​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….

​I’ve avoided reviewing wineries that are not open to the public, i.e., require making reservations before visiting.  In fact, I’ve only visited two such.  A few days ago, I was taken to one such winery by my intrepid crew of adventurous wine lovers.  I learned that the winery, Castelli Family Vineyards, has a very good reason for requiring reservations, namely, they are in a gated community – without the code for the gate you can’t get to their winery!  So, they are forgiven.  Of course, given what I found there it is I who should be looking for forgiveness….
Castelli Family Vineyards is located in Ramona not far from the intersection of Archie Moore and Highland Valley Road.  As you can see in the pictures below, they have a pretty nice site.  The inside is pretty nice as well.  It being a hot day, we wound up at a long table on the inside.  

​A friend of one of our group lives in the gated community and joined us.  Turns out, she grows grapes on her property, some of which goes to Castelli to make wine – including Viognier grapes already pressed and fermenting in a vat in the tasting room -- see picture below.  Note that this is just the juice fermenting.

​Tasting is $16 for the five wines, the five wines at the top of the list shown below.  I didn’t particularly care for the Chardonnay (noting that I’m more of a red wine fan), but the Sangiovese, Syrah, and Petite Sirah where all quite nice.  Which gets us to the third wine on the list – the estate Pinot Noir.

Pinot Noir grapes are not supposed to grow well in hot climates.  Pinot Noir is a cool climate grape.  So, naturally, I was prepared for the worst.  But my fellow winers insisted that this was a really good wine.  The first thing I noticed about the wine is its color – rather than the light red of most Pinot Noirs it is a dark red, almost purple, much like the Cambria Clone 23 Pinot Noir.  But the winemaker, Nelson Pizzaro, assured me it was not Clone 23.  So, I tasted the wine – and it was quite fruity, more dark cherry than red cherry.  Aha!  I suspected the grapes were quite ripe when picked.  Bingo!
BRIX is a measure of the amount of sugar in the grape juice.  Winemakers look to this measurement as a guide when to pick their grapes.  Most white wines are picked at a BRIX under 24, whereas red wines are 24 and above.  If you multiply the BRIX number by 0.59 you get a good estimate of the alcohol level in the wine made from the grapes.  Nelson told us that he planned on picking the grapes at a BRIX of 24.5.  When they got to that level, he arranged for the picking.  Well, between the time he measured the 24.5 and the picking date the BRIX rose to 27!  Rather than dilute the juice to lower the alcohol level, he went ahead and made the wine.  Good move!  This wine is excellent, maybe the best Pinot Noir produced from grapes grown in Southern California.  Amazingly, the high alcohol content (16% by volume) is hardly noticeable.
Now I planned to have a picture of this wine in a glass so you could see the dark color.  Unfortunately, every time I poured some in a glass it disappeared….
They have a wine club.  It costs $100 to join the club, and you agree to purchase 3 bottles of wine per quarter.  Price discount is 20%, and tasting is free for two people per visit, with another two tastings available for $6 each.  Additional guests get the wine club glass price.
They have a caterer that provides food (pizza, et al.), or you can bring your own.  Also, entertainment!  On September 25th from 6 PM to 9:30 PM they are having a great party, with corn hole, I Love Lucy and grape stomp competitions, dinner and a glass of wine.  Price is $63 per person or $125 per couple.
On a more somber note, they lost most of their 2018 grape crop due to excessive heat.