While grapes have been grown and wineries yielding since the early ??~70???s in Temecula Valley, much has changed of late. The Valley itself is bestowed with an ideal climate for accomplishing high quality wine grapes: hot, sunny days; cool evenings; long growing season; and limited rainfall during the growing season. The addition of great draining and decomposed granite soil, led numerous entrepreneurs to Temecula with wine in mind. Names like Callaway swayed the pack with a belief and drive to ??oeput Temecula on the map???. The desire in the early ??~70???s was to produce a commercial quality product and increase the awareness of this new California appellation. They succeeded and Callaway Winery became known as ??oeThe??? Temecula winery.
During the next 30 years, wine growers streamed into the Valley determined to grow whatever Callaway and other new vineyards were acquring. This was largely Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon since the allocation for these wines in the United States was excellent. However, for Callaway and others to succeed in distributing their wines, the cost of production needed to be very low-priced so that the wholesale and retail wine prices could compete effectively. Once again the Valley was successful in that goal but with it came a new problem: the perception of the wine press that Temecula wines were not of high enough quality. These ??oewine experts??? cited reasons such as ??oeit is too hot in Temecula to grow quality grapes??? (even though the environmental condition in degree days is identical to Paso Robles); that the wine growers did not appreciate enough about viticulture (the farming of wine grapes) to use disciplined methods; and that the winemakers were too inexperienced in the science of enology (the art of making wine) to be able to make an excellent grape into a excellent wine. None of these assumptions was true.
Beginning in the 2000???s the winegrowers and winemakers saw the outpouring of many new entrepreneurs into the Valley with the aspiration of making world class wines. Wineries such as Falkner, Stuart Cellars, Hart, South Coast, and Wilson Creek invested more money into wine production with a detail on quality over quantity. In short order other wineries such as Thornton, Baily, Leonesse, Maurice Carrie, Palumbo, and Keyways made an addition to the wineries that were regularly winning Gold and Silver medals at numerous wine competitions conducted in California. One of the wineries, South Coast, even won the coveted ??oeGolden Bear??? award at the 2008 California State Fair Competition being recognized as the Best Winery in the State!
Temecula Valley wines have matured in a short period of time. Recent plantings of varietals such as Sangiovese, Syrah, Zinfandel, Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier, Riesling, and Merlot have shown the region to be able to produce wines of great distinction. As an example, Falkner Winery yields a Sauvignon Blanc that two years in a row has won Double Gold at the San Francisco Newspaper Wine County Fair over Central Coast, all the Napa Valley and Sonoma entries. Their Sangiovese based wine is called ??oeAmante??? and is a ??oeSuper Tuscan Style??? blend of Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Sangiovese. These Falkner wines have won medals in wine challenges for the last decade and been recognized by vineyard writers as ??oeone of their prized wines of the year???. So for those that still believe that Temecula CA does not produce top quality wines, stop living in the past and start trying some of the special new wines from this special California region.wine making and bee keeping
wine making and bee keeping
Ray Falkner is the owner of Falkner Wineries in Temecula, CA. You can learn more about this Temecula wineries' fine wines at http://www.falknerwinery.com/wine making and bee keeping: wine making and bee keeping
wine making and bee keeping: wine making and bee keeping
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