10 am  J. Lohr

Arne helped us in the tasting room.  He is fairly new to Paso, but retired to Paso recently and loves wine and he said he was a club member for years.  We like going to tasting rooms during the week because we usually get one on one attention because it usually is a bit slower, so we get more information, most of the time this works very well, This time it did, sometimes it does not(more on this later).

J. Lohr has lots of acreage (1100 in Monterey, 2300 inn Paso and 35 in St. Helena) and the Estate Wines can be found anywhere.  The wines were nuanced and lovely across the board.  Good advertisment for the big guy making good wines without selling out quality.  The tasting room from the outside was unassuming, inside it was lovely, but not huge.  They are down Airport road, so you have to search them out.  All of their fruit is sustainably farmed, in fact they were designated Certified California Sustainable Winegrowers in 2010.

Well priced with nothing over $40 and they all tasted like wines that were worth alot more.  Ranging from a $10 Bay Mist White Riesling to their 2005 Hilltop Cabernet at $40.  Not a bad wine on the tasting menu.  Coming from a large corporation this was great control of quality.

We left with a couple of bottles as well as a great new go to wine when we need to pick something up at home, that will be easily accessible.  I happened to have received a bottle of the 2007 Hilltop Cabernet, that thanks to Arne, I know will drink wonderfully now, but if I can hold out for 2 or 3 years, it will be amazing!