Wine Country Gourmet; The Delights of Californias Central Coast

1. Who should read this blog?

• Anyone who wants to have fun with wine and food and is interested in the total experience – including the social pleasures of visiting different wineries, wine tasting with friends, stopping along the way to try out some olive oil or cheese, and shopping for a great wine country souvenir to take home.
• Any spouse or partner of a ‘cork dork’ who is looking for a vacation destination they can both enjoy. While your better half is having a tete a tete with the winemaker, you might be deciding where to have lunch.
• Anyone interested in the wines of Paso Robles, Edna Valley, and San Luis Obispo County. There are hundreds of wineries and tasting rooms -- from funky Clautiere in Paso Robles, with its purple tasting room where wigs are the order of the day, to gorgeous resort-likeTalley Vineyards near Lopez Lake east of San Luis Obispo.

2. Why don’t you provide detailed wine critiques?

First, there are already plenty of those, and quite frankly they bore the socks off of us!

When wine snobs start rhapsodizing about “heady” and “iconic” wines that “dance on your nose and palate,” our eyes glaze over, even when we're not drinking.

Don't be intimidated by the myriad descriptors wine reviewers and winemakers enthusiastically pile on.

Do you really care whether you taste lychee nuts, tobacco, wet stones or old leather in your glass? Would a hint of black cherries appeal more to you than raspberries anyway?

Finding a great wine you like is extremely gratifying, regardless of whether you can taste or smell the endless march of fruits, herbs, and materials used to describe them.

Also, you will find that the more you taste, the more you are able to make these subtle distinctions and the more you wil appreciate complex wines. Then winedrinking becomes as much an intellectual experience as a gastronomic one.

Second, evaluating wine is such a subjective experience. While we do find wines we prefer over others, we can think of only a few we’ve tasted that no mortal being could actually like. Even mom’s homemade “wild cherry bounce” was drinkable when she added enough brandy to it.

3. Other questions? Write to us at WineCountryGourmet@Charter.net.