Bella Vista Cilurzo - Temecula

Despite being weary when we visited this winery, we quite enjoyed ourselves. They bill themselves as Temecula’s first winery, and I have no reason to say they are not. The atmosphere in here is completely different. Think sports bar with a giant bar. When we walked in the place was hopping, and people were everywhere. When you pay for a tasting they give you poker chips as tokens, and the continuous clink of these chips gives the entire place an active casino feel to it.

Unfortunately they only give you five tasting tokens, and they have many more wines than that. I was able to schmooze my way into a sixth (ok, seven) tastes. Props to them for not being psychotic about the chips. We buy more wine when people are friendly...

The Bella Vista Bordeaux blend was quite good. It had a nice balance of flavors and aromas. I tried their 99 Cab which was excellent, but too expensive. The 2001 Cab was also very good, and in some ways outshines its more expensive sibling. The Zinfandel was not too impressive, so I moved on to the Petite Sirah. I really like Petite Sirah, but it takes a special vintner to make it truly great, and I don’t think this is one of those wines. They were serving another Meritage that they wanted $40 per bottle for. It was good, but not worth anywhere near that price.

The last thing I tried was the Late Harvest Petite Sirah. A very unusual wine, it really delivered the goods. This was the wine we took home with us, because it had a delicate sweetness to it that was really enchanting. This is the one wine I wanted to go back to Temecula and sample more of when the day was done. I’m glad I bought some, and I’m pretty sure we’ll go back for more.

Joel

http://www.cilurzowine.com