Chapin Family Vineyards

If you head east on Rancho California Blvd. in Temecula through the wine country, past the de Portola turnoff, you’ll come to Chapin Family Vineyards on your right.  It is worth going that extra few miles.  A truly pleasant winery where they do things the right way.  Pictures of the front are shown below.

Now back to the “right way”.  First, you sit at a nice table on their very nice patio and they bring the wine to you.  You can stand at the bar if you like, but it is so much nicer to not have to stand while you taste their wines.  Some pictures of the patio and the view from the patio follow.

Water is available if you ask for it, and they will offer you oyster crackers as well, two more keys to the “right” way to run a wine tasting facility.  Now if you’ve followed this website you know that I am a bit, shall we say, obsessive when it comes to serving red wine at the right temperature, so you can bet that this is a key part of my “right” way.  Not surprising then that they keep their bottles in individual coolers behind the bar.  I’ve included a picture of a side room in their tasting room, and of a plaque.  Check it out.

Tasting ran $18 for six tastes from a very extensive tasting menu (see pictures).  It is particularly interesting to note that their estate wines, both white and red, consist of two French varietals and two Italian varietals.  Well, maybe not particularly interesting.  In fact, not interesting at all, but I have to write something….  Anyway, while I was not enthused about the rose wine that they made from their Montepulciano grapes, their red Montepulciano is quite nice as is their Aglianico.  The star to my taste is their 2015 Syrah.  It has a very unique, complex spicy structure that I’ve never encountered before.

Their wine club is a three-bottle (at least two red) per quarter affair at a 20% discount, with one substitution allowed per quarter.  Includes free wine tasting for two (limit 8 per month), and half off for additional guests, or 20% off wine or a glass of wine.  Unlike other wine clubs, you have to commit to a year’s membership, with a $75 opt out fee.