We visited Fallbrook Winery yesterday with some of our friends.  It has been unusually cold and dreary around San Diego, but the sun eventually came out later in our tour.  We were greeted by Vernon Kindred, one of the winemakers at Fallbrook.  He walked us through some of the vineyards while describing the growing season and their vineyard management practices.

The sangiovese was just starting veraison, so the rows will be netted soon to keep out hungry birds.

Next we checked into the barrel barn, where the crush equipment is also housed.  Vernon walked us through what happens at harvest and crush.

Then it was on to the highlight of the tour — the tastings!  We tasted several wines, including the reserve sauvignon blanc, the reserve Chardonnay, the special selection Sleepy Hollow Chardonnay, Estate Grown rosato, reserve merlot, cabernet sauvignon, bordeaux blend BDX, and finally the estate syrah.  Why, yes, that is quite a bit of wine, why do you ask?

But, that was not all!  We also had the honor of tasting several barrel samples as well.  After the barrel tastings, we had a lovely picnic lunch out on the patio next to the tasting room.

We were also lucky enough to be there on bottling day, so we could see the 2009 Sleepy Hollow Chardonnay being bottled, labeled, and packed into cases.  We also got a sneak peak tasting of that wine (because we didn’t already have enough, of course!).  There was some detectable bottle shock, but it was tasting very nice already.  The Sleepy Hollow chardonnay is a more buttery, oaky style, whereas the reserve chardonnay is an unoaked, crisp style.

Overall, it was a lovely tour of the beautiful Fallbrook winery.  Their wines are exceptional in my opinion, so if you get a chance, definitely get yourself a bottle or 6.  There are so many hidden gems in San Diego county!