San Diego County's hidden wine bounty - Part I

Old Zinfandel vines at the Shadow Mountain Winery north of Warner Springs

Take a lunch break in any village restaurant while touring the Burgundy region in France and you’re likely to sample one of the dozens of local wines featured on the wine list. Stop for dinner in one of the Napa Valley’s many charming towns and you’ll surely partake of a cabernet or chardonnay from the surrounding vineyards. In fact, travelers from Tuscany to Capetown, Chile to New Zealand, do exactly the same thing. Sampling a region’s wines while enjoying the local cuisine is a time-honored travel tradition.

So why are San Diego County wines so rarely seen on local restaurant wine lists? Part of the answer can be found through a historical perspective. Viticulture was initially brought to this area by Franciscan missionaries in the late 18th century. Not only was wine needed for the celebration of the mass, but it was a daily table beverage of the padres. Later, commercial wine production was established here and prospered until circumstances intervened. Jim Jenkins, owner and winemaker of J. Jenkins Winery in Julian, is well aware of these events. “Before the double whammy of Prohibition and phylloxera (a vine pest), Southern California actually grew more wine grapes than Northern California,” he says. “By the time Southern California recovered, Napa and Sonoma had already established themselves as centers of quality winemaking.”

Certainly, the potential for growing quality grapes and making quality wines here in San Diego County is exceptional. “Just the sheer variety of microclimates here in the county is incredible,” says Duncan Williams, winemaker at Fallbrook Winery. Williams oversees production of some 30,000 cases a year, making Fallbrook Winery the largest local wine producer. “You have growers here working in areas which have a predominant maritime influence, while others are in an alpine environment, with every possible variation in-between.” The result is a staggering mix of locally-grown varietals, from the omnipresent Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc to Syrah, Viognier, Carignane, Sangiovese, Grenache, Barbera, Pinot Grigio, Zinfandel, Pinot Noir and even some South African varietals.

The Ramona Valley, the latest region in the country to acquire AVA (American Viticultural Area) status, is in the thick of this grape explosion. The very active Ramona Valley Vineyard Association (RVVA), with over 100 members, meets on a monthly basis to share information about grape growing and wine making. A lot of people are experimenting, finding out what grows well in different conditions here. In Europe, it took centuries to determine which grapes yielded the best results in which areas. “We want to learn from what has been done before, all the research on growing grapes and making wine,” says Carolyn Harris, co-owner of Chuparosa Vineyards in Ramona as well as Secretary and Legal Counsel for the RVVA. “By the same token, we don’t want to be crippled by centuries of history. We want to be able to experiment in a dynamic way”. That process of determination has only just begun here in San Diego County. Dozens of small wineries and growers throughout the county are involved in the process, making the San Diego area one of the hotbeds of developing viticulture in America. Percentage increase of vineyard production in the county is among the highest in the United States.

For more info: Stay tuned for Part II of this article. Please refer to the list of links to San Diego County wineries on the sidebar. I’ve listed every local winery that has a web site. Specific information regarding days and hours of service will be listed on the sites of those wineries that have tasting rooms that are open to the public.