Free Wine is Never a Bad Thing

Speaking of Escondido, the Orfila Winery is local, has beautiful grounds, and good wine. Down San Pasqual Road towards the Wild Animal Park, this Winery can actually be a really enjoyable and completely free outdoor event.

Today I printed out a coupon from SanDiegan.com--found under the coupons tab, then scroll down to wineries--for a wine tasting for two, drug my mom and uncle along, and trekked the short distance up the freeway. The winery opens at 10am and closes at 6pm every day. We didn't get there until around 4:30pm though, but I discovered that this isn't really a bad thing as the winery is not only not crowded, but practically deserted. This will work in your favor I promise. Not only was the woman conducting our wine tasting more attentive, but way more helpful.

The wine tasting is for whichever six wines you want. It is normally $10, and includes the Orfila logo emblazoned glass. With this coupon you get the six wines, but unfortunately not the glass. Most of the decent bottles are priced at $15, so if you didn't want to look like a deadbeat while enjoying your free wine, these bottles would make a nice, unique gift for someone. The nicer, reserve bottles go for around $30.00.

After this, touring the winery is the perfect activity. If you go in the afternoon, there is a free guided tour every day at 2pm, or you can take a self-guided tour, which in my opinion is much better. I'm not really one to be paraded around and talked at. I much prefer exploring on my own. This said, I really would suggest visiting on a week day during off-hours. You beat the crowds, and as I was saying, you get way more attention. We asked the woman in charge for a map to aide us in our self-guided tour, got simple directions, then took off. You get the opportunity to wander around the rows of grapevines--something the guided tour doesn't really offer--and get to read the fun facts out loud in any manner you want from the self-guide pamphlet. After looping through the vineyards, you walk up the driveway, around back, and up to the heavy machinery. This late in the afternoon it was completely unsupervised, and we were able to personally inspect the stainless steel equipment.

The end of the tour brings you to the barrel rooms behind the wall of oak barrels that are behind the wine-tasting area. It didn't really seem like somewhere that they would allow us, but just ask. They'll let you wander back there among the huge, steel vats, touch barrels galore, and roam the depths of the warehouse.



Needless to say, a little tipsy off the wine tasting, this room is the best part of the tour by far.



If you do choose to go in the daytime--when it is sunny and not raining like it was today--there are really nice picnic areas provided. One is just a row of tables underneath the arbors where you're allowed to bring your own food. There is though, a second, nicer, grassy picnic areas with a huge sign informing all guests that they are only allowed to drink Orfila wine and eat Orphila food products. But honestly, it didn't look that well patrolled and I'm sure if you were careful bringing in your own food wouldn't be that much trouble.

This was my first time going wine-tasting, and on my extremely tight budget, not really something that I thought I would be able to do properly. The coupon makes it free, the grounds provide exploration opportunities, and it's a great afternoon all in all. Free wine is sort of an afternoon adventure all on its own too, which is right up my alley.