One of the biggest mistakes a person can make when venturing out into Temecula Wine Country is just drive down the main drag of Rancho California Road and randomly pick places to taste.  So when I received a request from a new local to write about what a good tour might be in Temecula, I was thrilled.  What a great idea!  Often the establishment of choice is merely the easiest to see (largest) or has signs that clearly indicated that the driveway is….oops, there it goes…guess we aren’t going there.  There are times when the most fun thing to do is have no plan at all and go where the day takes you…but I highly suggest let the adventurous part be that you have arrived in Temecula (look at you…letting your wild, adventurous spirit land you in such an exotic, exciting location) and are ready to take your senses on a great trip by tasting some cool stuff.

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.

It wasn’t all that long ago that I was up in the Santa Maria area for the Santa Barbara Vintner’s Festival. It was a wonderful event held at the grounds of the Firestone Winery with something like 90 wineries represented, and 60 chefs! Sounds like a wino-foodies dream, doesn’t it? And while we did enjoy the day immensely, we quickly learned there was something putting limits on our desire to indulge…and that was a lack of diversity. While some of the wine was amazing….it was nearly ALL Pinot Noir! There was a Cab here and there, and a splattering of other sips I have since forgotten, but for the most part Pinot ruled the day.

I mention my sad experience from about four years ago because although I have been visiting the lovely Santa Barbara area (the wine region is fairly huge, and includes but is not limited to 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.

The big boys…the most well known and historically identifiable grapes, the most common of the Bordeaux berries, are the ones I honestly have the hardest time with out here. I am sure that some of the locals will hate me for saying that, but this is my personal truth. If you have a better story, bring it. So, anyway, good Cabernets, while possible, are what I have found the least of in Temecula. That goes for Merlots as well. That doesn’t mean you won’t find an outstanding Cabernet at the right winery if you are there at the right time. I have heard more than one senior winery associate say that Cabs are pretty hearty and do just fine in our arid little valley. I can only speak from what has hit my own palate, however, and the little bit of wisdom I have gleamed from quite a few years working in different wine houses. The Bordeaux region is damper and colder on average than So Cal….and that’s just how it is….

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.

Then there are the varietals from many other regions that excite me and can be made into some of the best wines I have ever had the pleasure of consuming. No joke folks….the best….The Rhône’s love our soil, our climate, our everything. Syrahs are heavy, sometimes peppery, sometimes screaming out with vanilla but almost always jammy. I personally took one 2007 Temecula Syrah to a gathering with some Los Angeles wine snobs present ( I worked in the restaurant business in LA long enough to have residual friends who still work for high end joints that brag an impressive wine list). I didn’t tell anyone what I had in my brown bag, and waited until the first glass had been consumed for the most part. Then, casually, I moved about the room with bottle in hand, covertly covering the label with my palm. The nearly black elixir swirled and pooled in the bottom of glass after glass, and then, I waited. I didn’t have to wait long either, as the “m-mm’s”, and “oh, my’s” emanated from my guests. It was very satisfying to tell them it was a wine from Temecula…and not even a Reserve at that.

So, my “put that in your pipe and smoke it” Syrah was an example to my friends that we can make at least one kind of great wine. 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.

I think that the best thing about this wine region, aside from its accessibility, might just be the huge selection of wines you will find here. Not that every winery knows what to do with them….which seems to be the biggest challenge. Maybe I need to tell you exactly where to go for what….so looks like there’s some research in my future!

Peace, love and vino!

If you pick up the “Wine Bible”, touted as the “most complete wine book ever” by Karen MacNeil, you will not find Temecula California Wine Country. You will not even find the word Temecula in the index. That’s right folks…a book copy written in 2000 about wine by an American author doesn’t so much as acknowledge that there are vines in Temecula, let alone 40 year old vines, 36 (or is it 37) wineries, and a whole fascinating history more colorful than Sonoma in September. That infuriated me, as person who has been working in the wineries of Temecula for more than five years learning about an ancient craft that has been carried on with passion and integrity by dozens of viticulturists (wine growers) and winemakers here for more than a quarter century.

