ABOUT LA JOLLA WINERY
We are a group of happy wine enthusiasts who began making wine together in 2008. We currently lease a vineyard hidden in the hills of North San Diego, where we grow Zinfandel, Sangiovese, and Petite Syrah grapes. With the guidance of our fearless leader, our team shares in the work of caring for the vines every step of the way—from weeding, pruning, and fertilizing, all the way to harvesting the grapes. Days in the field are filled with hard work and great camaraderie, finished off with a potluck picnic and wine (of course) under the pepper tree.
Once harvested, our wine is processed and bottled at the Bernardo Winery in Rancho Bernardo, which originally opened in 1889 on what was part of a Spanish land grant. Winery owner, Ross Rizzo, guides us through the entire process.
Our wines have been awarded numerous medals and ribbons from the San Diego Fair and Los Angeles Fair. While our wine is not for sale, we enjoy sharing it with our families and friends and each other under the pepper tree. Cheers!
The Vineyard
Our good friends, Shell and Sarah Medall’s own 2-acres of land in Escondido and grow Sangiovese, Petite Syrah and Zinfandel grapes. Their first production was in 2008, and we bought their production, but we really wanted to harvest the grapes ourselves. That opportunity finally came in 2013 when we decided to lease Shell’s vineyard, and since then, we have been doing all of the viticulture ourselves. We do all the pruning, weeding, fertilization, vine thinning, tying the vines up, cluster thinning, putting the nets on, taking the nets off, and harvesting. The wine tastes even better, knowing our sweat equity is part of the blend!
OUR WINE
All our grapes are hand picked off the vines and carefully sorted to ensure the highest quality grapes go into our wines. We then deliver them directly to Bernardo Winery, where our grapes are crushed, processed, and bottled to produce excellent varietals and blends.