Ponte Winery is one of the least known wineries in Temecula.  Why, I doubt there are no more than five million people who know about them!  You can even find a parking spot on weekends if you are patient!
Located just past the Anza Rd. circle on Ranch California Blvd., Ponte is a full-service operation – by full service, I mean winery, restaurant, hotel, and lounge (only one in the Temecula wine country).  Actually, they have two restaurants – one in the winery, and one in the hotel – and both are exceptional.  Their restaurants may draw as many people as their wines -- at least it seems that way when you are waiting for a table.  The restaurant in the winery is an outdoor affair, as seen in the picture below.

​Their main wine tasting room is a separate building, as seen in two pictures below.  One has to be a little more careful tasting their red wines, as the tasting room is kept at a much higher temperature than Orfila’s.  On weekends, they open up the “Reserve Room” for wine club members and their guests.  Unlike the main tasting room, it has tables inside the tasting room, as well as tables on a covered veranda with fans outside the room, tables in a patio behind the veranda and a great view of the vineyards and hills beyond.

​Ponte wine club members must agree to purchase 16 bottles of wine a year, four bottles more than most other wineries.  The discount on wine for club members is 20%, with a 10% discount on everything else.  Well, not hotel rooms.  No, no 10% discount on the hotel rooms – no, the hotel room discount is 20%!  More about the hotel later.
The Ponte wine club is not a monthly affair.  Rather, two or three wines are selected as “wine club specials” eight times a year, i.e., they skip four months.  If you don’t want one or both bottles, you can substitute another wine off of their wine substitution list.  If you opt for red wines only, you get two bottles of the red wine special for that month.  As you can tell in the wine tasting list below, their prices are a bit higher than Orfila’s.  They have many of the same varietal wines, but more blends.  Note that they do not provide as much information about the wines on the tasting menu as Orfila, such as alcohol content, origin of the grapes, and composition.
Wine club members are limited to two free tasting sets, 6 tastes per set, per visit, but can bring up to eight friends who get a 50% discount on the $20 tasting price.  The restaurant caters to wine club members – you get priority seating and a special appetizer (and the 10% discount).  The regular wine club purchases come with a little write up on winery activities and a couple of recipes.  They usually include a little gift in the December offering.  The only live music at the winery comes on the first Sunday when they release the wine specials for the month.

​Now, back to the hotel.  We have stayed there, and I can say that it was really quite nice.  The hotel sits between the Ponte Winery and the South Coast Winery, and the Weir winery is just on the other side of Ponte, so you are walking distance to three wineries.  The hotel restaurant has both inside and outside seating, and is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  Because they draw mostly a weekend crowd they require two nights stay if one night is a Saturday night.  They are adding a pool and expanding the hotel.  Probably the best thing about the hotel is check-in.  Instead of checking in standing up at a registration desk you check in seated on a lounge chair with a complementary glass of wine.  Nice.

Orfila Vineyards and Winery has been voted Best Winery in Southern California.  It is very conveniently located if you live in San Diego County, on the road that leads to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, just a couple of miles off of Interstate 15 in the San Pascual Valley.
Beyond its location and its obvious popularity, Orfila is a great place to begin if you are looking for a “beginners” winery.  First, Orfila wins awards for their wines.  Perhaps as important, as shown in the top picture below, the wine tasting room is part of the winery’s barrel room, meaning even the red wines you taste are chilled to some degree (65 F or so).  You get to taste the wine at its best.  Of course, the real reason I’ve started out with Orfila is that it was a good excuse to visit the winery….
Second, you can step outside the tasting room and enjoy the view shown in the second picture.  And if that doesn’t get you, they have live music from 4 to 6 on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  I should add that they have a picnic area on the other side of the building, and a large tent for weddings and other large gatherings.
Orfila does not have a restaurant.  On days that they have music, they will often bring in a food truck.  They do have bread, chips, cheese, and other munchies available in the tasting room.
The third picture is the tasting menu on Friday, December 1st, 2017.  Note that the wines listed are “varietal”, i.e., 75% or greater of the grapes used to make the wine are from a single variety.  (Wines that do not have a dominance of one variety of grape usually carry funny names, like Angry Wife Red or Big Fred’s Red).  Orfila also makes more than one wine from the same varietal grape.  You can see two Pinot Noir’s on the list – they bottle a third version, but did not offer it on this day.  This will allow you to get a feel for the variation in taste of wines using the grapes of the same variety.
Which raises three other issues.  First, not all of the wines that are made in Southern California wineries are made from grapes grown in Southern California.  Wines made exclusively from grapes grown by the winery are designated “Estate”.  As seen on the tasting menu, many of the Orfila wines are indeed Estate wines, but others are from grapes grown elsewhere.  Second, the wines available for tasting changes – leading to the third issue, namely that they do not produce an infinite amount of wine, i.e., they are, after all, a small producer, and will sell all of some wines.  For example, their third Pinot Noir was not offered for tasting on the day the picture was taken because they didn’t have any left.  In other words, if you really like a wine, buy it!  Which I did on Friday (the Lagrein), but which I did not do a few months ago when they had this incredible Petit Sirah....
Wine club members get a 20% discount on their wines and a 10% discount on everything else that Orfila sells.  Wine club members used to get wine tasting for up to four people every time they visited the winery, but that has just been changed to tastings for two people for new wine club members.  They charge $15 per person for the wine tasting – consisting of six tastes – so you save $30 if you visit with one of your friends.  In return, wine club members agree to purchase three bottles of wine per quarter.  They designate the wine, though you get to decide how they are distributed between white, red, sparkling, and sweet wines.
One last note:  this is a very popular winery!  On weekends their parking lot is pretty full, and if you don't get there before 3 PM you are not likely to get a seat outside the tasting room.  Might want to consider bringing your own chairs....