Cougar Vineyard and Winery

The last two wineries I reviewed made it to this website because they were unique – Salerno for their sculpture garden, Oak Mountain for their cave.  Now I offer you a winery that is unique for the varietal wines that it offers – Cougar Vineyard and Winery.
Located on a hill overlooking de Portola in Temecula, Cougar has a fairly nice facility with a large tasting room, delicatessen, and both indoor and outdoor seating (see pictures below).  They have entertainment Friday nights and Saturday afternoons.  The delicatessen is located in the tasting room.  This can be a bit disconcerting, as the odors from the deli dominate the room.  I was also disappointed that they did not have water available.

All of their wines are estate grown, and they grow only Italian grapes (and Cabernet Sauvignon?).  What makes them unique is that in addition to the standard Italian varietals (Sangiovese, Montepulciano, Primitivo, Pinot Grigio), they also offer rarer varietals such as Aglianico, Negroamoro, and Lambrusca di Alessandria.  We were told that the owners (who are also the winemakers) were responsible for getting the latter wine classified as a varietal in the U.S.  We did not get to taste their Montipulciano, which we were told is their most popular wine.  Bummer!
They offer six tastes for $17 and eight tastes for $25 – and you can keep the glass for both.  The tasting menu is shown below.  We did find the red wine was not chilled at all, so we probably did not get a great feel for the quality of the wine.  It seemed that their 2015 vintages were a bit harsh, maybe from the higher temperatures, or maybe, like Robert Renzoni’s, their wines they may need more aging.  As with Renzoni, if you join their wine club I would recommend that you have a good way to store your wine.

Their wine club has two levels – 4 bottles per quarter, with a 25% discount, or 6 bottles per quarter, with a 30% discount and free shipping.  Wine club members get four free tastings per visit, with half off for an additional four guests.  They do not have a separate area for the wine club members, but do hold special wine-club-member-only events.
Oh, one final note:  free pizza Monday through Thursday if you buy a bottle of wine!