re: Which Pinot should I order

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I don't agree. I've found a few very nice Pinots in Paso Robles. I know that Zin does a lot better there, but there are some nice Pinots. Try RN Estate or Chateau Margene. Both are small but make outstanding wines, Pinot Noir among them. San Luis Obispo, just a short drive from Paso Robles holds a Pinot Noir Festival every March. I went in March and tasted some excellent Pinots.

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I hear what you're saying, but el tigre's got a point. As a general rule, it's too hot in those areas to grow pinot noir, which isn't to say there might not be a few good ones sourced from there. I think his point is that when you think California pinot noir, those areas are pretty far down on the list of AVAs that consistently grow great pinot noir across the area.

I agree with you. I've never had a pinot from Paso that I cared for, I've had a many from Santa Barbara that were good, and I've had many from the SRH AVA that I thought were great. I don't care for the high alcohol style that frequently comes from those areas, but the wines are generally well made. Having said all that, my favorite AVA for California pinot is the Sonoma Coast.

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Le Cuvier

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A friend here used to be the assistant winemaker there. They make more of an "old world" style wine.

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I like them, they are well made but high in alcohol. I've got 2 bottles of Zin that I'm afraid to open, 16.8%. I know zin has a higher alcohol content but that's almost a Port. I had a Cab Franc with a grilled ribeye the other day that was very nice even with 15.5%. I'm not anal about Alcohol content but I usually prefer the 13.5 - 14.5 percentages.

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Yikes! 16.8% is high, even for a zin. I had a syrah recently that was 16.9% believe it or not. It was the 2006 Fess Parker Big Easy. In theory I don't care what the alcohol content is as long as the wine is balanced, but this wine was way out of balance. I normally love their single vineyard syrahs, but I did not care very much for this wine.

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Alcohol content but I usually prefer the 13.5 - 14.5 percentages.

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You'd be surprised. Most wines are higher in Alc than what is listed. The higher tax bracket cut off is at 14%, and you can be up to +/- 1.5% off. Most wines listed at 13.8 can be much higher. And if it's a smaller production wine, it may be more than 1.5% higher as it's less risky to get caught by the Feds.

El Tigre,

I want to clarify as I don't want to be giving out bad info as I was only half right, and got the rest of the info from a friend.

The wine tax bracket increases at 14% and then at 20%. Wines below 14% alcohol can have a range of +/- 0.5% while wines above 14% can have a range of +/- 1.5%. You can list a wine at whatever you like, but if you list a wine that's above 14% into the lower tax bracket and the TTB finds out about it, they can destroy your product and maybe shut you down. I suppose that it still happens out there. Then there are tax breaks on the size of your winery, based on how many cases you produce in a year.

Just wanted to clear things up.

I'm not familiar with Scott Cellars, but wines 16% and above are not uncommon on the Central Coast. Recently there's been wine yeasts isolated that can not only produce that much alcohol but survive in that environment until there's no more sugar. There was a demand for it because most yeasts will die off at about 15% leaving wines still sweet, incomplete (in the eyes of the winemaker), and tough to re-ferment.