Napa Valley is pretty far from Los Angeles. If you like wine and want to spend your day looking at vineyards, consider Temecula.
The town of Temecula is couple hours drive from Los Angeles. It is a tourist-friendly city known for its golf courses, hot air balloon rides, Old Town charm and award-winning wineries.
You could stay in Temecula for a couple nights or you could do a day trip. Both are viable options.
If you want to stay in Temecula for a couple nights, there are several options. South Coast Winery Resort & Spa is set on 63 acres of vineyards and is one of the most popular hotels to stay. Carter Estate Winery and Resort has a Mediterranean-feel and has 40+ bunglows. Temecula Creek Inn is on a golf course and has nice size rooms. Ponte Vineyard Inn is newer, luxurious, boutique-like and more expensive. The Inn at Europa overlooks Europa Village and is a bed & breakfast. Wilson Creek Manor has a very popular winery and restaurant and the accommodations are welcoming. The Inn at Churon Winery is on a hilltop and has spectacular views.
On our last day trip, we made our way down to Temecula to check out a micro-boutique, family-owned winery called Doffo, known for its reds. The winery was founded in 1997 by Marcelo Doffo. It is a small batch, limited production winery with wines made in the old world style.
The winery houses a small motorcycle museum, Motto Doffo. Bikers will definitely feel at home here - the owner is a motorcycle enthusiast and so are his son and daughter-in-law.
If you are member, you can even stay at this winery.
The service was lovely and the atmosphere, relaxing. They had 4-5 different flight options and also a menu by the glass. We requested a $45 2017 flight to share.
We started our tasting journey with the 2017 Salute, which I thought was definitely dry. Then we moved on to the Malbec.
Most bottles of Malbecs in general come from Argentina but this highly rated 2017 Malbec that you see in the photo above is from Temecula - with grapes grown and the wine bottled and packaged at Doffo. The Malbec tasted quite different from the Malbecs we were used to, but it was okay.
The 2017 Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon was Puneet's favorite but their award-winning 2017 Zinfandel was mine. I know I will be back for the Zin :)
We had a lovely evening at Duffo. My recommendation is - Come for the Zin. Stay for the sunset.
