So. Cal. Winery Review
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SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA WINERY REVIEW

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Southern California has become a great place to go wine tasting!  Great wines, great wineries -- and great people!  This website is dedicated to bringing you the best info on wineries in San Diego and Riverside counties -- and a few other places as well.  Enjoy!
​Chateau 55 Wine Storage Facility
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On to the second Arizona winery reviewed by Doc Ed -- Chateau Tumbleweed.

Casi Cielo Winery

1/31/2019

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Now I can assume that some of you are not football fans or are bitter ex-Charger fans, and therefore are interested in a place to hide away on Sunday during the Super Bowl.  I suggest you consider Casi Cielo Winery.
Casi Cielo is one of a half dozen wineries southeast of the 94/125 intersection that have opened wine tasting rooms in the last couple of years.  It is in the Jamul area on a side road off of 94.  This small winery was purchased by the Maness family a few years ago, which kept the winery name but added their name to the vineyard.  Hence, you would be visiting Casi Cielo Winery and Maness Vineyards.  The vineyards date back to the early 80’s, by the way.  You can see the front of the winery in the pictures below.
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The is a very unique winery.  The Maness family converted the garage into a very nice tasting room (see below), but you probably don’t want to dwell there very long because out the back door is a beautiful patio with great view of the surrounding hills.  That is not what makes this winery particularly unique, however – lots of wineries have great patios with great views.  What makes them unique is that they are a very family friendly winery.  Whereas many wineries don’t allow children, they welcome them.  They have three alpacas (Gilligan, Ginger, and MaryAnn), as well as goats and chickens to keep the children occupied, as well as chalk for them to draw pictures on the patio floor.
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They have two levels of wine tasting, one with crackers and jelly (they make their own) for $10 each, and the other adds cheese and chocolate for an additional $5.  The jelly is for sale as well as the wine.  Much like our last winery we reviewed, Carter Estate, you sit at the table and they bring the wine to you.  Very nice touch.
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You can see the price list below.  The wines are good, and have won awards – as displayed in the tasting room.  Wine tasting gets you a 10% discount on the wine prices.  We walked out with a bottle of their award-winning Montepulciano without actually tasting it – they only had thirteen bottles left.  Doc Ed bought one as well, so we left them with just 11 bottles….  I apologize for the bad picture of the tasting menu -- it was two sided in a plastic holder.
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Their wine club is different from that listed on the website, and is now the easiest to keep up with – just two bottles every six months.  You visit the winery on the pick-up date, taste the wines, and if you don’t like the ones selected for the wine club you buy something else.  Discount is small, just 10%, but then again, the commitment is only a third the norm, and it does go up to 15% if you buy 6 to 11 bottles, and 20% for a case or more.  Oh, and wine club members get one free wine tasting per week.
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Priority Wine Pass

1/26/2019

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​So here’s the story on the Priority Wine Pass.  I’m a particularly difficult person to buy presents for – I don’t have a lot of hobbies, I’m not a golfer, and I’m not a do-it-yourself person.  But I do this blog and hence spend a lot of time visiting wineries.  So, not surprising, one of my sons bought me a Priority Wine Pass for my birthday last year.  In looking at their website, I noticed two things:  1) it provides savings at wineries throughout California, Oregon, and Washington, and 2) they have a concierge service, i.e., they help you plan wine tasting trips.  So I decided to try out their concierge service for an upcoming trip to Napa with my neighbors.
We gave the concierge basic information – travel info including where we planning to stay, types of wines we liked best, price we were willing to pay for a bottle of wine, and how long we were going to be in Napa.  We added that we wanted to include a visit to Stag’s Leap.  They came back with a two day plan for visiting eight wineries, seven of which offered Priority Wine Pass discounts.  We made some changes to the itinerary but still wound up saving $175 per couple for the five wineries on their list that we visited!  Needless to say, our friends went out and purchased passes.  I should add that the two wineries we liked the least on the trip were not on the concierge’s list and did not take the pass.
Since this website is all about visiting wineries, it was a natural to consider working with Priority Wine Pass.  They think so as well, to the tune of a $20 discount on the pass, dropping the cost from around $60 to around $40 – that’s a 33% discount!  Just go to their website and use the code scwr.  A number of Southern California wineries that I’ve reviewed offer discounts to Priority Wine Pass holders.  I’ve noted on the winery listing in the “Wineries” section of this website which ones take the Priority Wine Pass and what discounts they offer.  In other words, the Priority Wine Pass can save you money even if you never leave the area.
Now back to the gift issue.  Valentine’s Day is coming soon, and if you have someone special in your life that is a complete pain in the ass when it comes to buying gifts for, such as yours truly, who really loves visiting wineries, maybe you should consider a Priority Wine Pass.  Of course, it would also save a lot if you are planning on giving someone a romantic wine tour, in which case you buy the pass for yourself.  Actually, that sounds like a much better idea.  No wonder I’m so hard to buy for….
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Carter Estate Winery & Resort

