Everyone Needs a Little Varietal in Life

Grape Varietals















The Paso Robles Wine Festival is just around the corner and while we love tasting all of those fabulous wines, we really love meeting all of the wonderful people who ride on our Wine Wrangler WineFestival Shuttle Service. Since our shuttle makes a continuous loop around Paso Robles, stopping at the local hotels (and this year, we’re offering Shuttle Service from Atascadero) we get to meet tons of great people. We're asked a lot of questions about everything from our local wine region to which restaurants we like best (all of them, of course), so we thought we’d write about a topic we’re often asked to explain: Paso Robles wine varietals.

However, since our growing region is so distinct and produces so many varietals, we thought we’d give you a primer on 3 of our favorites:


  • Zinfandel:  Typically, this varietal has characteristics of black pepper, spices, and jam and is often described as having a dried fruit (think raisin or prune) flavor.

  •  Cabernet Sauvignon: If you love the flavors of black fruit (black raspberries, cherries, and black berries) along with notes of tobacco, wood, and cocoa, this could be the varietal of your dreams.

  •  Rousanne: Ah, the complexity of rousanne—it can be rich, crisp and; usually with and tones of honey, and apricots.


If you’re planning on attending the Paso Robles Wine Festival, you’ll get to taste plenty of varietals and we recommend you enjoy them all—but leave the driving to us. We offer WineFestival Shuttle Service from both Paso Robles and Atascadero.

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