So as you might remember it was my birthday a few weeks ago. In honor of the day, we drove down to Temecula for a little wine tasting. Since I'm so new to this area, I did a fair bit of research online before deciding which two wineries we shouldn't miss. I knew I wanted to sip some champagne, so we chose Thornton Winery. For the second place, I was actually drawn to it since it had the best website layout. Little did I know how completely opposite these tasting rooms were.
Ponte Winery - "If you like it, its good wine"
Our first stop was Ponte Winery. Like I mentioned above, their website was the selling point for me. If they cared enough to make a great website, I thought they might care enough to make a great glass of wine. And boy was I right! Wine tasting is $12 during the week, and $20 on the weekend. But you get to keep your tasting glass if you want. So not only did I get to sample six great wines, but I now have a set of Ponte wine glasses as well.
The people behind the counter were extremely friendly and knowledgable about the wines in their collection. I also enjoyed that they were so engaging and passionate about their product. You could almost say they bragged about their barrels. I also enjoyed that they gave you a sheet with a brief description of each wine they had available so that you could write down your thoughts as you did your tasting. I fell in love. Not only with this winery, but I think I found my Pinot Grigio for life. I'm not even kidding. I haven't enjoyed white wines for a long time, but this one was heaven in a bottle. Just dry enough and full of flavor. Of course I had to purchase a bottle, and fully intend on ordering a few bottles(maybe a case?) online. My husband, who is more of a liquor fan, found a great port that he really enjoyed. Final verdict? Well worth the drive to see. Well worth the price. Will be back hopefully!
Thornton Winery
After such a great experience at Ponte, we ventured over to Thornton. I'm a sucker for a great Mimosa, so I wanted to be sure to check out a winery that had Champagne. This tasting room handled things very differently. The tasting room is set up on a small hill with a great view. You check out their menu of wine flights, comprising of 4 wines a piece. There are a ton of choices. Once you decide on your flight, they bring it out to you, putting them on a "place mat" with more information about each wine. For us there was really no interaction except for ordering our flight. One great thing was that you could share the flight, and didn't have to pay for each person with you. I think that I would have enjoyed it more if there had been more face time with the people who knew the champagne, but thats me. I really enjoy the interaction. I did end up purchasing a very tasty Blanc de Noirs. I think the next time I go down we will try a different champagne winery, but all in all a pleasant experience.
So far I'm really impressed with Temecula wine country. I really want to go back soon and try a few more places. Only an hour and a half from LA down I-15, a very beautiful drive almost the whole way. And it is a great escape when you just need to get out of Los Angeles. Make your plans to check out the area when you need a day away. Enjoy!
Until Next Time
Prost!
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