Altipiano post COVID (or not)

​It seems that more and more people are discovering Southern California wineries.  Even as the number of wineries has increased, the number of visitors to existing wineries has increased.  This is no better exemplified by my recent visit to Altipiano in the Highland Hills region of Escondido.  Well, all right, it turned out to be a special occasion – it was Denise Clarke’s birthday.  Denise and her husband Peter own the winery, and Denise is the winemaker.  Peter is the resident stand-up comedian.  I’m very happy to report that I actually got some of her time.  More on this further on.  Anyway, parking was almost impossible, and their patio was chock full of people.

​They’ve switched to serving flights of three wines, though you have to dance for your wine (just kidding), and they had some great live music.  I’ve written a piece on the rare Italian white grape Arneis, and lo and behold it is now part of their offering (and a good one at that!).  Can’t take credit for this – this wine was in the bottle long before my blog on Arneis.

​As for my time with Denise, I learned that Altipiano will be releasing two new wines in the next year or so, the outstanding Italian red varietals Aglianico and Nero d’Avola.  Wow!  Tasting prices have gone up to $35 for a flight of three wines.  You can see all of the current offerings in the pictures below.  As with many of the small wineries, Denise is sourcing some of her grapes to meet the huge demand for her product.