Pass Robles, California is hot. All the wine publications are writing about the area. Daou, a recent favorite of mine, is in the area. Tablas Creek is another very good winery. Be wary. The area makes a lot of wine and much of it is not great. Be selective in your choices.
Wine from other areas that you have never knew produced wine i.e. Slovakia, Texas, Bulgaria, New Jersey. I like to try new wines but I tend to be a traditionalist. The wine experts always need to find the next big thing but do we. I don't drink enough wine to get tired of any one particular region. Dig deeper into areas that you are familiar with i.e. New areas of California, France, Oregon, Bordeaux, Spain, etc.
Wine travel. All types of specialized wine trips are offered these days. They tend to be expensive. Create your own wine trip. Whenever we travel, we check out local wineries that are nearby. Our recent visit to Daou was on our way to San Simeon. I called the winery in the car on the way there and made a reservation. The tasting cost us $30 plus the cost of the wines I bought but it was a fun several hours in a beautiful location.
Wine dinners and wine tastings. They are everywhere. Unless there is one in a restaurant that you love and it will serve wines that you love, why bother. For the price of the dinner you can buy several bottles of top wine and have your own wine dinner. Same goes for tastings. A typical tasting costs around $100. Think of the wine your could buy for $200, the cost for 2 to attend a tasting. Moreover, I prefer to drink more of a few wines than a sip of many wines.
Wine of the moment -- 2015 Beaujolais. It is looking like a very good year in Beaujolais. Check out
2015 Jean-Marc Burgaud Beaujolais-Villages Les Vignes de Thulon about $14. I will be trying other wines as the year progresses.
Check out Lettie Teague's article on how to make bad wine taste ok.http://www.wsj.com/articles/tricks-to-make-a-bad-wine-better-1484841139
Enjoy.
