Temecula Wineries
If you live in Los Angeles and are looking for a quick yet nice getaway, Temecula is the place to visit. With a short one hour and forty-five minute drive to Temecula Wine Country, you'll have fifty wineries to choose from. Whether you're just driving up for the day or staying for the weekend, Temecula has something for everyone. There are several wineries to choose from, but this blog post will talk about four wineries on De Portola Road.
The first winery I highly, highly recommend is Leoness Cellars. Leoness Cellars was my first stop on my self navigated wine tasting tour. I was impressed by every single wine I tasted with each wine getting better as the tasting went on. It is $25 for a tasting flight. Our wine steward Vicky was a WSET 2 expert and was extremely knowledgeable about all the wine. We definitely got several extra pours and drank to our stomachs’ content. I went with my boyfriend who also loves wine and we both enjoyed the experience so much that we joined the wine club! There are different levels of wine club memberships, but the one I chose was the $150 every three months for three bottles of wine. This package deal includes either free wine tastings or glasses of wine on the terrace. This winery is located on a beautiful piece of land and they have their own terrace for its members which overlooks the vineyard! We grabbed our two free glasses and decided to have lunch on their member terrace. We ordered their delicious duck tacos, cesar salad, and spinach artichoke dip. All the food was superb and unique. I had never tried spinach artichoke dip with chunks of the whole artichoke in it or duck tacos that tasted like juicy carnitas. I give five starts to this winery. If there is only one winery you can go to, I recommend this one!
The second winery we stopped at on my self navigated tour was Oak Mountain Winery. When I say self navigated tour, I researched the distance of the closest four wineries and decided to just walk from winery to winery. Having now done this, I do not recommend it. One reason being, when you buy eight bottles of wine you have to actually carry that to each place. Another reason is because the wineries in Temecula are not actually super close to each other. In Paso Robles and Sonoma, you can get away with walking between a few of the wineries, but not here in Temecula. The wineries are maybe .3 to .5 miles away from each other, which have huge long driveways. On another note, Oak Mountain Winery is across the street from Leoness Cellars nestled on the top of their vineyard. Since its covid, all of their tastings were outdoors, and unfortunately their patio is not the biggest, with everyone almost clustered together on a small portion of land. The flights come in a helical spiral tasting set, which was very picturesque and fun to drink.
The other wineries we visited were Gershon Bachus Vintners and Robert Renzoni Vineyards. Gershon Bachus Vintners is a gorgeous winery on top of a small hill. Their Spanish style villa opens to a huge patio overlooking the beautiful vineyard. They grow most of their grapes on this vineyard, but also have grapes in neighboring vineyards. This is another wine club I am a member of; they call it a “wine clique” There are always many perks to being a wine club member, for example, being treated like a queen with unlimited pours, VIP glasses and free snacks like Gershon offers. Their wine club is structured a little differently than others, where you purchase 12 bottles over the course of the year, with free tastings when you visit. Robert Renzoni offers free stemmed or stemless glass when you purchase a tasting flight. I’m all about the free stuff! I have several Temecula trips planned and want to try all the wineries!