An Evening with: Orfila Vineyards & Winery

For our first meeting of the San Diego Wine Guild in 2018, we had a local San Diego Winery present their award winning vino. Orfila Vineyards & Winery, located in the San Pasqual Valley between I-15 & the San Diego Zoo's Safari Park. Orfila produces wines from Italian & French varietals. They use wine grapes harvested from their Estate as wells as vineyards in Sonoma, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and the Willamette Valley.

Tami Wong, the presenter, gave us a background on how she became involved & then obsessed with wine, eventually becoming a member of the Orfila team. Starting at a young age she helped in her family's restaurants, eventually becoming a server. As she helped guest more & more, she found herself drawn to knowing more about the wine list.  In December of 2007 she decided to make it official & was awarded the 'Certified' level through the Court of Master Sommeliers. She has worked in all levels of the wine trade, from helping you pick a bottle at your restaurant table to curating & managing the wine program of a hotel to now representing a winery. Wine & Spirits Magazine listed her as one of the six Best New Sommeliers of 2014, the first from San Diego to be named as such.

Then we got into the wines. Our first flight of the evening was Estate grown Viognier. Our flight included 2 barrel samples & the finished wine from the previous vintage. Our first wine was an all Stainless steel fermentation & aging. This wine had vibrant tropical fruit & white floral notes bursting from the glass. The slightly cloudy body was full of these same pineapple, guava, mango flavors of the nose, as well as bright acidity & a clean finish. I wish that Orfila would release this as it is, because it was a show stopper in the glass. The second wine of this flight was the exact same grapes & vineyard plot, but fermented & aged in French oak barrels. The glass had no nose to speak of, with just hints of flower petals as it warmed up. The body of this wine was full & round, creamy textured with subtle tropical fruit layered throughout the palate. The 3rd and final wine of this flight was the 2016 Estate Viognier (link), the finished product that Orfila offers in their tasting room which is a 50/50 blend of these two styles. This wine was a nice mix of the two styles, bringing forward the characteristics of both base wines.

The second flight of the evening included 2 barrel samples again & the award winning Orfila Vineyards Sequestered Pinot Noir. The 2 Pinot Noir barrel samples we tasted this evening were from the upcoming release of Justin Mund's new pinot noir sourced from the McMinnville AVA in the Willamette Valley, Oregon. The first of the two barrel samples was made with completely destemmed fruit. The wine had a strong cranberry, floral blossom and lemongrass nose. While the palate exhibited a sour raspberry, bing cherry and orange rind notes on the finish. It had a smooth & light mouthfeel & no spice to speak of. The second barrel sample we had the pleasure to experience was made with full stem inclusion. The glass exploded with a smokiness, cherry cola, earthiness and orange blossom on the nose. The palate was sour cherry, raspberry jam, cloves, baking spices and hints of orange peal on the finish. The third wine as the Orfila Vineyards Sequestered Pinot Noir 2014 (link). This etherial experience in a glass was a pure delight. I completely understand why it was awarded highly & sold out on release.

The second to last tasting this evening was the Orfila Vineyards San Pasqual Valley Estate Montepulciano 2015 (link). This Italian variety thrives here in San Diego County and created a wonderfully deep wine that was reminiscent of many of the imports I have had the chance to try. I would even say it was better than most of the Montepulciano wines I sampled in the past. The final pour this evening was the Orfila Vineyards San Pasqual Valley Estate Vineyards Syrah 2015 (link). This Syrah has similar characteristics of other wines I have tasted that were produced in the Ramona area, just south & east of where these grapes were grown. This is another grape variety I see doing very well for helping elevate the San Diego wine region. One interesting fact is that this is one of the few grapes that Orfila grows more than they need for their production. Tami mentioned that there are at least 2 other wineries from the area that made wine with these estate grapes. I think I will have to track them down for comparison.

Overall this was a very nice presentation by Orfila Vineyards & Winery by Tami Wong. She highlighted the techniques used in the winemaking process, gave some very great information about the vineyard layout & answered the many questions the audience gathered had. After tasting the wines presented today, it just highlights that I need to get up to Orfila in the near future to do some more tasting of their offerings.