Woman in the Middle

We had a friend visiting for a few days recently and so the family was doing the tourist thing. We were totally open to what ever our friend wanted to do and, when I mentioned wine tasting in Temecula her eyes lit up! She especially wanted to do the wine tasting since Youngest Daughter just turned 21 and both girls could participate in the experience.

Hubby and I have only been wine tasting once before since we are not huge wine aficionados. Well, that is an understatement. We almost never drink wine. But wine tasting is another story. Even though I don’t drink wine I find it quite fun to go wine tasting. First we read the description of the wine, and then we taste. Sure enough, even though itt is sounds odd we did find that one wine was earthy, another had a tobacco tone, and another mineral overtones.

None of us were interested in getting a big buzz on from this experience. We just wanted to have some fun together. We also wanted to avoid the crowds and decided to go on a Friday. The main wine tasting area in the Temecula Valley is Rancho California Road. That is where some of the well-known corporate names in wine making are located such as Callaway and Thornton. I decided to take the road less traveled and we went to De Portola Road instead. It has fewer wineries and they are all smaller and more likely to be individually owned. We stopped at three: Keystone, Frangipani, and Cougar.

The wine tastings cost from $10 to $12 for 5 – 6 tastings. However, the people pouring the wine were always very generous and we usually got at least one more tasting than what we paid for. All of the wineries were also very accommodating in that they allowed all five of us to sip from one tasting. You might think that five people and one ounce of wine wouldn’t work but we all managed to have a taste and often there was even a little left over. This allowed lots of wine tasting without me, the designated driver, having to deal with overly happy passengers.  I appreciated that because I have never found being the only sober person in a group of drunk people to be fun…if you know what I mean!

We had a very fun day. Wine tasting in Inland So Cal is a great activity to do with out-of-town guests or just as a fun get away for yourself and family or friends. There are limousine wine tours for those who want to enjoy the full taste of each wine and not spend the night in jail for drunk driving! The country side is beautiful as well for folks who may just want to enjoy a nice drive.