California - Wine, root beer and rolling hills in Temecula

LA Times: Wine, root beer and rolling hills in Temecula (http://www.latimes.com/travel/la-tr-temecula-escape-20120527,0,6361553.story)

My sister lives in this area...while pretty low key, even we tend to lose sight of how much there is to do and/or enjoy.

Having read this, I want to try Old Town Root Beer Co. the next time I'm home!

:)

Temecula is quite scenic, but I'd recommend avoiding any liquid purporting to be red wine from this region. The whites are drinkable.

Temecula is quite scenic, but I'd recommend avoiding any liquid purporting to be red wine from this region. The whites are drinkable.

Possibly true if all you want is a true Cab, but Stuart Cellars' Tatria Meritage, Cabernet Franc and Sangiovese Reserva; Callaway’s Winemaker's Reserve Meritage, Doffo’s Malbec and Hart Cellars' Sangiovese and Tempranillo are all very good, interesting, drinkable reds. There are any number of similar ones out there.

I've never had ANY red that I considered to be even adequate from Temecula. And I generally have been trying the stuff that I would think would be amenable to the microclimate there, stuff like Rhone varietals. I would guess that if anything had a chance to be decent from there, it would be either a Rhone grape, a Tempranillo, or a Sangiovese. I can certainly say that every cabernet and meritage style wine I've had from the area has been horrid, and the other red varietals have not been all that much better.

BTW, I live just 35 miles south of there, so I would actually find it quite advantageous if there were some wines I could tolerate from the area. I've not found any yet. And BTW, I am always searching for new regions that are unheralded but quality oriented so that they provide a good quality/price ratio. Temecula ain't it, at least for my tastes.