Turtle Rock Ridge Vineyard Winery

Turtle Rock Ridge Vineyard Winery is probably the worst kept secret in Ramona.  It has been voted best wine and tasting room in Ramona numerous times.  So, you are probably asking why it has taken me so long to get around to visiting them.  Well, truth be told, I just blew it….
You can get there by driving along route 67 through Ramona, then taking a right turn on Third Street.  There are plenty of signs when you get close.  Like most Ramona wineries, they are open only on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.
The facility is one of the better ones in Ramona.  Plenty of seating outside as well as in an enclosed patio (see pictures below).  They have a great location, with rather nice views in all directions.  And of course turtle rocks...

The tasting room is small (see pictures below), but it really need not be very big with the two patios.  We sat at a table for the tasting rather than standing at a bar in the Temecula fashion.  We knew as soon as we entered the building that this was a popular spot – a lot of people in the winery for a cold winter’s day.

Tasting is $12 per person for six tastes, though you can also do three tastes for $6.  Tasting menus are shown below.  We tasted the red wines, all of which were pretty good.  Love the names… 
​​In addition to tasting their red wines, we tasted their “Chocolate Turtle” dessert wine.  I usually do not like dessert wines, and was pretty skeptical about the chocolate infusion, but it is a really nice wine.
As you can read on the menu, they do serve some food – namely a cheese ball with crackers for $12.96 (really good!), and one with meat added for $20 (can’t comment on the meat -- we only tried the cheese ball).  You can bring your own food and picnic on their grounds.

They have a wine club, but I’m going to have to confess that I didn’t get the details while I was there – I assumed they were on their web page.  Which they are not.  Wine club members do get a 20% discount and can also arrange to use their upper patio, shown in the picture below.  I’ve also included a few pictures of their turtle rocks.