A Foodies Journey Through Temecula Winery’s Harvest Celebration Weekend

Once again, LA Foodies and Friends took a weekend off from LA’s fine dining scene to visit the mecca of fine wines for the Temecula winery Harvest Celebration weekend.  Upone returning, they all report that their minds were still spinning recalling the 20 or so wineries that they were able to fit into two days.  As expected, the group was typically WOW’d by Temecula wine.

As they started their day Saturday at 10am on Rancho California, they were surprised that few wineries were ready with food which was not a total loss as these wineries helped them forget this oversight with generous pours.  This early hour called for tasting the rarest of Temecula wines – white wine – which often required them to move to Champaign. Around 11am, they started finding that wineries were finally ready to serve.  Unfortunately, most Temecula wineries served beer food rather than grasp Napa’s lesson of how food impacts the flavors of wine. For example, how do Tacos compliment a fine Sarah?  For Tacos, they once again retreated to Champaign.

While they were quite happy to drown their disappointment about the food with many awesome Tempranillos, Sandioveses and Cabs, they continued their search Saturday for the scrumptious food they read about in the ads.  At the end of Saturday, they ran into a very pleasant group visiting from Texas who claimed that “one winery off De Portola Road had a short rib with rich filet like flavors”.  Everything seemed fuzzy to them about which winery so they decided to dedicate their Sunday to finding it.

While much harder to get stated Sunday, they began that rainy day on De Portola at Oak Mountain Winery (http://OakMountainWinery.com) -- a beautiful winery overlooking the valley.  Not only were they happy to see them ready to serve food at 10am but they found the mind blowing short ribs.  Beautifully presented, these ribs were served with freshly made chimichurri sauce and micro greens – a perfect pairing for Oak Mountains award winning Cab Franc.   After a brief talk with the Ritz Carlton trained chef from Temecula Catering (http://Temecula-Catering.com), they discovered the secret – these ribs had been cooked three days using Sous Vide.  They lingered to savor their discovery and were rewarded with a Temptations sounding band.

They reported that the rest of Sunday was a pleasant blur.  Nothing more to report as they seem to still be in bed sleeping it off dreaming of Temecula winery’s fine Sirahs, Pinotages, Merlots and Ports.  

Contact Information

Jack Gregory

Association

LA Foodies and Friends

Contact via E-mail