Temecula Valley

Lots of changes in Temecula Valley since I was last here. Grand Italianite mansions where I recall one barn wineries.

Interesting amount of varieties available from the 30 wineries currently in this compact area.

I had a stunning estate Brunello di Sangiovese at Robert Renzoni Vineyards along with a beautiful pizza on their terrace trattoria overlooking the vines and mountains. But only three of the varieties they make wine from are estate grown.

Neighbouring Oak Mountain use 100% Estate grown fruits and they have some lesser known varieties including Cinsaut, Counoise, Roussanne and Malbec. My primary focus was on their Pinotage. They have just grafted over another acre to Pinotage as they couldn't meet demand from their original vineyard.

Cougar Vineyards specialise only on Italian varieties and they have four that they were the first in the USA to grow commercially and had to lobby the TTB to get the variety name officially recognised so they could use its name on their label. Latest is Coda di Volpe (white from Naples) they also grow Falanghina, Vermentino, Aglianico, Montepulciano, Primitivo, Malvasia Bianca, Arneis and more.

http://www.temeculawines.org/

[David M. Bueker]

Interesting to hear. When I was there in 1998 the mansions were just starting to be built, and the wines were mediocre at best.

18 years is a very long time in the wine world, and I don't think the wineries I visited today were around in 1998.

Do these lovely homes fall under the criteria outlined here?



http://www.mcmansionhell.com/post/15189 ... -mcmansion

[Jenise]

Been a lot longer since I was there. Once upon a time the wines weren't viable. I'm perfectly prepared to find that in the intervening years they've concentrated on more suitable grapes to their hot climate than the chardonnays and cabernets they started out with, and have even discovered the benefits of air conditioned storage (there were a lot of bretty/cooked wines back in the day). Sure can be a hard sell for those of us with long memories.

I wonder with global warming if they have found some different grapes to grow in that area. I remember like Jenise that I never found much I liked about wine from that area.

Went again, tasted some first rate Syrah and Zin at Hart winery, a small operation I visited first time I was in Temecula.

1998 was the year the vineyards were wiped out by Pierces..

It's time to forget judgements of wines from around that time and look again without preconceptions, IMO.

Lots of southern French varieties, Spanish and Portuguese. Good GSMs etc

Peter, I remember Hart being the best of the many bad wines from that area many years ago. The wineries in that area were never as a group on the same level of central or northern CA . We never found it necessary to stock them in our store because nobody asked for them. It's just that simple, you stock what sells.

[Jenise]

Ah yes, Hart, I recall them as a standout as well. And Callaway did some decent cheap whites, a Sauv Bl was their best.

Peter your point is well-taken: time has passed, the vineyards have matured, they're smarter now. But all the same it's interesting that despite living here on the left coast of the U.S. we never, ever see Temecula wines at retail nor are they ever mentioned in wine press tastings or ratings. Surely the wineries there are mailing off bottles to the usual suspects for consideration--so it may be wrong but I (and Lou) can't help reaching the conclusion that for all the wines may be quite drinkable, when stacked up against the rest of California, they're still on the whole at the bottom of the quality totem pole.

I Totally agree with Peter. From a historical aspect alone Southern California wine regions are worth looking into.
Southern California gave birth to commercial wine making in California. At one time there were more vines and commercial wineries in Southern California than Northern California. Los Angeles at one time was known as the “City of Vines”. In earnest the “shift” from South to North started when Abraham Lincoln was president and the North really became dominate after WW II.

Salute

[Jenise]

I Totally agree with Peter. From a historical aspect alone Southern California wine regions are worth looking into.
Southern California gave birth to commercial wine making in California. At one time there were more vines and commercial wineries in Southern California than Northern California. Los Angeles at one time was known as the “City of Vines”. In earnest the “shift” from South to North started when Abraham Lincoln was president and the North really became dominate after WW II.

Salute

IIRC Anaheim, decades before Disneyland, was once the largest vineyard area in California. Pierce's disease wiped it out, I think. And around Ontario, at least as recently as 15 years ago, you could still see grapevines--long since given up on--in the area the airport. But if you're a Southern California (and I am by birth), Temecula has nothing to do with either. It's a whole separate region--part of San Diego, not Los Angeles.

But if you're a Southern California (and I am by birth), Temecula has nothing to do with either. It's a whole separate region--part of San Diego, not Los Angeles.

That’s like the people from the NYC boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens saying their not Long Island.

Salute

[Jenise]

But if you're a Southern California (and I am by birth), Temecula has nothing to do with either. It's a whole separate region--part of San Diego, not Los Angeles.

That’s like the people from the NYC boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens saying their not Long Island.

Salute

Not a bit. More like Brooklyn saying they're not Albany.

California’s South Coast AVA consists of six southern counties. (Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, and parts of San Bernardino and Riverside.) The bulk of the area’s wineries (more than half) are located in San Diego County.

Salute

[Jenise]

California’s South Coast AVA consists of six southern counties. (Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, and parts of San Bernardino and Riverside.) The bulk of the area’s wineries (more than half) are located in San Diego County.

Salute

No surprise. But to the typical Angeleno, San Diego might as well be another state. It's a long way away, a long trip down the 405 separated from their version of civilization by the mountainous no man's land of Camp Pendleton and it's vast surrounding acreage. Most never venture any further south than Orange County. Where I lived, btw. Grew up in Whittier, ended up for awhile in San Clemente, worked in Irvine and growing up all my Dad's relatives were in San Diego--and even to me, San Diego was a separate, other world. The LA Times didn't cover it, local news didn't cover it. And local wine stores don't sell Temecula wine. It might as well have been Palm Springs, or even Vegas.