Wine Tour part two

So I hopped in the car this morning to be greeted with frost!!! That is a first for me in California.

I hotailed it up the coast to Pismo Beach where I was going to pick up my next wine tour in Edna Valley, part of San Luis Obispo county at 10.30am. As expected, the 101 was dead quiet on a Sunday morning and I got there with an hour to spare and so went for a walk around the pier and grabbed a superb cream cheese frosted cinnamon roll

Pismo Beach is a lovely little spot, with a plethora of independent businesses, restaurants and bars and most importantly a fabulous beach. I can see why people would come here for a weekend!

My tour picked me up and this was much smaller than yesterday - just the 5 of us in total. Edna Valley is home to 14 boutique wineries - there are many more in the north of the county and I will get up to that area another time for sure. 

We headed off to Baileyana, whose tasting room was in what was the old school building many moons ago. Converting schools to wine tasting rooms?! I love it!

 2nd tasting was at Wolff, where again we had some delicious wines, and the pourer (owner's son) spoke with great knowledge about the wines he was pouring us. We had a nice picnic lunch here in the outdoor picnic and tasting area. The also named one of the reds after the vinyard dog, who made a guest appearance!

3rd tasting was at Saucelito. They had a lovely outdoor area aswell for us to enjoy the winter sun. I always struggle a bit with the wine tasting directly after a lunch, and sat there swilling perfectly nice wines that on another part of the day I am sure I probaby would have bought! I was too busy digesting like a giant anaconda...

4th tasting was at a winery who bought their grapes from other vinyards - he had no vines of his own. We got to meet the owner Steve which was a treat, and try his really big bold reds. I bought a bottle of really punchy Pinot Noir that my dad will love if I get it home to him. However I am very aware I am heading off to the wine desert of Mexico and I may end up drinking this bad boy in desperation.

The two couples I spent the day with were very pleasant and the guide knew a lot about the area and I felt he took us to wineries that weren't your normal run of the mill places. We had to pay for 3 of the wine tastings, whereas yesterday it was all included, and we actually got special treatment. So despite the bigger group yesterday I would say I preferred the Santa Ynez tour and the wine in that valley.

I have loved my time up here in wine country. You could easily spend a week in each of the valleys and still not see all of the wineries. The climate is awesome, the scenery in winter is glorious, with big old green hills, trees, cows and spookily empty vines. 

Come to California and taste the wine. You won't regret it whatever area you go to (unless perhaps you go to Temecula). I swear they keep all the good stuff for themselves and just send us the crap in the UK, so don't judge what you get in the UK as Californian wine!