Sponsored by Visit Temecula Valley
Meet in Temecula Valley, Southern California
From inspiring venues to diverse activities, experience a hidden gem, Temecula Valley Southern California Wine Country, for your next meeting. Selected as one of Wine Enthusiast’s Top 10 Best Wine Travel Destination, Temecula Valley is where meetings rise above.
Rise Above the Vines
Take you meeting to new heights – literally in a hot air balloon. Float above the vines in Temecula Valley Southern California Wine Country for an exhilarating, early morning experience. A balloon flight creates the perfect beginning to any meeting!
Ride in Style
Tour Temecula Valley Southern California Wine Country with Grapeline’s brand new Mercedes Panoramic touring van. The Panoramic is the world’s first hardtop convertible touring van accommodating up to 19 passengers featuring a retractable, full-glass sides and roof, allowing for unrestricted 180-degree views.
Wine Blending Classes
Be a winemaker for the day! Grab a lab coat and blend separate red wines using cylinders and pipettes. Each participate will be able to bring home a bottle of their own wine. Shuttle service available at local hotels including Embassy Suites by Hilton Temecula Valley Wine Country.
Behind the Scenes Wine Tours
Explore Temecula Valley vineyards with a guided tour at many local wineries in Southern California. Experience award-winning wines, culinary delights, event space and even stay among the vines at South Coast Winery Resort & Spa.
Wellness Refresh
A yoga session is the ideal way to break the ice and rejuvenate before a meeting. Attend a team building yoga class at South Coast Winery Resort & Spa where you will work on key teamwork elements. Book a class at Spa Pechanga and experience the luxury of wellness and meditation.
Tee-up in Southern California
Temecula offers five golf courses with a combined 99-holes to enjoy before your meeting. Head to Temecula Creek Inn’s 27-Hole course, surrounded by over 300 acres of natural beauty. Journey at Pechanga is consistently ranked among the nation’s best courses by Golf Week magazine.
Craft Distillery Experience
At Galway Spirits, you and your team will discover how to make your own spirits and take home your own craft bottle. Discover the art of small-scale distillery production, enjoy a lunch, a custom Galway T-shirt, and a comprehensive Galway Spirits tasting opportunity.
Harvest Adventure
Celebrate our harvest season with some adventure! You’ll be a-“mazed” with the 11-acre Big Horse Corn Maze, the largest corn maze in Southern California. Enjoy additional activities for your group such as hay-rides, a corn cannon, pumpkin patch, and food vendors.
When you think California wine country meeting what comes to mind? Napa Valley? Sonoma? Maybe it is time to set the GPS for something a little farther south: Temecula, San Diego and Santa Barbara come to mind. Nancy Light, vice president of communications for The Wine Institute, California’s wine industry advocacy group, has some suggestions. She reminded us that the natural beauty of SoCal, the vineyards surrounding the wineries and the casual, yet elevated, atmosphere of wineries makes them perfect hospitality venues.
Smart Meetings rounded up 10 of the best wineries for meetings in Southern California so you can wow your attendees with wine and the perfect venue at your next event.
Temecula
South Coast Winery Resort and Spa
Temecula Valley’s only full-service winery-resort is the perfect location for an all-inclusive event. With on-site accommodations nestled among the vineyards, restaurant, spa, gym and yoga classes, guests have everything they need at their fingertips; and with 40,000 sq. ft. of flexible indoor-outdoor meeting space and experienced staff, the meeting planner does, too.
Monte de Oro winery strives to combine personal passion for wine and a business that will help raise Temecula’s profile in the world of wine. The venue features two banquet rooms with private covered patios and fireplaces, and a barrel cellar room that provides the ideal location for a corporate dinner or meeting. All of this is set in a beautiful Spanish-style winery where old world charm meets new world sophistication.
Home to Temecula’s first subterranean wine caves and located on the ridge of a mountain 1,450 ft. above Temecula Valley, Oak Mountain winery has several unique perks to offer. Guests can hold events in their 10,000-square-foot wine cave and dine surrounded by barrels of aging wine or in their climate-controlled pavilion with beautiful views of vineyards and valleys. Located on the beautiful De Portola Wine Trail in the heart of Temecula Valley, this boutique winery will take your breath away.
With more than 31 years of experience in hosting musical events and Friday Night Concerts on the patio, Thornton Winery offers a fun and lively atmosphere found among the vines. Thornton boasts several indoor and outdoor event spaces that can accommodate up to 400 people and event staff are happy to help with creative themes, unique menus and ensure every detail of your event is perfect!
San Diego
Founded in 1889, Bernardo Winery is the oldest continuously operating family-owned winery in Southern California. Its age isn’t the only thing that makes Bernardo Winery unique, however. The village of shops, a salon, a cafe and coffee roaster, artisan studios, a yoga studio and a theatre create a unique community within the vineyards. Meeting spaces can hold up to 300 people and between exploring the shops and winery and opportunities to blend your own wine and create your own label, attendees are sure to leave Bernardo Winery with special memories and memorabilia.
San Diego Wine and Culinary Event Center
If you can’t quite make it out to wine country, you can still hold a winery themed event with hands on activities for attendees surrounding wine and food. Although not technically a winery, San Diego Wine and Culinary Event Center specializes in local and craft cuisine and wine. Dine in their wine cellar and you will forget that you are downtown, steps away from San Diego Convention Center and convention hotels in the historic Gaslamp Quarter of San Diego.
Santa Barbara
With two locations, one in downtown Santa Barbara and another in downtown Santa Ynez, guests can witness a working winery from aging to waxing and shipping bottles. The convenience of the downtown location of the Santa Barbara winery is ideal for events hosted in the city. Ryan Carr supervises the growing of the grapes within Santa Barbara County to ensure all of his products are to his exact specifications.
This Spanish-style, family-owned and run vineyard in the Santa Ynez Valley began as a small project to make wine for the family. The grapes did so well and the wine was so good that the Gainey family decided to make a business of it, but have kept the wholesome family charm that the winery was built on. An old barn in the middle of their vineyards is a rustic and beautiful venue for any kind of event and the property offers several corporate retreat packages from blind wine tasting to a hike and picnic in the vineyards or a jeep tour and barrel tasting.
Orange County
Previously in disrepair, Giracci Farms and Vineyards was rescued by Chad and Linda Kearns in 2005 and turned into the rustic, elegant and charming winery it is today. Located just minutes from Executive Parks in Irvine, Lake Forest, Newport Beach and Anaheim, this winery is the perfect venue for meetings, conventions or team-building events (who doesn’t like bonding over wine?) The paddock of horses out back ridden by top-level riders and community groups alike speaks to the inclusive and welcoming nature of Giracci.
