Paso Robles’ next door neighbor to the south is the quaint little village of Templeton with western styled storefronts that remind you of the gold rush architecture. Walking about a half dozen blocks in their downtown area, you can accomplish quite a few things without driving at all. You could waste a beautiful sunny warm day wine tasting, shopping (antiques or feed and grain for your livestock), touring its museum, and enjoying lunch or dinner with live music.

You may not stumble over as many wineries and tasting rooms as you would in Paso Robles. But you can enjoy wide open spaces, similar climate, and fewer crowds or traffic snarls. Templeton’s climate is similar to Paso Robles simply because it is located just 5 miles away. But the Templeton Gap, not a jeans and t-shirt store, is an eastbound series of passes through which air flows from the ocean, blanketing Templeton in natural air conditioning in the afternoons. So, while it gets warm, it does not suffer the extreme heat of Paso Robles. As you can imagine, the grapes love this cooling effect so it is worth tasting just to compare.