It was such a lovely time! I love wine, as does Loren, but I'm by no means an expert, and have never been wine tasting at all, let alone in the big leagues (Napa, etc.)... but I really do think this is one of the best first experiences we could have had.
Leona Valley is out near Lancaster, and in order to get to it from Long Beach, you have to drive past Los Angeles and then either use highways 5 and 138 or take winding canyon roads. Luckily, my GPS guided me to the canyon roads - I wish I had pictures to show you all, the drive was absolutely gorgeous. Living in the L.A. basin, it's easy to forget there is really beautiful geology outside the seemingly endless urban sprawl, without having to actually drive up mountains - California is beautiful. Rolling green hills, random creeks, craggy rock... unfortunately I was focused on driving and Loren was asleep, so no photos were taken. If you ever have to get to a remote part of California, definitely take anything that says "_____ Canyon Road." Thank me later.
A note on GPS - don't use it to find the winery. My GPS could not locate the exact address, and when I accepted a different street number in order to approximate its location we got completely lost in the middle of flat ranch land north of Lancaster. We had been searching for the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve and couldn't locate that either using the GPS... definitely trust Google Maps when trying to find these more remote locations. I finally used the Google directions to point to a place on the GPS map with no streets and told it to take me there, and that fortunately worked.
So, we got to the winery, tried five delicious and very unique wines, ate our free vegetarian pizza, and got to take home a bottle of a $60 blend of their wines they call Meritage. This winery's wines are all very unique, and the tasting was set up quite well - well paced, well ordered, and they gave us plenty of warning and suggestion of when to order (warned us if we wanted any additional wine, to order it before the port because of the potency of flavor, etc.). Loren bought a bottle of the Pinot Noir we tried, which had a smokey earthy flavor to it we'd never tasted before, as his first alcoholic purchase, and then we explored the grounds a bit.
Leona Valley Winery is one the few if not the only winery in Leona Valley - it's not wine country like Santa Barbara or Temecula. It's very rural and ranch-y. One thing the valley is known for is its numerous cherry orchards, where they have open picking during harvest season. Right now it's spring, so the orchards aren't open to the public, but the trees are in bloom and very pretty.
So, without further ado, I will give you pretty pictures to wrap this up.
Driving into the winery
Our tasting glasses, with the pizza "kitchen" beyond
Delicious fresh cooked vegetarian pizza
Me, enjoying some delicious port.
Cute decorative touches around the small grounds.
Some of the growing vines.
A view over the valley
Budding grapes.
A barrel of Port.
Waiting barrels.
The tasting "room" - open to view the valley and vines, with heat lamps to keep us warm!
Later that night, I surprised Loren with a get-together in Hollywood with some members of our band, who took us out to dinner. We went to Miceli's, a historical little restaurant that has been there since 1949. Inside is very cute, bottles of Chianti hang from the ceiling and a pianist plays continuously while various waitresses sing. It was a very nice evening - I recommend it to anyone visiting Hollywood and wants pleasant dining, good food, atmosphere, and reasonable prices (not exactly easy to find in Hollywood!)
Loren and Gary, esteemed Elviss wrangler. Happy birthday Loren!
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