rone | the first step to solving a problem is admitting you have a problem

Of course, the problem with that is that you can rephrase the problem in such a way that it's no longer a problem. Blink twice if you understood that.

Anyway, the original problem could be that it is impossible for me to show restraint in the face, er, taste of wine. Before our trip, Kim and i agreed that we would only buy wine that blew us away. So how did we end up with 22 bottles of wine? Is there truly that much great wine in the Paso Robles area? Did visiting 11 wineries in two days overwhelm our gustation and diminish our judgement? Are there evil wine gnomes sitting on our shoulders, whispering irresistible suggestions?

me and my honey at Wild Horse

I'm going with "gnomes".

Anyway, here's the wine, in order of winery visited:

York Mountain 1991 Cabernet Sauvignon (5 bucks! could be crap by now, but `91 was a good year, so it's an easy gamble; we've been advised to let it breathe 90-120 minutes)
Linne Calodo 2003 Problem Child (mostly zinfandel)
Opolo 2003 Grand Rouge (mostly counoise; 2 bottles)
Norman 2003 Vino Rosado (60% grenache, 40% syrah; a gift for my mother-in-law)
Norman 2002 Old Vine Zinfandel
Norman 2002 Mephistopheles™ Zinfandel
Halter Ranch 2002 Estate Syrah (they'd opened their tasting room a mere four weeks ago; the grounds are beautiful and the service was warm. they only have three wines right now [two syrahs and a syrah-heavy blend, all good], but they'll have more next year, including a couple of cabs)
Justin 2003 Justification (69% cabernet franc, 31% merlot)
Justin 2002 Isosceles (mostly cabernet sauvignon; "That's a right triangle, you moron!" "D'oh!")
Wild Horse 2003 Blaufrankisch (a German grape you'll not find elsewhere in California)
Wild Horse 2002 Cheval Sauvage Pinot Noir
Wild Horse 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon
Wild Horse 2003 Tempranillo (we joined the wine club to get this, as well as next year's négrette, as it ran out a little while ago [curses])
Martin & Weyrich 2000 Il Palio Sangiovese (which i've had before)
Eberle 2002 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon
EOS 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon
EOS 2001 Zinfandel Port
EOS 2003 Tears of Dew Late Harvest Moscato (tasting this after a series of average muscats was sublime)
Tobin James 2003 James Gang Reserve Zinfandel
Tobin James 2003 Liquid Love Late Harvest Zinfandel
Tobin James 2003 Charisma (i forgot what was in it; we bought it as an anniversary gift for palecur and amywithani, and they already picked it up, so i can't check)

Most of the above were recommended by the fine folks in

wine and

in_vino_veritas. Linne Calodo, Norman, Eberle, and Tobin James had canine greeters, which is a plus for any winery. We probably could've skipped the Problem Child, but the `01 was so good, it deserved another chance. I walked away without the two wines i expressly wanted to purchase on this trip: Wild Horse's négrette (which was sold out) and York Mountain's black muscat (which sold out six months ago and will no longer be made because the source vineyards were ripped up and the land was turned into housing [WTFF!!!!]). I wish we'd had the chance to pick up a bottle of Turley's charbono, but we tested the limits of our endurance, monetarily and toxicologically, as it was. I noticed that the wineries on the west side of 101 had, on average, more expensive wines than the ones on the east side (Justin and Linne Calodo would fit in, pricewise, at Napa). We saw a lot of roussanne, but none of them are worth mentioning.

In the future, i think we really ought to stick to four wineries per day, topping out at five only if it's a one-day trip. Even with sharing one tasting instead of having one each, pouring stuff out, and drinking plenty of water, we definitely got wine fatigue. At Tobin James, our final winery, my mouth was fuzzed out by tannins and no amount of miniature breadsticks and water could fully clear them out (their wines all had the most amazing nose, though). And now, the final challenge is finding space for all this damn wine!