Alright, so maybe 25 years is not all that long, relatively speaking, when it comes to wine regions. Still, there is much to tell about the success, struggles, and failures of the Temecula vines 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.

My goal is to share with all of you some of the great wines, eclectic and beautiful wineries, history and goings-on in this largely misunderstood, beautiful and accessible valley of vines. From a huge diversity of varietals due to the microclimates found from the basin to the edges of the surrounding mountains to a great selection of live music, Temecula has a lot more to offer than most people realize. Hell, apparently a lot of people don’t even know we’re here! I gotta change that!

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.

That was back in the mid-nineties. In 2005, my former spouse and I found ourselves buying a very overpriced “lake front cottage”, which was neither “lake front” nor “cottage” in Temecula. Temecula, a suburbia of 100, 000 people who were either 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.

Today I work in one of the truly authentic wineries in Temecula Valley owned and operated by the Wiens Family. Wiens Family Cellars is known for producing some of the biggest, boldest reds in Temecula including some stellar, complex blends. Producing around 9500 cases a year, we are too big to be a boutique winery and but not large enough to distribute commercially. I have also worked for Ponte Winery, and moonlighted for Longshadow Ranch and Winery a couple of times.

Until next time….peace, love and vino!
J.

Talk about a ghost of Christmas past. That was my first thought when I went into the cellar to pull out a bottle of red to go along with our take-out pizza the other night. This Christmas apparition, a 1996 Sterling Merlot, was still dressed in the gold ribbon it wore when it arrived at Club Loco back in the late 90s. It was dustier than I remembered.

Over the past decade, I’ve often thought of Merlot as a wine cliche, much like White Zinfandel was to the 80s. Like aphids among the vines, bottles of Merlot started to pop up everywhere. They appeared at weddings and restaurants and especially at our house during dinner parties and holidays as they arrived with guests eager to spread good cheer. Where there’s a party, there’s Merlot.

Eager to jump on the wine train, I poured and drank, and poured again. This went on for years. I just didn’t like it and I gave up. You can lead a girl to the tasting room but you can’t make her drink.

I tried to figure out what the big attraction was. I was left with the belief that it had to be the cool name. After all, it really sounds chic to say, “I’ll have a glass of Merlot.” Leaving that “t” off of the end makes the coolness official combined with the fact that Cabernet Sauvignon is a bit difficult to roll off your tongue after you’ve had a few glasses of it.

As a result, years have passed since my last taste of Merlot. That is, until this past Saturday night rolled around. You see, I really hate to go against the grape. In addition to my conformist tendencies, I have embarked on a recent journey to revisit wine that I have decided I don’t like. After all, tastes change, right? I was off to test the vintage.

Back to the 96 Sterling Merlot. I grabbed my favorite bottle opener and attempted to open it up. The cork broke. The first aphid in the grape pulp. With some assistance, I was able to remove the cork without any further incident and the wine made it into my favorite, stemless tasting glass.

If you look carefully, you can see the “ghost” in the wine.

I sniffed and swirled. Not bad. I liked the color, a deep garnet. The aroma was earthy and rich with a small bite but nothing discouraging.

I tasted. Better yet. I was greeted by a spicy and flavorful wine that had plenty of fruit and a punch of cedar. Ok. It was downright pleasant.

I’m not going to whine over spilt Merlot and will stand by my assessments of the other Merlots I have tried. They do pale in comparison to the 96 Sterling. As a result, I now find myself with even more of a dilemma.

Do I like Merlot after all? Is my new found affection exclusive to the 14- year-old bottle from Sterling Vineyards? I guess only time will tell. In the mean time, I will, once again, take my hat off to Sterling Vineyards. You really knocked this Merlot out of the Valley.

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