For specialty Mediterranean varietals grown right here in San Joaquin County, visit the award-winning Pasos Vineyards and Winery where wine tasting is only part of the exceptional experience.
Deep in the heart of San Joaquin’s wine region, you’ll find the Spanish style winery tucked away in Lockeford’s Tuscan Winery Village – a destination all its own and home to four boutique wineries including Pasos’ tasting room. Along with the picturesque winery and colorful art that lines its walls and antique staircase, the winery comes complete with a scenic courtyard where guests can wet their pallets while surrounded by blooming flowers and a stunning, serendipitous setting that’s made for relaxing with glass in hand. Visitors can even catch live music on various weekends throughout the year.
In addition to the one-of-a-kind wines, made by the owner and wine-maker himself – Antonio Pasos – the winery offers visitors a chance to enjoy gourmet food, or complementary bites that are perfectly paired with each wine selection. Pairings such as Pasos Vineyard’s 2012 Reserve Albarino ‘Barrel Select’ New American Oak, tastefully served with stuffed mushrooms and Spanish Manchego, or the 2012 Viognier with bacon wrapped asparagus, will leave you both impressed, and coming back for more. While you enjoy the mouthwatering offerings, guests can tour the tasting room’s artwork (which also appears on the wine’s labels) and studio. Each Saturday afternoon, guests can watch the artist, David Jon Foster, create and paint original watercolor and charcoal abstract pieces.
Antonio specializes in crafting his French, Spanish and Italian style wines that stand apart because of his experience collaborating, experimenting and making blends that offer wine-lovers “something interesting,” he explains. He handpicks only the best grapes from the Lodi appellation and surrounding regions in order to craft the artistically blended wines of Pasos Vineyards. Ninety- nine percent of the grapes used in Pasos’ wines are sourced from the Lodi region or grown himself, says Antonio, a Viticulturist trained in food and plant science. His several award-winning varietals are crafted through his gravity flow winery – one of the only wineries to do so in the region. This process, which doesn’t contain pumps, keeps wine in its purest forms, “I let it develop naturally,” describes Antonio, proudly.
Antonio was born to create wine. He moved to the Central Valley to assist with his family’s vineyards, and soon, began to dream of owning his own winery. He set on an adventure and created his own namesake winery in the heart of the Central Valley wine region in 2004 after creating and experimenting as a wine-maker, and wine-taster, all over the world. His wine has even been poured for the president of Costa Rica, an honor he marks with a plaque displayed in the in the tasting room alongside his several award-wining varietals including Double Gold, Gold and Silver Medals. Now, more than a decade later, he continues to produce limited quantities of Pasos Vineyards wine in order to stay true to his motto, “always put quality first.”
For More Information:
Pasos Vineyards and Winery
12470 Locke Rd., Ste. 268, Lockeford
(559) 978-0523, PasosWinery.com