In this week’s Just the Tip, we’re going on an overnight getaway to Temecula, California for a wine tasting getaway in this small, but mighty Southern California wine region. Just an hour from San Diego and about 90 minutes from Los Angeles, Temecula is known for its beautiful rolling vineyards, Mediterranean-style climate, and nearly 50 amazing wineries to explore.

On this visit we went wine tastig at four wineries in Temecula:

• Ponte Vineyard
• Bottaia Winery
• Wiens Cellars
• Europa Village

Where we recommend you stay in Temecula

• Ponte Vineyard Inn – We stayed here, beds are amazing and the property and views from your room’s patio is gorgeous
• Europa Village Resort – Gorgeous, huge property with different European themed villages
• If those are fully booked, check out these highly rated hotels in Temecula

Check out our Temecula experiences in our Viator Shop for all activities we recommend and even some that we wanted to do but couldn’t get to.

If you love wine tasting as much as we do, check out these other amazing wine trips!

• Georgia wine festival
• Napa wine tasting weekend
• Valle de Guadalupe wine escape

Find a great flight deal to nearby San Diego or Riverside by signing up for Thrifty Traveler Premium and get flight deals sent straight to your inbox. Use our promo code TSP to get $20 off your first year subscription.

Temecula Wine Tasting Trip

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Today we’re taking you on a quick wine tasting trip to Temecula, CA Temecula is a scenic wine country destination in Southern California.

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It’s known for its rolling vineyards, Mediterranean style climate, and nearly 50 wineries producing a range of award-winning wines.

Just an hour from San Diego and about 90 minutes from Lai went on a trip with my friend Morgan the day after Christmas in 2025.

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We drove that about an an hour from San Diego to Temecula on a rainy December morning and it created a vibe.

I must say.

I do think Temecula in the summertime is absolutely gorgeous, but Temecula in the winter with a little bit of rain was a vibe too.

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And you know you are in Temecula when you’re driving and all of a sudden you start to see vineyard after vineyard after vineyard, property after property, these sprawling, huge properties, one after another on this beautiful drag.

It’s such a way to end into the town and just immediately the vibe is just happiness and it changes.

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On this particular trip, we stayed at Ponte Vineyard Inn.

I love this place and I highly recommend it.

One, they give you a glass of champagne as you’re checking in.

When we checked in, there was a little bit of a line, so we got our champagne, we sat down and we got all checked in.

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It was an amazing experience.

The service there is really nice.

It has a really beautiful Spanish architecture to it.

It has these gorgeous guarded walkway 90s to the room in the courtyard.

It’s a really beautiful architectural inn to stay in.

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It’s a boutique inn but the suites are grand.

I must say the beds were huge.

They had like 8 pillows on each bed, which I loved, and we stayed on the 1st floor.

So our patio and everyone’s patio is literally in a vineyard.

On your patio, you have a table with two chairs and you’re in the vineyard.

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It’s an absolutely gorgeous scenery to walk into and walk out of.

And then one other reason I recommend staying at Ponte Vineyard Inn is that as you check in as a guest of this inn, you also get free tastings at Ponte and Battaya.

So if you were planning to stay at Ponte Vineyard Inn, I do recommend ahead and checking in when you first get into town, even if your room’s not ready yet.

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It’s totally fine.

You can get checked in and then get your free tasting cards, go out and enjoy them rather than spend the money on tastings and then come back and check in later.

On this trip, we went to four different wineries.

As you know from other wine trips that we’ve gone on in episodes that we’ve done, Napa being one of those two wineries is really what you’re trying to hit per day.

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Going to three wineries in a day is quite the day.

So I would recommend finding at least two.

These are the the ones that we went to, but there are a lot of good wineries in Temecula.

Didn’t even scratch the surface on it.

So I definitely have to come back.

But the reason we went to these is not only that they’re amazing and staples in town, but my friend Morgan is also a member here.

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She was showing me around and these are some of her favorites.

If you do plan to go in December, I highly recommend you bring your mini travel umbrella.

We talk about it all the time.

I love it.

I pack it in my purse, it’s small enough to fit in there and it really came in handy because it was raining on this December day.

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The 1st place we went was Battaya.

I thought Morgan was saying Pattaya, but it’s Bow Taya Winery.

It’s a beautiful Italian style peak winery with the members lounge, patio seating and barrel tasting rooms.

