Today mom and I took a break from our regular routine to attend the Atascadero Wine Festival. We’ve been to it a few times before, but it’s been a couple of years, so it was nice to go again.

It has really grown since the last time we were here: nearly 80 wineries are set up around the top part of the park nearest the lakefront, and there are more artists and food venders than in years past.

At exactly 11:30, we paid our $35.00 and got our wristband (which also gave us free admission to the zoo, which I plan to walk through later), picked up our wine glass, ten (TEN!!) tasting tickets and our map. We were ready to go! This year we decided to try mostly, if not all, new, never before tried wineries. We had plenty to choose from! There were a few old favourites I wanted to hit as well, and with ten (hello, TEN!!) tasting tickets, I was confident we could try just about everything we wanted.

Our first stop was a little winery called Red Soles Winery. The owner who was pouring said he wasn’t going to take tickets, so we ended up with an extra tasting! Yay! And, also his wine was good: we tried one called “The Vamp”. I chose it simply because of the unique name, and it turned out to be a delicious white wine as well. One very cool thing: their logo is a print of his left foot and his wife’s right foot!

At Thunderbolt Junction Winery we tried a white wine called “Mermaid’s Fantasy”; another wine chosen solely on the basis of the name. It wasn’t a terribly good choice. Compared to Red Soles, it was very bland and boring.

Our next stop was at Jack Creek Cellars where we tried a Chardonnay. As she was pouring, the girl told us they had only just bottled the wine, like, FOUR DAYS AGO (or something to that effect). It showed. It tasted like a very, VERY new wine – sort of a lemony light grape juice without much complexity or flavour. I only gave it two stars, but who knows? After it matures a bit, it might be really good.

We’ve tried the Apple Chardonnay from Kelsey Vineyard and Winery before, but we liked it so much we decided to try it again! Just as before, it was refreshing and delicious!

Also, I was thrilled to see they’ve won some awards! They so totally deserve it!

Laura’s Vineyard has been one of my favourite wineries for some time now. I particularly love their Chardonnay, which is why I chose to taste it again today.

And, c’mon! Check out their cool wine festival swag:

We took a break for lunch, picking up a small snack at McGee’s: a spicy, garlicky hummus with some baguette slices, and smoked salmon with a sour cream and dill sauce. It was delicious!

For dessert we picked up a couple of espresso brownies from Coastal Cookie Co. We were going to just get one and share it, but they came in two-packs, so we split one and saved the other one for after dinner. They were delicious. Sinfully delicious! We paired it with a tasty Voigner from Still Waters Vineyards and it was really good together!

As we enjoyed our lunch – as well as throughout the entire festival – we enjoyed the music of The Mighty Croon Dogs.

And since it’s been a while since I’ve shown off a fresh pedicure, here is the pretty, summery pink of O.P.I.’s A Dozen Rosas:

At Black Hand Cellars we tried a Sauvignon Blanc. It was nice and cold, which was good because it was getting really, really hot! It was a nice, refreshing little wine. Frankly, at this point, it was getting kinda hard to differentiate between the whites (we stuck exclusively with white wines because of the incredibly oppressive heat). We mostly stuck with what we know and like – Chardonnay, Sav Blanc and Pinot Grigio – and by this point they were all starting to taste the same! I also stopped taking notes, and I don’t remember what I really thought of the following selections.

Edward Sellers (Get it? Sellers? Cellars? Like a wine cellar? No? Must just be me. I’m getting a little drunk at this point.) had a very good Chardonnay. Light and tasty. I think. 

Salisbury Vineyards had a lovely refreshing Pinot Grigio. I usually like Pinot Gris better than the Grigio (not that there’s much difference; one’s French and the other’s Italian. Shrug), but this was really nice.

At the Cayucos Cellars we tried another Chardonnay. It was good.

four vines winery was by far one of the funnest wineries! Their swag consisted of various temporary tattoos (I snagged the one that says “zinbitch”, but I haven’t put it on, yet!), and they gave their wines some pretty cool names like Heretic, The Maverick, The Biker, Anarchy and Naked Chardonnay, the latter of which is what I tried. A really good wine (if I remember correctly), and a really fun group of pourers!

Well, that’s it. After finishing our (10!!) tasting tickets (well, technically it was eleven, since the Red Soles guy didn’t take our ticket, but I somehow managed to lose my last one, so mom and I split the Naked Chardonnay on her last ticket), mom rested in the shade while I toured the Charles Paddock Zoo to sober up a bit. It was a really fun day.

From what I can remember.

Cheers!