1/18/2019

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We arrived at Carter Estate Winery & Resort late on a Thursday afternoon, around 5 PM, and after a few minutes were the only customers (they close at 6 PM).  The visit was somewhat unplanned, as we were on our way back to San Diego after a visit to another Temecula winery (Fazeli).  In truth, I did not expect much from Carter, so little in fact that I did not take pictures on the way in, hence the photos below.
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Located just diagonally across from their sister winery (South Coast) on Rancho California in Temecula, Carter has the full monte, so to speak – winery, restaurant, hotel, and pool.  It was designed this way from the start, so I did not expect that they would put much effort into the “Estate Winery” part of the name.  I expected something more on the line of a tourist trap.  It was not.
The tasting room sits alone near the front of the property.  The first thing that I noticed on entering is that it is close in style to the Charles Krug facility we visited in Napa, i.e., a large room with small bar and lots of tables, both high and low, rather than the more common tasting room with no place to sit, the room filled with merchandise and wine bottle racks, and extensive bar space.  See pictures below.
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We indicated that we were there for wine tasting, so they led us to a table (high one, but we corrected that rather quickly).  Almost as soon as we sat down, they provided us with glasses of water and bread sticks.  Things got better from there on…
They bring the wines to you, and, first off, they offered a Pinot Noir not shown on the tasting menu (see below).  This was very surprising.  Carter is an Estate Winery, meaning all of their wines are made from grapes grown on their property.  So, they make a Pinot Noir from grapes grown in Temecula.  It should have been awful, but it was actually pretty good.  Most of the other wines were also pretty good, but then there was the Sangiovese.  Absolutely incredible!  Worth a visit just for the Sangiovese.  We did not leave empty-handed – I’m not making that mistake again!!  By the way, their wines have won some awards -- see below menu!
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Tasting costs $20 weekdays and $25 weekends, but we got a $5 senior discount.  The tasting room, as noted above, is near the front of the property.  The hotel and restaurant are not very close, so one down side of the winery is that you can’t eat and taste at the same time (they do offer food pairings for $45 per person, though). 
I’m not very enthusiastic about their wine club.  You get six bottles every six months, a mix of red, white, sparkling and dessert – not sure if they allow substitutions.  I am a red wine enthusiast, so this right alone is a deal killer.  Their discount is only 15% on wine – vs 20% to 30% for most other wineries.  They limit you to four free tastings every six months, though you get half price for up to four people with every visit.  Other discounts apply to both Carter and South Coast purchases (see below), and include 15% on the Carter hotel, but overall not a particularly generous club offering.  And they don’t have a wine club area...
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Fazeli Cellars

