Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/26650
GARy EBERLE AND TOBIN JAMES LED THE POSSE FOR PASO ROBLES WINE COUNTRY by Meridith May / photos by Rob Brown I f Gary Eberle is the “Big Daddy” of Paso Robles, then Tobin James is the self-proclaimed “Naughty Boy”: Both are pioneers from the early 1980s in a wine region that is absolutely blossom- ing in the 21st century. James was honored last month as the 2010 Paso Robles Wine Industry Person of the Year by the Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance. The Alliance, which represents wineries, growers and businesses in this rustic Central Coast wonderland, is California’s fastest growing wine region, encompassing more than 26,000 vineyard acres and 180 wineries. Although Tobin James grew up on a winery in South Indiana, near Cincinnati, it was a chance meeting with Paso Robles wine pioneer Gary Eberle that set his future career in motion. “This buzzing insect kept asking me for a job,” recalls Eberle, of the 1980 encounter with a hyperactive James, who was then working in his brother’s wine shop in Northern Ohio when Eberle was making a sales pitch to sell his label. “I tried to humor him by say- ing, ‘Sure, call me if you come out, but I can’t pay you.’ I thought that would cool his heels.” Soon after, Eberle was at the winery offi ce and got a phone call. “I’m at the airport; can you pick me up?” Eberle couldn’t believe it, but he picked James up and put him to work— albeit without pay for six months. “I never met someone so excited to be in the wine industry,” Eberle points out, adding, “and he went from being the lowest cellar rat to owning one of the premier wineries in Paso Robles.” “Yes, I did work for nothing during the fi rst vintage at Estrella [Eberle’s High Standards. Standard Poodles Cabernet and Roussanne (aka “Rou”) with Marcy and Gary Eberle, at their home—Club Eb—atop the winery estate. The Label The torn-edge WANTED poster label with the full-frontal sun is a stand-out look for Tobin James Cellars. The James Gang Reserve 2007 Zinfandel possesses right-on ripeness. Raspberry performs a balancing act with coffee bean, mocha and old-vine pruny-ness. Juicy and mouthfi lling. march 201 1 / the tasting panel / 87