Wine Country

Over the weekend Sean and I went to Temecula wine country as part of a friend's birthday celebration. While California's known for it's heavy hitter of wine country (Napa) and Sideways did its fair share of tooting Santa Ynez's wine country horn, Temecula seems to be the Little Engine That Could of California wine country.

Here's a rundown of our day:

Pick-up: A shuttle picked us up at a hotel in Temecula. Shuttle riders consisted of: birthday celebrators; middle-aged women looking to get loaded; and a young couple escaping their child (aka celebrating an anniversary).

Vineyard 1: Callaway Winery

Favorite Wine: Chardonnay

Happy discovery: Viognier - it's incredibly fruity (hints of pear and peach). Delicious.

Callaway was my favorite winery of the 4 we visited. Tasting room had lots of natural light coming in from windows on 3 out of 4 walls and skylights, views of the mountains and vineyard, helpful staff, really good crackers.

Vineyard 2: Wilson Creek Winery
Claim to fame: Almond Champagne. Delicious.
Happy discovery: Chocolate port served in a chocolate shot glass.

This is the Disneyland of wineries. It's all show, no substance. Owner's family is from Pasadena. Sounds like they came into some money, got tired of working and hopped on the wine bandwagon after Sideways came out. The grounds are beautiful - picture perfect. But all winery profits obviously go into the grounds, rather than the grapes. I thought the whites tasted sour and the reds were too tart.

My Favorite Moment

Vineyard 3: Longshadow Ranch
This too seemed like it hopped onto the wine bandwagon. As a ranch, it was great. As a winery... let's just say it was good as a ranch.

Word to the wise: Stay away from the White Merlot.
Happy Discovery: 2 dogs and 2 baby goats.

Vineyard 4: Cilurzo Vineyard
Favorite Wine: Bordeaux Blend (for a white wine drinker like me, this was HUGE discovering a red that I thoroughly enjoyed).

Happy Discovery: Cilurzo Vineyard has a nice duck pond at the top of a hill that looks over their vines. This duck pond is home to the World's Fattest Duck. It's the one sitting down with his head nestled into his body. This picture does it no justice. It would have been better if I'd gotten into the shot to give you some size perspective - but you know my history with ducks. It was better I stayed far, far away.

And that concluded our trip to Temecula wine country. We didn't get a chance to drive to Fallbrook to check out Tori Spelling's new B&B - but we'll make it down there eventually.