Miramonte Winery

Wine clubs are common among both large and boutique wineries, offering wines at substantial discount, complementary wine on visits to the winery, special member-only events, wine-club member only facilities, first shot at new releases, et al.  In some cases, the et al. includes access to wines only available to wine club members.  We found the best example of this at Miramonte Winery in Temecula, as shown in the picture below.  Note the label on the bottle.

​The wine in the picture is a very nice Mouvedre blend, not that you can tell from the label.  The winery itself is located on a hill off of Rancho California before the circle (left hand side of the road).  As this was a visit during COVID days, the layout was a bit unusual in that to reach the tasting room we had to go through the outdoor restaurant seating patio and garden, around the building, and up to a second, and quite nice garden, where we sat in the shade and had the wines brought to us.

​You can see in the wine tasting menu shown below that the members-only wine is not listed.  It was also the best we tasted, sending a pretty clear message that this is very much a club-driven winery.  Unique to their winery is the Portuguese wine Touriga Nacional.  The grapes are grown in Temecula, though not in their rather limited vineyard.

​They offer several wine club options – red and white, all red, all white, and all Sangria.  The all white club calls for purchase of 36 bottles a year, three per month.  The all Sangria club also runs every month, but only two bottles per month, while the other two clubs run two bottles per shipment but only six per year.  Discounts range from20 to 25% on wines, 10% on food, 10-20% on gift shop purchases, and 20% discounts on wines purchased from etchedwines.com – wines with your own labels for special events.  Eight free tastings per month, max four per visit.