A Taste of Paso

The Paso Robles AVA (American Viticultural Area) was established in 1983 when there were a handful of wineries .It is the largest in the state at 614,000 acres. Many experts including the esteemed Robert Parker believe that Paso Robles holds some of the greatest potential in all of California. According to Parker...

"The greatest headway has been made west of Highway 101, where most of the top vineyards are located. These are hillside vineyards planted in limestone soils of various elevations, but almost all are within 10 to 15 miles of the Pacific Ocean. These limestone soils, prevalent in many of France's finest vineyards, seem to encourage wines of great intensity as well as elegance."

photo courtesy of pasowines.com




As the number and quality of the wines has grown, so has the town. The one time cowboy town is now filled with charming shops, and fresh-locally-sourced restaurants. Currently leading the field are Artisan, IL Cortile, Villa Creek,Thomas Hill Organics and Bistro Laurent.

photo courtesy of IL Cortile



kitchen at Artisan


photo courtesy Thomas Hill Organics

A stroll around town before or after dinner will lead to any number of downtown tasting rooms.

The Paso Wine Center, located in the heart of town, boasts over 200 local wines available for purchase along with 48 hard to find boutique wines on the tasting menu.
Many wines that are unavailable for purchase anywhere else can be found here.

For more information go here for recent press on the area:
http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/the-promise-of-paso-robles
http://www.travelswithtwo.com/index.php/2009/07/29/a-weekend-of-wine-in-paso-robles/
http://sfwine.wordpress.com/2010/01/26/journey-paso_robles/


In future posts I will highlight individual wineries, restaurants, and boutiques, and points of interest. In the meantime, I am hoping for final resolution of the countertop dilemna.... Food for thought....

Moving On

Another weekend of hard labor (husband, son, daughter in law and me) and things are progressing. The boys worked on the bar in the kitchen & installing the master tub. I worked on the aforementioned cabinets flanking the fireplace. I wanted to paint them a gray washed white but it wasn’t meant to be. Instead I sanded and distressed the existing dark walnut finish and applied a briwax finish (in ebony) on top to tone it down and add depth. Colin replaced the ply board backs with tongue and groove boards which did wonders for the overall appearance. This is what they looked like before:

This is what they look like after finishing and a little staging (with what we had available)

The living area is not overly spacious so in order to maximize the seating I ordered two of these chairs from Dovetail Furniture. They are only 25 x 24 x 36. I will replace the cushions with thicker down envelope cushions for comfort.




Rachel Slip covered sofas have been ordered from Best Slipcover Company in Glynn Linen English Green






Fabulous coffee table by Dovetail Furniture



Parquet reclaimed wood top console also by Dovetail Furniture

I am pondering the idea of this rug under the coffee table from ebay. What do you think?

You can buy it here: http://www.shinerugs.com/

You may have noticed a similar one in the home that had the blog world ablaze, the home of Jill Brinson, stylist for Ballard Designs. You can view her home in the House Beautiful Dec/Jan issue, or listen to the ladies of the Skirted Roundtable chat with Stephen Drucker Editor-In-Chief of House Beautiful here:

http://skirtedroundtable.blogspot.com/2010/01/stephen-drucker-editor-in-chief-of.ht

Or read the tete a tete between Joni Webb http://cotedetexas.blogspot.com/2010/01/style-plagiarism.html, and Valorie, of the Visual Vamp, http://visualvamp.blogspot.com/

I think this rug would look great with the cowtan & tout livingstone fabric

What do you think?