Chapter Three: What to do When Someone Whines, “I Don’t Wanna Go Wine Tasting.”

By the late 80’s there were about 35 wineries throughout the county and this is when I decided we needed a touring and tasting map of the area. Oh, there was a wine tasting may put out by the Paso Chamber but it only showed wineries. My reasoning was that if you had a group of four people planning a trip to somewhere and just one of them didn’t care for wine, they would veto the adventure if you were trying to entice them with a map that made it seem as if the only attractions in the area were wineries.

Hence, the Touring & Tasting Map of SLO County. Show the wineries, the good restaurants, golf courses, scenic wonders, the beach, art galleries .... something for everybody in your tour group.

The Map was a modest success and the contacts I had made in the wine industry led to me being invited to put together a marketing program for six wineries that were on the west side of US 101 in Paso Robles. They were tired of dribbling money away on advertising for which they could never gauge an impact. So they pooled their resources, we established a quarterly budget and I devised an annual plan of attack that involved rack cards and a TV campaign aimed at locals.

Evidently we got noticed, because all the other Paso wineries began knocking at our door wanting to join in on the fun.