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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 (over 60). Of these I've found about 40 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 at the beginning of the About section. Not just what varietals are available in Southern California, but which wineries are offering them. The About section also includes info on wine storage, corks, the Sommelier test, how to cool your wine to proper serving temperature, and other little tidbits.
I am not really qualified to review the wines themselves, though I will tell you what I like and maybe even what I don't like. However, I have a wine collector (now a Level 1 Sommelier) who will provide us some insights into particular wines. One word of warning: both he and I are red wine enthusiasts.... 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....
We now have a twitter account -- @scwineryreview -- so you can join us on our "excellent adventures".

Red wine should be aerated, i.e., allowed to breath. You can buy a simple aerator that will do the job, twirl the wine in the glass, or just let the wine sit for awhile before drinking. Of course, if the room is warm, see above....
One question you may be asking yourself: why should I buy wine from a winery rather than Cosco, a supermarket, or a wine shop? Well, for one thing, if you visit the winery you taste the wine before you buy it. Then there is the fact that Cosco and the supermarkets don't store the wine properly, so even if you get a good wine the first time the next bottle you buy might not be as good. That assumes they still carry it and you can remember what it was you bought in the first place.
But there is another reason -- wineries in Southern California make varietals that you are unlikely to find at Costco or a supermarket. I list a whole batch of white and red varietals I've tasted at the wineries I've reviewed. Costco only carries around 15 red varietals. You won't find three of my favorite wines: LaGrein, Negroamaro and Montipulciano. To make it easier to find a winery offering your favorite varietal, the wine varietal wine lists are now in the Wineries section .

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Discovered another fine winery in Ramona -- Castelli Family Vineyards. OK, my friends discovered it, not me.

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Italy

9/30/2018

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OK, so we went to Italy on a Perillo Tour that included Rome, Sorrento, Florence, Venice, and Milan – as well as a visit to a winery in Tuscany. Most of our dinners were provided as part of the tour, and, unfortunately, ranged from bad to so-so, with generally low quality wine. The few times we handled the meals ourselves the food was great and the wine outstanding. Lesson learned.
So, the question than arises as to how do the wines produced in Southern California compare to those produced in Italy? Well, surprising well. Now I say that with the understanding that we only visited one winery in Tuscany – Torciano, a very large operation (over 5,000 acres) specializing in wines made from Sangiovese grapes (pictures at the end). Tasting was limited to Chianti, Chianti Classico, Brunello, and three Super Tuscan blends. Outside of the winery, I had some Montepulciano, Aglianico, Merlot, Valpocella, and, surprisingly, Lagrein. The Merlot and Aglianico were served at the Perillo-provided dinners, and were pretty mediocre, but the rest were all very good, pretty similar to wines produced in Southern California. Again, the sample size was very small, so don’t go running around telling everyone that in our part of the world we make wine as good as any in Italy!
Anyway, after a short presentation by the owner of Torciano in front of the vines (see picture below), we were taken to the tasting area. The tasting itself was different, designed for a large group and included food for pairing (see picture below) followed by bread soup and lasagna (both absolutely incredible). We were taught how to taste the wine properly, or at least how to swirl the wine in the glass and in our mouths. In other words, the presentation was geared toward Americans tourists. But the wine was very good (except for the white and red we started with). We tasted a total of nine wines, all pretty generous pours.

I should point out that the tasting was held outside with ambient temperature around 85 F. The woman (owner’s niece) teaching us how to taste wine became quite defensive when I raised the wine temperature issue, insisting that their red wines should be served at room temperature. At the end of the tasting I noticed on one of their bottles they listed the optimum drinking temperature for the wine at 65 F….
You can see the price list for the wines below. Note that the prices are in Euros. Add ~20% to get the dollar amount and you can see that the prices are pretty high. Of course, there is the usual tour “discount”. In this case it is 30% with free shipping – not bad. One of our group looked them up on line, and sure enough you get the same prices with free shipping if you buy on line. So much for the great Perillo tour “discount”.

