At Wine Festival, Paso Robles Shows It Has Bounced Back From Quake

Attendance was up at the annual event, as were wineries' tasting-room sales.

Lynn Alley
Posted: May 29, 2004

Neither building reconstruction nor traffic jams dissuaded more than 14,000 visitors from spreading out blankets, opening picnic baskets and popping corks at the 22nd annual Paso Robles Wine Festival, held May 14 to 16. With attendance up from last year, the event demonstrated that the region is well on its way to recovering from the December earthquake that caused millions of dollars in damage.

"We think the increase [in attendance] is a reflection of the increased publicity the region has been getting for its wines and new wineries in the past year," said Gracie Rey, events manager of the Paso Robles Vintners and Growers Association. "We believe the festival itself supports the recovery of local businesses from the losses they suffered during the quake."

The event drew both first-time visitors to the region and many repeats, including one California woman who said she had been to 19 of the 22 festivals. They were lured to Paso Robles by a combination of winemaker dinners, a golf tournament, winery barbecues, educational seminars and special events at individual wineries.

A Saturday grand tasting, which included 69 wineries, took place in downtown Paso's town square, which had been the scene of disaster when the quake leveled the historic clock tower building and killed two people.

L'Aventure, a boutique producer that had been hard hit by the quake, had a booth at the tasting and also opened its winery, with no visible quake damage, to visitors for the weekend. Owner Stephan Asseo said the winery surpassed its sales at last year's festival by 20 percent. "The wine festival brought us a fresh cash flow and new private customers," he said.

Turley Wine Cellars, which lost about 4,400 gallons of wine in the quake, reported that tasting room attendance during the festival weekend was up by at least 50 percent over last year. And at Justin Vineyards & Winery, which lost 200 barrels of wine, tasting room sales were up by at least 25 percent over last year.

Restaurants and merchants in downtown Paso Robles, some of which had been forced to close for as long as two months because of quake damage, also benefited from the throngs of visitors.

Vinoteca, the town's only wine bar and a watering hole for local vintners, shared a common wall with the collapsed clock tower building and had to close for three weeks. "I lost about $25,000 worth of food and wine inventory during the quake," said owner Cynthia Reed, "which is nothing compared to what some of the restaurants lost." She said business has been down since the quake, but was great during the festival weekend.

Paris restaurant, which had been open for only a year before the quake hit, was closed for two months afterwards for repairs. Owner Claude Chazalon said he lost $13,000 in wine and cheese, in addition to missing out on tourism business, on which he and other downtown merchants depend. But during the festival, the restaurant was packed with patrons.

"The festival brings people from San Francisco and Los Angeles who love good food and wine into the region," Chazalon said. "We need more such events in order to keep the downtown economy alive and rebuild our businesses."

Read our past news reports on the quake: