I was recently out in Southern California for a work/pleasure trip. I spent one afternoon out in Temecula, which is an area southeast of LA, and north of San Diego. There are a bunch of small wineries all within 10 minutes of each other. They have their own association - http://www.temeculawines.org/. However, not every winery around there belongs. We hit 4 during our afternoon visit:

• Bella Vista Winery
• Longshadow Ranch
• Filsinger Winery
• Keyways Wine

I won’t go through every single wine I tried, as that would be exhaustive for all of us. Here are the highlights:

The Bella Vista Muscat Canelli 2004 was truly excellent. I also enjoyed the Bella Vista Viognier 2005, but $19 per bottle was a little too much for my taste.

Longshadow was a fun place to taste. A wonderful German man served us and made us feel right at home. One of my friends lives for the Longshadow Ranch Ponderosa Port 2000. I discovered I am not much of a Port man. Another friend favorite there was the Reata Red 2003.

Filsinger might have been my favorite. Not trendy, but not overpriced either. There tasting room is decorated with ribbons from county and state fair wine competition victories. The Filsinger Viognier 2005 won Best Viognier at the California State Fair and in my opinion beat out Bella Vista. A true steal is the Filsinger White Cabernet 2005. It was on sale for 2 for $15 and won several medals at various fairs.

Keyways has a gorgeous tasting room and has gone under a several million dollar renovation. Their Muscat Canelli 2005 and Ice Wine 2005 were the two best, however too expensive again for my tastes. I didn’t like the Keyways Wine Cabernet 2002 at all. The Amore Rosa (White Cabernet) 2005 was pretty good too.

If you find yourself in SoCal, you should head out to Temecula. You can hit many wineries in a short time. They have various limo tours you can do, and have some decent restaurants at some of the wineries as well. Most wineries give you souvenir tasting glasses, so be ready to bring home some hardware too.