Mermaid Valley Vineyard

​We go through great efforts to keep you informed of the best of the Southern California wineries.  Many a day we have spent wandering the rough terrain, facing extreme heat in the summer, the cold winds of winter, and sometimes even rain.  So it was that we set out on another Saturday afternoon to find a new winery to review.
We were after an elusive winery that we knew was there but never seemed to be open:  Mermaid Valley Vineyard.  We knew it was located on Highland Valley Road in Ramona, so we put in an effort to find if it had finally opened its doors.  Fortune smiled on us, and we found ourselves seated on their veranda sipping wine, cooled by a constant breeze, watching the planes take off from the Ramona airstrip some distance away.  The sacrifices we make for wine….
The Mermaid Valley tasting room may be the best in all of San Diego County.  It sits on the south side of Route 67, with the tasting room on the other side of their building, facing north.  The view is quite remarkable, as you can see from the pictures below.  A stiff breeze coming from the ocean keeps the property cool, and, of course, facing north there is plenty of shade from the building – making is a much better winery to visit in the hot Ramona summers.

​As shown in the pictures below, the winery owners have gone out of their way to make their winery a great place to visit.  A truly professional layout, well-planned and well-executed.  We sat on comfortable chairs in the shade while the wines we brought to us.

​Tasting is $10 per person, and you can keep the glass.  So how are the wines, you ask?  Well, if you take a wine course, they will cover the Rhone Valley in France.  That valley is in the hotter region of France, and known for constant winds and wines made from Syrah and Viognier grapes.  Now if you are putting in a winery in a valley located in a hot region with constant cooling winds what grapes should you grow?  How about Syrah, Viognier, and the other grapes from the Rhone Valley, like Grenache?  As you can see in the tasting menu below, that is exactly what they did, though they added a few others – Sauvignon Blanc and Merlot for the Bordeaux fanatics, and Petite Sirah and Zinfandel for we Californians.

​We started with the 2016 Viognier.  It was quite nice, very flavorful, but a bit low on the acid.  Not so the 2017 – nearly a perfect balance between the acid and the flavor.  A very nice wine.
How about the reds?  Well, all were good except the Zinfandel – it was really good!  I really love red wines with a bit of black pepper in the taste, and their Zinfandel has it!  It is now my go-to Zin.
Now I shall editorialize.  The owners of Mermaid Valley, Kim and Scott Flinn, did it the right way.  They purchased a property with terroir similar to that of the Rhone Valley in France.  They then planted grape varieties grown in the Rhone Valley.  They oriented their tasting room facing north and with a very open set up for both the great view and to provide shade during the hot summer months without blocking the constant wind coming out of the west.  As shown below, they put together a well-organized wine making and storage facility, with modern equipment, then added a really nice but big dog – ok, they could have done without the dog, but why would they?  Most important is that the whole thing was carefully planned and properly executed.  I should add that their wines are pretty good, but imagine what they’ll be like when the vines are a few years older.
For now, they are only open on Saturdays, and do not have a wine club.  Oh, did I mention their dog, a Great Dane that really likes people….