You have three choices for Paso Robles Wine Festival: 1) go to the main event in the park 2) avoid the crowds at the park and go to some wineries or 3) don’t do anything. Well, number 3 simply wasn’t an option for us and we’ve done the main event in the park four or five times. This year we decided to hit up a couple of wineries…
And the winners were…Four Lanterns and J. Dusi.
Steve Gleason, owner of Four Lanterns contacted me and said they’d love to see us out there to see the finished landscaped area as well enjoy some live music, catered food, and great wines. I was intrigued by the offer because the last time we were there the landscape seemed far from done and let me tell you, they have turned their outside area into a welcoming, comfortable, and beautiful spot to hang out. You can bet we’ll be there this summer to enjoy more live music and wine.
Steve was a great host just as he was on our first visit and we greatly appreciate his invite and hospitality. Our friend, Amy Butler (owner of Ranchero Cellars), is the winemaker for Four Lanterns and it turns out she was there so we hung out with her as well, along with our friend Cayucos Jon. Cayucos is not his name, of course, but I like the sound of it.
Our other winery stop was J. Dusi. We’ve always enjoyed her wines and her tasting room is a great spot to hang out. They had live music and food as well but more importantly, they were pouring glasses of Pinot Grigio…so there’s that. Our friend Chris works there so we had fun seeing her as well as twisting the arms of our friends Katie and Tyson to come join us for a little bit.
To tell the truth though, there was no arm twisting. In fact, J. Dusi is a winery that needs no arm twisting to go to. The wines are great. Janell Dusi and her crew are amazing and if you’re into beautiful scenery they have some of that too. So, two wineries on Wine Festival Weekend…now what should we do?
We decided to stop by the Paso Robles Golf Club to check out the restaurant. We had never been but some friends of ours have said good things. The bad news was we missed food service. The good news was they had beer and wine…and pub style chex mix stuff. I can’t speak of the food but the views from the bar area were quite nice and the “locals” hanging at the bar ended up being a fun group.
There you have it. That was our Wine Fest Weekend. Now what did you do?
A big thank you to Four Lanterns and J. Dusi for the awesome hospitality and great Saturday afternoon!
Here at Breakaway Tours, we’ve been hearing that it was the best Wine Fest park scene ever! Hats off to the Alliance for a great job and a raise of our glass to the all wineries that hosted our touring groups that day, hospitality was over the moon! Cheers~
Paso is the place to be!! 🙂
we have the same taste in wines. We are huge fans of both Four Lanterns and J. Dusk. (We even did blog posts on both). They are always a mandatory stop when we are out in Paso.
Very cool, Lori. So many great spots to go in Paso, just not enough time.