Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Fest 2015

Do tell...I always try to hit new ones when I come in, so which ones would you say highlight Paso the best?

 

Most wine experts will tell you to stay on the west side of the 101 where the big juicy Rhone varietals reside. The best I've ever had include. Booker, Denner, Law , Epoch, Villa Creek and Saxum.

 

Denner and Epoch I've been to. From what I remember, Epoch had decent wines but the pricepoints were waaaaaaaaaay over the top for the liquid in the bottle. It's a beautiful tasting room, though. @OUJayhawk1799 maybe you can swing by for a taste...just know to take some home, you'll be unloading your wallet.

As always, your taste buds may vary as mine clearly do with respect to Epoch.

 

I may be in the minority, but Tobin James is my go to winery is Paso Robles. Can't argue with the fact they have one of the highest membership #s in their wine club.

 

Tobin James is fun, and nice that tasting is free, but the wine is far from best in Paso. First place that people from the Valley stop at though.

 

I'd put them in the same category as Justin. Solid wines and very approachable. A bit commercialized as well, but you can't really beat the prices.

 

Exactly. Smaller operations, more focus on craft rather than pumping out tons of cases.

 

I called the adelaide earlier today to ask about tomorrows hotel drop date situation The lady on the phone said that they're sold out.

I called another hotel to ask about tomorrow and they we're going to give me a call back.

 

I don't mean this disrespectfully, so please don't take it that way. But Tobin James to wine is what a beer like Newcastle would be to beer. Mass-produced, meh quality, but very approachable. Just think about the brews that got you into craft and where you are now. That will help you understand my point. Also, it would've been better if I had asked Jhawk what his pricepoint comfort level is before recommending spots to stop at. I probably take wine way more seriously than most. sorry

 

I was wondering where Justin fit in in the spectrum. I'm not a wine person but an old friend of mine who said she was always raved about Justin along with my former boss, actually. But he's from the valley. hahaah

Anyway, I did enjoy the stuff I've had from Justin, and it's the only place I've stopped up there so far. Like I said I'm not a wine person and my palate is pretty weak in the first place.

 

Which other one did you call? Bummed to hear about Adelaide. I'll still probably give it a shot tomorrow.

 

the Adelaide sells out months in advance. You need to book early. Another spot to check if no luck in PR is the Western States motel in San Miguel, about 10 mi up the 101. Nothing fancy, but cheap & clean.

 

I am well aware of this. But the Firestone Walker FAQ page says that the "drop date" for Adelaide is tomorrow. Which to me (and a few others in this thread) means they have more rooms available blocked off.

 

No none take at all. I'm not as big into wine, so it fits my fancy even with knowledge of the many other wineries in the area. It is nice having a wine country so close to me (Bakersfield) as opposed to Napa or Sonoma. Some of the Paso wineries can stand up with the best that Napa has to offer!

 

The one close to the brewery.

Maybe the employee isn't informed about the block dates.

 

Adelaide had rooms available for Friday but not Saturday when we checked this morning. That didn't work with the 2 night minimum for us. Fortunately we had a room elsewhere already. Went ahead and made the reservation for next year, which is what I should have done last year.

 

I called The Oaks Hotel and The Adelaide Inn which drop dates were both today and they said that their rooms have been booked for "months." I thought the whole point of a drop date is to open up blocked rooms for the event. Am I missing something here?

 

My understanding is that "drop date" is only referring to the date when the block of rooms reserved by FW for the event are released (i.e. dropped) back to the public for public sale (the hotels aren't gonna hold rooms for your event forever, after all). Odds are the FW block of rooms sold out fairly quickly, therefore there are no rooms left to drop to the public.

I learned this lesson the hard way last year (one year ago today as it turns out) - called every single hotel on their website and every single one was booked. I ended up lucking out finding an old post from a guy who didn't need his room anymore at the Holiday Inn, which was a huge life saver - thanks again @Joenajera.

 

Yeah I think that was the confusion with the drop date thing. My initial thought was that in order to get the rate specific to that event, you had to book by that date if they still had rooms available. But someone else in this thread said that the drop date was the date those blocks opened up.

 

We call that a "win-win"!