Strangely enough, the most expensive Brunello was not as good as the least expensive. I thought this phenomenon was limited to Southern California. I managed to limit my wife’s wine purchases to four bottles, so overall it was a successful visit.
A couple of tidbits: we learned that the difference in Chianti vs. Chianti Classico is the grape clone, and that true Chianti Classico wine has a rooster on the label. See below. I also learned that there is Vino Nobile di Montipulciano and Montipulciano D’Abruzzo. The former is a Sangiovese mix, the latter made from the Montipulciano grape. Of course, I did not make this discovery until after I had purchased a bottle of Torciano’s Vino Nobile di Montipulciano.

Please enjoy the pictures I took of the Torciano Winery. Oh, as noted above, you can buy their wines on line at the discount price with free shipping, but what fun is that?

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Palomar Mountain Winery

9/22/2018

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Mount Palomar Winery is one of the oldest wineries in Temecula, dating back to 1969. Which begs the question: Why didn’t I visit it a long time ago? It is located right on Ranch California. Must have passed it a hundred times or so. OK, so I blew it…

Their facility is breathtaking. It includes an olive grove that you can sit in and drink your wine – I’ll attach the pictures of the olive grove at the end of this review. The restaurant sits above the vines with a fantastic view of the valley beyond (see pictures below). Of course, they have plenty of room for special events – indoors and outdoors – and entertainment on weekends. I’m guessing they are not lacking in customers.

The wine tasting room is quite nice(see picture). The red wine is served at room temperature, so that is one ding for them. Fortunately, the tasting room is air conditioned. They offer six tastings at $20 weekend, $16 weekdays. As you can see from the menu below they specialize in red wines, with some of their own proprietary mixes. They did not have anything to munch on at the bar, but they did provide water on request. The wine server did not rinse the glasses before pouring in a new wine.
They have two wine clubs, Villa and Estate. Villa members buy 12 bottles of wine a year (two every other month) with a 20% discount. They get two complementary wine tastings when visiting the winery, limited to two visits a month. For Estate members the number of bottles is doubled, the discount increased to 25% and the complementary wine tastings doubled. They have wine pick-up parties with food – not sure if these are complementary. Discounts at the restaurant and on purchases of other items are included, though they don’t say what those are. Again referring to the winetasting menu, some of their wines are sold exclusively to wine club members.

Now pictures of the must-see olive garden:

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New York State

9/18/2018

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The oldest winery in the United States is located in upstate New York. It is also the very first winery I ever visited – back in the 70’s. My son lives not far from the winery, so he took us there as an anniversary present, and it gives me an opportunity to do a little national comparison.
Brotherhood Winery was founded in 1839. It produced wine for churches, so did not have to close down during Prohibition. The first thing I noticed on driving into their grounds is the lack of grape vines. Turns out they grow their grapes much farther north, in the Finger Lakes region of New York. You can see their facility in the pictures below.

New York state is substantially wetter and colder than Southern California, so they don’t grow the same grapes. The winery specializes in German whites, sweet, sparkling, and fruit wines (see rating page below). Well, at least that’s what they grow and bottle. They also import wines from Chile and even California to allow them to offer a very wide variety of wines

Their tasting is a bit unique, completely different from anywhere else. We tasted in a group from the menu shown below. As you can see, there are three lists. For each tasting you had your choice of one of the three wines nicely explained by the server. At the end, everyone tasted their Riesling. Six tastings per person. By the way, the Pinot Noir was their product, grapes grown in New York state. Dreadful. The Riesling was great, though. Oh, and please note that, as shown in the last picture, they keep all of their wines in a cooler for tasting….

We also stopped at a winery/distillery/hard cider mill not far from Brotherhood, the Warwick Valley Winery, Distillery & Café. The grapes again were grown in the Finger Lakes region, but the cider came from locally grown apples. Nice facility, as shown below.

For the tasting, you marked a menu, as shown below. Some interesting wines, including a red made from Baco Noir, some sort of French-American hybrid. I'm going to add that to my list of reds. Note the prices. Bottom line: you get what you pay for....

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SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA WINERY REVIEW

Italy

Palomar Mountain Winery

New York State

Jim Treglio

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