Berger: Temecula Valley has come a long way

With the imminent opening of a new winery in southern Riverside county, I was reminded last week of the vitality of southern California’s wine country and how far it has come.

The history of Temecula Valley, an hour north of San Diego and two hours southeast of Los Angeles, isn’t very old, starting fewer than 50 years ago. But it is testament to hard work and a passion for wine that has changed Rancho California Road into Limo Lane.

The winery soon to open well up Rancho California Road from Highway 15 is called Carter Estate and was founded by Jim Carter, the man behind the hugely successful South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, who may be considered the key man who gave the region the impetus to grow.

When a shopping center seeks to establish a prestige image, it seeks a quality retailer as its “anchor” store, such as Nordstrom or Bloomingdale’s. Carter is the anchor for Temecula Valley.

His vision 20 years ago to establish a prestige winery at Anza Road was a watershed moment for the area, and with Jon McPherson as its winemaker, South Coast Winery Resort and Spa became not only a classic getaway location for southern Californians, but a location to find great wines.

And to validate Carter’s vision, McPherson began to make a huge number of world-class wines, which helped focus attention on the region as a quality wine-making area.

Carter Estate, diagonally across from South Coast, is Carter’s second investment here. It is expected to further boost the literal fortunes of the area.

Vince and Audrey Cilurzo (he was an award-winning television lighting director from Hollywood) were among the first to plant vines here in 1968. Soon after, they founded an eponymous winery that helped create interest by wine lovers.

Within a year, fabric magnate Ely Callaway and former schoolteacher Joe Hart established wineries adjacent to one another four miles east of Highway 15. At the time, that four-mile stretch of Rancho California Road was so barren that only scrub brush and jackrabbits existed there.

Before long, a dozen other wineries were founded there, most within eyesight of the highway that attracts the growing number of tourists who clog the tasting rooms virtually daily. And weekends? Limos are everywhere.

As are wedding parties, balloon travelers, and hotel guests.

Visionary Carter saw this potential and his great success at South Coast includes handsome villas, which will be joined by more lodging at Carter Estate when it finally opens its doors in a few months.

A decade ago, others began to see this potential, and a couple of years ago, Ponte Winery opened a large hotel and restaurant next door to South Coast.

Today there are a number of wineries with lodging. The latest: Wilson Creek just bought a handsome facility across from its highly successful winery and now it too offers lodging.

The region has had its share of setbacks. One of the first was when Callaway, who later went on to a third career success with golfing gear, realized that it wasn’t easy to make red wines in the area, so he stopped making them. Then he announced to the world, “White Wine. It’s All We Make.”

The proclamation hurt the area greatly, in particular since the Cilurzos had already proven that their Petite Sirah was one of the state’s best. And Hart was making a number of fine red wines.

Moreover, starting 15 years ago, the area was suffering an onslaught of Pierce’s Disease, spread by an airborne pest that had literally wiped out a budding wine industry in Anaheim a century earlier.

Despite dire predictions that Temecula would be wiped out as a wine region, many dedicated local growers and winemakers worked with scientists to find a solution: a spraying regime that soon curtailed the pest and basically solved the Pierce’s Disease problem.

One of those who helped secure local and federal funding to launch the assault on the pest was Phil Baily who, with his wife, Carol, opened a winery. Today they make sublime wines that may be seen in Carol’s Café, one of the best restaurants in the valley.

Most of Temecula’s wine success in the last decade is due to many talented winemakers and grape growers who have found unique ways to deal with Temecula’s non-traditional climate.

But were it not for Carter’s belief that great wine could result here, and that locals would support a resort region, Temecula Valley might still be struggling to fight its image as a disease-ridden wine region that makes only white wines. His financial commitment to the region benefits everyone.

Sonoma County resident Dan Berger publishes “Vintage Experiences,” a weekly wine newsletter. Write to him at winenut@gmail.com.