Hidden from view off a narrow two-lane road in the heart of Fair Play, this winery takes advantage of the rocky outcroppings and protected valleys indigenous to the area. Toogood Estate Winery is unique in the Sierra Foothills because it has wine caves. There were many wines to choose from and the staff made the visit fun. They mixed in educating us about the wines and their process with jokes and kept things fun.
Old County Cellars is a great little urban winery own and operated by a group of friends that just happened to love wines and emersed themselves in winemaking back in 2010. One day enjoying their luscious Carmeros Pinot Noir they decided; "Let's do this" and Old County Cellars was born. After two years of leasing space from another local winery, Old County Cellars opened their own tasting room in San Carlos California. Fun people and fun wines. We look forward to doing a video review of a few of their wines in the future but you can get a little peek from this breif video of the visit we made during the 3rd Annual Mid Peninsula Wine Walk by just clicking HERE. Be sure to tell Dan, Jim, Jeff and Toni a big hello from California Corks when you stop by and enjoy a few of their great wines.~
Hours:
Mon-Fri Closed
Sat 1:30pm to 5:30pm
Sun 1:30pm to 5:30pm
The folks at Harney Lane Winery believe that great wine really does start in the vineyard so when they vigilantly farm their vineyards to have a jump start on excellent quality wines. After lots of discussions over their homemade Old Vine Zinfandel, they decided, as a family they would like to share it with you. Harney Lane Winery handles their own winemaking with the same care as the vineyards. All fruit is handpicked; hand sorted, fermented in small lots and then barrel aged.
Quaint wine tasting room included cheese, croutons and chocolates to taste with their port. Seems to be the only tasting room serving mature wines from 2003 and 2004. The 2004 Legacy Cab was awesome. If they were charging, I didn't notice since we purchased several bottles. Open Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm.
Located 25 miles north of downtown San Diego, nestled inside the quaint town of Rancho Bernardo, lies one of the best-kept secrets in the county… The Bernardo Winery 121 years old, and still fully functional as a producing winery, Bernardo has lessened in size and grown in character. ‘Strewn’ with Unique Village Shops including a coffee shop and salon, and boasting an award winning cafe, Bernardo Winery has turned into more of a destination than ever.
Europa Village winery is very charming and beautifully landscaped with indoor tasting bar, outdoor seating. Touring the winery is as much fun as tasting their exceptional wines. Enter the wrought iron gates into a center courtyard with an Olive tree, surrounded by outdoor seating and statues. Our tour-guide greeted us and gave us a brief overview of the winery. We were encouraged to taste the grapes right off the vine as we went and stopped every so often for a brief informational talk and to fill our glass with a different sample of wine. After the winery tour, we sat in the shaded outdoor seating area for a class about the '5 Essences' of wine tasting and enjoyed more wine tastings and covered basic stuff about wine, bread sticks and a *small* cheese, chocolate, crackers and grape plate that was offered part of the package we purchased. They also have an inn on the property where you can stay if you want. This Temecula winery could make for a nice base if you plan to visit Temecula Wine Country over a weekend.
Kings River Winery sits on the 40 acre farm that owner Bob Bagdasarian was raised on. Since 1954, Bob and his family have grown everything from grapes for wine and raisins, to peaches, plums, and apricots. In 2012, Bob decided to follow his passion and focus only on what he loves most, wine. With that passion came a lot of hard work and he planted 12 different varietals of wine grapes on the 40 acres and began building a state of the art winery, with wine making equipment unmatched by any winery in this region. Adding the finishing touches in 2014, Bob’s vision for a premium boutique winery, that would also fill the need for special event venues. Bob and Ashley (the Winery Manager) were so gracious on our first visit and made us feel at home. Bob even took the time to not only walk us through his winery but took John Krause of CaCorks for a walk through the vineyard and we got some video included in a short video presentation on a few of the wineries located in the Central Valley you can see HERE While we haven't tasted all of the wines produced at Kings River Winery, and we will be back, be sure you try: Alicante Bouchet, Barbara, Petite Sirah and Karmir to mention a few.
Hours:
Mon-Fri Closed
Sat 12:00 to 5:00pm
Sun 12:00 to 5:00pm
Our family established Miramont Estate Vineyards. Nestled in the Sierra foothills, our vineyard and boutique winery are located in the Lodi appellation in California. Our Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay grapes thrive in the Mediterranean climate where they are bathed in golden sunlight, caressed nightly by cool Pacific breezes, and then harvested under starlight to protect their luscious flavor at its peak.
Behrens Family Winery is an enchanting winery that makes some of the best red wine in Napa Valley. Known previously as Behrens & Hitchcock and Erna Schein, this winery is now called Behrens Family Winery, although some of their wines are labeled with the previous winery names and all of their wines have whimsical names that might confuse you. All of the bottles have labels with unusual artwork and phrases. It is all very creative and playful, with word plays mixed with a diversity of art and cartoons. In direct contrast to all of this is the seriousness of the wines.
Verdad is devoted to making Spanish grape varietal wines that express true varietal character as well as the vineyard's terroir. The grapes are sourced from organic and biodynamic vineyards and are minimally processed in the cellar.
