27 December 2011 Archives
The Wedding Weekend-Part Three-The Aftermath In Temecula
by Phil Anderson
We had been in Temecula for two days and now we had only our schedules to adhere to, which meant, no schedules at all. One thing WAS for sure, however. We were going to do some MORE wine tasting! We checked out of our somewhat disappointing hotel and decided the first place we would visit would be South Coast Winery which is also a resort and spa. As we walked in a grand fountain marked the wine tasting room entrance. It was a spacious room indeed, with rustic beamed ceilings and Tuscan decór. The tasting room walls are an original painting: a mural of the entire Southern California Temecula Valley Wine Country and surrounding mountains.
We toast at South Coast Winery. Shelley (R) with a 2008 Grenache Rose' and mine, a 2010 Tempranillo Rose'.
Within the first five minutes of our visit, however, we realized we weren’t in Kansas anymore (or more specifically, we were tasting wine in California). The tasting fee is about 5 times more than the wineries tasting fees in Washington, give or take. After I swallowed hard and paid the fee, my building regret for having stayed a few more hours to taste some more Temecula wines started dissipating.
It was fairly busy at the time we were there (after all, it WAS around Noon on a Monday) and they had two people pouring behind the bar. The person pouring for us was named Jennifer. Jennifer was not for the timid. She spoke her thoughts and opinions and was very much in command of what was going on. She was a perfect blend of somebody who could give impeccable customer service yet would never be taken advantage of. I’ve been to enough tasting rooms to have seen many classless and snooty people with countless personality disabilities try to one-up, two-up or even three-up the poor person pouring the wine. Jennifer would dice and slice anyone like that, but do it in a way that they would have no idea what hit them.
Fortunate for her (and probably for me, as well), we are pretty easy going and will let the person behind the bar guide us through the best experience possible. That isn’t always the case, for many reasons, and we were happy where things were heading. Jennifer started us out with an extra dry sparkler that was marvelous. It was very crisp, light and simple but I loved it. We tasted so many wines including, Tempranillo, Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Petite Verdot, Sauvignon Blanc, Petite Sirah, <taking a breath> Late Harvest Riesling and Port. Whew!
Jennifer definitely had a passion for Italian styled Red wines and she steered us in that direction which was fine with me! One of them was a 2006 Wild Horse Peak 100% Sangiovese with a smokey nose and luscious, soft tannins. There were two Syrahs that were outstanding as well, both 2006 vintage, one a Reserve and one from Wild Horse Peak. Both were big and bold and packed a punch. We also enjoyed a Tempranillo Rose’ that was absolutely exquisite, perfect for a hot summer day.
But the one that stood out over all of them, in my opinion, was their Black Jack Port, which is a blend of Tinta Cao, Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz, Zinfandel and Alicante Bouchet. WOW! Deep raspberries on the nose and so many layers. We had this with milk chocolate kisses and it paired beautifully.
So many times at tasting rooms the wine is superior but then the person pouring is snobbish. Or the other way around, with an outstanding person pouring a less than satisfactory wine. In the cases where you have both a snob and poor quality wine, it’s best to just back out the door slowly and make a mad dash to anywhere but there! In our experience at South Coast Winery we were treated to both excellent juice and a very knowledgable and friendly person behind the counter, Jennifer.
The enchanted entry to Briar Rose Winery.
Our last stop of the day was at Briar Rose Winery, mostly because of the name and because we were given a coupon for “buy one tasting and get one free”. I’m glad we had it, too, because this was even more expensive than the last place! It was a very cute property that Beldon Fields purchased in the 1970′s and built replicas of Snow White’s cottage for his wife. Beldon worked for Walt Disney and was one of many artisans who built Disneyland’s Fantasyland and Toon Town.
In the early 1990′s, Les and Dorian Linkogle purchased the beautiful estate from Beldon Fields with the promise to not change the architecture of the cottages. It turned out that the estate location was perfect for growing grapes. So, in the late 1990′s Viognier grapes were planted along with Merlot, Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon and Riesling. Their grand opening was in 2007, so they are a very young winery, indeed.
We were the only ones there and their cat kept us company at the bar while we glided through the tastings. This was tannin city! Every single one of their red wines had sharp tannins. I didn’t give huge scores to any of the wines we tried but there were two worth noting. We tasted a 2007 Citronier which surprised us with a zingy lemon finish. Light and crisp and brilliant lemon flavor. The other was their 2008 Estate Zinfandel which had quite a lackluster nose but made up for it with an explosion of flavor. This wine was extremely smooth and balanced.
This finishes The Wedding Weekend trifecta which marks and honors the marriage of Shelley’s son Tyler to his new bride, Jennifer. Wherever we go we try and incorporate a winery visit. For this momentous occasion we probably wouldn’t have because the priority was on the wedding, as it should be. However, we were blessed to have the wedding events be in and around the wineries of Temecula and so it was a perfect combination.
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