I will be visiting San Diego in January, any good suggestions for Winery’s or Wine Bars for me to visit? I’m a rookie here, 24yrs old and never been to San Diego.
Thanks!
Andrew
Where in San Diego? 3rd corner is ultra popular. Has decent food and a nice reasonably priced selection.
Wineries wise, temecula (hour or so north) is an absolute crapshoot and sucks for the most part as tourist overpriced plonk.
San Diego has some of the nicest Brewery’s. If you want alcohol in San Diego, visit something like Stone Brew. Ditto what Charlie said. Depending where you are in San Diego, there are a few nice restaurants that serve good wine but wineries…
Temecula is also kinda far from downtown San Diego but if you are going to the Wild Animal Park, you might want to check out http://www.orfila.com/index.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Had some decent wines there.
24 years old?
Google “gaslamp district”. food, booze, and women. Its a G-rated version of bourbon street.
I’ll be thinking of you.
What Zhi said (about the breweries). Seriously, go to Stone, Green Flash / Reaper Ale, Port Brewing / Pizza Port / Lost Abbey, Alesmith, etc. … The named breweries are phenomenal, and you can get good pizza to go with your beer at Pizza Port, and decent “fancier” (using that term loosely) food at Stone.
Save the winery visits for when you’re in wine country.
Ah, my hometown!
Ditto the recs for the breweries; SD has a strong micro-beer scene.
Temecula is for drunken nitwits driven around in limo buses, skip it.
This might not be the vibe you’re going for, but if you want a solid dinner/wine check out the Wine Vault & Bistro. They arrange great winemaker dinners (I sent my parents to one last year with Tablas Creek) and you could venture into the Gaslamp after dinner.
http://winevaultbistro.com/calendar.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Andrew,
Welcome to wineberserkers!
Andrew-Temecula is well worth the 1 hour or so drive. I run the annual wine competition up there and get to taste all of the wines each year. There are some gems worth trying. Here’s a link to the best of this year’s wines.
http://tvwinesociety.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=69:wine-competition-results&catid=44:results&Itemid=37" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The judges are folks who normally judge the Calif State Fair and/or the S F Chronicle competitions.
I wouldn’t go on a weekend (too busy). The contrast between small guys (Hart) and the big guys (South Coast) is amazing.
Andrew!
All rec’s above are great. Third Corner in Ocean Beach (about 10-15 minutes from Downtown) is a great place to kick back and they have a bunch of great wine on the racks for great prices. Dennis is the wine guy there and does an amazing job with stocking the place with CA & Old World stuff.
Wine Vault is also great…it gets packed so be advised of that. There is a place called 57 Degrees just down the street from Wine Vault that is suppose to be good too. They moved into a much bigger space from the Downtown.
Wine list isn’t too good but Basic in Downtown makes AMAZING pizza!!
The brewery scene here is BIG. Stone is a great place to visit even though I can’t drink their beer. Just went to Ballast Point (Mira Mar) and their stuff is killer! Where they are located in Mira Mar is turning into a mini version of the Lompoc Wine Ghetto…but for beer. Hess has a tasting room there…and I think Green Flash is just down the street…or is just about to open.
Feel free to send me a PM when you are in town! Maybe we can meet at 3rd if our scheds permit!
And Gaslamp is amazing…loved it before the wife and baby came along…
Meetin up the honies in gaslamp as a single man? 
All in the past Fu…all in the past. I barely remember that dude.
Better learn that Miramar is one word, Phil. Breaking it into two marks you as a newcomer! 
Ha! I’ve lived here since 88. I guess my true OC roots just came to the surface. I know Costa Mesa is two words… 
I was going to call that out…
But I thought it best not too.
Sincerely,
Lajolla
Delmar
La costa
I think Alesmith is nearby too, just off Miramar Rd. about where the air-station golf course is IIRC.