4 Places to Go Wine Tasting in Temecula

When I first moved to Southern California, I was pretty excited to live just a short drive away from the San Diego area’s wine region, known as Temecula Valley. I would bring visiting family and friends there to go gallivanting around the area’s wineries tasting wine, noshing on snacks, listening to live music, and enjoying the beautiful wine country scenery.

This year, Temecula celebrated the 50th anniversary of its first commercial vineyard. These days, over 40 wineries exist in the small region. It’s just a drive away for residents of San Diego, Los Angeles, and Orange County, so it’s a popular spot for city dwellers to have a weekend country getaway.

In fact, my husband and I visited Temecula in August for my birthday, and we’ve spent weekends there for our anniversary and just for fun getaways.

As the years went on living  in California, I learned more about wine, refined my palate a bit, and became spoiled by road trips up to Sonoma, Napa, Paso Robles, and the Santa Barbara area’s Santa Ynez Valley wine region.

At some point in my wine drinking journey, I realized that random winery hopping in Temecula could be hit or miss. Some of the wineries make wine that’s a world away from others. I found my favorites in the region that became my go-to spots for Temecula wine tasting.

And so, I thought it’d be fun to share my favorite Temecula Valley wineries with you today. If you’re ever in coastal Southern California and want to do something different, head inland to Temecula to experience more of the four seasons (whew, it gets smoking hot there!), drink some wine and relax.

#1- Wiens Family Cellars. Self-proclaimed as the “Home of the Big Reds,” I find that I genuinely like almost all of the wines at Wiens. I could taste 10 wines there and like 9 of them. Wiens makes some interesting red blends, including their Crowded wine, which contains a melody of varietals like Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, Primitivo and Barbera.

The winery has an awesome outside picnic area. I love to bring a variety of eats – usually some combo of spreads, dippers, cheese and carbs – to nosh on while trying their latest tasting offerings.

#2 – Leoness Cellars. The word Leoness means “village of dreams,” and with its gorgeous Temecula Valley views and beautiful winery, Leoness Cellars lives up to its name. From Viongier and White Merlot to Cabernet Franc and Syrah, they offer a variety of wine. Leoness introduced me to the Cinsault varietal.

Their pours have gotten more expensive in recent years, but their wine education tour & tasting is a lot of fun to do as your sort of special Temecula tasting of the day. When one of my friends came to visit me from New York City, we did the tour and had such a blast.

#3- Longshadow Ranch. I only recently discovered Longshadow Ranch, and with its Belgian Draft horses hanging out outside, country music playing inside, rocking chairs sitting pretty outside of its wooden country designed tasting room, and wines with names like Outlaw Red, the vineyard gives off vibes of Old West charm. The winery grows estate varietals like Syrah and Cinsault, and they also get some of their grapes from other places in California, like Monterey.

#4- Lorimar Vineyards. This Tuscan-style winery is the place to go for easy drinking wines like Cabernet Sauvignon and Meritage while relaxing outside on their expansive patio, which often offers food truck eats and live music. It’s always a festive place to hang out in Temecula Valley.

Tell me… Have you ever been to/heard of Temecula? Favorite place to go wine tasting anywhere in California?