Ramona Ranch September 2023

​Every so often, things get a bit out of hand.  You see, my wife and I wanted to take a trip out to Ramona Ranch in Ramona (duh!).  I mentioned to our fearless group that we were going to visit a winery, and, well, we wound up with a group of twelve…
Anyway, this was our first visit to Ramona Ranch since they built their new tasting room.  As you can see by the pictures below, the interior is pretty nice.  Now if the photographer would just keep his fingers out of the picture....  OK, so I had a bit of wine before taking these....

​Given our numbers, we settled outside on the patio.  It was a nice day, very comfortable especially in the shade, unlike our last trip out their way.  As you can see, the outside is well-suited to sit and enjoy an afternoon of wine and food with friends.

​They’re set up for concerts as well – with a stage.  The stage is in the background in the picture below, next to the truck.

​Of course, the reason to visit any winery is the wine, so we did a little tasting.  Well, not a little….  They still make it easy, as you pay per taste.  Price is up a bit, from $2 each to $2.50.  Some new additions – Albarino, Montipulciano, and a bourbon barrel sort of dry port wine.  Not at all like other wines that I’ve tasted that have been aged in bourbon barrels, none of which were drinkable.  This one was way beyond drinkable – it was actually very good.  Worth looking into.

​The star offering is the Tannat, and we were there in large part to taste their recently-released 2019 vintage.  For those of you not familiar with Tannat, it is one of the super-high tannin grape varieties.  How high?  How about three times that of Cabernet Sauvignon!  Which, by the way, makes it about the healthiest wine you can drink – tannins are antioxidants, heavily touted as being extremely good for the human body.  Beats eating brussel sprouts….