Aging tank at La Serenissima Winery
Author: John Alonge
The vineyard called La Serenissima is just a couple of miles up the road from the Shadow Mountain winery. Owner John Tiso established the operation in 1998 with Alex McGeary as wine maker. Tiso, a retired businessman originally from Venice, Italy, dreamed of making sophisticated European-style wines on his property near Sunshine Summit. Under McGeary’s direction, he planted 30 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Syrah and Tempranillo, as well as a little-known Italian grape variety called Arneis. His wines, particularly the Bordeaux-style blends, are aged in high-quality French and American oak cooperage and exhibit extraordinary depth and complexity. These are decidedly not the kind of bland, generic wines one finds on the grocery store shelves. “When people taste these wines for the first time,” explains Tiso, “they cannot believe that such wines can be produced in San Diego County”. La Serenissima’s total production was 500 cases in 2007 and approached 800 cases in 2008, their seventh year of harvest. Clearly, great things are in store for this incredible project. Currently, the wines are available at the Shadow Mountain tasting room.
Adjacent to John Tiso’s property is the nascent Orrin Winery, owned by retired chiropractor Bud Wiederrich and operated by his son Von. The 20-acre estate grows Syrah, Merlot, Zinfandel and Viognier, from which it produces small lots of hand-crafted wines. They currently have no tasting room, but one can arrange a visit by calling them.
Another neighbor, the Hawk Watch Winery, is the brainchild of Mike and Lisa Schnell. Mike is no newcomer to the wine business; he also works in the wine lab of Leonesse Cellars in Temecula. They opened to the public in April 2008 and have planted Sauvignon Blanc, Syrah and Orange Muscat on their property on Chihuahua Valley Road. Their cheery, bright red winery building dominates the vineyards. Their tasting room is open on Saturday and Sunday from 10 AM to 5 PM.
By the way, for one of the most surprising discoveries in the county, continue along Chihuahua Valley Road a few miles past the winery and you’ll come upon the Lieu Quan Meditation Center and its outdoor collection of some of the largest Buddha statues in the world. The Reclining Buddha (Nirvana) Statues is 46 feet long and 10 feet tall! The Center is open to the public for visitation.
Along with its four bonded wineries, the Sunshine Summit area is home to a number of private vineyards, most of them planted under the direction of Alex McGeary. These include a 3.5 acre tract in Oak Grove owned by husband-and-wife doctors from Orange County and planted to Cabernet Sauvignon and Malvasia Bianca as well as a 40-acre Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec vineyard in nearby Anza which is the property of an MIT graduate from Madison, Wisconsin. There’s even a private vineyard attached to a chateau-like dwelling for whose owner Alex planted Tinta Cão grapes, a traditional red variety from the Douro region in Portugal.
For remote, independent wine-producing areas like the one around Sunshine Summit to succeed, a number of factors need to be present in order to lure the necessary visitors. “We need to reach critical mass by creating a wine tasting experience here,” states McGeary. ”This kind of agro-tourism can only be successful if we create zones of interest by having ancillary economies such as restaurants as well as bed-and-breakfast accommodations to allow people to spend time in the area”. McGeary is actively working with the wineries in the area to market themselves as a group, called Backcountry Wineries, in order to increase their exposure. He’s also pushing for a local AVA, or American Viticultural Area, designation to help establish more recognition for the local wine producers.
Sitting with Alex and his wife Pam on their patio after dinner on a cool night, I sip some Old Gus, the red wine the McGearys produce from Zinfandel, Petite Syrah and Barbera grapes planted here by Agusto Mase more than 63 years ago. I’m filled with a deep sense of the land and its history. Above, a tapestry of stars twinkles, undiminished in this remote place by invading urban light. The Milky Way cuts a luminous swath across the night sky. In this special place, winemaking will flourish for a long time to come.
For more info:
La Serenissima – www.laserenissimavineyard.com
Hawk Watch Winery – www.hawkwatchwinery.com
Orrin Vineyards & Winery – www.orrinvineyards.com
