Anniversary Celebration in Temecula Wine Country

Hey friends!

Long time no talk – I’ve had a crazy last few weeks, with short, super busy work weeks and blogger event travel two weeks in a row! Lundberg Farms invited me to a wonderful blogger event in Northern California last week – much more about my trip to come later on this week! – and after I flew back from Sacremento to Los Angeles, then drove back home to San Diego, it was time for more fun: anniversary celebrations!

October 2nd marked 6 blissful years of marriage to A. My how time flies when you’re married to your best friend whose an awesome partner in life! 🙂 You may remember that last year to celebrate the occasion, we went on the craziest endurance challenge of my life thus far hiking and camping around Catalina Island (You can check out a recap of that shenanigans here!). We hiked 23 miles one of the days during that trip, and while it was a very memorable adventure, this year we decided to celebrate our anniversary with something a little more low-key: relaxing in wine country!

Sunday morning we headed off to Temecula for a day of wine tasting. While we’ve visited the small Southern California wine region a handful of times, we hadn’t been to Temecula since moving back to the area last year.

We started off our day at Wiens Family Cellars – the self-proclaimed “Home of Big Reds” in Temecula. After tasting a lot of the wines on their tasting menu, I understood the winery’s tagline. Its bold reds offered something for a variety of palates, with everything from a number of cabernet sauvignons to try to their “Crowded” blend consisting of 7 or 8 varietals coming together for an oaky, smooth wine. I loved a few of their Reserve reds, but unfortunately they were a little too pricey for us (I just can’t justify spending $95 on a bottle!).

The Wiens employee that helped us was really informative and friendly. She definitely knew her stuff about Wiens and wine in general, which I always really appreciate since I like to really find out a lot about the wine I’m tasting. Overall we had a great winery experience there, and it was our favorite visit of the day.

Next up we stopped at Falkner Winery, which has pretty Temecula views from a bunch of different angles…

I had been to Falkner a couple of times before, and it’s always crowded. My guess in the reasoning for its popularity is a combination of its views, restaurant next door, and wine tasting price being cheaper than most of the other wineries around ($10 for 4 tastings; $15 for 6 tastings, with a logo glass included).

I had bought bottles of Falkner’s port before, which turned out to be the only tasting that I really liked there this time around. We did enjoy the views though. It was a bit dreary and rainy out, and the 68 degree temperature was a nice change of pace. It felt like autumn has arrived!

Next up we decided to try Miramonte Winery, which felt more like a bar than a small winery to me. With about half of the wines on the menu being detailed as, “Full wine description to come soon” and very little description of the wines we were trying being shared with us by the staff, it wasn’t really the wine tasting experience I usually go for. They did have a great outdoor space for hanging out and sipping wine though.

A trend I noticed in Temecula this time around was that many of the wineries are 1.) charging higher tasting rates than before, and 2.) charging higher tasting rates on weekends than during the week. I understand that some businesses (i.e. hotels) do this on a regular basis, but I was a little put off by the fact that wineries are charging more for tastings when they know that most people will be visiting on the weekends.

Also, $20 tasting rates are commonplace in popular California wine country  destinations – which Temecula really isn’t. I love Temecula because it’s fun to do a quick day trip there from the San Diego area to enjoy some wine, but their wines are usually nowhere near as good as wines from most Napa or Sonoma area establishments. It’s just a bit off-putting to me, but I digress.

After all of that wine tasting, we had worked up quite an appetite – even though I had brought munchies of course! – so we headed over to Ponte Winery for an early dinner at their restaurant.

I ordered a flight of reds to enjoy with my dinner, and they brought over a cute little loaf of sun-dried tomato bread.

The bread was tasty, and I seriously think my hubby ate 3 of them! The only thing that would have made it better was if it had been served warm.

I started off with a cup of roasted red pepper soup, which was awesome. It had a bit of a spicy kick to it, and was great for dipping the bread into.

Note to self: Attempt to copycat this soup soon! 

For my entree, I ordered their primavera pasta. I loved that it was packed with flavorful veggies and not too much pasta (although I did take some of it home anyways).

Note to self: Make primavera pasta soon! I used to make it all the time but haven’t at all lately.

My hubby ordered their agnolotti: ricotta, mascarpone & parmesan stuffed pasta, Italian sausage, artichoke hearts, and yellow peppers in an artichoke cream sauce with parmesan & fresh basil. He had no complaints about his dish either!

I’ve eaten at a few other Temecula winery restaurants before, and I think that Ponte has been my favorite thus far. They have a huge outdoor dining area, which is great for relaxing and filling your belly up with food after a day of wine tasting.

All in all, it was a fun day to celebrate our anniversary!

Tell me… Have you ever been to/heard of Temecula? Wine drinkers, what wine have you been loving lately?