To start we went to taste at Palumbo winery in Temecula. Iit is very much off the beaten path, about a mile off the main road on a side street that is paved with houses and other wineries around. You drive into the winery, in essence through the vineyard which is quite nice and unexpected in Temecula. They have a dirt/gravel parking area with room for about 10 cars and a small tasting room which in essence is part of the garage of the house. I can see why they only accept limos and tour groups reluctantly with an appointment. Another note-no public restroom as of yet, although they are about to begin construction on a small addition to the property which will add public restrooms. When we arrived at Palumbo after wondering if our little Volvo was going to be stuck forever in the gravel, we were noticed the dog laying in the sun in front of the tasting room. Inside two more dogs seemed to enjoy the cool tile floors.

On to the wine. The hard part of this blog to me is that I am still learning the proper amount of information to share and what needs to be withheld. I’ve spent quite a bit of time reading other wine blogs to see how wine bloggers handle their reviews. It seems that they either will only post positive reviews, or they don’t review at all. There isn’t a ton of negative press out there, for good reason. While at Palumbo we met the winery owner and had a chance to chat with him and he talked some about the small number of cases he produces and generally cares greatly about his craft…as all winemakers do. That being said I will never be overly negative, but I feel like since Uncorked Ventures is asking for your money we need to be up front about the types of wines that we’re likely to feature. This is exactly the type of winery I’d love to work with, family owned, accessible owner etc etc.

We were able to taste the following wines for $7.00 or for $10.00 if we wanted to take the glass home with us. We opted to take the glass. Prices per bottle are listed.
2006 Syrah $34
2006 Merlot $36
2005 Cabernet Sauvignon $38
2005 Cabernet Franc $36
2006 Meritage$36

Finally their Port was not listed on the tasting menu, but they did pour it for us. My general impression of the wine was the earth tones came through too strongly. To me the Merlot seemed especially earthy, which I was surprised to say because I typically love Italian wine which is generally more earthy then the French grapes which they are growing at Palumbo. The Syrah was my favorite of the wines however I did not consider bringing a bottle home. At $34 there are plenty of other options in that price range including Stag’s Leap which we tried a few weeks ago which I prefer.

An older gentlemen in the tasting room was especially happy with the Cab Franc, absolutely loved it is probably a better explanation. I do know that they typically sell out most of their wines and at points there has been a waiting list of up to 1 year for their wine clubs. The Cab Franc is a unique offering for Temecula.

Although a much better experience then tasting at other wineries in Temecula I thought the wines were too earthy to be included in any of our wine clubs. I do see potential though in their vineyard and wish them the best in the future, I’ll be watching their progress.

After leaving the winery we contemplated going to another tasting that our guide at Palumbo had recommended however we decided to stop while we were ahead and head to Lake Elsinore to get a cup of coffee at Flour Fusion. Upon arriving I realized my wife had called ahead and ordered a small birthday cake for me which was very nice and unexpected.

We enjoyed the cake, chatted with the staff(they make muffins for Trader Joe’s locally) and also played two games of chess. I was victorious in both games, despite a random passer by trying to instruct me how not to put myself in check.

After the coffee shop we had thought we’d get a glass of wine at a local restaurant, but everything in walking distance was either an antique shop or a Mexican restaurant….my wife has a bell pepper allergy so eating at an unknown Mexican restaurant isn’t really an option.
We decided to head over to The Diamond for the game. As we found out when we pulled in, we were there entirely too early as the gates didn’t even open until 6pm and it was only around 5.

We returned a couple of phone calls and enjoyed having some time to the two of us.

I will say that if you’re not a baseball fan, go ahead and skip this part as it is another passion of mine and I wanted to share a couple of observations about the game in general, we had GREAT seats in the first row almost directly behind the plate. It was a fun game to go to with Lake Elsinore scoring early and often on their way to an 8-2 win.

For the Storm:

James Darnell has been thought of as a ton 10 Padres prospect and he definitely looked the part of a future MLB player He hit a ball a ton to right center off the wall and later pulled an inside fastball down the left field line for another double. He can clearly hit and takes the game very seriously. Additionally he’s fairly fast for a corner infielder, at least fast and quick enough to play an outfield corner if he had to.
I was happy to get a chance to see Jeremy Hefner pitch in person and I was not disappointed especially considering the competition. He showed an above average fastball and an above average curve which no one seemed to be able to track last night. Additionally it comes out of his hand quite well and is indistinguishable at times from the fastball. Change-up seems to have some empathsis and was useful a couple of times at 1-1, but still needs work. He’[s a projectable arm which is something the Padres lack at upper levels.
I’ll follow up with some of the Mariners prospects to follow in a future entry, but I don’t want to bore any of the wine people with too much baseball stuff.

As always thanks for reading.

I’m turning 30 on Friday. I’m actually quite excited I have a feeling that my 30′s will be a better decade then my 20′s were and frankly I’m ready to get started.

On Friday my wife and I will be kicking out of work after a half day and taking a short trip up north. We’ll be stopping by Palumbo Winery in Temecula. Again, I don’t want anyone to get the wrong impression, I’d much rather be stopping by Dumol in Napa…..but I live in San Diego and it’s nice to stop and get a glass of wine after dealing with Southern California traffic. Additionally Palumbo is the type of winery that I like. The owner is also the winemaker, they make small batches of wine, all red and only what they can grow themselves. The tasting room is only open 3 days a week and it is off the beaten path. It should give my wife and I a chance to chat without any significant distractions. Frankly I’m interested in seeing what is reportedly the best Temecula has to offer.

After that we’re heading to Lake Elsinore for dinner(no idea where) probably a cup of coffee and a cookie and then a minor league baseball game.

In some ways I guess you could say that wine in Southern California is like the minor leagues in comparison to Napa/Sonoma and even the central coast.

I’ll also be taking that long mentioned trip to Napa to work on getting a couple of agreements finalized with my business partner. I’m looking forward to the trip very much. I’ve talked a lot about loving the whole experience of wine tasting, Napa is especially fun because the experience is so much grander. Great architecture and outstanding best in the world wine, who can complain?

Lastly I’ll be having a wine tasting party with a few friends, I hope to video the responses to this gathering where we’re planning on blind tasting 3 California Chardonnay’s as well as 3 red wines which are yet to be selected.

If everything goes well I’ll have a short video posted shortly.

As always please visit us over at Uncorked Ventures.