Tag Archives: winery

During our trip to Temecula, we knew we had to visit at least one local vineyard while we were there.  It is wine country after all!  After attending the Balloon and Wine Festival, taking a hot air balloon ride, and a generally action packed schedule we only had the energy to visit one winery on the last day of our vacation.

I really wish we could have visited more, but boy, did we pick a good one for our only wine tasting stop!

Wilson Creek Winery is known for their Almond Champagne, which we figured must be pretty popular when we saw their hot air balloon during the “Balloon Glow” at the Balloon and Wine Festival.

Obviously we had try it, and wow, it did not disappoint!  If you’re a fan of sparkling wine, you must try it!  It’s the perfect wine to drink during those hot summer days in Temecula!

Wine tastings are $15 per person on weekdays and $20 per person on weekends.  We did two tastings and shared both of them, which is what we usually do so we can try more.  Not sure if they changed their policy on that and if you can still share, as this was a couple of years ago, but it’s definitely worth a try!

We tried a variety of reds, whites, sparkling and ports, and loved everything!  They also serve food at their onsite restaurant, although we were there too early for lunch so we didn’t get to try anything.  Everything sounded really good though!  After our tastings, we spent most of our time exploring the grounds, which are absolutely gorgeous.  Take a look at these photos and I’m sure you’ll agree!

I’m sure you can tell from the photos that they do a lot of weddings here.  If you’re in the market for a fairytale wedding at a beautiful vineyard, be sure to check out their website for all the details!

If you have the time to visit more vineyards, you should definitely do so – I doubt you’ll have a bad experience at any of them.  But if your schedule is too packed and you can only visit one like we did, I hope this post helped with your decision.  Remember to try the almond champagne, and then let me know how much you liked it in the comments section below!

And if you’re looking for more things to do in Temecula, be sure to check out my post!  You’ll find food suggestions, hotel recommendations, and lots more!

Daniel and I love wine tasting, and when we heard there were great vineyards in Oregon we definitely wanted to check them out.  If you saw my Rockaway Beach post, you know that we decided to stop at a few on our way to the Oregon coast.  We chose to do wine tasting in Forest Grove because it was the closest to our original route.  It’s only about 45 minutes outside of Portland, so it’s also doable as just a day trip.

Our first stop was the David Hill Winery and Vineyard!

The wine tastings are in this adorable house below.

The David Hill Vineyard had really great reviews on Google, which was one of the reasons we stopped there first.  And no wonder!  The staff was very friendly and knowledgeable, and it wasn’t overly crowded, so we were able to ask as many questions as we wanted.

They had a nice variety of wine, and everything I tried was excellent.  Wine tasting is only $5 for 7 wines!  Pretty big difference from when we used to go tasting in Santa Barbara, CA!  While there were a number of wines I would have loved to take home, we decided on a bottle of their Estate Gewürztraminer.  Highly recommend if you like a refreshing white!

They also have a variety of other local products available for purchase in the tasting room.  Including cheese, crackers, and sausages.

While it was a bit too cold when we went, during the nicer months it would be fun to by a bottle and snacks, and have a picnic!

They have a few picnic tables outside, as you can see from the picture.  Their grounds are really pretty, it would be a great atmosphere for a relaxing lunch outside.

But don’t take my word for it, take a look at the photos below!

I think we’ll definitely be coming back here!

Our 2nd stop was Shafer Vineyard Cellars, which had one of the best views by far!

The draw to this vineyard was the complimentary cheese and crackers, which I’m a total sucker for.  They also had good reviews on Google.

This seemed like a smaller, more family run vineyard than the last.  In fact, the only person in the tasting room was the wife of the late owner.  She was so incredibly nice, and she even waived our tasting fee (which was only $5 to begin with)!

Shafer Vineyard also had a great variety of wines, and we decided to buy a bottle of their “Holiday Magic Wine,” which is a gluhwein.  Can’t wait to have it over the holidays!

The tasting room was a little small and a bit busier, but luckily they had a huge Christmas shop to explore in between tastings!

They seriously had any kind of ornament you could possibly think of!  It was also fun to see these huge tanks of wine!

I would definitely recommend this vineyard.  Here are a few more pictures of the gorgeous grounds!

A fountain was recently installed as a memorial for the late owner of the vineyard, Harvey Shafer.

Another place we were hoping to check out was Bull Run Cider, but unfortunately they were closed when we were there on a Sunday.  We certainly have not even scratched the surface of vineyards in Oregon, but this was a great start.  If you are headed towards the Oregon Coast or looking for a day trip, definitely check these vineyards out!  And if you’re looking for more things to do on your way to the coast, don’t miss my full romantic getaway post!