Paso Robles Wine Tasting Oct 2024

3 day trip to Paso Robles wine country

Since we have to collect our wines from Fratelli Perata, we decide to do it in person. Partially to celebrate belated birthday for me and also to see what a wine collection event entails. 

Epoch Winery

We decide to stay at Paso Robles Inn this time as I wanted to live downtown Paso to enjoy the convenient of walking to places for this trip. 

Paso Inn has a nice patio area that we really enjoyed on top of having regular hotel amenities so that worked out really well for this trip. They are sold out for the weeekend due to the Pioneer parade so we were lucky to book early enough to get the room 

Paso Robles Inn room

They also have a wine tasting event at Piccolo Hotel @ the Piper. The wines are not very good except for the white which is decent. 

However, Jennifer who worked that weekend is super nice and had some fun chats with her. First is we had no idea it's the Pioneer day parade on Sat. And she told us to expect some antique tractors and free beans giveaway and downtown being closed.  

The piper pouring the Thatcher wine all weekend

She also recommended Bushuong across the street and we liked the wine enough to sign up with them too. They only have a tasting room downtown. But the owner likes to collect records, record players, amplifiers. Jason did our tasting and he's super nice and cool too. Tannat was a new grape to me and they do a single varietal that's outstanding. 

Bushong tasting room which is very cool

We grab a quick dinner @ the Hatch as it's travel day and we are both pretty tired. The Hatch is an interesting place. Michelin guide and they are famous for rotisserie chicken and cool cocktails. We shared their half chicken with an excellent cornbread. 

Dinner at the Hatch

We woke up bright and early the next morning and checked out the parade. 

Bean cooking in the AM for distribution at lunch

Beautiful horses in the parade

There are some cool antique tractors that's very impressive 

Shots of the parade going by

Old tractor 1

Steam tractor and also old

This tractor is ridiculous

After watching the parade till 1030am, we have to leave to drink wine =) 

First stop Turley 

Turley been on my radar but not enough to sign for their wine club. They do a lot of zinfandels and that day the tasting was done with Juvenile zin (which is 50 years old vine), and a J Dusi paper street  Zinfandel that they made into their zin. They also have a Amadeus Zinfandel and Presenti Zin. Presenti is the current winery location where they bought the winery with the old vines Zin. 

My impression is Juvenile is the right price tag at $24 for a casual drinking. I really think J Dusi Zin has potential to age well so got that to keep for a couple of years to see where it goes. 

Turley tasting room

2nd stop Fratelli Perata 

There's a casual Italian food to go with about 8 wines tasting at Fratelli. Pretty nice low key event that we really enjoyed and collected our wine

Fratelli Perata wine collection party

After the party we head back to the hotel and walked around downtown and drank more wine at Bushong before we called it a night. 

The next day will be a big drinking day. So we went to Joe's place for breakfast and we enjoyed that 

Joe's place famous biscuit and gravy, with interesting Ranchero sauce

3rd winery Epoch 

Epoch is the high end winery for the trip. It's a little over the top (tasting by appointment only, locked gate, greeted by a glass of Rose by your server at the door, flight of wine all poured and ready to go and a can of complimentary water to go).. and u pay for it too =) $40 per tasting! 

Unfortunately we didn't enjoy the red wines there. To my palette the wine does not have enough sweetness and seems astringent and not enjoyable. Their white wine ironically is very good but it's not part of the wine tasting and has to be requested after the red wine tasting. Also the bottles are too pricy. 

Epoch winery, greeted by Sherman our server at the door

Beautiful property and 2nd in the world for winery design

4th stop Linne Calado 

This is a fun winery. Their kitten Francisco was sleeping beside our tasting settee for almost the whole time. They have 2 dogs running around. Reminded us of the wineries in the valley. 

They are also tasting by appointment only and their wine is better than Epoch. Unfortunately their bottle start at $90 and just can't justify it. But we will go back for tasting as they are fun. 

Francisco cat with our tasting

5th stop J Dusi

This winery is a return for us. Their winemaker Janelle made an impression last year when we tried her Paper street series. So want to see what's her release this year. 

It turns out they are doing an event to match the release of Turley's J Dusi Zin, by Janelle debuting her own version of J Dusi Zin too. So we had fun trying snacks and trying that zin. And we did buy a bottle of that as it would be fun to try it with the Turley together. 

