Vino in Temecula

We signed up for a wine tour with a company called The Grape Line. This tour is great because everyone hops onto a little bus and the bus driver and tour guide take you to 4 wineries in Temecula wine country. Since this was our 3rd time on the tour (it’s the ‘go to’ activity every time someone comes out to visit us in CA) – it was pretty old hat for us. Here’s a breakdown of the events.

Holiday Inn Express
Get picked up at the Holiday Inn Express by the bus and meet our tour guide, Phillip. Since both the bus and our party arrived 15 minutes early, the day got off to a great – ahead of schedule – start. Then we left and picked up the other 10 guests on our tour at various hotels in Temecula. Then we hit the road for our first winery – Callaway.

Callaway
Used to be owned by the same Callaway family that owns Callaway golf items. I don’t know golf, so this doesn’t mean anything to me. The wine was great. Very crisp whites and full-bodied reds. Had my first Sangiovese – and now have a new type of red to explore.

We completely missed the tour of this winery – we were too busy talking and sampling. But that was fine for the three of us (Sean and I had already taken that tour) and my aunt was fine with skipping it so we gave her the condensed verbal tour: you grow grapes, you pick grapes, you put them in a machine; the machine crushes them, put it into barrels, barrels sit for a while, the wine’s put in bottles, you buy the bottle, you drink the wine. Viola.

Wilson’s Creek
Ahhhh – the Disneyland of wineries. I don’t like Wilson’s Creek. Like most things in Southern California, they put more emphasis on the appearance and ignore the substance. After reading the “family history” pamphlet they put on our table – I dislike it even more. Basically, a family with money got bored in the late 90s and decided they wanted to do something. Owning a vineyard was the popular thing to do in California at the time, so they bought a vineyard. They didn’t know what they were doing so they paid someone else to grow the grapes and make the wine for them. They built a ton of buildings on the land so they could have events and it seems like they sell the wine as an after thought. The woman who greeted us was the daughter of the owners. She was an over-medicated mess who made us guess how old she was (and I’m convinced she lied about her age). Lovely.

It’s worth noting that they were very stingy with their tasting size.
Bella Vista
My favorite. This is the oldest vineyard in Temecula. It’s a no frills, focus on the wine vineyard. Full bodied reds and no pretentiousness.

Mount Palomar
This was the only winery that was new to us and I really enjoyed it. I had a delicious cream sherry and their port was my favorite of all the ports I tried on the trip. Palomar has a very nice set up – lots of shaded outdoor seating (which is a big plus considering Temecula gets into the triple digits) and live music. It was a very relaxing, laid back winery.


All in all, it was a great trip.