Beautiful grounds, it does seem like what an American would envision Italy to be like: garden speakers playing American-Italian music abound, fountains, lots of terra cotta planters.This winery was lovely! They have a great patio filled with flowers and a fountain. They also served lunch. The grilled chicken breast sandwich was really tasty, same with their pizzas. Definately a winery to check out if you are in the area.
Cultivating Jocelyn Lonen Winery has been a complete labor of love for its founding family. A passion for fine wine and a high-regard for the Napa Valley drew Lonen Curtis to the wine business in the mid-1990’s. After retiring from the high-tech industry, Lonen embarked on the single-minded, serious pursuit of making world-class wine. He planted his first vineyard and began to develop the Jocelyn Lonen Winery in 1996. Lonen and his wife Susan along with his daughter Brandi Jocelyn Pack and her husband and children moved to the Napa Valley the following year.
The only wine of Carol's we have enjoyed is her Wild Thing Zin. “Wild Thing” is named for its attitude and uninoculated or “wild” yeast ferment is used to create it. Black raspberry fruit, vibrant and alive in both the nose and mouth, nice oaky-smokiness, hit of black pepper. Smoothly textured in mouth, the finish is long and lushly jammy fruit—dangerously good! Looking forward to visiting and trying her other wines soon.
This winery is situated in a cave, which makes the wine tasting experience a little different, but pretty cool. Everyone was really nice. Like a lot of wineries, they charge $10 for a tasting fee, but at Bella you get to do much more than just sampling wine. The tasting tour began with the pairing of a Rosé with some portuguese sausage and some friend plantains. You then proceed to the wine caves, which were filled with live Spanish guitar music.
Bodega del Sur is the culmination of a dream of Evelyn and Victor Reyes-Umana. Victor began his love affair with wine in his native El Salvador. Moving to California and later in life, traveling around the world, solidified his appreciation for wines and increased his curiosity for the various wine styles of the different regions of the world.While visiting some friends in Chile in 1993, Victor and Evelyn had the great opportunity to visit many of the small, family owned wineries, and it was then that Victor uttered the fateful words, "This is what I would like to do when I retire".
This was also a fabulous winery to taste at. They let us picnic in their beautiful courtyard, complete with bocce court, and supplied us with complementary glasses of wine to enjoy while we ate. The employees were chatty, knowledgeable, and not at all pushy.
"As a family we explore new opportunities, nurture those that can make a difference, and pass along knowledge gained from one generation to the next."
Located approximately 15 miles from the Pacific Ocean, the vineyard estate is blessed with cooling coastal breezes that produce exceptional grapes. Located in the smallest American Viticulture Area (AVA) in the state, Orfila wines have put San Diego on the international wine map. Orfila Vineyards & Winery is an award-winning boutique winery nestled in the pristine San Pasqual Valley agricultural preserve, approximately 30 minutes north of San Diego, just 5 minutes off the I-15, on the way to the Wild Animal Park.
"The winery isn't a showplace, we don't have big stone pillars and art collections, but we have everythig we need to make great wine."
Boitano Family Wines is operated by four generations of family. The Boitano family started growing Sangiovese grapes in their Mokelumne Hill vineyard in 1999. The six generation mother lode family comes together annually to prune in early spring and harvest in fall.
