Truffle Pig Winery

​Avensole Winery is no more.  While it is sad to see a winery close, in this case not so much.  Robert Renzoni, his wine maker Olivia Blue, and Domenic Galleano have purchased their facility and reopened it after a year of renovations under the name Truffle Pig Winery.  So we mourn the loss of a old winery while we celebrate the opening of a new winery.  After a visit to Truffle Pig I am happy to report that there is a lot to celebrate!
Now if you name a winery Truffle Pig it should be expected that you will have a restaurant that serves meals with truffles.  Sure enough, the Renzoni gang reopened the Avensole restaurant (with significant changes in décor) as Domenico’s Italian Chop House, with lots of truffle dishes.  If that is not enough truffles for you, they will come by your table and shave some more on your dish.

​The food is great, as is the décor as shown in the pictures below.  Just a wonderful restaurant, on the level with the best in the Temecula wine country – which is saying a lot.

​As for the wines, well, the area of Italy famous for its truffles is in and around the city of Alba in Piedmont (northwest region of Italy).  Nebbiolo rules that part of Italy and does so in Domenico’s.  Not a Barolo version, but very, very drinkable….
They have not opened their tasting room yet, but have opened what used to be the Avensole wine club lounge, now named the Pig Pen.  It is clearly too early to evaluate their wines, as they only purchased the winery a year ago.  However, I did taste another wine made from a grape variety found mostly in Piedmont, the rare white grape Arneis.  Very nice wine….

They haven’t started their wine club yet, and while they list some of the perks (8 free tastings per month, 10% discount at the restaurant and for other non-wine purchases, et al.) they do not say how many bottles you have to buy or the per bottle discount.