Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/688647
114 { THE SOMM JOURNAL } JUNE/JULY 2016 Ancient Peaks—with its massive stretch of land that encompasses both Santa Margarita Ranch and Margarita Vineyards—is by all accounts the best place for anyone to start a tasting tour of Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon and Bordeaux-style blends. It's rich in history: The rolling Margarita Vineyards were once part of the Santa Margarita cattle ranch, one of the oldest working ranches in California. It boasts talented winemaker Mike Sinor : The impossible-not- to-like Sinor, is one of Paso's biggest champions, and has spent his decades-long career working and learning from the best winemak - ing and viticulture minds in the Central Coast (his first harvest job was working alongside Ken Brown, who helped shape the Santa Maria region into a paradise for Pinot Noir). It also boasts an element of flat-out fun. Yes, wine is taken very seriously in Paso. After all, this region has steadily gained ground on Napa and even Bordeaux. Yet, as its prominence rises, Paso's wine community refuses to forget that wine, at its core, is about joy. To that end, across the street from the Ancient Peaks tasting room hang Santa Margarita Ranch's labyrinth of zip lines. "It's pretty hard not to love tasting great wine, meeting Mike [Sinor] and zooming across a zip line. Amazing wine, amazing views," said SOMM Camper Jonathan Landeen, owner of Tuscon Cork in Arizona. "Wine tasting and zip lining is great pairing." After the sommeliers braved the lines' speed, heights (and, ahem, undercarriage harnesses), they headed into the newly opened Ancient Peaks tasting room and café, where the beaming Sinor led the amped crowd through a tasting of Ancient Peaks' Bordeaux- style wines, while explaining the vineyards' diverse micro soils, elevation and cooling sea fog that envelopes Margarita Vineyard almost nightly. They tasted through the 2012 Oyster Ridge Bordeaux blend and the 2013 reserve White Label Cab Sauvignon. Then came the 2013 Merlot. Unlike a lot of drinkers, who sadly (and wrongly) scorn Merlot, the wine pros of SOMM Camp knew better, and whole heartedly agreed they were tasting an instant Paso classic. Armed with the hilarious GoPro footage of the zip line experience, SOMM Camp headed north up the 101, visiting the newest member of the Paso Roble CAB Collective, Clos Solène Wines, located in the winemaking enclave of Tin City. This burgeon- ing community has become the center and proverbial heartbeat of the craft wine movement in Paso Robles and the Central Coast. Winemaker Guillaume Fabre, who named the winery after his lovely wife, Solène, greeted everyone with a splash of his limited- production Provence-style rosé, a welcome relief from the dry heat. Raised in both Languedoc-Roussillon and Bordeaux, Fabre told the DAY 1 PHOTO: JESSIE BIRSCHBACH Somms listen tentatively to winemaker Guillaume Fabre in the Clos Solène tasting room. A brave somm camper zips over an Ancient Peaks Vineyard in Paso Robles, CA.