Orfila

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....