Exploring Temecula Valley
Southern California’s Wine Country
At Briar Rose Winery
Temecula has sure changed significantly in the last 30 years. I grew up nearby in Corona, which is about 30 miles northwest of Temecula. In 1989 when I was seven years old, my best friend at the time, Aaron, and his family moved to Temecula and my dad would drive me there to visit him. Compared to Corona, Temecula seemed very small, sparsely populated and isolated. Now however, it feels a lot more like a dynamic, rural village with its own unique character and charm. People now refer to it as “Temecula Valley.” I asked my sister, since when do people call it “Temecula Valley,” and she said about 10 years ago. People wanted it to sound like Napa Valley in northern California because of the wine business. Now, there’s over 40 wineries in the region and I went to three of them with my sister and her family.
Briar Rose Winery was my favorite because I enjoyed all four of their white wines. My sister said, I really must have liked them because they were the first ones I tried, so I was sober. Usually by the end of the day, people taste so many different wines, that they like everything and can’t really differentiate.
Doffo is my sister and her husbands favorite. They prefer reds. I tried several reds and I didn’t like any of them.
At Doffo Winery with my niece Clarissa, sister Patricia and her husband Albert.
We ended at Leoness, where we had dinner. The food was excellent. I would give them 4 solid stars on Yelp.
At Leoness Cellars
We started with the cream of spinach soup. It was excellent. I wanted more…
I had the salmon. It was also excellent.
Feel free to let me know your thoughts in the comments below or email me at juan@juansjournal.com. Thanks for reading! :)
