Battaia

Battaia is the newly-opened sister winery to Ponte, located in Temecula just one winery (Wiens) down from Ponte along Rancho California.  It is a very different winery.  The key feature of this new facility is its pool, as seen in the pictures below.  Complete with cabines (changing rooms with showers), it follows an Italian design concept.  Bathers can bask in the sun on chaise lounges while enjoying a variety of drinks and foods.

Rather than do a normal tasting, we tried their special wine pairing experience.  You are given a choice of three boards (charcuterie, Mediterranean, and vegetable) which are paired with five wines – Arneis, Pinot Grigio, Aglianico, Montipulciano, and Nero D’Avola.  The Nero D’Avola and Arneis were quite nice, the Montipulciano good, Aglianico ok, and the Pinot Grigio terrible.  Two small deserts finish the meal, paired with two desert wines, both of which were such that I did not bother to get their names.  Food was great, three of the wines were quite good, so not a bad experience.  However, the room as shown below only had the high tables, meaning we had to sit in rather uncomfortable high chairs (one of my pet peeves).  To add insult to injury, the red wines were served at room temperature.

Now if you want to drop in for wine tasting, you have to make a reservation in advance.  For a limited time, non-wine club members will be able to use their special lounge or outdoor patio, but in the future this will be limited to wine club members and you’ll have to taste in their barrel room.  Note that the barrel room has no chairs.  All three are shown below.  Wine tasting in the barrel room is $25 per person (six tastes).

To join their wine club, you have to purchase four bottles of wine.  After those first four bottles, you are obligated to purchase four bottles per quarter (16 per year), all at a 20% discount.  The same discount applies to chaise lounge and cabine rental fees (you didn’t think they offered them for free, did you?).  Which brings into mind my third pet peeve:  separation of the restaurant from the wine tasting facility.  At most winery restaurants you are welcome to combine the two – in fact, in Leoness you can do wine tasting through your waiter.  You can’t at Battaia.  Wine club members get four free tastings per month in the barrel room.  Not sure if these complementary tastings are limited to the barrel room.