Over the weekend David and I took a trip to Temecula Valley Wine Country, located about 1.5 hours from David's apartment in Irvine. We figured that while "living" in California we should take advantage of some of the local wine making, and it was really nice to see an atmosphere that was considered somewhat "rural." Originally, our wine trip was going to be a joint birthday celebration, but the timing didn't work out to go in the June/July time frame. Birthday celebration or not, it was nice to take a break from the hustle and bustle of life and just enjoy a couple of days relaxing in the countryside, enjoying tasty food and beverage.
This is a view of the mountains from our hotel room patio. I couldn't get enough. I believe I told David that views like this could convince me to move out here.
We researched some of the wineries and places to stay online and also happened upon a couple of recommendations from an employee at Trader Joe's. We splurged on lodging and stayed at the Ponte Vineyard Inn, located at one of the bigger / more touristy wineries. Typically we try to avoid touristy, but it seemed like in wine country it would give us the picturesque experience we were seeking. We began our wine tasting at Leoness Cellars, one of the places recommended by the Temecula Valley frequenter at Trader Joe's. David really wanted to get a vineyard, production, and barrel room tour so we decided that would be a good way to start the day. It was a little bit more money, but nice because we got a private wine tasting, which included some of their reserve wines as well as cheese pairings.
David and I standing in front of one of Leoness' cabernet sauvignon vineyards, about to start the walking tour. Surprisingly, it rained on our way in Friday night, making Saturday quite chilly. I told David that it was colder here than it was in Boston!
Another view from the lookout point at Leoness. I really did not except to see such beautiful mountains and rolling hills while on this trip.
The barrel room, where the red wines are aged. We learned that the type and quality, as well as "newness" of the oak barrel is very important in the wine making process.
Our next stop was Robert Renzoni Vineyards, another recommendation from the guy at Trader Joe's. After lunch we tried Weins Cellars, which was located within walking distance of our hotel. The tasting volumes at Weins were much larger than at our first two wineries, and I chose to dump the wines I didn't like, or pass them off to David. We finished our wine tasting at our hotel winery (Ponte Winery). We had signed up for the Ponte Wine Club membership because as guests at the winery and hotel we got quite a few perks - discounts on the hotel cost and their restaurants, access to the private tasting area with free tastings and snacks, as well as 2 bottles of wine for each month we were a member. We don't plan to continue the membership for very long, but it was fun to be in the "in crowd" during our visit.
David, enjoying Ponte's wines in their private members-only tasting area.
Overall, we actually weren't super impressed with many of the wines we tasted. However, we don't believe this is the fault of the wineries and is more an artifact of the area we tasted in. We tend to like Pinot Noir and Malbec, as well as wines with a lighter body and smoother finish. We did taste quite a few smooth wines, but most of the wines we tasted were heavier red wines. We liked the Cinsaut wines from Leoness, which is made from a grape similar to Pinot Noir. At Robert Renzoni, the Tempranillo was our favorite and we decided to buy a bottle to bring home. At both Weins and Ponte we liked the Barbera wines, and bought a bottle from Ponte.
Of course, for David, these two cars parked at our hotel were potentially more exciting than any of the wineries. He saw the car pictured on top first and declared that he wanted almost that exact car someday, but preferably in black. Less than an hour later we saw the car pictured in the lower picture, and he said "THAT is the exact car that I want!" We had to stare at it for a good while.
Here is a link to our full photo album from the weekend: http://davroline.smugmug.com/Vacations/Temecula-wine-country-2014
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