QB8 Winery-Bottaia Winery, Temecula, CA
Bottaia Winery (www.bottaiawinery.com)
35601 Rancho California Rd, Temecula, CA 92591
The motto of this winery is “Italian inspired, locally made”….I love that! In fact, I love EVERYTHING about this place! Bottaia in Italian means “cask aging room”.
Temecula has long now impressed me with their ever growing wine region with some really fabulous red and white wines being produced here. What I think Temecula does particularly well is really encourages the wine tasting experience for visitors. Most of the wineries have barrel or tasting rooms for visitors to come and enjoy tasting the different varietals while some have also kicked it up a notch by adding live entertainment and food.
My wife and I have tried many of the wineries out here (with an evergrowing bucket list of more to visit) but always kept landing on our top three faithfuls. Last year I stumbled on a story on one right next door to one of our long time favorites. We had no idea it was a winery because it in fact looked more like a white church. Although now I understand it because their wines are absolutely heavenly! Anyway, what set it apart and drew my attention was it was the first winery (not hotel) with a pool! Then the more I read I learned it was Italian inspired and the menu with an array of Italian nibbles and bits made it a must see! It was late October on a Saturday and the weather predicted a hot Sunday in Southern California. I made reservations for two by the pool and the rest is a heavenly blur! We showed up and ended up being the only people at the pool the whole time because the property was so new! The waitress came by and explained their whole history and how it was new so not a lot of people knew about it yet but that was exactly how the owner wanted it! They are aiming to be member exclusive so that the tasting and hanging out experience is not a mass mob but more relaxed and enjoyable. I love it! That day we had a charcuterie board with their 2013 Montepulciano Reserve. We hung out all day by the pool and cabanas with music playing, sun on our faces, relaxed conversation and delicious wine flowing. It. Was. Everything!
We shortly later reserved a special wine tasting and pairing which was unlike any other I have done. The wines (both red and white were amazing) were superb and each of us got to pick a different charcuterie board to pair with the wines and share together. Playing Sommelier for the event was David, who we instantly fell in love with! He is native Italian and has been in the wine industry for decades in different capacities. He recently relocated down to Temecula area from Napa region. His knowledge, stories and kindness were just as enjoyable as the wine, which is saying a lot! He told us if we were members (which we had just recently become) to make sure to take advantage of the pick up parties because they are top notch and quite the affair! Boy, was he not kidding! We just went to our first one a couple of weeks ago and it blew our minds! They had live music playing throughout with different food and wine pairing stations throughout the winery in different rooms. We are not talking cubes of cheese and bread…we are talking lamb chops, meatballs, gourmet cookies, lasagna, imported cheeses and salumis, etc. Incredible! We met a lot of other amazing members there too and it is a great friendly, gorgeous, environment! The owner is the same owner of Ponte Winery but I love and respect that he is doing everything completely different with this one. The grapes and wines are different, they are grown and harvested differently, the winery and even tasting experience is done differently, and in my opinion significantly better.
This quickly has become my favorite winery in Temecula! If you have not been before, I highly recommend checking it out! My favorite wine picks I recommend are the Montepulciano, the Sangiovese, Nero d’Avola for the reds and the Arneis and Cartuccia for the whites! Bellissimo!!
