Paso Robles is one of the sweetest wine regions in central California.  Not only is it home to some out-of-this-world Zins, it’s even conveniently located just about midway between LA and San Francisco.  Really, it’s a required day trip for any wine lover. But with almost 200 wineries spanning both sides of Route 101, where do you begin?

Here are five must-visit wineries in Paso that you simply can not miss:

1. Clayhouse Wines – This first stop right smack in the middle of downtown Paso is a great place to warm up your taste buds. You get a superb selection of wines from casual red, white and rose blends, to the tasting-room-only Estate bottles.

   Pro tip: You can hit up some of the neighboring downtown tasting rooms before lunch.

2. Hope Family Wines – Want to get more tasting for your buck?  Hope Family Wines is home to not one but FIVE wine labels that are ready for sipping all under one roof.  Get a taste of how Paso does everything from Cabernet to Zinfandel.  Their wines have been featured in tons of publications ranging from the LA Times to Playboy Magazine.

   Pro tip: These wineries are in visiting order for easy navigation in a straight line

3. Windward Vineyard – Right next door to Hope Family is Windward, where these guys are Pinot Noir pros. Want to learn a thing or two about wine? Take their tour and learn a ton by sampling a boat load of Pinot Noirs and really pick out all those little subtleties.

   Pro tip: Challenge your unsuspecting friends to a bocce ball game while you drink here!

4. Lone Madrone – This winery is all about local-sourced and sustainable wine growing with a super casual, down to earth vibe. If you ask nicely, you might even be treated to an impromptu library or barrel tasting for those special occasions or “why not?” occasions.  After tasting, check out the local artwork that lines the walls.

   Pro tip: Head next door to Kenneth Volk with your Lone Madrone glass for 50% off their tasting fee

5. Cypher Winery – You need to stop by Cypher Winery for some EPICLY awesome wines with such traditional names as “Anarchy”, “Heretic”, and the tasting-room-only “ZinBitch”. The winemakers at Cypher are some of the coolest people you’ll ever meet. Susan hosts a killer chocolate and wine paring tour in the tasting room, and Christian Tietje is all about making killer wines from killer vines.

MEGA PRO TIP: Wanna keep track of what you’re tasting in Paso and go wine tasting like a pro?  Good, because Paso Robles is now offering the Second Glass Mobile App to help you navigate the region and remember you favorites.

Download the App today and conquer the region by searching “Second Glass” in the App Store!

 

Second Glass is hiring. We are on the prowl for some hot new talent and our favorite pick-up spot is Olin College! Currently our whole technology and development team is comprised of Olin graduates (all two of them!) so in an effort to continue the love affair, we held a super sweet crash course/recruitment session last night! The Deal with Olin: It is a small and super elite school that has recently gained a lot of exposure and limelight. They train students to be really hands on with projects, making them ideal candidates post graduation. The Mission: to be the coolest recruitment session and beat out giants like Microsoft and Google, who recruit at Olin on a regular basis. With the help of some current students, we were able to set up a mini crash course, complete with wines from the Loire Valley and Rioja for a tasting and to show just how much fun it is to work at Second Glass. Maureen and Anthony were also able to cut their chops at running their own crash courses! SUCCESS! Everyone had a blast, tasted through some great wines and asked lots of great questions! One student who had been to several info sessions even said we were the BEST one -- high praise considering past sessions included a Microsoft Kinect/Xbox event! We got to meet some awesome students interested in Second Glass and are pumped to continue our excellent relationship with Olin College. While we feel the Olin love, it's not an exclusive relationship. If you think you would make a cool addition to our Dev team, email a cover letter and resume to morgan (at) secondglass dot com

You've tried the wine, you've liked it, you've even gone to the store and picked up a bottle for dinner. Now you're standing around chatting with some friends and they ask you what you did last weekend. "Well," you say, "actually, I went to the totally baller wine event put on by Second Glass. I had a chance to try a bunch of wines and actually discovered I'm a huge fan of vermouth. Who'd have known?" "Ah," you're friends reply, "Do tell us more. We are thrilled by the idea of having a wine connoisseur in our midst. Please, dear friend, guide us, tell us the wines you tried and liked." Fortunately, Second Glass totally has your back and so, without so much as a pause, you direct them to your Second Glass profile. Yes, you read correctly: we, the Second Glass tech team are pleased to announce that user profiles are now public, can be shared and you can even add some personal info. So why don't you hop on over and let the world know your favorite wine from Wine Riot or your choice for drunken munchies.

We're always trying to learn lessons from what we do here at Second Glass, but my favorite lessons are always the qualitative ones.  After Boston Wine Expo we had a lot of data to work with:  3,948 ratings were marked by 479 people--that’s just over 8 ratings per person! Here's a quick look at some interesting bits about the data we collected over the weekend at Expo. Mobile site usage was widespread at the expo, with 92% (199/216) vendor booths receiving at least one wine rated on the mobile site. 840 of the 1,o50 wines received at least one rating. Only 10% of the ratings were "meh", meaning that 90% of the wine ratings were positive. Is it just that people don't rate wines they don't like? Or the myth of "bad wine" is 90% wrong? One thing that jumped out at us was the change in accumulation rate on Sunday -- which suspiciously lined up with the start of the Bears/Packers game. The game was on all afternoon at the Xfinity booth next to ours, and it was definitely drawing a crowd. To see if the drop in wine rating was related to the Bears/Packers game, we charted mens' and women's ratings over time on Sunday. However, while the aggregation of rating mens' ratings saw a consistent pace despite the status of the game, womens' ratings fell off starting around 4pm.

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