About 400 people attended the walk-around wine tasting event in Downtown Paso Robles City Park

PASO ROBLES — Formerly known as Vintage Paso: Zinfandel Weekend, the Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance (PRWCA) introduced its Spring Release Weekend on Friday, March 18 through Sunday, March 20. The three-day event celebrated spring, and wineries released their newest wines with an outdoor walk around in Paso Robles City Park.

FRONT PRP. Paso Wine Spring Release Event Castoro Cellars
Castoro Cellars Winery hosted tastings for the Paso Robles Wine County Alliance, Spring Release Event, last weekend. Contributed Photo

Friday’s downtown Paso event sold out, with about 400 attendees. Wine enthusiasts had 44 wineries to taste from at the Spring Release Walk-Around Tasting in the park with live music from Dante Marsh. 

PRWCA Consumer Marketing Manager Jennifer Bravo recounted the weekend: “The warm weather was perfect for the Friday evening tasting, then guests spread throughout downtown and filled up the restaurants. Town was busy!”

While celebrating the spring equinox, wineries released some of their new wines. According to Bravo, the new Sextant Grenache Blanc, Willow Creek Wine Collective Chenin Blanc, and Cloak & Dagger Cryptology Rosé seemed to get people excited.

In addition to the walk-around tasting, a New Release Seminar was held at Castoro Cellars. The sold-out seminar was a seated tasting showcasing newly released wines from five brands. A panel of winemakers from Alta Colina, Cass, Castoro, Ancient Peaks, and My Favorite Neighbor made the tasting a big hit. They discussed the vintage and how it is reflected in the bottle.

On Saturday and Sunday, local wineries across the county held individual events, including barbeques, vineyard tours, winemaker dinners, and more. In addition, wineries like Opolo Vineyards, B & E Vineyard, Villa San Juliette Winery, Grey Wolf, and Barton Family Wines enjoyed live music and specialty foods at their tasting rooms. 

Bravo tells us her favorite part of the weekend was “Getting events and festivities back to normal! Seeing how happy people are to return to Paso Robles and experience wine country.”

The next Paso Wine event people can look forward to is the Paso Wine Fest from May 19-22. The annual event is getting new name and new location for 2022. Paso Wine Fest will take place at the Paso Robles Event Center with live entertainment, winemakers dinner, tastings, seminars, and much more. 

For more information on Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance events, visit pasowine.com