Cheval Winery

​If you look on my tables of wineries, you find a table labeled “Escondido.”  For those of you not familiar with our area, Escondido is one of San Diego’s larger suburbs, located due north of the city along the Interstate 5 freeway.  There is a cluster of wineries in a hilly area off Highland Valley Road that have Escondido mailing addresses but are in unincorporated areas, i.e., outside the city limits.  There are also wineries in the city itself, and this review covers one of these:  Cheval Winery.  This is not a winery you would just by chance come upon, as it is located in a largely urban part of the city, at the intersection of two interstate highways – just south of I78 and west of I15.  And Cheval grows its grapes right there, in this urban setting!
They have done a remarkable job with the facility.  A heavy line of trees hides their urban nature, so it has a pleasant, though not spectacular, view.

​The wine tasting room is as good as it gets – well laid out with plenty of comfortable indoor seating.  See pictures below.

​We tasted five wines.  They started us out with a nice rosé, then followed up with a flite of four red wines, shown below along with the tasting menu.  Three of the four were good – I liked the Syrah blend best, but the Barbera was also very good.  My wife preferred the Barbera….

The Montepulciano, on the other hand, was flat out bad, worst I have ever tasted.  Montepulciano is a high yield, late ripening grape from the Abruzzo region of Italy, and wines made from it range from the very drinkable to the very good.  So why was this wine so bad?  To answer that question I spent a bit of time researching the grape.  Turns out that Montepulciano grapes are one of those that you have to pick when ripe.  If picked too soon they make rather poor wines.  Sure enough, the alcohol level on the Cheval version is 13.5%, a clear indicator that the grapes were picked too early.  I love Montepulciano, and sincerely hope they’ll take my critique to heart.
​Cheval has two wine club levels.  Their standard is 3 bottles per quarter, 20% discount, free tasting for two.  Their premium ups the quantity to 3 bottles per month at a 25% discount.  You can choose all red or mixed, but the winery only offers one white and one rosé…