The patio seating is amazing.

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It’s got a ton of seating out there.

When we were there it was these beautiful fall colors, but I can imagine when the finds are full and it’s green, it would look absolutely gorgeous sitting out there, especially with those Mediterranean temperatures, the California sun.

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I definitely have to come back in the summer, but Taya is known for their whites.

I also felt the service was amazing.

Most of the servers remembered Morgan.

They were so happy to see her.

They were willing to kind of show us around and give us little tours of the place.

Really, really great service here.

We also sat and had a still blush wine, just a good glass to get it going.

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It’s like 11 in the morning at this point, so nothing too crazy.

We start small.

We got a really nice charcuterie board that had a bunch of really good different cheeses and meats and nuts and fun stuff on there.

Great first stop.

Then we went over to Wien Sellers.

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Wien is known for their Reds, and they’re big bold Reds in particular.

I love a big bold red.

So we definitely have to come here.

It’s a prominent family owned winery.

The architecture is more this traditional Temecula style winery property with big barn like architecture, wood finishes, fireplace, indoor and outdoor seating, multiple different tasting rooms so you can sit or stand and all of that is surrounded by gorgeous vineyards.

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It’s a beautiful property, very homestyle.

I felt They also had some food trucks here on site at this day we were here and they had live music going in the tasting room we were in.

Very great singer.

The Weens tasting for members is 8 wine tastings for the member and for their guest.

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Wings is known for turning 8 into 15 real quick.

They have a little card that they’re signing off every time they give you a tasting and Wings just doesn’t mark them off every time they do it intentionally.

It’s homestyle your your family over there it feels like.

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So we definitely got way more than 8 tastings.

Christopher was our server.

He was so fun and entertaining to talk to.

I think we stayed there for probably 2 hours going through the 15 tastings, really taking it slow and it was just a really good time.

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We absolutely loved Wings.

Wings has really, really good red wines.

We should have got a couple bottles but at this point I didn’t have any room in my suitcase even for one bottle, so we did not.

But I do regret that Wings has really good red wines.

Would come back here again and I highly recommend coming here if you’re in Temecula.

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After we went to Wiens, we did go back to Ponte Vineyard Inn.

We got all checked in we kind of got changed for the night and had a little bite to eat and then we went over to Europa village.

Europa truly is a village and it looks like one too.

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It has these gorgeous fences and big beautiful property.

You can drink here, of course, you can drink wine, you can have cocktails here, you can eat here.

There’s many restaurants and you can stay here.

So it’s it’s a massive property that is still in production.

It’s actually modeled after different country villages.

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So the Bolero is their Spanish village, Vienza is Italy, and right now they’re working on building the Saint la Vie for France.

So it’s a really fun place to go wander around, go into the different courtyards and look at the art on the walls and go up down the stairs and the what felt like hidden doorways.

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We were there when it was raining.

So of course things were a little bit more shut off and had a a different kind of vibe to it.

But the the hallway, these are really cool here.

I would definitely spend some time just enjoying a glass of wine exploring the property.

The main reason we came here though, not only because Morgan’s a member and it’s a beautiful place, but they were advertising and operate ski kind of pop up experience where their cave was going to be decorated like operate ski.

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They were going to have the decor changed out from a partner that they’d named to do operate ski.

They were going to have ski themed cocktails.

So we’re like, great, let’s dress in cute little ski outfits and go there.

And it would be a cute little way to like end the night and also balance out the wine, right?

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We’ll do something a little bit different.

We arrive squaddies.

I’m not even kidding you.

The only decor there were two pairs of skis.

One was hung up on this archway and 1 was just leaning against the wall below it.

That was the whole opera ski and the whole experience was very weird.

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The lady asked if we had reservations, even though on the advertisement it said walk-ins only.

Then she said because we didn’t have reservations, they’d already closed down serving there.

It was like 7 and it was supposed to go from 2:00 to 9:00.

I don’t know.

The whole thing was weird.

It was not as advertised, so we didn’t spend much more time at Europa.

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We had a glass in the members lounge, glass of red.

That was OK.

It definitely wasn’t my my favorite glass of red, especially after being at Weans right before that, but it is a good property.

I would recommend coming in.

Maybe eating here would be a good idea or if you stay here, you’ll get to spend more time here.

