THE Wine Tasting Guide to California’s Central Coast
No, the preceding capitalization isn’t a typo. Mike O’Beirne’s new guidebook for wine touring in the Central Coast is meant to be definitive, at least for now. It highlights 230 wineries of the south Central Coast from Paso Robles to Malibu, making special effort to include small boutique wineries that don’t seem to make it into the regional guides published by winegrowers associations.
The 296-page paperback, available from Amazon.com, is geared to the casual tourist intent on discovering unique wine tasting experiences off the beaten track, although O’Beirne has attempted to include all the wineries of the region. A handful of wineries failed to respond to his inquiries and missed the boat, but by and large they’re all there. The book is priced at $19.95 and comes from Old Vine Publishing Company.
A single page is devoted to each winery and includes a photo, address, tasting room information, history and nature of the winery, owner/winemaker bio, wines produced and price range. There are pages for tasting notes.
THE Wine Tasting Guide to California’s Central Coast includes a glossary of wine terms and a pronunciation guide along with advice on how to taste wine, tasting room etiquette and wine clubs.
O’Beirn’s guide is a valuable resource, whatever your wine background may be. It’s probably the only single source available to list all the pertinent information on virtually every winery operating in the region. And so we recommend it both to newcomers to wine touring and to those who follow the regional wine industry closely.
