Pear Valley Wines-A Good Place to Sip Vino or Hold Your Wedding

It’s a perfect place for sipping a California bottle of wine or perhaps getting married. Pear Valley Winery on the east side of Paso Robles sits atop rolling hills overlooking the town. It’s a beautiful place. To paraphrase an old adage, the wine is here, it sure is beautiful.

We visited Pear Valley in 2015 and were surprised at the strong peppery spice flavored wines, even after pouring through Haley’s Corker aerators.

So we jumped at the chance when friends who are members of Pear Valley wine club invited us to visit with them. We enjoy many of the same wines they enjoy and wanted to see if anything has changed at the winery.

We enjoyed the wine. The strong peppery spice flavors are gone from their wines and they’ve added a few new ones. We don’t recall Sauvignon Blanc or Viognier on their tasting list but found them here during this visit.

What did we taste? Here goes:

2021 Sauvignon Blanc $28 ✰

2021 Fruition (blend) $28 ✰

2021 Chardonnay $28 ✰+

2021 Viognier $28 ✰+

2019 Grenache $32 ✰+

2018 Zinfandel $30 -✰

2019 Charbono $32 ✰

2018 Merlot $28 ✰

2018 Cabernet Sauvignon ✰

The three stand out wines are the Chardonnay, Viognier and Grenache. All received a star plus rating from us. The Chardonnay is considered a stainless steel product (no oak barrel) but it still had the buttery feel. The Viognier was wonderful. I sometimes think it’s impossible to make a bad California bottle of wine of this varietal. The Grenache was light, bright and ready to drink.

They still pour everything through Haley’s Corker, even their white wines which always surprises me. If you have a Corker pour a little Chardonnay through it and compare it with and without the Corker. You will be surprised with the taste difference.

Pear Valley Is Located at 4900 Union Road on the east side of Paso Robles. Tastings are $10.

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Some notes on our wine ranking system.

Bill & Erin Hodge write about California Wine, the estates & winemakers producing them and educational information about Vino. Living in California Wine Country provides a front row seat to the places you want to visit the most here in the Golden State.

– -✰  means -What’s next on your list of wines
-✰  means -Not liking it too much
✰ means  -We’ll drink this wine, especially if it’s hosted!
✰+ means -You’ve got our attention and we might buy this wine.
✰+ + means -We’re hooked and we’re going to buy this wine.
When you see -✰/✰+  with a slash, it means we disagree.

Bill & Erin Hodge write about California Wine, the estates & winemakers producing them and educational information about Vino. Living in California Wine Country provides a front row seat to the places you want to visit the most here in the Golden State.

– -✰  means -What’s next on your list of wines
-✰  means -Not liking it too much
✰ means  -We’ll drink this wine, especially if it’s hosted!
✰+ means -You’ve got our attention and we might buy this wine.
✰+ + means -We’re hooked and we’re going to buy this wine.
When you see -✰/✰+  with a slash, it means we disagree.