JUSTIN – Lions, Triangles, and Goats, Oh My!

When I started A Long Pour I had a few goals. Learn about California wine, become famous, meet the Queen of England, and interview someone at JUSTIN. Now, only the Queen is left.

A big part of my obsession with wine came from the Paso Robles based JUSTIN Vineyards & Winery. Two wines sparked my current passion. The 2006 River Run Carignane from J.P. Pawloski and a Reserve JUSTIN Isosceles that a couple of complete strangers offered me a few years ago. My friends and I passed it around with glee totally immersed with its fruit forward goodness. It was quality we had never enjoyed. JUSTIN makes wines that are as opulent as they are sought after and I was instantly enamored. The shift from drinking $8.00 grocery store Merlot to something like JUSTIN is dramatic and I was determined to find more wines that gave my mouth such a happy feeling. Somewhere over the grocery store rainbow, good wine existed and I was on a mission to find it.

Late last year as I was planning ALP, I would cite and write lists of wineries I wanted to work with: Tablas Creek, Costa Brown, The Ojai Vineyard, Sine Qua Non, Barrel 27, and others. The list grew and changed, but JUSTIN always stayed in the top five. … Continue Reading

River Run – The Start

If you read Wine Spectator, you are familiar with the last page, “Wine Talk”. Here, you may find an interview with a race car driver, an 80’s hair metal legend, or my recent favorite, Sean Connery. Often, in these short profiles, you will read a sentence something like this: “I remember when I had my wine revelation, it was… (insert memorable wine moment here)”. Wine has a gift, older than Bob Barker himself , of grabbing a person and often in a dramatic and lasting way. I was no different.

I had always wanted to like wine, but wanting to like wine and liking it are two different things. I collected a few bottles as a teenager, not to drink, just to have them. However, I had a hard time really enjoying what I drank when I first started trying wine. At the time, I thought I simply did not have the “acquired taste” for wine that I had heard about and I figured I would need to work hard to build an appreciation of wine over time. In retrospect, there is only so much quality in a $5 to $7 wine from the local super market, no offense Sutter Home … Continue Reading