I first found Winderlea Vineyard (winderlea.com) over ten years ago.  At that time I was searching for Oregon Pinot Noir to ship home to my Chicago cellar to contrast with my collection from California.  Right from the first tasting at Winderlea, I knew I had found my wine!  Since then, I have returned many times, and happily referred friends who were visiting the area. 
Compared to California Pinot Noir, grapes grown in Oregon produce wine that are similar to the French “burgundy” style.  Growing in a cooler, more northern location, Oregon wines will have less of a fruity nose and palate.  They will taste more earthy, and have a bit more acid to provide structure to balance the alcohol and tannins.  The end result is a lighter, more elegant wine that provides a pleasant alternative to the more fruity, bold and assertive California wines.

The wine club at Winderlea ranges from six to twelve bottles per shipment, which are released three times per year.  While they suggest the composition of each wine shipment, they permit substitution to customize the order.  Price discounts range from 15% to 20% depending on the level of club membership.

​Speckle Rock Vineyards are located on Highland Valley Road in Escondido.  They’ve done a great job on the tasting room and near exterior, with a great view on one side and some nice picnic grounds on the other side.  Now here’s the kick – it’s all temporary!  They have plans to replace this facility in a couple of years.  Some pictures below.

​Speckle Rock is one of the newer wineries in San Diego County, and, with 25 acres planted, one of the largest.  I’ve known about them since before they opened their tasting room a year-and-a-half ago but held up visiting while they got their act together.  And did they ever!  We planned on dropping in for a brief wine tasting and wound up spending an entire afternoon there, with absolutely no regrets.

​To begin with, this is a very innovative winery.  How so, you ask?  Well, most wineries first age the wine in active oak casks, then move them to neutral oak casks.  Speckle Rock does the initial aging of their red wines in concrete vessels – see picture below.  The concrete obviously does not add oak flavors to the wine, but what it does do is mellow out any acids while allowing oxidation similar to oak casks.  After six months in the concrete “eggs” the wine is moved to oak casks to complete the aging process.  As far as we could tell, this really works.

​Tasting is $15 for five pours, i.e., a taste of the five wines that they have available for tasting.  The three reds on the list shown below are superb. We managed to also get a taste of their just-bottled 2018 Pinot Noir and their 100% Tempranillo.  The Pinot Noir, made from grapes grown in Oregon, will be  maybe the best available at any winery in Southern California, so watch for its release.  The Tempranillo was, well, Tempranillo, and, well, I really, really don’t like Tempranillo…  As I learn of their releases I will report them in the Winery News section.

​Their wine club calls for the purchase of 6 bottles every four months so 18 bottles per year (my wife’s a Math teacher, so I have to get that right).  They are a little stingy on the discount at 10% and complementary wine tasting at only 6 per year, but do offer their wine club members wines that are not available to the general public.