Monte De Oro Winery

First, the property is beautiful. That concludes my positive review
This could have been a much better experience if they had enough staff when checking in. It appears that you order lunch at the same register as you buy your tasting tickets. The girl at the register asked for help and the Wine Club Manager, Dawn said «no, it’s ok» really??? Ok for who??? We waited way too long (Friday afternoon at 2:45pm) to get a «ticket» for wine tasting. For exceptional wines, maybe I wouldn’t have minded. To many other great wineries to frequent and join as a wine club member (we have 3 here in Temecula and many others in Paso Robles/​Napa).

3.5 Star review
Lovely tasting indoor tasting room and outdoor seating area to enjoy your wine.
****Ladies, be aware of walking in the middle of the tasting room. There is a glass floor that looks down into their barrel room.
–They have two U-​shaped bars
–two types of tasting, normal $ 15 (six tasting) and an estate tasting $ 20 ($ 22 on the weekends) which includes six normal tastings and three estate tastings.
–The wine was decent but nothing stuck out. The scenery is great and relaxing

We got here at exactly 10 AM (the drive from LA went faster than expected) and were the very first people to walk in the door. The staff was clearly still setting up but they were very friendly and approachable.
Diana helped us with our tastings. And she was very friendly and attentive. Since this was our first stop, we asked her recommendations on other wineries to try and she got out a map and marked off a few that she thought we’d like.
The tasting room is gorgeous as is the view. I would definitely come back!

This place is gorgeous.
The service though… questionable. We arrived at 10 am, right when the website said they opened, so we could get in the door before it got too busy. The door was locked. We knocked. A young lady opened it for us. «We are not opening until 11 am, but you’re welcome to walk around the gift shop area,» she said. We told her that everywhere we looked it said 10 am. She said, «Yeah, that is when we normally open, we just decided to open later today.»
Well, because the place was so darn beautiful and I needed to see it, we left for another winery and came back. We bought our tasting tickets, found an opening at the bar, and got going. We felt incredibly rushed and our server didn’t really offer a whole lot of information about the wine, even after we asked. But apparently they’re doing something right, because it was packed by time we were finishing up. The wines were okay, some of them better than others, but not enough to buy a bottle. Such a shame because they have such a gorgeous building and view.

Delicious Monte burger deserves five stars. The wine here is one of the finest in the area. Regular people need to respect members area and stay away. Great patio, spacious, mostly friendly staff. Hope this place will maintain the overall quality after the previous manager left for a winery in Northern California. He was great.

The wines are good, service is ridiculous. Poorly managed causing long wait times and no time to learn about the wines

The wines are OK, but service sucks. We ordered the turkey burger and waited for more than 30 mins, finally it came out but cold and burned. We let them know, and they said sorry and said the food would come out in 10 mins, but after 20 mins, the waitress said it would take more than 10 mins. What the heck? We will never come back here again.

Came here for a holiday party.
The place is absolutely beautiful.
I don’t drink wine — so can’t comment.
Apps were good — selection of Cheese and shrimp.
Dinner was terrible.
There were three options for the holidays — prime rib, turkey, and a vegetarian squash option.
My beef was inedible. Over cooked, dry, full of gristle. My wife had the veggie option and it was flavorless.
Too bad that the food didn’t match the facility.

Had a great experience here! Came for a wine tasting in a group of 8. Diana was not only knowledgable about the wines but patient and attentive to our needs and questions.
The interior is large and adequate space for a few large parties. The patio is beautiful.
We ate several items including the flatbreads and charcuterie board– all delicious.
In summary everyone enjoyed their time here, definitely recommend!
Some of their wines are not sold in retail and are only available at the winery.

Very beautiful view and cozy place to hang out and wait for our balloon tour, I hope to visit again soon !

I really liked this winery because of the customer service. I did a tasting which came with 6 pours the tasting room is large and overlooks the vineyard. Noël was our server and did an excellent job! He was so easy to talk to and very knowledgeable about the wine! When you do a tasting definitely ask the server something that they can recommend! That being said I tried the Zinfandel, Petite Syrah, and Tempranillo! Loved Noël ! I think he made our tasting that much better.
Good place to stop on the wine route but definitely go to lorimar and leonesse as well ! Great wines!
–cheers

We came here for a wine tour and also wine tasting. My boss got us a package for a private wine tour which was really fun! They had someone give us a tour of where they store their wines and we also got to see the barrels downstairs. We learned how to taste and smell wine and we learned soo much about wine that day! We got to taste some wine during the tour. After our tour, we went to the bar and each one of us had 6 flights of wine to taste and we got to choose them from a menu. What’s cool about the flights of wine is that you can give the rest of the flights of wine to someone else in your party if you have left over tastings and you don’t want to drink anymore. I also like their glass floor in the main room. That glass floor let’s you see the barrel took downstairs. The funny thing is that there was a sign next to the glass floor warning ladies not to step on it because guests from below can see everything (for ladies who are wearing dresses). I had a really great time at this place and I would come back! Oh yeah, they are also dog friendly!

We ended up going to the winery because our friend was having a 50^th birthday party. I got to say when I first walked into this winery I thought it was beautiful with a great view and great wine tasting area. The tasting was great our bartender Bru was amazing!
We decided to order lunch at the Winery the line to just order food took about 30 minutes.
We had a party of about 13 people and each of us ordered separately as couples.
At this point it’s been an hour since I’ve ordered my food and it arrives at my table. Crazy thing is that my other friends ordered food before me.
I ordered the burger and it was cold and pink inside at this point I’m so upset. I went up and ask to speak to a manager. They informed me that the manager was busy and that she would be with us in a minute, about 10 minutes later and still my friends have not gotten their food the manager walked over and just basically asked me for our receipts because she’s going to refund us our money doesn’t even say she was Sorry!
I’ve got to say the wine was really good at this location but the food service completely sucks they really need to figure out how to handle 200 guests at the same time on a busy Saturday.

