Down the Road : At the Culbertsons, in Temecula, Both Food and Wine For the Day Trippers

A WONDERFUL NEW weekend wine destination has appeared on the Southern California map: John and Martha Culbertson’s wine complex in Temecula.

The center is home to Martha’s bistro, Cafe Champagne, which has drawn good reviews from food devotees, and John’s sparkling wines, which have been gold-medal winners in several statewide competitions ever since the Culbertson 1981 Brut and 1981 Natural were released.

The idea of the complex germinated in 1967, when the Culbertsons were living in Australia, where John was working. At a dinner, the American couple were intrigued when their lawyer paired different Australian wines with each course for subtle taste harmonies. And Martha had read about a couple who had fallen in love with the idyllic life style of wine making and had forsaken the pressures of city living to find a paradise among the vines. When the Culbertsons moved to Singapore, their passion for wine and food intensified with the easy availability of French wines.

What had been a dream plan for the Culbertsons gained new momentum when they returned to the United States. In 1972, John attended a wine-investment seminar in San Francisco. Between industrial diving assignments in connection with oil exploration and drilling, John was reading every book available about grape growing and wine making, and he began taking wine-making courses at the University of California at Davis. Meanwhile, Martha had become a working disciple of Julia Child and a charter founder of the American Institute of Wine & Food based in San Francisco.

In 1976, eschewing thoughts of following their wine dreams in Northern California, the Culbertsons bought an avocado ranch in Fallbrook, with additional acreage for plots of Chardonnay vines. Wine making began in the cellar of their adobe home, with only an old refrigerator for cooling.

John entered his first “champagne,” made with purchased Riesling grapes, in an amateur wine makers’ competition in Del Mar. His wine won a Best of Class award. In 1984, with grapes from Temecula and San Luis Obispo, his methode champenoise 1981 Brut and 1981 Natural took double gold medals in San Francisco.

Then tragedy struck. A refrigeration system in the storage area malfunctioned. Thousands of bottles of the 1982 cuvee overheated, causing an explosion that blew out the walls. Only 1,000 bottles of the 1982 vintage were saved.

Undeterred, John and Martha rebuilt a bigger cuvee storage for the 1983 vintage and began looking for a new winery location. They found the ideal site, directly across Rancho California Road from the Callaway Winery. There, Martha, who had made the Fallbrook Grocery & Cafe a success, would have a cafe, and John, a winery. It opened last May and has been well received since.

The winery is off Interstate 15, at the Rancho California Road exit in Temecula. It offers homemade western food and a good supply of Culbertson sparklers: the Cuvee Rouge ($12), the ideal “Barbecue Champagne”; Non-Vintage Brut ($12), French finesse in style, truly wonderful; 1986 Blanc de Noir ($14), John’s masterpiece, and Cuvee de Frontignan ($17.50), a dessert wine that was served in the Reagan White House.