Wine tasting Monday July 11th

After delouses breakfast and the walk in old part of Temecula we headed for a late lunch. But first we wanted to do the wine tasting on a couple of the wineries.

We do believe they are more or less the same, but they are not. Heading for the largest of them first, South Coast (http://www.wineresort.com/), as long as we intended to have lunch at Ponte.

15$ for a selection of 5, good thing traveling like Laila and I is that we can select 10 and both try and get a better impression of the variety of wines.

So what did we taste at the business like environment.

We started with the sparkling wines, we have never had a Pinot Grigio sparkling before, but it was not so bad it still will be open if we will buy some later. The Rose Sparkling Blanc de Noir however will be a buy. Great cozy wine for any event or party, also tasted the Gewürztraminer, but that is a no from us.

What about the white than? The Pinot Grigio was ok, and the Muscat Canelli was a buy. The Muscat Canelli may was a more desert wine, sweeter as I like them, but again, it should be matched for what is recommended to enjoy it with.

So to the red, Wild Horse Peak Sangiovese, yes thank you, as some of you know I am a Tuscany fan so one of the issues on this journey is to taste how the Sangiovese taste in California and in the different places in California. This was good as well it was ok the Sangiovese blend they had even it only was 58% of the Sangiovese grapes.

The Port we tasted was not too bad either, Black Jack Port, could be a possible buy for us or join the club and have it shipped back home to Houston.

Finished and heading for Ponte with a new glass for our increasing collection of tasting glasses.

I must say Ponte hold what they say; Wine is like sunlight held together by water, or it was Galileo Galilei who sad so. The grapevines, vitis vinifera, is an amazing plant. It takes water and nutrition from the soil, nitrogen and carbon from the air, and uses solar energy to turn them into a very special fruit. A fruit that once fermented becomes on of the most extraordinary food products: Wine!

Quality wine begins in the vineyard and Pontes vineyard is a source of pride, worry and inspiration to visitors. The farm has 23 varieties on 300 acres of land in Temecula. And they use the latest techniques to keep the farm sustainable.

Over to the tasting, we had one selection of six different wines and they was all to our taste. The challenge with wine and what is good and not good is it tastes different to us all. So it is down to what you like and do not like.

Here we have buys for their Pinot Grigio and most of all for the blend Graciela. Named after Claudio Pontes mother, Graciela is a delightfully dry and fruity wine with hints of citrus and honeyd watermelon that is a complex and distinguished as the woman it is named after. This light aromatic and fruit-forward wine pairs nicely with a spinach and goat cheese salad, herb crusted chicken or spicy stir-fry. With a alcohol content of 12,5% it is light.

Also their red Sangiovese and Sangiovese blend is a buy together with their port that is a Zinfandel Port.

Even we have 3 wineries to visit Tuesday we know we will be back and purchase wines from Ponte.

And the lunch there was good to, choice of wine was Graciela. It was just great both to the Halibut I had and the Clamps-Linguini Laila had.

In addition for those who are to get married, yes the place are ready for you.