Tolosa Winery

If your looking for events, we've got them!

At one of our events last year we had a film team called "The Wine Crashers," they were set-up to crash wine events! With over 12,000 wine events yearly throughout the state of California there is always something fun going on in this industry!  Here at Tolosa we contribute a decent number of events to that figure and we continue to do so mainly because people are showing up and having a great time! We try to keep the events diversified, so there's really something for everyone. Whether you enjoy cracking your own crab with friends in the barrel room or if you just want to sit down and relax in the Heritage Room with wine and cheese, we hope you find the event that suites you best.

With the upcoming months if your looking to enjoy some fun wine events we've got them!

• Thursday October 29th, 5:30-8pm: CLIQUE Fall Fest featuring the Damon Castillo Band
  This event will be held on the Tolosa Patio with live music by the Damon Castillo Band and an authentic Taco bar with two types of meat, chips, homemade salsa and guacamole!
• Friday October 30th, 6Pm: Dinner at Et Voilà Restaurant with Tolosa
  Enjoy wine tasting and passed appetizers, then sit down for a 3-course meal for only $30! Tolosa wines will be available to purchase by the glass or bottle at a discounted rate!
  Call 544-Food for reservations. Menu on our Calendar of Events.
• Friday November 6th, 6pm: Winemaker Dinner at Tolosa with The Range Restaurant
  To kick off the Harvest Celebration weekend we're hosting a 5-course dinner in our Heritage Room with chef Jeff Jackson of the Range in Santa Margarita. View the menu on our Calendar of Events, but just a warning, once you see it you won't want to miss out!
• Saturday November 7th, 1-5pm: Harvest Celebration Grand Tasting at Avila Beach
  Visit www.slowine.com for tickets to the Grand Tasting with over 50 wineries and restaurants offering delicious local food and wine. For only $80 you get unlimited wine and food for two days, that's cheaper than going out for one night! The tickets give you free entrance to Open House on Sunday at the wineries.
• Sunday November 8th, 11-4pm: Open House with Mee Heng Low Noodle House
• Thursday December 17th, 4-7pm: Holiday Open House at SLO Wineries!

We also offer our weekly events; Tapas at Tolosa every Friday 5:30-7:30pm and Wine and Cheese every Saturday from 11-4pm. Menus for these are posted weekly on Wednesdays.

Okay well that's just a taste of all the upcoming events, so make sure to check out our Calendar of Events regularly for more information and we hope you can "crash" one of our wine events.

Cheers- Katie Noonan

Cal Poly Cheese Making

I got an e-mail last week from Cal Poly, which was completely unexpected, yet delightful.  There had been a cancellation in their artisan/farmstead cheese making class and would I be interested-in such short notice-in beginning a four day intensive study on cheese making?
 
My office partner, Jeff, immediately discouraged me, citing my age and reminding me that for every fact I might learn, would perhaps be a grandchild's name forgotten.  Nevertheless, I immediately called back, like a prospective prom date and squealed "yes"!  Brittney blessed the idea and I scrambled to fill my next weeks work schedule.
 
I have been conducting wine and cheese pairings for almost two years now and have relied entirely upon books I have read.  But as you know, book knowledge is one thing and practical experience another.
 
The class composition was very interesting.  Cal Poly, evidently, has a nationwide reputation! 
I knew that!  Students ranged from their thirties to my age(plus forty) and out of 30+ students, only two came from the county.  The balance were from Wisconsin, New Mexico  and of course those two magnet cities, in the north and south.
 
I would say, only three of us had no intention on manufacturing cheese.  Knowing that, the four days began with:
-Chemistry.  A chapter of my life I would rather forget.  Particularly humiliating to me since my father was a chemist   with an education from Case-Western Reserve.
    -Micro Biology-even further away from my background of thirty five years of either buying or selling junk.
 
Nevertheless,  we began to spend hours devoted to the scientific composition of cheese.  What happened from the moment the pasteurized milk had the starter, then the coagulant?  And what about those ph and ta measurements?  Where in the hell were they going through the cooking, cooling, cutting and hooping?
 
Lots of parallels to the wine industry.  A food product, fermentation, balance and viola-product!
 
One day alone dedicated to equipment, government standards on cleanliness, and just how scary it can be when food is handled improperly.
 
The third day, we finally made cheese.  Suited up, with hairnets, lab jackets etc., we divided into teams and spent a day following the product from milk to curd, to cheese and in the interim the constant monitoring of acid ta and ph.  Washing floors, scrubbing bins were included at no extra charge to us. 
 
