Centuries ago, wine was considered part of sacred and ritual events. Those who were sanctimonious felt that the addition of drinking wine to every celebration created an impact on how the messaging was delivered and received. Yet nowadays, wine has become even more mainstream and part of society’s daily meal planning and most restaurant’s innovative food pairings.
What has attracted this captivating romance we have with sipping wine and how it’s made? It all comes down to an affair of the heart, mind, and soul. Wine and its many varietals are synonymous with entertainment, celebration, gatherings, sumptuous food presentations, and an overall ability to sniff out the best of the best.
The Art of Winemaking
From grapes to your glass, the method of making wine is a step by step process that’s come a long way since the good old days of pressing grapes with your bare feet. Traditional winemaking does follow some of these simplistic styles; however, there are guidelines that vintners adhere to in order to produce the finest Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon.
- Harvesting – plucking grapes from the vine (stems and all) and sending them to the crushing process
- Crushing – after picking and gathering, the grapes are put through a de-stemmer, with each varietal requiring different types of pressing
- Fermentation – the most vital step where the alcohol content is created in the wine barrels
- Maturation – depends on what the winemaker is trying to create, adding complex flavors and textures that can be short-term or years in the making
- Fining, Bottling, and Corking – removing unwanted particles prior to bottling, and then sealing with a cork or screw top (which some winemakers prefer due to the limited bacteria that can enter the bottle opening)
It may take years of challenging harvests to achieve the perfect blends, as winemaking is an arduous process. Allowing the natural grapes to be the highlight of the show definitely helps which direction to take with every type of wine. The smaller, independent winemakers pay attention to the fine details and ensure their signature wines are ready to be sipped by a welcoming audience.
There are numerous layers to winemaking and reaching the perfect glass after much time and energy has been invested by the vintner. No two wines are equal, that’s for sure. Every flavor and texture has been tirelessly and humbly pressed, fermented, and bottled to land on the shelves and be chosen as your favorite.
A Hot Spot for Winemaking
There are many places in the world that produce some of the finest bottles of wine, those delicate blends of multifaceted textures that have given your meals and food choices more value. From Italy to France to Spain to South America and to the Pacific coastal regions of California, the winemaking business has boomed into something of a soulful spectacle. Paso Robles, for example, this inland zone of the California central coast, has been producing some of the more robust blends in recent years and there’s no stopping the popularity of the winemakers who pride themselves on their tastings.
Whether it’s a Petite Syrah, Zinfandel, or a luscious Cabernet Sauvignon, Paso Robles wineries are all the rage. Between the region’s warm days and cool nights, Paso has become California’s most accessible wine country. Located along the Central Coast, just a few miles from the Pacific Ocean, Paso Robles produces wines with a sense of elegance, beauty, and energy that the stunning Central coast is known for in both our dreams and in reality.
Paso Robles is situated smack dab between San Francisco and Los Angeles, and has surpassed Napa as one of the best growing regions of California. Why? The soil. Paso doesn’t get as much rain as the northern region and not much tropical moisture from the southern coast, thus the soils are the perfect recipe for producing some of the finest grape harvests.
Even though Paso Robles has been making wine for decades, the region is becoming more well known as a geographic prime spot for winemaking and attracting wine enthusiasts from all over the globe.
The wine industry shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, the mere idea of sipping and celebrating wine and how its made has ramped up in recent years due to curiosity, appreciation for the grape farmers and winemakers, and foodies who know how to satisfy their palates. If Paso Robles continues to produce some of the finest wines, there’s no end to the wine experience from this beautiful and vast region of California.
