SC Cellars Vineyard & Winery

We just wandered into this winery today from reading other reviews on Unilocal that said it was like having wine at a friend’s house. When we got there, we learned they were a private winery and they were only open select times. We were lucky to find them open when we stopped by. The wines were excellent, Colleen was knowledgable and friendly, as was Scott. He even drove us back to our car on his golf cart. We loved the wine so much that we joined their wine club! I look forward to enjoying their wines for years to come!

SC cellars does some great wine! They make a wonderful Cab and Chardonnay. Open most weekends they are worth checking out. The gate/​entrance is just across from the church parking lot. It may look closed, just look for there cute dog Molly, she’ll probably greet you. Aaron F

SC Cellars is an amazing small high quality winery that has excellent wines.
The owners and wine makes, Scott and Colleen are meticulous about the quality of their wine and wonderful hosts who really enjoy their guests.
It’s a private winery and you have to call ahead but it is sooooo worth it!
Check out their Tapestry blend it’s one of my favorites!

This is what wine tasting is all about. The wine tasting room is like visiting friends at their house. The owners Scott and Collen make the wine, pour the wine and discuss the wine with you in a more intimate setting with no crowds or standing 3 deep at the wine tasting bar.
Besides having excellent wines you can also sit outside (front or back) and enjoy a picnic lunch. They have just added and area to play bocce ball. As members we have spent time crushing grapes to put in a barrel as well as bottling the wine with label, cork and cap. Lots of fun.

Awesome quaint place that I would love to visit again. Very nice owners and cool comfortable atmosphere. I was lucky enough to visit with some friends who are members and was surprised at how much fun we had.
I loved their dog Malbec and their flagship wine is one of the best in the area.
Bravo!

Fantastic winery. This is a top notch establishment. You cannot beat the ambiance. So wonderful that words cannot do this winery justice.

From all the wineries that I visited this past weekend, this one stood so far out that I became a member. I believe I nearly visited every winery in Temecula in a short weekend, most of those I would not visit ever again, some of them are good, SC Cellars stood out of the others. Don’t bother going here unless you go for true wine tasting, this is not a party setting as at most other wineries. The scenery is beautiful and the wines are great.

My girlfriend and I were turned on to SC Cellars by Anne at Vindemia a little later in the tasting day on empty stomachs, and both of us are very glad to find this gem in Temecula.
It’s not hard to find, being across the street from the Calvary church on Bucharest, though parking is limited to the street. It’s not a big deal, as the short walk takes you through a sample of what a vineyard looks like, complete with gravel underfoot.
When we arrived, Colleen was upstairs painting. The atmosphere of the tasting room is comfortable and intimate, and Colleen’s demeanor is a remarkable combination of wisdom, knowledge and a confident friendliness. She was familiar with one of our favorite wineries in Los Olivos, though for the art and not the wines… which is fine, since it has a killer back room gallery.
My girlfriend (wife-​lite at our point) hit it off with Colleen because of her interest in art, and I hit it off with their wines because I’m a gluttonous drunk with a mediocre palate.
I could tell from the start, with a 2010 Chardonnay, that I was in for a good time. I’m not big fan of most American-​style whites (voignier being the most common exception), so to make a note of the first pour is rare.
The 2008 Chardonnay caused a complete freak out because my mouth was saying it tasted all the things I like most about really good Greek yogurt parfaits. Honey, fruit and a little of that fun fermented funk. This is the only wine on Earth that could hold its own combined with granola!
The cuvee rougue is quite good, though not in the wheelhouse of my personal preferences.
As a fan of syrah, I enjoy a good offering. SC’s syrah is exceptional. It has the magic earthiness I’ve come to love from this varietal, and its finish slowed me down a bit because I wanted to let it reverberate.
Only in the last two years have I grown fond of cabernet sauvignon, and SC’s offering is tremendous. It has all the big obnoxious flavors I enjoy, with a sublime texture. This is one of the few cab savs that I could discern vanilla with any sort of certainty. Usually, at least for me, the oaking is overpowered by the happy fruity flavors I like so much. I almost bought this one.
But the Malbec was why I came. Anne recommended SC because both she and I have an appreciation for cabernet franc and malbecs. When I speak of my appreciation, I mean an obsession. There are two varietals I jump at like my dog does bunnies and squirrels: anglianico and malbec.
SC’s malbec does not disappoint or merely impress. It blew my mind all over my face. THIS is the wine I’ll look at longingly when organizing our modest cellar of occassion wines. I’m glad they don’t have any of the «masterpiece» vintage left: I would have broken out in a destructive fury of overwhelming joy like downtown San Francisco in 2010.
The only disappointment at SC was that they’re sold out of their Tapestry. After meeting Scott, who carries a quiet patience and gentle warmth that speaks loudly of his temperment with his vineyard and joy of winemaking, I want to try it.
My favorite wines are blends. There is something ethereal about blends. They’re like a wartime photograph that captures a disturbing moment, but also reflects the internal damage of the observer that made the decision that THIS is something people need to see. They’re like a Lawrence Ferlighetti poem, raw and vulnerable and amusing. They’re uniquely intimate in an impersonal way that’s deeply personal to everyone experiencing it, like marching in the gypsy processions of Seville during the dark revelry of pre-​dawn Spanish Easter.
This is why I avoid joining a winery’s club: there is something painful and sycophantic about it, a monetary pressure to revisit already discovered territory that scrapes away at the excitement of nomadic wine tasting like a butter knife would refashion Michelangelo’s David in the hands of a troglodytic mole-​person from H.G. Wells’ Time Machine.
This being said, I was the closest I’ve been to pulling the trigger on membership here.
I’ll speak highly of individual varietals, but I cherish and live for personal blends, and there is no doubt that the level of excellence is something fate has deemed my palate incapable of truly understanding at this moment of time. I won’t list the blends I’ve come to love, or where they come from, because they’re collected like momentos. I can point to them, open them, serve them to friends and speak on and on about them in nauseating praise, but they’re special because I purchased them to remind myself that my palate is not alone… and sometimes a bottle of precious wine is the only company that will keep me.
When fate and availability coincide in one of the years to come, I’ll be ready early in the tasting day with a clear mind, sober palate and a knot of cash because I know I’ll be in for a good time.