Local wines...this can be a subject of heated debate! First of all, most people- consumers, winemakers and distributors alike- have widely varying ideas of what local means. Hardly anybody would assume that to mean specifically San Diego County. California has the largest wine country of the United States, with Northern California (Napa, Sonoma, Russian River Valley) dominating the scene. Central Coast & Inland (Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Paso Robles) are secondarily popular. Many people assume that San Diego can produce only inferior wines due to the differences in soil and climate from the north part of the state to the south, even though vineyards were cultivated in this area before the bay area was developed for this purpose.

The (hi)story goes that after prohibition, north county San Diego was left barren of grapes and has only in recent years (with the exception of a few longer-standing wineries) begun to again form a true wine country and come into it's own. Syrah grapes in particular are apparently very well-suited to our dryer weather conditions. But many wine connoisseurs insist that you just can't get the quality of wine here that you can further north. To some extent that's true- there is certainly not the huge variety of excellent wines to chose from, but as with anything, these kinds of determinations must be understood in context. Because this is a comparatively new area for grape growing and wine production, it is only natural that with youth comes growing pains, which will ultimately evolve with experimentation and experience into more mature products. In fact, many of the local wineries incorporate grapes grown in the more bountiful areas of the state, since most of them are not yet large enough to produce all of the grapes they need to keep up with demand- that and the desire to blend different varietals together create the need for mixing estate-specific grapes with others grown elsewhere. So in effect, consumers of local wines will often be enjoying a combination of local and "near local" flavors, at least until more varietals are grown here and are of a good enough quality to use. Because many of these vineyards are so new, some of the vines are not yet yielding usable fruit. Therefore, just as we get our coffee from a local roaster who uses beans imported from Africa or South America, our local wineries often use grapes purchased from other parts of the state, which lend themselves to more complex flavors while still supporting local production.

All wines of course taste different for a multitude of reasons, including where the grapes come from, so our wines will always taste different than their northern California or European counterparts, and that is exactly the beauty of eating locally and regionally! Talk to the owners and winemakers themselves- small, independent farmers- they take their craft seriously, are knowledgeable about the business, and are confident and passionate about what San Diego can offer to wine lovers. The advantages? Many. Local flavor, personally knowing where the wine comes from, small-scale production resulting in hand-crafted methods of processing, lots of personal attention to both the wine production and the distribution. Being able to visit the places yourself without buying a plane ticket and fighting the crowds! So, in keeping with our concept of sourcing everything as close to home as possible, we focus on local wines just as we focus on sourcing all of our other ingredients locally. In this case, that means that we will also offer some wines from the central coast and possibly northern Mexico, but otherwise will try to avoid importing wines from further away.

These are the local wineries we have chosen to represent for our beginnings, which is by no means an exhaustive list. There are 12 official (licensed) wineries in San Diego County alone at the time of this writing (and many more in Temecula), and at least as many more applications on file.

Our Sources
Fallbrook Winery
Frangipani Winery
Orfila Winery
San Pasqual Winery
Salerno Winery
Twin Oaks Valley Winery

Websites about the Local History of Wine Making
http://vinismo.com/en/California
http://www.ca-missions.org/iversen.html
http://www.gardenandhearth.com/Wine-Tasting/California-Vineyards.htm
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20051009/news_mz1hs09vine.html