2003 High Road James Berry Vineyard

.Chris Cherry, who comes from a restaurant background, sources most of his fruit from the James Berry Vineyard, owned by Justin Smith's family, as well as from other vineyards where Smith consults.Cherry told me he picks more on pHs than on sugars:his finished wines are typically in the rather high 3.78 to 3.85 pH range, with no added acids.These are some of the more exciting wines from Paso Robles, offering compellingly sweet fruit, creamy texture and noteworthy brightness of flavor for wines so ripe.Like a few of his more illustrious colleagues in the area, Cherry offers mostly blends of two or more varieties.This is for two reasons, he says:"due to the fact that I don't acidulate [addition of mourvedre, for example, can punch up a grenache-heavy wine], and because I have a restaurant background."The 2003s, just Cherry's third set of releases, were bottled in January of 2005.(Incidentally, Villa Creek Restaurant and Bistro Laurent, located across the street from each other on the park in Paso Robles, are arguably the town's top two choices for dining and wining; I enjoyed meals at both of them in May.)