9:07

So because we didn’t get our, you know, cocktail cave experience, we decided to go back to Ponte Vineyard Inn because we had noticed that they had a sign in the lobby that was pointing down that said the seller was here and the seller is their cocktail bar, which had a really good vibe.

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There was live music going on in there.

And Morgan had a couple of friends in town that lived in Temecula that she had met before.

So we met up with that couple.

We’re sitting in this half round booth in the Cellar bar drinking.

There’s table service so it’s amazing.

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It’s a good vibe.

And then another man comes up to meet the couple that Morgan’s friends with and he turns around.

All of a sudden we’re like Christopher, It’s Christopher, our server from Weems.

So that was just really funny that we all happen to know each other.

Christopher sat down at the booth and we ended up having cocktails for like 2 more hours that night, all of us, and it was a really good time.

10:01

So Ponte Vineyard in the Cellar is a hotspot.

Temecula doesn’t have a lot of nightlife.

So I mean, we left the cellar around 9:00 PM.

It was kind of dying down.

The music was done, the bar was closing.

It’s not a nightlife destination.

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So that weird period between like end of wine tasting, dinner time and when you actually go to bed, the cellar is a good place to go for that.

Now there’s 50 wineries here in Temecula.

We only hit four of them.

There are some other really cool ones out there.

South Coast Winery, It’s like this classic vineyard of tastings and resort amenities very well.

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Callaway Vineyard and Winery, it’s historic.

It helped pave the way for what Temecula is today as a wine region.

Wilson Creek Winery, it’s another family favorite with diverse wine selections.

I would like to hit those on the next one here because there’s a lot more to taste out there.

We slept at Ponte Vineyard and it was such a great night’s sleep.

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The beds were amazing.

We did before heading home the next day.

Enjoy the tasting at Ponte Vineyard.

We walked over there after we checked out and enjoyed our tastings.

Landing we like would go for a tasting then we’d walk around the beautiful gardens because the gardens were gorgeous and it was a gorgeous day.

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The rain from the night before was gone, it was sunny, it was beautiful.

We were in tank tops so we would get a little tasting, go walk around the garden, sit on the benches, enjoy the wine.

There was also like a rooftop terrace type place where there was a bar serving up there and then inside was the tasting room.

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Also outside is the restaurant, which looked beautiful as well.

So I’m glad we got to take advantage of that free tasting and really see Ponte in the daytime.

It was gorgeous.

We did plan to go back to Pattaya to use that free tasting card that we got, but we didn’t end up making it there.

11:47

We just said, you know what, we’ve kind of got to head home back to San Diego now.

We didn’t eat much in Temecula.

As we left Temecula, we actually got pizza at a spot that we really wanted to down the road.

So we didn’t eat here too much.

But there are some restaurants I would recommend the restaurant at Ponte.

That one I was just mentioning the alfresco dining in the beautiful garden gardens at the vineyard.

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There the pastas looked really good, the atmosphere was on point.

I would highly recommend it for a daytime meal.

For night time or even brunch but more so night time, I would say Domenico’s at Truffle Pig.

They have a really really big menu for both brunch and dinner.

They have steaks, handheld salads, food is really good here.

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Another spot I’d recommend is Cork and Fire Kitchen.

Beautiful architecture, really makes the indoor feel outdoors with the way the windows are in the big barn setup.

They have salads, different plates, food looks really good.

And then Bolero at Europa is a great choice as well.

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That’s the Spanish side, so they serve Spanish classics and they have a different rotating menu all day long, so you can get breakfast, lunch or dinner there.

Super conveniently located if you actually are staying there.

So All in all, I think we got to see Temecula in the winter.

We got a little bit of the summer E vibes the next day and I would definitely say it’s a summer destination.

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Yes, the rain created a vibe and Temecula is going to be amazing no matter what.

But when I go back, I really want those longer days to enjoy more of that Daylight Time, sitting on patios, looking out at the beautiful green vineyards, just enjoying the wine slower, being able to really see the beautiful architecture of some of these Inns.

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And then of course, I didn’t even mention this, but there’s a whole other side of Temecula, Old Town.

Temecula is a big strip of bars, restaurants, shops, definitely worth exploring.

And I will have to do that when I go back.

I don’t think that one night is enough.

If it’s all you have, then go ahead and do it.

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But if you’re planning a trip to Temecula, CA, I would highly recommend a two night stay in the summertime.

Squatty’s thank you so much for tuning into just the tip.