So Much Wine...So Little Time

The last day of Wineapalooza...
I love Paso Robles, so I really didn't want to leave, but alas, we have jobs (no, I promise!) and we missed Seamus, so we packed up and made our leisurely way home. In downtown Paso we had lunch and hit the Paso Wine Centre tasting room. We were a little early (12 is too early for wine?? What??) so only JK Wines and Roxo Port were pouring....but they were worth the trip! We then decided to drive around enjoying the beautiful day  and randomly picking a winery to visit. My random pick was Red Soles winery. Much like picking Irish Vineyards a few days back, this one had my name all over it...they've got a shoe theme going!

See? Paso is just gorgeous!!

Our 40th winery visited and 330th wine tasted (in my glass--2010 Stiletto: a Late Harvest Viognier).

And look, we're still standing!! Now, we could have just stopped at 40 wineries and 330 wines tasted, which would have been a nice well-rounded ending. But, no. We're not wimps. But we should have been...
We rolled on into Los Olivos and...well, a tasting room that shall go unmentioned because the crabby, miserable man behind the counter was such a disappointment. We sort of felt trapped into a tasting...and he charged us more than anyone else on the entire trip!  Our last stop was better though. It involved wine AND dogs! How much better can it be?

Carinvintas Winery's motto is "Blending Wine with Philanthropy" and their philanthropy of choice is animal rescue organizations. Look at these beautiful labels, each has a rescue dog on it:

They're the winery that has the Vicktory wines (in honor of the dogs rescued from the awful Michael Vick dog-fighting ring) on  labels to raise funds for the dogs' care and rehabilitation. So, this was a great way to end our trip.

We bought the "Lassy" blend-- 50% Barbera and 50% Tempranillo....and then we drove home.

Our Stash...A job well done, no?

Final totals:  42 wineries/ tasting rooms visited.
346 Wines tasted
106 bottles purchased.
(It's 3 1/2 months since we ended this trip....I'm not going to report on how many of those bottles are left.)

And now, we will return to our regular programming of all things A,B,C and D  (Alcohol, books, coffee and dogs. And sometimes cancer...)

Fun fact for this post:   Yesterday I received my first official advance check from the publisher for The Dog Lived memoir!!!  I was disproportionately excited about that. And when I can, I'll post a picture of the painting I bought to celebrate the sale of my book and the opening of Chris's wine shop...which will happen on December 1st!!