Cycling Temecula, California Wineries

Southern California’s wine country, Temecula, is easy to get to being about 1 hour from San Diego and Orange
County; and under one and a half hours from Los Angeles and Palm Springs. Today these beautiful rolling hills
have over 40 wineries with tours, restaurants, and resorts to support them.
The area is great to visit year-round, but some may want to avoid the hottest parts of the summer which are
typically August and September. We went in November and while it was beautiful and perfect for cycling, the
it was not as lush green as it is earlier in the year.
We made the easy commute up from San Diego and rented biked from Eric Tallaksen with Pedal to the Medal
Cycling. We met Eric at the South Coast Winery parking lot and picked up 2 nice Cannondale mountain bikes.
Eric gave us a water, bike locks, maps and some general recommendations and we were off. An easy ride
through some parking lots and we were at Ponte Winery.
Ponte was built in 1984 but has been nicely refurbished in 2017 to give it a light open feel. Their wines are
great, and we have heard their restaurant is really good too. We started our day with the Ponte Angry Wife
white wine. They describe it as having fruit-forward notes of kiwi, apricot and mandarin orange which made it
a perfect start to the day. While there we got to see Floyd the Harris Hawk. By working only 3 days per week,
Floyd he keeps away all the rodents and small birds. His owner told me his personality is like a cat, he’ll come
when called; but only if it suits him.
After Ponte you can make a short ride to Wiens Family Cellars by riding through a vineyard. (Just get to this spot
using your phone’s Google Maps App). We wanted to get in some more biking, so we did not stop too long here.
Our next stop was Monte De Oro Winery. You can ride along the main road to get there, but we opted to ride
through a grapefruit farm and some vineyards. It was not a marked path and parts were a bit difficult. Monte
De Oro has a beautiful patio but had the worst wines and service. It seemed that everyone there came with a
coupon and the staff rushed through everything. Our server even prefaced his welcome speech with “even
though I am in a hurry, you don’t need to be in a hurry”. The pours were small, and the main focus was
around selling their wine club. Next we rode over to  Wilson Creek Winery right next door. Wilson Creek is
the largest and has lots of event space and areas for families. They had bocce ball, corn hole and countless
other games and in a classy upscale setting.
We set off to find the long downhill dirt road that Eric had recommended but first ran into Palumbo Family
Winery. Palumbo is one of the smaller wineries we really enjoyed our time talking with co-owner Cindy
Palumbo and her staff. It was beautiful, relaxing, and their dog ‘Red Dog’ dog was welcoming. It was the
perfect after having been to the larger wineries. Although I am not much of a red wine drinker, they only have
reds and to my surprise, I really enjoyed it. We wanted to buy a bottle but since we were mountain biking
down a dirt road, we opted to skip.
Next, we went off to find the Camino del Vino dirt road. It was an easy 2 mile ride to  Leoness Cellars . Leoness
was absolutely beautiful, but we promised ourselves one more winery and then to grab dinner in Old Town
Temecula. So we rushed off to Danza del Sol Winery. Somewhere on the way we ran into a patch of goat
head weeds and got several thorns in our tires. Fortunately, we did not get flat tires. You’ll want to avoid this
ground weed if you can. At this point in our day we called Eric and let him know where we left the bikes and
took a Lyft Ride Share to Old Town Temecula. We had several recommendations for The Gambling Cowboy or
1909 Temecula, but we opted to get dinner at Soro’s Mediterranean Grill. The food was excellent and being a
Saturday night, the whole town was lively. I don’t think you can go wrong in Old Town Temecula.