Welcome to Dover Canyon

Welcome to Dover Canyon Winery.  You can visit our official website at www.dovercanyon.com, but I hope you will also visit us here for "behind the scenes" views of upcoming projects, vineyard growth, crush excitement, and the local social scene in Paso Robles Wine Country.

Coming up in June:

Cooking Show Pilot  We will be filming a pilot here at Dover Canyon Winery, a new concept that pairs one winery with several artisanal food producers.  Over the next few months my assignment is to visit the people and locations that will be featured, collect digital snaps of likely shots and setups, write the outline and important scripting, and get the completed storyboard to the videographer.  I'll be posting bios of the staff involved, photos from my storyboard, and notes on what's happening.  I've never done anything like this before.  Yikes!

Ladies Book Night Every month a few wine widows meet for an evening of wine, food, and book discussion.  Okay, maybe it's a thinly disguised excuse to ditch the men and kids and have a feminine discussion on a range of topics, but we really do review a book each month and swap favorite reads.  June's meeting will be held here at Dover Canyon with the feminine halves of local wineries like Linne Calodo, Justin, Villacana, as well as some of our other foodie friends like Joeli from Willow Creek Olive Ranch. 

Portraits of Paso  June is also the first month of real work on a cookbook featuring local winery recipes.  I'll be collecting recipes, photos, and essays from the wineries, and recipe testing will commence.  The full working title is The Crush Cookbook:  Portraits of Paso.  The concept is that each recipe must be something that the winemaker actually cooks during harvest, when days are long and the work is hard.  Recipes should be easy to prepare and include readily available ingredients.  Along with the recipes, I'm asking for insightful or funny anecdotes and essays.  I'm hoping to find a publisher who will spring for photos--and all the photos will be black and white portraits of cellarmen and vineyard crews in action. 

I want to capture the dignity, the drama, and the excitement of the actual process of making wine and growing grapes, and publish a cookbook that connects with readers on many levels.  We all have seasons of stress, deadlines, punishing work schedules or commutes, so I plan to include recipes and wine pairings that will work for anyone, anywhere.  I also want readers to feel that they've been invited to step behind the scenes--to see us as we work, play, and drink beer together, and to join us in our homes for a deeply satisfyingly, simple meal at the end of a well spent workday.

As the summer progresses, we'll be getting together with other local winemakers, doing a little kayaking, and getting ready for harvest.  I hope you'll join us.

Comments

[Sherry Walker]

My husband and I were at your winery June 11th and enjoyed the view and the wine. We tasted only about 10 wineries in Paso and stayed at Tobin James, but yours was the only wine club we signed up for.

We look forward to the Sept. shipment.

[Joe]

Love the new book concept! I can't wait to see it - good luck in all things!!!

[Patrick Ryan]

Thanks for correcting my wife. She now realizes I'm a geek not a jerk because at bed time I enjoy DC Port with my grave yard stew,(milk toast). Helps one have a restful night.
Pat Ryan