Urban Wine Tasting Room Uncorks in the Gaslamp

A taste of Temecula is now available by the flight, glass or bottle at Callaway Vineyard & Winery’s freshly minted tasting room in the Gaslamp. Following the craft beer industry’s lead, the privately-owned winery has opened a downtown satellite to connect its sprawling property in Temecula wine country, which spans acres of vineyards, its production facility, restaurant and main tasting room, with an urban neighborhood.

To date, Callaway’s wines have only been available online and at the Temecula winery. The Gaslamp tasting room’s general manager Richard Butters says that there will always be seven to nine choices available from Callaway’s larger portfolio, which focuses on Rhone varietals but also includes Bordeaux-style wines and sweet dessert sippers. A flight of five wines is $20, with a library tasting of three older vintages for $25, and all offerings can be purchased by the glass or bottle.

Open from noon to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday, the tasting room does not kitchen on site but small snacks ranging from hummus and pretzels to an antipasto tray are available.

Butters, who recently transplanted from the Napa Valley wine region but previously worked in San Diego, tells Eater that he’s seeing heartening improvement in our local wine scene, from advances in wine production to the hiring of more experience wine professionals. He says that Callaway Vineyard & Winery is currently creating a line of wines made with wild yeast and building towards sourcing one hundred percent of its grapes from its own vineyards.