This review will be mostly for the property and property upkeep .
While we didn’t partake in a wine tasting or wine tour we did meet there for a hot air balloon ride .
Upon entering the property you notice a huge sized parking lot and the building entrance which is amazing. The building features some beautiful architecture as well as some nice landscaping. You also see the vineyards loaded with grapes .
The building cleanliness is beyond on point and everything is decorated beautifully.

Very beautiful grounds. I chose to come here because we had some wine tasting vouchers. The tasting room appeared busy but it was mainly because everyone was at the bar, but there were plenty of tables and outdoor seating (but the doors were closed, so not sure if they were allowing that). They have a cute wine shop when you first walk in, and a glass floor that you can see the barrel room below you– be forewarned, anyone down there can see up as well (ladies AND gents make sure your dress is appropriate when stepping or standing over it).
The wines were not my favorite, but it still was enjoyable to try some new ones. They didn’t have a set tasting, so you have plenty of whites and reds to choose from. They have limited bar snacks during the week, but the menu for the weekend looked delicious.
It’s definitely a beautiful winery to see, but not my glass of choice for wine (see what I did there).

Another beautiful winery. The building itself is like a castle sitting on a hill.
Very nice driveway when driving in past the parking lot.
Nice gift shop with some pretty cool stuff.
I really like the outdoor dining area. Lots of tables with their own umbrella shades.
A nice little pond in the middle and live music outside.
But other than that, there’s not much to walk around. More of a relaxing place if you don’t want to do much walking.
Wine Tasting (Weekend) — $ 20 for 5 tastings
I feel like their list of wines are smaller than other places but they do have some that I like.
My favorite wines:
+ Synergy Rose
+ Muscat Canelli

4 stars overall, but here’s my breakdown
For music, scenery, the building, music, and selection of food, drink, souveniers, I give it 5-​stars.
Apparently, there’s a new chef working there, who keeps «changing things around» and doesn’t communicate clearly with the staff. So, when my date and I were excited to order the bison burger with sweet potato fries (in particular), we were bummed when regular fries came out. We informed the gentleman who delivered them that the order was incorrect. He went to the kitchen, came back, and said the chef changed it. Um, really? So your menu is false advertising and two guests specifically ordered the burger/​fry combo for the particular fries and you’re not going to at least comp them ala carte? Hello! We would have ordered them FIRST and got something else as an entrée. That was poor customer service. The bison burger also lacked seasoning and was a tad undercooked, than we’ve had elsewhere. So the food gets a 3-​star.
Kelly was our bartender for the day. She was wonderful with her recommendations, preferences, and attitude. She gets 4-​stars.
The room could really use ceiling fans. It was pretty hot in there and the staff were kinda sweaty. Gross. The wine selections were okay and we favored the Moscat overall.

Location: Beautiful location and building — we loved the huge glass panes giving you a wonderful view from the tasting room. The deck outside was spacious and had plenty of seating. Parking was easy. This one is pretty much at the «end» of wine country before you appear to drive into nothingness.
Service: No giant complaints here except it took about 4 – 5 minutes for a young guy behind the counter to come help us out. It was okay with us however since that gave us some time to look over the tasting choices. After that initial bump, we had no issues with getting our next tastes as we were ready, and he even provided a little explanation of a few of them. He wasn’t overly friendly, but service was good.
Wine: I’m not claiming to be a wine connoisseur or anything, but there were no standouts here for us. Nothing was bad, but nothing stood out either like at a few other places we visited. We stuck to whites as we had at other wineries to compare and didn’t feel the need to even debate buying a bottle. Would have loved to take the tour, but unfortunately we arrived after the tour had left.
Overall: Eh… points for ambiance.

Monte De Oro Winery has a really beautiful tasting room and patio. The whole place is dog friendly, so bring the pups! I visited on a Friday afternoon and only one of the two tasting bars were open. The two women behind the bar seemed a bit flustered — for example I purchased 6 pours and sometimes my server would note it and others not, after 5 tastes she took my card away. I had to practically beg for her attention to get my final taste. I really wanted to purchase a bottle of wine here too, but getting her attention to get my last pour and make a wine purchase was tough. I think she wrote me off as someone who wasn’t going to buy anything because she seemed to spend most of her time pandering to the wine club members. Eventually, she did come over, apologize for the delay, and offered me an extra pour.

I had a Welk voucher to come to Monte de Oro, and we were so excited with high expectations. I am proud to say that our expectations were met and we had a great time! The rosé is to die for !!! My fiancé and I also liked the moscato, and a mixed red. We went for a tasting and were able to taste 6 wines each, and went home with a complimentary bottle of mixed white, which was a bit dry for my liking. We ordered 2 appetizers — the spinach artichoke dip and the roasted pepper cheese sticks with balsamic vinaigrette. The food was surprisingly good.
The views were absolutely gorgeous, and the ambiance matched perfectly. They had live music playing the entire time we were there, and we sat at 2 chairs looking out over the vineyards. We loved our time so much, we seriously contemplated becoming members, and might actually in the future. We had such a lovely day, and I cannot wait to go back!