Jakki’s Temecula Wine Tours

Jakki from Temecula

Temecula Rancho California Road
I cannot lie…I haven’t tasted everywhere in Temecula. Some places I will talk about that I haven’t tasted at in a long time. However, in addition to the delightful (and some horrific) taste sensations I have experienced combined with what I can draw from the experiences of my fellow wine stewards, I believe I can give you all at least some good general guidelines to places to visit depending on what kind of day you would like to have in this little but very interesting wine valley.
Tour #1: I will call this the “Bachelorette/Birthday Party of People who don’t really drink wine but go winetasting anyway” Tour. Sometimes there are serious wine drinkers in these groups, but actually placing something delectable on one’s palate is really not the focus for these folks. I base my advice on where to go on a few different aspects of the joint. Things to look for in this case might be:
- Large rooms (noisy drunk high-pitched voices more tolerable)
-Sweet wines/Champagnes (lets face it…the point is not to experience the perfect balance of tannins, oak and acidity)
-Food (there may come a moment when being able to sit and eat is essential).
-Gift Shop (for those ladies who find even the sweetest, softest wines unpalatable and are along for the ride or for the Moms who don’t want to hover while their daughter gets shit-faced).
-Places to sit. So no one has to fall down.
For this tour I recommend in no particular order, Wilson Creek Winery (home of the famous (or infamous?) Almond Champagne), South Coast Winery (equipped with an entire hotel for serious partiers), Ponte Winery, Longshadow Ranch and Winery (this place is actually on every list and can accommodate any group), Maurice Carrie (great little farmers market on the weekends), and Mount Palomar (purely because they have a deli, which means quick food when you need it).
Not to say the mentioned wineries don’t have fabulous wines, authentic winemaking traditions and values, but let’s face it those aren’t high on the priority list for this tour.

