Kimberly B.
Yelp
We had a group vacation last week and planned a stop in Paso Robles. We selected Paso Port/Penray's Distillery for one of our stops because we were super curious about their different styles and varieties of port and spirits. This ended up being my favorite of our stops.
This place is a little hard to find, since it's off the beaten path and up a hill, and signage is elusive and easy to misinterpret (add arrows to your big signs guys!). The tasting room is small and only accommodates about 6-8 people at a given time, and we were exceedingly lucky, as a party of 6, to drop in at a time when we were the only visitors (make reservations if you have a group or are at all worried about a crowd, you don't want to miss this place).
Upon arrival, we were welcomed in and seated and given the rundown of our tasting options. We selected 3 port tasting flights and 2 spirits tasting flights for our group, all flights were modestly priced, with costs being waived with purchases of bottles. The port flight is a curated selection of 5 ports, and every one of them is different and delightful. The spirits flight includes 5 tastings of 6 available options. Our hostesses were lovely and briefly explained the selections and the process of port making, what sets this winery apart, and offered tasting notes on their wares. Then they graciously took a step back and let us enjoy ourselves at our own pace, always within earshot to answer questions or offer additional information. It was my favorite kind of tasting, offering lots of room for genuinely enjoying each sip, while still having plenty of expert knowledge on hand to appreciate the craftsmanship of the product. I enjoyed each and every port on the tasting list, but standouts for me were the Violetta with it's lively fruitiness, the Noel (a holiday port that manages to taste just like it belongs in a Dickensian Christmas story), and their Angelica, a white port that conjures up elderflowers and gooseberries and green apples, with honeydew melon and orange muscat grapes and has all the charms of a beautiful spring day while still being elegant and refined and utterly different than any other posrt I've tasted. They also offer a very good Tawny port that has all of the wonderful bruleed sugar and raisin notes of a good tawny port, but without the oversweetness and syrupy mouthfeel that some tawnys suffer from. I would have bought a bottle of each if I'd have had the budget for it! Of the spirits, all were good, but a couple were exceptionally good. Their apple brandy is one of the best I've ever had and evokes the taste and aroma of rosy skinned apples at the height of the late summer harvest. The Amaro is a joy: warm orange notes with a hint of bitter almond, a perfect warmer for a winter night. But the absolute star of the menu was the Walnut liqueur, which is not to be missed. In a tasting of favorites, this was everyone's FAVORITE taste, sweet and nutty, with a depth to it that offers the aroma of walnut both as woodsy, toasty aromatic and sweet pastry notes. Wonderful stuff!
Prices are very fair and the staff are wonderful. Their wine club seems pretty good too if you are a regular drinker of port. As an art nerd, I really loved the label art for both Paso Port, which features beautiful retro pinups that embody the characteristics of each variety, and Pendray's, which reminds me a bit of antique English apothecary labels and whose bottles are wax-sealed with coordinating wax colors.
Highly recommended and not to be missed if you are a fan of port or brandy.