THE EARLY NOVEMBER RAINS... brought a good deal of snow to the mountains of California, and the ski resorts and cold-weather play places proceeded to shower various social media sites with pictures of the much-desired precipitation. But while the snapshots of the snowflakes make a lot of Golden Staters glad, other photographs from the chilly storm caught eyes and hearts. Several Temecula Valley wineries shared pictures of dramatic clouds hanging low over the vines, clouds backed by soft pink skies and the sort of sunsets one hopes to see while in any wine country. The cloud + Temecula winery photos remind us that the storm truly delivered autumn, and visitors to the Temecula Wine Country Harvest Celebration will get to enjoy the system's brisk-air'd, chilly-clear aftermath. Well, temperatures will be in the 70s on Sunday, Nov. 8, so it isn't exactly bundle-up weather, but after a toastier September and October, it feels rather festive to do a winery tour on a true fall-feeling Sunday. Grapeline Wine Tours is at the driver's wheel for this one, a 25th anniversary party that'll make for several vineyards around the valley over a single sit-back-and-ride day.
AN OCTET OF WINERIES... are on tap to be part of the full day of barrel tastes and yummy eats. The still-new Carter Estate is a 2015 participant, and Baily, too, at "the reservations-only production facility." Cougar, Callaway, Danza del Sol, Falkner, Lorimar, Doffo, Europa Village, and "the new cave" at Oak Mountain. Oenophiles'll also get a crack at trying out some new releases, and the cuisine shall be chef-prepared and wine-pairable. Cost? It's one hundred and forty nine dollars a person, and that includes your Grapeline ride, and not just to the wineries, either; the transport also swings by Old Town Temecula (as well as "Temecula-area hotels").
DID YOU DELAY... your day out at the wineries, because the start of fall was just a tad too fierce in the heat department? That's changed, as the puffy-cloud photos over pretty-vine estates now show. Catch that end-of-a-storm-week feeling around Temecula Valley during a party that proves harvest time hasn't quite wrapped up.
