Highland Valley Vineyards
Address: 15412 Bandy Canyon Road, Escondido, CA 92025
Phone: 858-531-6589
Online: www.highlandvalleyvineyards.com
Email: info@HighlandValleyVineyards.com
Tasting Room Hours: every Saturday and Sunday, 12 to 6pm (12 to 5pm in Winter). Open by appointment on other days - call or write to set up a visit.
Reservation requirements: Walk-ins welcome, no reservations required. For parties of 7 or more, reservations are recommended.
Wine club membership available
Up on a hill overlooking Highland Valley, Highland Valley Vineyards grows Bordeaux varietals and makes wines with low tannin influence that are charmers. Owners Ray Schnorr and Jeannine O’Brien grow the grapes, make the wine, and manage the facility, a complete operation. Many out-of-towners now visit the winery to experience the exceptional Bordeaux varietals and blends. The winery experiments with other varietals, too, so repeat visits always bring something interesting. Take this wine journey to France, only 30 minutes from San Diego.
I pass several wineries before reaching Highland Valley Vineyards as it is the northernmost winery on Bandy Canyon Road. The vineyards sit on a slope and hug a Craftsman-styled house fronted by a tasting patio. There is a larger parking lot to the left of the road where I park and walk down the hill a bit to the winery. Entering the open-front tasting room, I meet owner Ray Schnorr. He and his spouse, Jeannine O’Brien, are the owners, farmers, and winemakers of this winery that features Bordeaux varietals. Ray sets me up for a tasting flight, the most popular experience at the winery. Tastings are $20 to taste six wines. (Glass pours are $15). He hands me extensive notes on the wines and food pairings written by Jeannine and pours the first wine in the structured tasting sequence, a Clairette Blanche.
I move outside and settle into the Clairette Blanche, named Hook, Line, and Sinker. Traditionally grown in Chateauneuf-du-Pape, the wine is quite dry with nuts and citrus rinds on the palate and, as the notes promise, seems very adaptable to a variety of foods. This wine is followed by Rosé de Saignée, made from 100% Petit Verdot. Ray tells me that the Petit Verdot was stuck at 22 Brix on the vine, so he chose to make a Rosé from it. Richly flavored with powerful mixed berry aromas, this is a Rosé for those who like red wines. A Barbera puts me in a happy place with cranberry and licorice on the palate and a long finish.
Musicians on the tasting patio sing wry and serene covers of bands from Tom Petty to the Velvet Underground to the Pixies. Vines are planted on both sides of the patio and the views are simple yet sublime. Ray continues the tasting with a Merlot from San Diego County grapes: prune, plum, coffee, and licorice preside with a refined texture. The wine won Silver at Toast of the Coast. A Bordeaux blend follows, Craftsman Cuvee VII, 60% Merlot blended with Malbec, Cabernet Franc, and Cabernet Sauvignon. Who cares about pairing chocolate with wine when chocolate leaps out of the wine itself? I finish the flight with the Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, a star of my personal wine show, a beautifully rounded compendium of greatest hit Cab Sauv aromas like blackberry, blueberry, cedar, vanilla, and bay leaf.
The red wines, I am told, are all aged in French oak, beginning with new and switching to neutral in the second year to avoid adding further tannins. They are released after several years and are silky and ready to drink on release. They can be aged for a few years at home, too. Customers love the immediacy of these easy-drinking wines, Ray tells me.
Owner Ray and Jeannine began making wine in their garage in Rancho Bernardo in 2004 and were soon winning best-wine-in-the county medals at the San Diego Fair. They decided to buy the current winery property in 2007 and started construction a couple years later, putting in refrigerated storage. The original intent was to create a wine gathering barn for their friends. However, the county’s new boutique wine classification encouraged them to instead open the winery to the public with a tasting room. They opened in 2014. Merlot and Cabernet Franc were the original vines.
About four years ago they added whites to have something to drink on hot summer days. Looking ahead, they have planted 100 vines of Semillon to blend with Sauvignon Blanc and produce a Bordeaux Blanc in the next year or two. This gibes with their original wine inspiration from a trip to Bordeaux some years ago.
I leave the winery, feeling I have taken a short, enjoyable journey into French wine only 30 minutes from my home.
MAKE SURE TO TRY: Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2020
This is a friend to anyone looking for a rich Cabernet Sauvignon: Velvety tannins, dark berries, soft leather, and hints of gingerbread sing of the Highland Valley hillside. There is something new in every sip. A good cheese pairing wine with blue and aged cheeses. Or pair it with, as the winery suggests, meatloaf and a baked potato. And drizzle that with some balsamic glaze.