ever tried guinea fowl eggs. We all said 'no' so she gave us three to try, but warned us that the shells were like concrete. She was right - it was like trying to crack solid eggs open when I cooked them the following morning, but they tasted fine.

We were lured to The Clautiere Winery by the advertising, the tasting room is described as 'Edward Scissorhands meets the Mad Hatter at The Moulin Rouge'. Well, we had to go after reading that, didn't we? And yes, it is rather mad but we enjoyed the wines, but most of all we enjoyed the gardens and the metal sculptures made by the Claudine, wife of the wine maker.

We went in the Robert Hall Winery ('the essence of Paso Robles'), a very large winery more like those found in Napa Valley, good wine but not as much atmosphere as the smaller wineries. Our favourite one was Tobin James winery. We were drawn in by the wonderful stonework in the grounds but were seduced by the most delicious of wines. We were served by a very nice young lady but when she went off to attend to someone else, a very pleasant man came to talk to us. Being English made us more interesting. He was really nice to chat to and we found out later that he was, in fact, Tobin James himself. We bought a couple of bottles and he autographed them for us - they are the bottles that we have not yet drunk! We shall call in at his winery when we next visit Helen - it was so much fun and had the bonus that all the tasting was free!

Well, that is some of the wineries dealt with; now for the beaches. The first few days we spent out on the coast because it was just too hot to stay in Paso. It was hitting 110 degrees and we are certainly not used to that, so a sea breeze was very welcome. All the little towns along the coast round there have wonderful fish restaurants, so we rather overdid the clam chowder and fish and chips, but they were all delicious and a change from the usual enormous steaks. We visited several of these towns and walked along so many piers. These piers are used by the local fishermen and some even have tables fitted with sinks so that the catch can be gutted and washed straight from the sea! Not for the squeamish. 

We enjoyed strolling down the piers as they gave lovely views of the coastline and offered the cooling sea breeze. We walked down Pizmo, Cayucos, Avila and San Simeon, all different but lovely. Pizmo is quite a large busy town as is the pier, Cayucos is so much quieter. They had seen whales and dolphins from the pier in the morning - we were on it in the afternoon. San Simeon is away from everything except a large group of eucalyptus trees which filled the air with their delicious scent. Avila Pier has The Olde Port Inn at the end, where you can sit at tables that are glass in the middle so you can look down into the water below and watch anything swimming by. 

Because most people just drive down Highway One for the scenery, not many actually stop en route except to stay the night, which meant that most of the places were empty apart from us. The only place with people was Pizmo Beach, which is quite a large place anyway. Our favourite place is Cambria, a town in two halves, the West Village and the East Village, both of which have lovely little interesting shops. We found a coffee shop in the West Village that had a roof terrace where we could sit with our coffee and cakes while soaking up the sun and watching the world go by, and guess what? We only ever had the place to ourselves. Another advantage to Cambria is that, if you cross Highway One at the western end, you come to Moonstone Beach - the most wonderful beach I have ever seen. It has rocks covered in pelicans out to sea, sealions playing in the water, large pieces of driftwood (sounds better than dead trees) for you to sit on and miles of clean sand to walk along. If you don't want to walk on the sand, they have built a boardwalk along to Leffingwell Landing with plenty of benches to sit on, to watch the ground squirrels as they dart about. We chose to cross the road and sit outside The Moonstone Bar and Grill for a cold beer one day, soaking up the sun and enjoying the peace and quiet.

One day, as we drove north to see the elephant seals near Las Piedras Blancas Lighthouse, Steve thought that I had drunk too much wine or beer as I spotted a zebra grazing in a field, then realised that there was a herd of them. They were in the grounds of Hearst Castle - William Randolf Hearst had brought them in as part of his private zoo and they have flourished - there were several young amongst the herd when we saw them. 

We also spent a couple of days in Paso itself doing normal everyday things and everywhere we went we found the people to be so friendly and helpful, we are already looking forward to our next visit.

We spent our last few days up in San Francisco and saw how it too has changed since our last visit. We also went over the bridge to Sausolito where we spent a couple of hours at The Bay Model, a scale model of the whole of the bay area built by the US Army Corps of Engineers in 1957, to test the impact of proposed changes to the bay and its related waterways. All that work is done by computer these days, so the model is now used for educational purposes. We certainly found it fascinating and I had not realised just how big the bay actually is.

So, if any of you are thinking of driving down Highway One, try to spend some time in the central area. There is a lot more to it than just an overnight stop - I haven't even mentioned places such as San Luis Obispo or San Miguel both of which have lovely old Missions. Then there is Templeton and many other lovely little places that are worth more than just being a name on a map. 

We went inland to Parkfield - home of a USGS Station, and walked across the San Andreas Fault - and, no, the earth didn't move for us! So stop for a few days and fall in love with a quieter pace of life (San Luis Obispo's slogan is 'Experience the SLO Life'), where the people are friendly and honest. The local newspaper prints the police reports and the most exciting thing to happen while we were there was an emu which kept escaping from its field and running around on the road or the golf course! And the restaurants offer large meals and small bills.

First published in VISA 80 (Aug 2008)