DH and I are going to be in the Temecula area this upcoming weekend (Jan 13-14th, 2007) We can spend a day in Temecula visiting the wineries and need suggestions on the "must visit" ones! Thanks so much!

anyone???

Dear Liza marie:

We have only visited the Wilson Creek winery and enjoyed it. There was some info on this same subject a few weeks ago. Type in 'Temecula' in the search box above and see what comes up.

Have fun & good luck.

MY

Dear LizaMarie:

Here is a link to winery info:


http://www.temeculawines.org/

I live very close to Temecula and just recently went winetasting there. Funny how you never go to the places that are close to you but I decided I should take advantage of the wineries.

Wilson Creek is famous for their Almond Champagne and I love it. I am not really a champagne drinker but this champagne is good. They are worth a visit for this but their other wines are not that great. I liked the whites at South Coast Winery and I think that winery is worth a visit also. One of the best wineries is Ponte. Excellent red wines and they have a nice restaurant for lunch.

Maurice Car’rie is known for their brie with sourdough bread. Their wines are OK. The reason I mention them is because when we went winetasting, we did a two wineries, stopped to Maruice Car'rie for the brie (to sop up that wine!!), went to South Coast, then Ponte where we ended up having a late lunch. I would suggest making lunch reservations wherever you decide to go. We didn't call until that morning (Sat) and weren't able to get a reservation until after 2pm.

There are also lots of smaller wineries that I don't know much about. Thornton Winery is very beautiful and worth a visit. Very nice restaurant but a little pricey for lunch and expensive for dinner.

Hope this helps. Have fun!

It has been a while since I was last in Temecula, but Callaway had an interesting tour of its winemaking operations, in addition to the restaurant, gift shop and tasting room. We also visited Mt. Palomar and Hart, but they were just tiny tasting rooms at the time.

Hello LizaMarie -
We recently went wine tasting in Temecula. I definitely recommend Wilson Creek, but because I loved the Syrah. Excellent wine.

Thornton is beautiful. Wines were fairly good. We did the champagne sampler tasting.

Also good was Leonesse Vineyard.

The www.temeculawines.org website cited above will give you a map and list of all the wineries. The whole area is basically a big loop with wineries on both sides of the highway. I really don't feel any are "must visits" compared to the central coast, but they are pleasant and you may find some surprises.

lvk-Palomar Winery is now much bigger than a little tiny winery. I would call it huge but that's comparing it the other wineries in the area.

I still think that Ponte Winery is a must if you like good red wines.

LCBoniti-I will have to try Leonesse next time I go wine tasting. I don't know anything about them so would like to check them out.

paula-

I'm partial to reds and they have a really good Sangiovese at Leonesse. They are on DePortola, which is why you may have missed it.

Cafe Champagne (Thorton Winery)is a nice choice for a scenic lunch. Though as another poster cited, it is on the pricier side.

The Temecula Costco carries many of the local wines, including the Almond Champagne from Wilson Creek.

sightseer-Good tip. I always buy my Almond Champagne at Costco. I think at the Winery it's around $15, at Albertson's its $12 and at Costco it's either $8.99 or $9.99. Can't remember right now although I just recently bought my Mom some for Christmas as she loves it and can't get it in Arizona.