Rhone Rangers Ride into Paso Robles on Feb. 17
By Jason Hass – TravelPaso.com – Each February, the Rhone Rangers ride into Paso Robles. Okay, maybe we don’t literally ride, but you get the idea. The Rhone Rangers is a group of some 150 American wineries who are dedicated to the grapes native to France’s Rhone Valley, including Syrah, Grenache, Mourvèdre, Viognier, Grenache Blanc and Roussanne, among many others. Wineries are found in Washington, Oregon, Virginia, Michigan, New York and all throughout California. Devotees of the Paso Robles wine region won’t be surprised that our area makes up the largest cohort of the Rhone Rangers membership: nearly 50 wineries in all.
The national Rhone Rangers organization puts on three tastings a year: one in San Francisco (in March), one in Los Angeles (in June) and one that moves around the country and has visited Seattle, Washington DC, and New York in recent years. In 2013 it will be in Chicago, in September. These events are open to both the wine trade and the public, and typically feature tastings, seminars and winemaker dinners.
The 2013 Paso Robles Rhone Rangers Experience will be held Sunday, February 17th at Broken Earth Winery. It includes an educational seminar led by Rhone Rangers winemakers and principals, a vintners’ lunch, where wineries host tables and bring special bottles from their cellars, and a grand tasting and silent auction, where attendees can taste over 150 wineries from the Paso Robles Rhone Rangers membership and bid on silent auction items that help support the Rhone Rangers Scholarship Fund.
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