A visit to Temecula‘s De Portola Wine Trail wouldn’t be complete without a stop at Oak Mountain Winery. The trail, affectionately known as “wine row”, is a gorgeous pocket of storybook vineyards, rolling hills, and Mediterranean-style tasting rooms. If you’ve visited Napa Valley‘s Silverado Trail, De Portola has a similar vibe on a much smaller scale, and Oak Mountain is one of its essential stops.
Temecula Valley AVA
Oak Mountain Winery is located in the Temecula Valley AVA and is part of the larger South Coast AVA that includes Riverside, Orange, Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Bernardino Counties. From a visitor’s standpoint, Temecula’s wineries have the perfect location. If you live in Orange County, they are only about an hour southeast; if you live in San Diego, they’re about an hour northeast.
Warm weather dominates the region, with moderately cool evenings impacted by Pacific Ocean winds.
The Oak Mountain Winery Story
Steve and Valerie Andrews love wine, but they didn’t necessarily expect to plant their own vineyards, build a winery from the ground up, and become winemakers. In fact, prior to a fateful trip to Santa Barbara wine country in the 1990s, Steve owned an auto dismantling and towing company, and Valerie was a contract painter.
While Valerie’s family did have an association with the wine world through her father’s Los Angeles wine shops, neither she nor Steve could have foreseen how successful their wine venture would become.
Their first winemaking project started in 1996 when they purchased a small 11-acre property in the Temecula hills. After consultation with enologists in Napa and Paso Robles, Steve (who is also Oak Mountain’s winemaker) planted heat-loving grapes like grenache, grenache blanc, syrah, zinfandel, mourvedre, sangiovese, and viognier.
Success came quickly for Oak Mountain, and the decision was made to expand the property to its current location on the De Portola Wine Trail. Not only does the venue host wine tastings, but it also has a Prohibition-style distillery, a wedding venue, a restaurant, and a very popular wine cave!
Oak Mountain has solved this problem by serving their wine in a vertical "wine tree".
Wine Blends to Benefit Needy Pets
Steve and Valerie aren’t just known for producing some of Temecula’s best wines, they’re also known for giving back to the local community. Like so many pet owners, the couple’s dogs are near and dear to their hearts. When one of their dogs was diagnosed with a serious illness, they were shocked by how expensive treatment was. And while they could afford their dog’s treatment, they knew that many others couldn’t.
To help pets in need, Oak Mountain created For Pete’s Sake, a red blend of Counoise and Syrah. The proceeds from these bottles go directly to Steve and Valerie’s Cause Fur Paws nonprofit to fund medical expenses for diabetic pets.
The Oak Mountain Tasting Experience
One of the things that stood out at our Oak Mountain Winery tasting was the way the wine was served. When you do a traditional seated wine tasting, the table is quickly crowded with wine glasses, and there isn’t much room left for charcuterie or cheese boards, plates, or any other snacks you may want to enjoy.
Oak Mountain has solved this problem by serving their wine in a vertical “wine tree”. Sample a wine, and place the glass back on the tree. This is an interesting idea that really does the trick.
The Wines
Our tasting started off with the Oak Mountain Raspberry Sparkling wine, which is a crisp sparkling wine made with a hint of raspberries. This is a sweeter sparkling wine that almost has a cotton candy taste. The wine wasn’t necessarily our cup of tea, but we could see how other palates would enjoy it.
Overall, the wines at Oak Mountain are decent. Of the Temecula wineries we’ve visited, they’re probably the best in the region.
For us, Oak Mountain’s Petite Sirah was our highest-point wine. The wine had a rich dark color, intense jammy notes, some spice, and of course, those black cherry and chocolate flavors that Petite Sirah is known for.
The tasting included:
- 2021 Sauvignon Blanc $22
- 2019 Sangiovese $43
- 2018 Cabernet Franc $43
- 2019 Petite Sirah $46
Wines to look for
Our tasting flight ran from a raspberry sparkling wine to reds, with the Petite Sirah standing out:
- Raspberry Sparkling Sparkling A sweeter sparkling wine with a hint of raspberries and an almost cotton candy taste; a best seller, though not our cup of tea.
- 2021 Sauvignon Blanc White Poured as part of the tasting flight we tried.
- 2019 Sangiovese Red Poured as part of the tasting flight we tried.
- 2018 Cabernet Franc Red Poured as part of the tasting flight we tried.
- 2019 Petite Sirah Red Our highest-point wine: rich dark color with intense jammy notes, spice, black cherry, and chocolate.
- For Pete's Sake Red A red blend of Counoise and Syrah; proceeds fund medical expenses for diabetic pets through the Cause Fur Paws nonprofit.
Our verdict
★★★★★
Cork & Journey: 4.5 out of 5 stars. Oak Mountain works with a ton of grape varieties besides the ones on the tasting menu. Bottles of malbec, cabernet sauvignon, Mourvedre, Pinotage, Tempranillo, and Grenache are all available to purchase. All in all, very nice wines, but we would recommend that you avoid the Raspberry Sparkling. It was the first wine in the flight, and our entire table left their glasses full. We were told this is a best seller, but not our cup of tea.
