Inspired by Old-World-Spanish-style Wines
Wines should be experienced, and the Old-World-Spanish-style wines from Spanish Peacock Winery of Jamul, California captures a local element in new wine experiences. They pair perfectly with local foods and their roots from the Californio heritage. The wines capture the unique climate and soil influences of our local environment in Jamul, San Diego, CA, which is very similar to northern Spain and southern France. With each vintage year, the Jamul environment produces wines with flavor profiles true to style and complement the foods and flavors brought to California by the early Spanish settlers.
Capturing a Element of Culture in History
The history and life in San Diego (the birthplace of California) would not be the same without the foundations built with the influence established by the Spanish settlers and the Franciscan Friars. They built the first mission of California in San Diego, Mission San Diego de Alcalá. The missions planted vineyards for ceremonial wines and daily meals. The principal grape was the hardy, yet brash Mission grape (also known today as País in Chile and Criolla in Argentina, and both have a common ancestry with the Mission grape) used to make fortified wines. They imported Spanish wines, and were highly prized and enjoyed on special local events, Saturday Paseos, and family gatherings and fiestas.
As new settlers arrived, and cities grew, the large Ranchos of California began to be established through Spanish or Mexican Land Grants. Rancho Jamul was one such Rancho, owned by Pío de Jesús Pico, last Governor of Alta California under Mexican rule. The people of the California Ranchos were rich in land and cultivated for agriculture, principally raised free-ranged cattle, and enjoyed an abundance of wild game. With a strong independent character, California’s Spanish settlers prospered, and helped supply the small but growing cities like San Diego with locally produce foods and wines, and bartered in the international trade with hides and tallow. The local vineyards produced wines the Rancho owners and settlers enjoyed with their food and were mutually rustic, earthy, full-bodied, and always reds. As San Diego grew and prospered, so did the demand for quality wines from Spain and the old-world. The Californios, as the first Spanish settlers and their descendants called themselves, worked the ranchos and began to develop a unique lifestyle of local foods, a culture of independence, and of course, a daily need for local and some imported wines with their meals. The independent culture and unique cuisine of the Californio Ranchos was now strongly established.
The wines enjoyed at the Californio Ranchos, paired well with their foods, are mutually rustic, earthy, with undertones of black and red fruits. With hints of tropical and spicy flavors, cloves, pepper, and wood they are food friendly and are meant to pair well with a variety of Californio style dishes. With a focus always on quality, Spanish Peacock wines are full-bodied with a complexity derived only from the local San Diego climate and soils.
These wines are meant to age well and pair deliciously with the local cuisine of California and the strong Spanish influence still alive today. Aged in French and American oak barrels, our wines are excellent candidates for long bottle aging which allows the development of complex aromas and flavors, such as floral, leather, and spices as well as a texture of softer more integrated tannins. It is with Californio pride that we offer this wine for your enjoyment.
Spanish Peacock Winery is focused in producing local wines in the quality and styles of northern Spain and southern France, that will pair well with today’s Californio cuisine, still present today in San Diego and California. Depending on the food of choice, the list of wines offered (see Availability Wines) will pair well and provide a new dimension to the experience of pairing fine wines with the unique foods of California.