Tour #2: This would be the “All around interested in wines but no specific agenda or palate tour”. This is my personal favorite kind of group to deal with, because people are interested in learning, in stories, and are very open to trying everything. The best wineries for this tour feature good examples of every wine genre’, an outgoing friendly staff, and a relaxed but still professional atmosphere.
Things to look for:
-A tasting list that is balanced and includes at least a few whites, reds and sweet wines.
-The servers must be friendly and not immediately seem wine-obsessed (even though many of us are) because this can be intimidating. Servers must also not be “pour and walk away” types. These are people who are looking to grow their wine spirit, if you will. So sharing about wine in a way that seems inclusive is very important.
-A great wine club. These are the people that will learn from being wine club members, and will remain loyal if their experience is great every time.
For Tour # 2, I would recommend the vast majority of wineries on the De Portola Wine Trail, which is a road that parallels the main drag about 2 miles to the south. There are about nine wineries over on the less beaten path, and some of the best experiences and low key atmospheres are found at Frangapani, Oak Mountain (who also feature Avocado Oil Tastings), Robert Renzoni and Cougar. On the main drag, try Wiens Family Cellars, Miramonte, Baily Winery, Cougar and Longshadow Ranch and Winery. Vindemia and Doffo are also nice little places, but have limited hours so check first!
Tour #3: The “I know wine, I have been to Napa/Italy/France (yadda yadda) so impress me”. This can be a great tour, or the absolute worst. I had some people the other day who missed out on some great wines because they had already decided they didn’t like them before they walked through the door. That honestly showed how little they actually know because while most grapes have distinct characteristics, there are no absolutes in wine making. From the region, the ever-changing terrior, the weather for that vintage, any grape can be almost unrecognizable from its counterparts of past years, other regions, etc. (I personally have fooled more than one fool who thought they “didn’t care for Merlot” by pouring it for them anyway unbeknownst to them). However, if this tour arrives with an open mind, friendly spirit and a honed palate they may really be the ones to get how special a wine region we have in Temecula.
Things to look for:
-Good freakin winemaking. Bottom line. First and foremost. Big place, or little place, family owned or corporate owned, doesn’t matter. That winemaker just needs to know his stuff. Period. With that said, my personal experience has been that the best wines are at places where the winemaker is also the winery owner or at least part owner and it’s a labor of love and a lifestyle, not just a business.
-Also helpful: Knowledgeable but smartly humble staff. It is great when we know our stuff but even better when we can actually be smart enough to stop and listen. This is often how I have learned about wines.
-Correctly priced wines: For these folks, it doesn’t matter if your wine costs ten bucks, or a hundred bucks, so long as the taste and quality justifies the price. The higher priced wines most often are the best tasting, but that often isn’t why they are more costly. The most intensely flavored, more complex wines come most often from grapes that have the lowest yield per acre. In other words, everything good at work in a vineyard (soil, minerals, sunlight, canopy, etc) is concentrated in fewer, maybe smaller berries so there may be a lot less juice to ferment but its far more interesting and concentrated. And thus, you get a lot less wine from your land and therefore it is more costly to make. Anyway, these people typically know all this stuff.
My suggestions for this tour are of course mostly the boutique wineries, which currently include Briar Rose, Doffo, Palumbo, and Gordon Baccus. Also serving high end, seriously good wines that may appeal to these honed palates are Wiens Family Cellars (fruit forward but big and balanced reds), Leonesse, Hart Winery (very highly oaked reds), Oak Mountain, Frangapani, Robert Renzoni, and Longshadow Ranch and Winery.
Hope this gives anyone who comes out this way at least a general framework to begin from….the rest is up to you! Cheers and see you on the Wine Trail…..
Peace, love and vino!
J.
Santa Maria, Los Olivos, and Santa Ynez valley) for its wine country since the early nineties, this experience made me all the more appreciative of the relatively tiny wine valley I now call home. One of the greatest things about Temecula’s wine country is what people in the know call “microclimates”. (We are talking about those folks who know a lot more about vines and soil and climate, and the sum of all the parts called “terroir” than little ol’ me. I am just passing on what I’ve gathered over the years from listening to them). I guess what that means is that we have out here in our valley many different diverse ecological sects, which apparently vary enough to support grapes that benefit from those differences. I am not saying that every type of varietal grows well here, but I will say that it seems this somewhat complex landscape does allow for some good stuff from many wine regions.
That said, some of the other lesser known or lesser produced wines from that region, such as Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot are quite often robust, interesting and all around impressive. I’m not sure why these varietals from the Bordeaux region handle heat and gravely, loam soil better than their more popular counterparts, but I will say when you get to Temecula and you see one on a tasting list don’t pass it up.
But there is so much more, and Grenache, Mourvedre (which actually hails originally from Spain), and Cinsault vines thrive and meet their true telos in good ol’ Temec. The Spanish ones love us as well….try finding a Tempranillo that isn’t brilliant in this town, unless she’s from out of town. The Mediterranean types…..well, those are amazing too.
and their keepers. There is a lot of amazing wine to talk about, and to hopefully have a chance to share with you. Sadly, there are many wines made in this Valley that are little more than expensive, fortified Kool-Aid’s. I cannot deny that. That’s what happens when a wine region is close enough to, hmm, say nearly 25 million people for them to drive an hour to go “winery hopping”. Hey, that does have its place, but it also made it difficult for “real” winemakers to gain clout for many years if the Temecula zip code was attached to their name.
I have been living and working in Temecula for about five years now, but the vines and wineries have been here much longer. And I am an inquisitive one, so I have been asking questions of every wine person I have met since I started in the business, sometimes to the point of annoyance. But I am big into authenticity, which is part of what drew me to wine in the first place. Let’s face it, twenty years ago when I tasted my first French Merlot my tongue didn’t quite get it. I mean, it wasn’t cough syrup or vinegar, but it certainly wasn’t a Margarita or Pina Colada. But I was a bartender in Pavilion French Café, and if a guest bought a glass of wine for me, it was good form to drink it. Within a short time, the allure of the fruit that is the canvas for so many works of art has raised my curiosity (and changed my pallet) enough to start “researching” it. Well, and drinking more of it.
military, as we were, in construction (there were lots of “cottages” going up), or were commuting to one of the three metropolises an hour plus away. The saving grace of this generic bedroom community for me was that not ten minutes from the tract homes and Applebee’s was Temecula Wine Country.