The reward was the experience.  I was taught by three Phd's for four days, all less than the price of a nice suit.  We should all be grateful for our local treasure, Cal Poly and the people who make this possible.  I am very proud now, once again, to be a part of this county and have the resources we do and yet, unfortunately,  too often take for granted.
 
In closing, we had Danika Reed from Vivant Cheesegive a lecture on the marketing and sales of artisan cheese.  I was truly proud of this woman who was born the same year as my daughter.  A Cal Poly dairy science grad, who spent ten years in the industry from Los Angeles to Wisconsin before returning to her home, right here in our county, to become the proprietor of Vivant cheese in Paso Robles.  Danika supplies the finest imported cheese(she deals only with one source back east) and local, which she handles directly.  The leading chefs and restaurant owners as well as wineries such as myself, find her the most valuable link in what would otherwise be a boring "cheeseless" world.  All this, and a five month old baby as well!  Just one example of our county's finest!
 
So, that was my left brain.  The science part.  Next month I go to the  San Francisco Cheese School for the right brain.  There, in three days,  I will learn the art part and the sensory part.  A course designed for the cheese mongers vs. the the cheese producers.
 
As I once remarked to Larry Brooks our wine maker:  "You are the meteorologist, I am the weather announcer- - - the one with the coifed hair and smile!  Thank God we have the former.  You'd be in poor hands with just the later!
 
John Shakley, Concierge
 

September = California Wine Month

It's September which means it's California Wine Month. The month-long statewide California Wine Month promotion was created to raise awareness of the California wines and celebrate the state’s diversity. 2009 is the fifth year of this celebration to the state’s ideal climate for wine, beautiful wine country landscape, talented and ingenious winemaking families, celebrated lifestyle and cuisine; and our commitment to sustainability and the environment. In many ways it's also a way to give back to those customers that support the wine industry by many wineries offering specials.

Tolosa would like to invite guests to come by for a Pinot Noir Flight tasting for only $5. The flight includes five estate grown Pinot Noir's:
2006 Pinot Noir, Edna Ranch, Edna Valley
2006 "1772" Pinot Noir, Edna Ranch, Edna Valley
2006 "Lily Gil" Block Select Pinot Noir
2006 "Marley Anne" Block Select Pinot Noir
2006 "Beyond" Block Select Pinot Noir

This Pinot Noir flight is offered daily from 11-5pm at the Tolosa tasting room at 4910 Edna Road, San Luis Obispo, CA.

For more information on California Wine Month visit their website: http://www.discovercaliforniawine.com.

Sangria Madness

“Though her skirt it swayed as the guitar played,
Her mouth was watery and wet.
But now something has changed
For she ain’t the same,
She just acts like we never have met.”

That’s one piece of music from the sixties I think of when contemplating Sangria and of course the other memory was that beautiful evening in Sintra, Portugal when I relieved my hot summery days dehydration with two pitchers of fresh Sangria.  The only time a hangover has ever lasted three days!  But those are other stories I’d be happy to share with you at another time.

As for the here and now:
This past Wednesday marked the second of a series of “peek into the weekend” Wednesday night events.  Like many events, we began on a “slow roll” which has now gathered enough momentum to be branded a “success”!

Warm nights on the patio, set to sounds of flamenco music, laughter, the click of bocce balls, trickling of the fountain and of course, the tinkling of fresh ice and fruit being ladled into a glass of freshly made Sangria. 

We offer wines by the glass, as well as freshly made Sangria, from five to seven dollars each.  Add chips, salsa board and lawn games and what a better way to begin the long weekend?

So come on by to “peek into the weekend” and perhaps if you behave, I’ll share my recipe with you.  If not, I’ll punish you by telling you stories about my travels and the hangovers that seem to accompany them!

John Shakley 
concierge 

Wednesday After Hours Starts in one hour...

Tonight we are kicking off "Peek into the Weekend on Wednesdays" on the Tolosa Patio. Every Wednesday from 5-7pm we invite guests to join us on the relaxing patio for a glass of wine or refreshing sangria! We'll be offering a Rose based Sangria that will definitely make you grateful it's Wednesday! Come out and join us, wines by the glass are only $5-7 and the Sangria special is only $5! We'll have bocce ball and other games available along with chips and salsa.