J Dusi wine tasting with Janelle's mum snack of Polenta and wrapped chorizo

After this we are pretty much done with winery tasting. Went back to the hotel and ate dinner at Il Cortile which is my favorite Italian place in Paso. They have a truffle risotto that is to die for. And everything is always well executed with homemade pasta, authentic Italian ingredients and good service. 

Il Cortile dinner with Carpacio with truffles, truffles Risotto, Homemade pasta with Italian sausage and scallops with truffle oil

Fun shots for the trip

We are set for Thanksgiving and Xmas! 

Catalina Island July 2024

Catalina Trip July 2024

Bill on the helm crossing back from Catalina

Me practicing steering with a rocky ocean

2 years after getting Oasis and retrofitting it, we are ready to try a Catalina trip with the boat.

Ready? let's go

Bill wants to do an overnight crossing as we will avoid the wind/waves in the afternoon. And boat traffic will be lighter. So at 8pm we push off

Nice and peaceful and calm oceans in the crossing

Taking the watch at 6am while Bill took his sleep

Tracking Oasis path on the google map

The Vulcan 700 tracking our path to Catalina! we made it!

The crossing is smooth and it's overcast after 2am. Saw a big bright barge in the middle of the night being towed. It's slightly spooky at night being the only boat and trying to see if any lights are coming at us in the dark. 

Finally.. daylight and we can see Catalina in the mist

We got out to Emerald bay without issues. And opened a bottle of cava to celebrate our first major voyage with Oasis. 

A bottle of cava for celebration

The waters are amazingly clear at the bay and did some snorkeling and paddle boarding. 

Water clear to the bottom

Amazing Emerald Bay

More clear water at Emerald Bay that we can see on our hike

Pretty emerald bay

Our friend Jeff and Simon showed up that night at 530pm with Jeff boat Green Envelop. I never got a good picture of Jeff's boat. 

Bill sister Jaime and husband Peter showed up the next day with their friends on their charter boat September Bliss

September Bliss moored next to us at Howland's mooring

Group shot

It got so rocky on the first night in Emerald Bay with the boat rocking badly that all 3 of boats move to Howland's landing. The water isn't as clear but it's a lot less rocky at night. 

A view of Howland's landing from our hike

We chanced upon the buck moon during our trip and it was amazing watching it for a few days when it rise shortly after the sun set. 

 https://www.space.com/july-full-buck-moon-2024-photos

The moon the first night

The moonrise at Howland's the 2nd night

Camp view for Howlands landing with LA Yacht Club on the side

Hiking from Howlands mooring to the scout camp

Fishing was fun and got a couple of big sheep heads. One for cerviche and one for roasting 

Simon helping us to clean the first fish while Bill watch

 

Roasting the 2nd sheephead for the group's happy hour snack

My favorite fishing spot, shaded, convenient to call Bill for reeling fish in, with a drink in my hand

On Monday, as we are leaving 2 harbour, found a small fish that decide to kamikaze in our dinghy =) 

Find the fish! towards the end of the boat! 

After the weekend, we split out with the group and went to 2 harbour and spent a night at Isthmus. But it was so rocky there and crowded with partiers that we decide to go to White's landing earlier instead. 

2 harbours town

Entrance of the town

A more run-down version of Avalon? =) 

Sunset at Isthmus

We had buffalo milk at the pub but it was truly not memorable. I guess we have to be a tourist and do it once. 

Eating at the pub town

What's really pretty is the walk to see Cat Harbour on the other side of Isthmus. It's very dramatic coming up to the mooring with a long dusty road

Dramatic view of Cat Harbour

Cat Harbour

White's landing is San Diego YC Catalina outpost. We are familiar with it since we did a few work parties and a few trips by ferry.  It's interesting to be there with our own boat as we are not dependent on the tents and facilities. But it's fun to see and interact with other club members. 

Good old Buffalo beach

Bill and I decide to hike up to the secret swing 

White's landing from the top

Secret swing.. found it!

We met up with Jamie and her group again at White's for a night and had happy hour on shore that day. We caught a lot of fish the previous day at 5pm using polish hot dogs and lures. It's what i remembered about White being a hot spot for fishing.  Caught another fish for cerviche for our happy hour

Cerviche time

Happy hour with the group

We came back on Thurs AM when Bill realized the wind is better for sailing and we pack up after breakfast and land back in SDYC on Thursday midnight. We made it ! 

Oasis sailing with spinnaker and main sails 

Bill relaxing and reading with the Buck moon

Random pictures of food and provisioning menu for the boat. First time learning how to provision for a week for both of us and learned a lot from the trip