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SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA WINERY REVIEW

Introduction

Welcome to Southern California Winery Review! I started this website in late 2017 because I kept finding really bad wineries getting rave reviews, while some very, very good wineries were totally ignored. So, I've spent quite a bit of time visiting wineries in Southern California. Of these I've found many pretty good wineries, certainly worth my taking the time to write them up. I know what you are thinking -- it's a dirty job, but someone has to do it.... These are summarized in the Wineries section of this website.
Now wineries in Southern California are rapidly becoming the centers of social activities. Not just for special events (weddings and the like), but as a place to go on weekends with friends, to enjoy good wine (ok, that's pretty obvious), good food, and even good entertainment. While most wineries have some sort of wine club, no two are run the same. Some wineries have restaurants. Some have entertainment on weekends. Some even have hotels. So I have included information on all of this, both in the Wineries section and in the Winery News section.
If you are looking for specific varietals, you can find long lists in the Wineries section following the list of reviewed wineries. Not just what varietals are available in Southern California, but which wineries are offering them. The About section includes info on wine storage, corks, the Sommelier test, how to cool your wine to proper serving temperature, and other little tidbits.
Wine quality determines which wineries I review, though I also pay attention to the wine tasting room, personnel, location, view, et al. I should add that I am very much a red wine enthusiast....
And speaking of red wine, I shall now expound on my pet peeve -- namely, drinking red wine at "room temperature"! Red wine should be stored and drunk at a temperature below 65 F. If you don't believe me, I suggest you run a little experiment -- I like experiments, in fact I'm a retired experimental physicist. Pour red wine into two glasses in a warm room. Chill one to below 65 F (put it in the fridge for about 20 minutes) and let the other glass warm up. Then taste them both....
See picture below for recommended drinking temperatures. By the way, what you see in the picture is the back of a wine temperature gauge, one of many wine-related paraphenalia in the Gadgets section.
IMPORTANT NOTE: At the end of each post is a small Facebook Like box.... Would really like a lot of likes....

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Link to Chateau 55 Website

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Link to Priority Wine Pass

I got another gadget for Father's Day. See it in the GADGETS section.
Learn all about tannins! I've added an piece in the About section entitled "Tannins -- the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly".

The Latest Blog
Another new winery! This is a small one in Ramona -- Rancho San Martin Winery.

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August 01st, 2018

8/1/2018

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Poppaea Vineyard & Winery

8/1/2018

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One of the glaring differences between the Temecula wineries and the Ramona wineries is geographic: the wineries in Temecula are very close together, within an area of around 15 square miles, whereas the wineries in Ramona are spread out over an area in excess of 150 square miles. So naturally we had to visit one of the easternmost Ramona wineries, Poppaea Vineyard & Winery on Old Julian Highway.
Poppaea is an all-Italian red wine producer. It’s hard to tell that it is a winery – more like visiting someone’s house (see Altipiano). There is a nice outdoor facility, but it was extremely hot when we visited so we stayed inside the tasting room. See pictures of the outside below.

The tasting room, as you can see below, is quite comfortable. While it has a bar, it also has two tables with nice chairs to sit in, following along the same lines as Chuparosa and La Finquita. Like other Ramona wineries, the wine comes to you, you don’t go to the wine. They provide some munchies and cold water to hydrate and cleanse your pallet.
And – get this – they actually chill their red wines! Yes, we now have discovered two wineries out of ~30 that we’ve visited that make an effort to present their wines in the best light! The wine tasting is $10 per person, with the fee waived if you purchase a bottle of wine.

All of their wines are Estate, meaning they grow their own grapes. As you can see in the picture below, they had five wines for tasting when we visited. Unfortunately, their three best selling wines – Montipulciano, Sangiovese, and Barbera – were not available. A lesson to be learned about Ramona wineries – summer is not a good time to visit. Too hot, and the best wines might not be available. The backside of the tasting menu is shown below as well.

One very interesting aspect of their wines is that they try very hard to make them exactly as they are made in Italy. This includes in the case of the Primitivo using Italian yeast. Now Primitivo grapes are genetically identical to Zinfandel, but the wine made from the Italian yeast was starkly different from what we taste elsewhere. Much dryer without the pepper.
The winemaker also introduced us to a new varietal, Sagrantino. This wine has some of the highest tannin levels of any wine, which, I have now learned, means it should be aged for many years.
Visiting wineries in the summer has one advantage, namely you get to spend time discussing wine with the wine maker. And, as sometimes happens, he suggests we try some of his wine directly out of the barrel. So, we went into his barrel room and tasted a Montepulciano. A picture of the barrel room follows.

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SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA WINERY REVIEW

August 01st, 2018

Poppaea Vineyard & Winery

Jim Treglio

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