Exploring California's Southern Central Coast

On a recent trip to visit family in the United States, I flew into San Francisco and took a road trip through the California Central Coast wine country. A less well-known wine growing region than Napa or Sonoma, the Central Coast is making a name for itself thanks to an innovative new generation of winemakers who have in the last decade experimented with new ways to exploit the region's wonderfully sunny terroir. We travelled via the spectacular Big Sur coastline, turning inland at Cambria over beautiful rolling hills to arrive at the laid back town of Paso Robles.

Paso Robles is California's fastest growing wine region and largest AVA in San Louis Obispo County, encompassing more than 15,000 vineyard hectares and 200 wineries. Shielded from much of the coastal influence by the Santa Lucia mountains, it is the warmest wine region of the Central Coast. However, the hilly aspects provide suitable teroir to produce good Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon and Rhone varietals such as Syrah and Grenache.

I did not have time to explore the area and visit wineries scattered along windy roads surrounding Paso Robles, but fortunately many of the wineries have tasting rooms in town. Specific mention goes to the Diablo Paso winery as I discovered their delicious Spanish varietals, including Albarino, Garnacha and Tempranillo. I also briefly met the owner Nico Torres, who told me that his passion for Spanish wines originate from his origins in Mexico.

Our next stop was Santa Barbara County, specifically Santa Ynez valley, where we stayed at the iconic Sideways Inn in Buellton. Buellton is a stones throw away from the quaint Danish town of Solvang where apparently it is always Christmas! Just north of Solvang we visited Gretchen Voelcker, celebrated winemaker at Piazza Bella Vista organic wine farm in Ballard Canyon.

Ballard Canyon is beautiful and amongst the rolling hills one could be forgiven for thinking you have been transported to Tuscany!

Gretchen also makes her own wine under the Luna Hart label. Her speciality is making minimal interference wines, which I adore!

Just north of Ballard County lies Los Olivios, a small town boasting 25 tasting rooms representing most of the wineries in Santa Ynez valley. Two of these stood out for me, namely Solminer and Storm wines.

In 2012 Anna and David Belaski established a biodymamic and organic wine farm and winery in Los Olivios. Anna's Austrian roots paved the way for them to experiment with Austrian varietals such as Gruner Vetliner and Blaufrankisch with great success. Their carbonic Syrah is also one of my favorites from the region.

We also paid a visit to Storm Wines' tasting room in Los Olivios. South African Ernst Storm established the winery in Santa Ynez valley in 2006, buying in selected grapes from proven sites. Ernst specializes in Sauvignon Blanc, Syrah and Pinot Noir. His brother, Hannes, launched Storm Wines South Africa in 2012 with a focus on Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley.

An important thing to note about Santa Barbara county is that there is a big daily temperature difference between the eastern and western sides of Santa Ynez valley. Towards the west lies the Santa Rita Hills, straddling a valley that runs directly east from the cold Pacific Ocean. Fog enters this valley almost daily, cooling the daytime temperatures significantly. The best Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes are grown in the Santa Rita Hills. The Santa Ynez Valley itself runs north - south and is therefore much warmer.