The California Directory of Fine Wineries: Central Coast: Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Paso Robles

We just spent our first weekend touring San Luis Obispo and Paso Robles wineries and had a wonderful weekend. We live in The Bay Area and so have made numerous trips out to wine regions from Livermore to Anderson Valley to Willamette Valley. In general we like to find wineries through a combination of guidance and serendipity and this usually serves us well.We benefited so much from the "Back Lane Wineries" books of Sonoma and Napa that led us to some real gems. I was hoping to get something similar from this book, but both me and my wife found it a little disappointing.On the plus side, it is very well photographed and we found the index helpful in picking wineries that specialize in particular varietals.However, I have 3 main criticisms of it:1) The maps, while useful, have a number of inaccuracies which meant that we stopped trusting the book and resorted to our iPhones. Eg. "Stanger" winery is marked on the map in a completely different place on the "zooomed in" page of "Paso Robles Area" than the zoomed out page next to it (we checked it out and the zoomed-out version is correct). The map shows Hearthstone winery being before Denner whereas it's quite a bit further down the road after Denner. The map also misses out a number of wineries featured on the free map you get in the tasting rooms.2) A lot of the descriptions spend more time on the architectural details of the tasting rooms and the family history of the wine makers than they do describing the wine itself: "Water tumbles over the fountain, runs into two reflecting pools, and then cascades over a four-tiered course set amid brick terraces in the open-air amphitheater behind the center". Skip to the end... Some of it just feels like padding to make up enough text to fill the page. More details on the philosophy behind the wine making and the wines themselves would have been good.3) There's nothing in the book about how the author went about selecting the wineries in this directory. It's undoubtedly great marketing for the wineries that made it in there - Stephen Ross had reprints plastered all over the tasting room - but how was this selection curated? What is a "Fine Winery" in this context? Our serendipity led us to several curious omissions. A case in point was "Lone Madrone". It turns out that this is the private label for the wine maker from Tablas Creek, a "Fine Winery" that features in the book and which is well known in the area as being excellent. Lone Madrone's wine was among the best we tasted all weekend (better than Tablas Creek IMHO) and the situation of the tasting room is stunning. This was exactly the kind of place I was hoping the book would lead us to and yet it didn't even feature on the map.In summary, enjoy the pretty pictures, use it for some basic data and guidance and then just follow your nose.

Very nicely laid out with a full page and a picture of several wineries in Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Paso Robles. Contains enough detail without being so technical that wine tasting becomes a mystery. Photography is splendid, with detailed photos of each winery and their environs. We visited this region in Deember, so I was happy that imy book arrived promptly. We were able to read about the wineries we wanted to visit in advance, and of course, brought it with us on the trip! I saw this book at a wine shop in San Luis, and was happy that I grabbed it at a good price from Amazon.

Once you go to "The valley" your heart will belong to it. Well, mine does anyway. This book is real nice quality and filled with top notch photos as well as a great read. It is a true representation of what you will see and feel when you go there so if you are planning a trip there you wont be disappointed. Great food, wine, culture and above all, kind warmhearted people. I will enjoy this book for years to come and am sure it will have much wear and tear to show my love of it. It is such a lovely representation of such a beautiful place and a love of the land that is sowed to bring wines to wine lovers around the world.

As previously stated by other reviewers, there is no rhyme or reason to how the wineries were chosen for this book. However, I will say that having visited Paso nearly all of the wineries listed are fantastic. I was curious why they left out a few key wineries, including Adelaida, which has been around for a while. Anyways, a great and beautiful book if you have never been but consider two things 1. there are many other wineries not listed that are better than some that are listed and 2. there seems to be no real rating system for the wines themselves.Also realize that some of the winery locations are erroneous, such as Chateau Margene.

Short capsule review. Mine is the kindle version but it is beautifully illustrated and a goodstarting point for locating some of the tasting rooms and wineries in California wine country.Saw the booklet in the hotel room in Paso Robles but it was overpriced. Amazon has a muchbetter price for the hard copy or Kindle version. Recommend viewing on an IPAD.

We had been wine tasting before but it was kind of hit and miss regarding the type of wine we liked. With the guide we were able to select the vineyards that produced our favorite wines and target those. The directions were easy to follow. Although not every winery in the area was highlighted, they were on the map so were easy to find.

After reading this book I went to several of the wineries described in the Paso Robles area. All matched the descriptions of the author. All were fantastic choices. My out of town guests loved them, too. The photographs are beautiful.

Bought this as a Christmas gift but am going to buy another for a trip down the coast. Beautiful book with great info