My friends and I were on a tasting expedition, and after finishing a nice vertical at Conn Creek, we hit up WILLIAM HARRISON just down the road on Silverado Trail. Despite the rather...TRUMPIAN note on the sign (100% American-Owned!)* these were very nice wines. Definitely on the savory, earthy side of the Bordeaux family, with balanced fruit, cassis, and earth. Only 2200 cases. They have been around for quite a while, and I enjoyed their wines a decade ago just as I was getting "into" wine. Frankly, I like their style more than Conn Creek, which tends to the extracted side of things.
* Far, far predates the Orange Menace, I might note.
The tasting room manager also knew the family involved in a second winery I discovered this weekend. Desperate to escape the smoke, I took a mini-vacation to Paso and San Luis Obispo. While bicycling east of Paso Robles, I randomly stopped at Bella Luna Winery. Wow. definitely an Italian take on wine, with lithe, balanced fruit, plenty of acidity, earthy tones. Their Bordeaux blend was a great take on blending, and clocked in at 12.9% alcohol!!!!! They also had a fine Arneis and a very nice and earthy Sangiovese. Quite lovely place, too.
...(Humans) are unique in our capacity to construct realities at utter odds with reality. Dogs dream and dolphins imagine, but only humans are deluded. –Jacob Bacharach