We had scheduled a trip to visit family in Southern California to be timed around a 60th birthday party for a great fellow ex-pat friend from Lisbon to be held in Temecula. We crossed the Santa Ana mountains on the Ortega Highway, passing through a horrible burn scar, to take in sweeping views of Lake Elsinore, then skirted the lake south to Temecula.
To be honest, our first impression was that Temecula wasn’t really for us. Strip malls loomed as we rolled into town down Interstate 15 and it could have been Anywhere USA, albeit with stunning mountains to each side and palm trees. But our purpose here was reunion, not touring. The super fun birthday party even included a Frank Sinatra-singing swooner who could have been confused for old Blue Eyes if you closed your eyes and pretended he was still alive.
After the party, we headed to Old Town for dinner. Some advance Google searches indicated that the options ahead were mostly Senor Frog-like bars teaming with screaming bachelorettes and, on a beautiful Saturday night, this turned out to be the case. But, if you made your way off of Jefferson Ave and up into the side streets you might find The Goat & Vine, which appeared in our pre-visit search, but does not take reservations. You can add your name to the wait list, via Yelp, in advance but not knowing when we would be arriving, we had not done so. The wait was over 2 hours, but an astute question about sitting at the bar yielded the “first come, first served” policy and we scored a couple of seats there. We were not disappointed and liked it so much we returned on night two, after our day of wine tasting.
Temecula historians refer to “three different Temeculas” corresponding with three different eras of its history: the Native American period, the Spanish Colonial period and the Mexican Republic period which culminated in California becoming the 31st U.S. state. The Pechanga tribe were the first known people to inhabit this area around 10,000 years ago. In 1797, the Franciscans traveled to the area where Temecula now sits from the mission at San Juan Capistrano and made contact with the Pechanga. They ended up building their mission nearby, vs. in the valley, but the area was used for farming to supply the missions which were built on less fertile ground.
When Mexico declared independence in 1821, and the Mexicans took over the Pacific Southwest, they established four “ranchos” in this area, three for the Mexican people (including Rancho Temecula) and one for the native people (Rancho Little Temecula). The Mexican-American War broke out in 1846 and President Polk enlisted a “Mormon Battalion” from Iowa to help fight the Mexican Army. After the American Civil War, homesteaders and native people fought over claims to Little Temecula culminating in an eviction of the Pechanga people in 1875. Today, Temecula is a far more peaceful place where all seem welcome and the wine business is a big one.
Our birthday friend’s organizers had secured Grapeline Tours to cart us and 18 of our new best friends around for the day. One of his friends is a frequent visitor to Temecula who had carefully crafted our itinerary and supplemented the Grapeline guide with additional information about the vineyards and region.
Our first stop, on a brilliantly sunny yet slightly cooler Sunday, was Danza del Sol winery on the De Portola Trail, a less trafficked route to the Rancho California Road where the larger and more commercialized vineyards reside. According to our guide, David, from Grapeline, the sea air from across the Santa Ana mountains to the west pushes up against the desert air from Palm Springs to the east creating a perfect environment from grape growing and wine making. After sipping on the Espumosa (Danza del Sol’s champagne-like sparkling wine), Tempranillo and Barolo, we loaded back on to the bus to drive about 3 minutes down the road to Cougar.
Cougar is a family-owned and operated winery which began in Texas, moved to Washington and another spot in California before landing in Temecula in 2005. There we were served a pre-ordered lunch of sandwiches and salads (the pizza they make on-site looked fantastic, by the way) then sat out overlooking their Italian-villa-resembling landscape on their beautiful patio.
Wine has been made in this area since the early 1800s when the Spanish missionaries introduced grape vines to the region. In the 1960s and 70s, however, the industry really started to take shape. In 1974, Ely Callaway Jr (of golf club fame) opened the first commercial vineyard. According to our Grapeline tour guide, David, he started out by giving away samples along the side of the road, to increase awareness of the area’s hospitable Mediterranean-like climate for winemaking. Mount Palomar Winery followed in 1975. In 2019, Wine Enthusiast magazine named Temecula one of the 10 Best Wine Travel Destinations in the World.
From Cougar, we rolled next door to Masia, another smaller, boutique vineyard along the De Portola Road. We sat outside on a long table while our guide brought out samplings of his favorite varieties. It was after Masia, and a substantial lowering of inhibitions, that the singing on the bus really started to get fired up as we were transported over to the bustling, larger and more crowded Mount Palomar for our final tastes as the sun started to settle down below the Santa Anas to the west.
We rolled back to our respective hotels belting out Bruno Mars and Gloria Gaynor reflecting on a tour with a great balance of vineyard varietals, full of good tastes and down-to-earth tones. And if a good day is measured by the company you keep, our Tasting Day in Temecula was a great one.
Sources:
The Traveling Ridleys 
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