Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Road Trip Part IX - Paso Robles, Day 2


The next day we had the first of three gourmet breakfasts at the inn. Diane made us lemon souffle pancakes with raspberry sauce and sausage. Yummy. We then spent the morning at the urgent care clinic (don't ask), before starting our whirlwind day of wine tasting. We started at Turley, bought 6 bottles of fantastic zin and then went to Linne Calodo, where they were pouring some amazing wines (they are a little pricy though). We bought two bottles then moved on to Denner, where we bought a bottle of the mourvedre to have with our picnic of cheese, crackers and nuts at one of the picnic tables at the winery (picture above). We drank the entire bottle of wine (I'm still not sure how) and then went on to Villa Creek for our last tasting of the day. Our palates were pretty blown by then, so I don't remember much about this tasting, although we did buy 4 bottles here, so I hope they are good!

During the wine/appetizer hour back at the inn, we met the other two couples who were guests there, and again enjoyed the sunset from the outside seating area (the picture at right shows the same view, but later during the moonrise). One of the couples we met was going to the same restaurant we were going to that night (which was Artisan), so we changed our reservation time so that we could share a table with them.

Artisan is an amazing restaurant. From the food, to the service, to the decor, everything was flawless. We started with the cornbread with lavender honey butter (a must), then I had the meatball gnocchi appetizer with tomato sauce (very good), then salmon with corn puree and black eyed peas, fresh corn, turnips and cherry tomatoes (seriously delicious). Steve had roasted tomato soup as his appetizer, then moved on to the sea food stew with saffron broth. We shared peach cobbler and trio of creme brulees with the other couple, and had another wine we brought with us, a 2005 Denner Ditch Digger. Dinner ran us $130 with tip and $15 corkage.

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