The Directory

The wineries, by trail

Around fifty wineries pour in the valley. Nearly all of them sit on three country roads — so that is how this guide is organized.

Temecula’s wine country begins about five miles east of Old Town, where Rancho California Road leaves the last traffic light behind. From there the appellation fans out across rolling granite hills: the busy front row along Rancho California Road, the slower southern ribbon of the De Portola Trail, and the Calle Contento back roads in between, where the smallest cellars hide. The lists below aren’t exhaustive — they are the doors we’d point a first or fifth visit toward.

Before you drive Hours, tasting fees, and reservation rules change season to season — and several rooms are reservation-only on weekends. Check each winery’s own site or call before building the day around it.

Trail One · The Spine

Rancho California Road

The founding estates and the biggest rooms, strung along the valley’s main road. Easiest access, most choices, first-timer country.

Callaway Vineyard & Winery The original · 1974
Ely Callaway’s estate was the valley’s first commercial winery, and the tasting bar still trades on that head start. The Meritage restaurant upstairs does farm-to-table lunches over the vines.
Hart Winery West gate · since 1980
A small family cellar at the entrance to wine country that was making dry, serious reds decades before the crowds arrived. Zero glitz, all wine.
Baily Winery Family estate
One of the valley’s long-running family names, with Bordeaux-leaning estate wines and a loyal local following.
Thornton Winery Sparkling · jazz
Méthode-champenoise bubbles in a château courtyard, plus the long-running summer jazz series that fills the terrace at sunset.
Mount Palomar Winery 1969 plantings
Among the first vines in the modern valley. Italian varieties are the house specialty, and the Mediterranean courtyard is built for slow afternoons.
Wilson Creek Winery The crowd-pleaser
The almond sparkling is a Southern California institution; the lawns, live music, and family energy make this the valley’s easiest yes.
South Coast Winery Resort & Spa The anchor
A working winery wrapped in a resort — villas in the vines, a spa, the Vineyard Rose restaurant, and one of the region’s most decorated cellars.
Ponte Winery The garden estate
Gardens, arbors, and three hundred acres of estate vines. The Tempranillo and Syrah draw the serious tasters; the restaurant draws everyone else.
Bottaia Winery Modern · pool club
Ponte’s modernist sibling: clean-lined tasting bar, blending labs, and a summer pool club between the vine rows.
Bel Vino Winery The hilltop
Perched above the road with some of the trail’s best patio views — go late afternoon when the light goes gold.
Miramonte Winery Hillside · Rhône
Rhône-leaning wines on a hillside terrace, with music and a younger crowd on weekend evenings.
Falkner Winery Hilltop lunches
A breezy hilltop room and the Pinnacle restaurant’s wraparound valley views — a reliable long-lunch move.
Wiens Family Cellars Big reds
“Big Reds” is the house motto and the cellar delivers it — dense, dark-fruited blends poured generously.
Lorimar Vineyards & Winery Art & music
Part tasting room, part gallery, with live music most weekends and an easy all-comers mood.
Avensole Winery West end · dining
Tasting room, marketplace, and restaurant at the trail’s west end — convenient first stop coming from town.
Monte De Oro Winery The glass floor
A member-owned estate whose tasting hall looks down — literally, through a glass floor — onto the barrel room below.
Akash Winery New generation
A young family label with a lively patio scene — proof the valley is still minting new houses.
Carter Estate Winery & Resort Sparkling estate
South Coast’s quieter sister property, focused on méthode-champenoise sparkling and low-key vineyard-view rooms.

Trail Two · The Quiet Five Miles

The De Portola Trail

The valley’s southern road: family estates, hilltop patios, and a tasting room inside a mined cave. Come here to slow down.

Europa Village Three estates in one
A hillside “village” of European-styled wineries — Spanish Bolero, French C’est La Vie, Italian Vienza — with casitas to sleep in between tastings.
Robert Renzoni Vineyards Tuscan family house
A fourth-generation wine family pouring Italian varieties in a Tuscan-style room with long valley views — the trail’s signature stop.
Oak Mountain Winery The wine cave
Southern California’s mined wine cave — tastings happen underground at cellar temperature, a gift on a 95° August afternoon.
Fazeli Cellars Persian heritage
A Persian-inspired estate where the architecture, the labels, and the hospitality all carry the founder’s heritage — and the patio views run the length of the valley.
Danza del Sol Winery Old vines
One of the trail’s older vineyard properties, relaxed and unhurried, with shaded tables among mature plantings.
Frangipani Estate Winery Estate reds
Quiet, family-run, and serious about estate-grown reds — the kind of patio where an hour disappears.
Cougar Vineyard & Winery All-Italian
Estate-grown Italian varieties top to bottom — Sangiovese, Montepulciano, Vermentino — from a husband-and-wife team who planted for it.
Masia de la Vinya Spanish hilltop
A small Spanish-styled estate up its own hill, with Garnacha and Albariño on the list and quiet on the terrace.
Altisima Winery The new showpiece
One of the trail’s newest and most polished builds — a grand hillside room that signals where the valley’s ambitions are heading.
Gershon Bachus Vintners East-end hilltop
A hilltop estate at the trail’s far end, known for its views and its weddings as much as its reds.

Trail Three · The Back Roads

Calle Contento & the east end

Between and beyond the two big trails, the pavement narrows and the wineries shrink to family scale. This is where regulars go.

The back roads — small lots, small signs, and the valley’s most personal pours.

Doffo Winery Small lots · MotoDoffo
An Argentine-Italian family making fierce small-lot reds beside their vintage motorcycle collection — tasting here feels like being let in on something.
Peltzer Family Cellars The farm
A working farm with a crush-house tasting room — rustic tin, string lights, and a pumpkin patch takeover every fall.
Somerset Vineyard & Winery Boutique
A small estate pouring limited-run wines to people who mostly heard about it from someone who’d just been.
Vindemia Estate Winery Hillside hideout
Boutique estate wines from a quiet hillside property — one of the valley’s pleasant secrets.

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