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SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA WINERY REVIEW

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!

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Another new winery, this time in Temecula: Altisima Winery.

Chuparosa Vineyards

4/23/2018

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One of the goals of my reviewing wineries was to someday discover a great winery, one that is known to only a few, perhaps hidden along some back road in, say, Ramona. I am pleased to report that I have found that winery: Chuparosa Vineyards! This boutique winery offers a small array of great wines, run by two wonderful people. Now of course I don’t name names, but Carolyn is worth mentioning because she has been instrumental in opening up Ramona for wineries. She represented the wine growers (gratis) in a six year legal battle to allow tasting rooms.
The winery is small, as shown in the pictures below. You can sit outside on a small patio with a view of the vineyards, or inside the tasting room. Nice view from the patio of the surrounding fields.

There is no bar, per se. Bottles of their wine are lined up on a small table. The tasting room is small, as shown in the pictures below. On my visit the rose in the list shown below was not available for tasting but they did have a Chenin Blanc. Carolyn or her husband (and winemaker) Andy bring the wine to you.

And what wine! They make a relatively small number of wines, all but their Chenin Blanc estate bottled. Like many of the smaller wineries, Chuparosa does not have a wine club, but tastings are only $5 per person, and Andy makes sure you taste all of their wines. That came to seven tastings for me. The amazing thing about their wine is that three were of grapes that I generally do not like – Chenin Blanc, Malbec, and Cabernet Franc – and I liked the wine he made from all three. In fact, I came home with a bottle of their Chenin Blanc (and a bottle of their Sangiovese – Brunello, no less)! Oh, while they don’t have a restaurant, Carolyn makes small sour dough loaves that you can munch on (with olive oil) – gratis.

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Cougar Vineyard and Winery

4/14/2018

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The last two wineries I reviewed made it to this website because they were unique – Salerno for their sculpture garden, Oak Mountain for their cave. Now I offer you a winery that is unique for the varietal wines that it offers – Cougar Vineyard and Winery.
Located on a hill overlooking de Portola in Temecula, Cougar has a fairly nice facility with a large tasting room, delicatessen, and both indoor and outdoor seating (see pictures below). They have entertainment Friday nights and Saturday afternoons. The delicatessen is located in the tasting room. This can be a bit disconcerting, as the odors from the deli dominate the room. I was also disappointed that they did not have water available.

All of their wines are estate grown, and they grow only Italian grapes (and Cabernet Sauvignon?). What makes them unique is that in addition to the standard Italian varietals (Sangiovese, Montepulciano, Primitivo, Pinot Grigio), they also offer rarer varietals such as Aglianico, Negroamoro, and Lambrusca di Alessandria. We were told that the owners (who are also the winemakers) were responsible for getting the latter wine classified as a varietal in the U.S. We did not get to taste their Montipulciano, which we were told is their most popular wine. Bummer!
They offer six tastes for $17 and eight tastes for $25 – and you can keep the glass for both. The tasting menu is shown below. We did find the red wine was not chilled at all, so we probably did not get a great feel for the quality of the wine. It seemed that their 2015 vintages were a bit harsh, maybe from the higher temperatures, or maybe, like Robert Renzoni’s, their wines they may need more aging. As with Renzoni, if you join their wine club I would recommend that you have a good way to store your wine.

Their wine club has two levels – 4 bottles per quarter, with a 25% discount, or 6 bottles per quarter, with a 30% discount and free shipping. Wine club members get four free tastings per visit, with half off for an additional four guests. They do not have a separate area for the wine club members, but do hold special wine-club-member-only events.
Oh, one final note: free pizza Monday through Thursday if you buy a bottle of wine!

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SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA WINERY REVIEW

Chuparosa Vineyards

Cougar Vineyard and Winery

Jim Treglio

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