Winery Spotlight: Get to Know… Mount Palomar
The Story
Located at 1400 feet elevation in Temecula Valley wine country, Mount Palomar is a working wine estate with 45 acres of producing vineyards overlooked by the Palomar Mountain range. One of the earlier winery stops along Rancho California Road, the well-known winery was established in 1969 by John Poole. John’s son, Peter, took over operation of the winery in 1985. Peter and winemaker, Etienne Cowper combined creative forces to create top quality, Temecula Valley wines. Peter introduced a number of “firsts” in the Temecula Valley, most significantly beginning the trend to Mediterranean grape varieties, which is so significant today.
The Wines
Mount Palomar makes a range of fine wines with special emphasis on classic, Bordeaux-style blends and Italian varieties. The winery also has a thirty year history of producing Port and Solera Cream Sherry. For their wines, they use two main brands: Mount Palomar and Castelletto. The Castelletto name (“little castle” in Italian) is used for the Italian-style wines.
Mount Palomar offers a good-sized range of red wines, white wines, fruity and dessert wines. Several interesting red blends and unique single varietals like Cinsault, Cabernet Franc and Zinfandel are on the tasting menu and available for bottle purchase. For all Mount Palomar wines, shop here.
The Tasting Room
Tasting Room Summer Hours & Pricing
Monday-Friday-10:30-6pm; tastings are $12 for a flight of 6 wines + souvenir logo glass
Saturday and Sunday-10:30-7pm; tastings are $15 for a flight of 6 wines + souvenir logo glass
Reservations are requested for groups of 10 or more.
Please call 951-676-5047 x119 to make reservations.
For more tasting room information, click here.
Shorty’s Bistro Restaurant
Shorty’s Bistro features casual Mediterranean-inspired food and both indoor and outdoor seating.
Restaurant hours: Monday-Thursday, 11am-6pm; Friday-Sunday, 11am-8pm (dinner reservations recommended)
Click here for Shorty’s lunch menu | dinner menu.
Lunch special: Eat at Shorty’s Bistro Monday-Thursday and you can purchase a bottle of wine for half-price.
Events
Mount Palomar has a a great line-up of live music events – plus a September grape stomp, Oktoberfest and several wedding/bridal events all year long. Check out the Mount Palomar event calendar here.
Future Plans
Current development plans include extensive new vineyard plantings; a larger wine production facility; a new guest facility including restaurants and a world-class, wine country resort and spa; and estate homes. Stay tuned with TemeculaWines.org for details!