Sustainable Vineyard Trolley Tour

On Saturday July 11th, we hosted our first Trolley Tour of our estate vineyards. Of our 750 acres here in the Edna Valley there are so many differences throughout each vineyard site and it is very interesting to view the different soil types, trellis systems and plantings in each unique location. With the trolley we were able to take our customers out to the vineyards so that they could view first hand where the wine develops from along with tasting wine from that select vineyard. One site we stopped at in our Edna Ranch East vineyards was our Pinot Noir block used for Lily Gil. This block is our earliest block to ripen of all of the estate and guests were able to see the process of the berries turning color and ripening, which is called verasion. We also had Erin, from Pacific Vineyards as our sustainable vineyard expert to explain the practices that are used throughout the vineyards to protect and sustain a healthy environment. Guests were able to see the owl boxes placed throughout the vineyards, the drip system watering the vines, the goats that graze to keep brush down and many more practices that encompass the sustainable practices taken by Tolosa. We finished up in beautiful Moretti Canyon having a great picnic lunch in our Pinot Gris vineyards. It was a beautiful afternoon and we look forward to hosting the next Trolley tour in the fall. Cheers!
 

Horizon Hike Recap

This past Sunday morning I led a group of 12 on a hike up to the ridge above our Edna Ranch vineyard. While the vines are planted down near Orcutt Rd. our property stretches far back into the hills. Much of it is a working cattle ranch and some of it wild rocky chaparral. The hike to the top of the ridge took us a little over an hour of hiking - parts of it strenuous, but most of it easy. We walked over serpentine outcrops where only a very limited amount of plants can grow, including the Persian Carpet, which was in bloom. We hiked through a creek bed with giant Sycamores and ended up on the open ridge top which is the typical oak grasslands. The views from the top were spectacular on this fog free day and we could see from Pismo to the south and Morro Bay to our north. Most of the morros that make the San Luis Obispo area so unique geologically could be seen. We then made our way down and out another creek bed, visiting one of the better Chardonnay blocks on the way back to the pool house where we had a simple lunch and three wines. The 2008 Sauvignon Blanc was my favorite on this balmy day, but the '08 Rose and the '06 Estate Pinot were delicious as well. It was very pleasant to sit in the shade by the pool and relax over food and wine. I particularly enjoyed the day as it motivated me to learn a bit more about the local geology and natural history. I look forward to doing it again.

Larry Brooks- Stay tuned for pictures coming shortly...

Trekking with Tolosa by Wine Region News

Lynn Diehl of Wine Region News joined Bob Schiebelhut recently and explored the Edna Valley appellation for her show that aired on June 6th, 2009 on KCOY. 
To view the video click here.

Edna Valley is a very unique wine growing area that prides itself on growing cool-climate grapes such as Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. The terrior of the area is what makes it so special and at Tolosa we have developed a few outdoor events to take visitors into the vineyards to explore the history and climate of this region.
We have a Horizon Hike this Sunday June 14th,  that takes you along the ridge of Edna Valley where you are able to see a panoramic view of the valley from the ocean in Pismo Beach to the seven peaks leading out to Morro Bay.

On July 11th, there is a Trolley Tour through our sustainable vineyards with winemaker Larry Brooks. The trolley will stop at 3 locations in the vineyard showing different varietals and Larry will also explain the sustainable practices being used from grape to glass. Each stop guests will taste a wine from that location of the vineyard, finishing with a picnic lunch in the beautiful Tolosa Morretti Canyon vineyards.

On July 19th, take a Vineyard Walk with partner Bob Schiebelhut through Tolosa Edna Ranch West vineyards. This is a nice walk showing the soils and terrain of our different vineyard blocks with a relaxing picnic lunch.

To sign up for any of these upcoming outdoor events visit our calendar of events online or call the tasting room at (805)782-0500.

A Taste of Heaven Here on Earth

On Sunday, June 7, 2009 Tolosa Winery sponsored the 10th hole of the Avila Beach Golf Resort for the "A Taste of Heaven Here on Earth" Golf Tournament in support of the Avila Beach Marine Institute.
Tolosa Winery always brings a magnum of Tolosa Wine to give as a donation prize to the golfer that hits 1 of 4 palm trees across the water on the 10th green. 
Congratulations to Darin Nishimura, winner of a 2007 Tolosa No Oak Chardonnay 1.5Liter!

The premier party for Clique

Last night was Tolosa's  first party for the new Clique club. Clique is a social club designed for more of the "younger" wine drinkers (over 21 of course) that basically has no strings attached. Last night went great and we look forward to many more parties in the future.
It was a beautiful evening on the patio, guests were in great spirits, we had mouth-watering BBQ by Ray's Own Brand and live music. For more about Clique or to sign-up visit the "clique" page.

 Here are a few pictures from the evening and we have more posted onfacebook. Cheers!