Salacious Dirt!

No, I'm not talking about Spitzer's whore. I meant Siliceous soil. I mean after three trips to Paso Robles, I'm just beginning to get the inside scoop on this blowout region. Yesterday, at L'Aventure, I met Stephan Asseo, Jacob Toft, and Tom Rice. More about Stephan and Jacob later. Tom and his partner Tracy G. Cervellone self-published "Paso Robles: An American Terroir." This is the ultimate insider's guide to Paso Robles wines and vines. Tom is not only a soil scientist, but a great writer. You can always ignore the siliceous side and go for the salacious, but you will learn an awful lot from this book. As Frenchman Stephan says, it is "no bullsheet." With no publisher and no editor to satisfy Tom was able to write what he wanted about whatever he wanted to write about - geology, soil science, history, people, wineries, terroir - kind of like a long blog on paper. Tom writes about many Paso wineries, but with so many new wineries cropping up, it's impossible to cover them all. I'm on about number 20 out of 180, 200, 250.... Get the real dirt from this insider gem by e-mailing Tom at: pasoterroir@yahoo.com. Tune in during the next few weeks for more of the real dirt on Paso Robles and Santa Barbara.