Casi Cielo Winery

Now I can assume that some of you are not football fans or are bitter ex-Charger fans, and therefore are interested in a place to hide away on Sunday during the Super Bowl.  I suggest you consider Casi Cielo Winery.
Casi Cielo is one of a half dozen wineries southeast of the 94/125 intersection that have opened wine tasting rooms in the last couple of years.  It is in the Jamul area on a side road off of 94.  This small winery was purchased by the Maness family a few years ago, which kept the winery name but added their name to the vineyard.  Hence, you would be visiting Casi Cielo Winery and Maness Vineyards.  The vineyards date back to the early 80’s, by the way.  You can see the front of the winery in the pictures below.

The is a very unique winery.  The Maness family converted the garage into a very nice tasting room (see below), but you probably don’t want to dwell there very long because out the back door is a beautiful patio with great view of the surrounding hills.  That is not what makes this winery particularly unique, however – lots of wineries have great patios with great views.  What makes them unique is that they are a very family friendly winery.  Whereas many wineries don’t allow children, they welcome them.  They have three alpacas (Gilligan, Ginger, and MaryAnn), as well as goats and chickens to keep the children occupied, as well as chalk for them to draw pictures on the patio floor.

They have two levels of wine tasting, one with crackers and jelly (they make their own) for $10 each, and the other adds cheese and chocolate for an additional $5.  The jelly is for sale as well as the wine.  Much like our last winery we reviewed, Carter Estate, you sit at the table and they bring the wine to you.  Very nice touch.

You can see the price list below.  The wines are good, and have won awards – as displayed in the tasting room.  Wine tasting gets you a 10% discount on the wine prices.  We walked out with a bottle of their award-winning Montepulciano without actually tasting it – they only had thirteen bottles left.  Doc Ed bought one as well, so we left them with just 11 bottles….  I apologize for the bad picture of the tasting menu -- it was two sided in a plastic holder.

Their wine club is different from that listed on the website, and is now the easiest to keep up with – just two bottles every six months.  You visit the winery on the pick-up date, taste the wines, and if you don’t like the ones selected for the wine club you buy something else.  Discount is small, just 10%, but then again, the commitment is only a third the norm, and it does go up to 15% if you buy 6 to 11 bottles, and 20% for a case or more.  Oh, and wine club members get one free wine tasting per week.