1/12/2019

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When we visit wineries we often meet people who have been visiting other wineries.  Sometimes they have good things to say and sometimes they have bad things to say – and, on rare occasions, they rant and rave about how great such-and-such winery is.  One winery that received such a recommendation was Fazeli Cellars.
Fazeli is a Temecula winery, sitting on a hill above de Portola (next to Robert Renzoni).  A little dirt road takes you up to their dirt parking lot, which sits below their absolutely magnificent facility.  You walk up winding steps to a great patio (see pictures).  Now, Fazeli is a Persian winery, with a Persian restaurant.  I don’t know how good the food is – we didn’t eat there – but it sure smells good!  So we followed the aroma of Persian food into their rather large tasting room.
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The tasting room is largely a bar-type affair.  The patio that we passed through to get to the tasting room was loaded with tables, and there is a second patio on the other side of the tasting room with tables as well.  Great views from both patios, of course.  I need to mention that the restaurant (Baba Joon) is integrated into the tasting room and patios.  If you’ve read my previous reviews, this is something I really like, being able drink your tasting samples while you eat.  Wine tasting is $20 weekends, $15 Monday through Friday – and they offer a 2 for 1 tasting with Priority Wine Pass.
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OK, so far so good.  But how about the wine?  I mean, yes, the Fazeli facility is exceptional (maybe the best in all of Temecula), and the food sure smelled good (and, according to the couple that ranted and raved about the winery, tastes as good as it smells), but if the wine wasn’t any good, well…  So we tasted six red wines.  Now sometimes a winery just doesn’t get the message that they exist to produce good wine, so all of the wines are, shall we say, not up to snuff.  Where they get the message, they seldom bat 1000.  Well, Fazeli bats 1000!  Six wines, and all ranged from pretty good to very good!  See the tasting menu below.
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So naturally we asked about the temperature that they serve the wines at.  Ours were a bit warm, so this was a concern.  Well, in the summer, they keep the tasting room at barrel temperature.  In the winter, they just don’t turn on the heat.  As we were visiting on a particularly warm winter day….
They have two wine clubs, Turquoise and Diamond.  Both entail purchase of 12 bottles a year, two every other month, but the Diamond members by the more expense wines.  Both get 20% discount on wine, 10% on restaurant, with 25% discount for Turquoise members on cases and 30% for Diamond members.  Free tasting for 8 per month for Turquoise, 12 for Diamond.  Diamond members also get two complementary tickets to winery events, including their masquerade ball.  Yes, they have a masquerade ball!
They also have a private patio and room for wine club members – their Ruby Lounge.  See picture below.  Oh, I failed to mention that they offer entertainment Saturdays and Sundays (starting at 1 pm).
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Kohill Winery

1/6/2019

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I mentioned some time ago that if you find a wine that you like in one of the Southern California wineries, buy it – it might not be there next time you visit.  Now I’ve been able to taste wines that are not yet ready for release, sometimes right out of the barrel.  Which leads to this corollary:  if you taste a wine that is not ready for release, keep close track of the winery – if it is good enough for you to want to buy it, it will sell out very quickly.  For example, Espinosa released it’s 2016 Zinfandel early – it sold out in three weeks!
Which makes for a good lead-in for our next winery review, Kohill Winery in Ramona (picture below).  Kohill is a boutique winery off Highland Valley Road not far from rte. 67, up a long winding road.  This was my second trip there.  My first was early in the summer, at which time I tasted a very unique wine made from the rare Italian grape Refosco.  It was not ready for release, so I figured I would wait until it was ready before re-visiting the winery.  Well, guess what?  All sold out.  I’m 0 for 2.
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Kohill is a great example of the adventurous spirit of Ramona boutique wineries.  In addition to Refosco, the owner and winemaker, Mike, has also planted Pinot Noir grapes.  Pinot Noir should not grow well in Ramona, but he has an area on his property that might just defy the norm, and he has the will to try.
Their tasting room is small and is also the barrel room, though when I first visited the barrels were in a back room and boxes in what is now the barrel room (see pictures).  They have added a small table and chairs inside – which helped considerably given how cold and rainy it was yesterday.
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As you can see in the tasting menu below, they don’t make a lot of different varietals.  Tasting price is $11 per person.  Last summer it was a cash-only business, but now they take credit cards.  No wine club.
One unusual aspect of their wines is a heavy oak odor and taste.  They age their wines in oak casks much longer than normal.  We also tasted their next batch of Refosco out of the barrel, and it is going to be incredible!  Which lead us back to the corollary…  Oh, and look out for the release of their Pinot Noir as well.
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    Jim Treglio

    retired physicist and wine lover

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