Dieguito Discoveries

Dieguito Discoveries – Uncovering the fascinating people and places in the San Dieguito River Valley

Deborah Johnson
Dieguito Discoveries #6

August 29, 2004

Wonders in the Shadow of Volcan

Drive through downtown Julian, West on Main Street, keep going just a little ways and you’ll find wonders to explore, from mountain hiking to wine tasting.

Volcan Mountain is two miles northwest of Julian.   The Mountain marks the eastern edge of the San Dieguito River Park and is   where   Santa Ysabel Creek, one of the main feeders of the San Dieguito River, begins.

Leave your car at the entry to the Volcan Mountain Preserve, and walk through the apple and pear orchards towards the trail up the mountain.    Listen!   A rooster crows, then, the gobbling of wild turkeys.   There they are!

A flock of more than a dozen turkeys, darting through the trees, eating windfall fruit.

Just beyond the orchards, is the dramatic gateway to the trail, designed by Julian artist James Hubbell and built by volunteers.  

Tall metal poles topped with the Native American symbols for earth, wind and sky are flanked by wooden gates decorated with carvings of native animals.   In front of the gate, a time capsule, buried in 2001 and not to be opened until 2100.

Through the gate, the trail begins, moderately steep.   It’s flanked with trees, live oak and firs.   As you climb, the trees give way to bushes, many now brown in the heat of the summer.   As you climb, you get glorious views of the orchards and hills below, a mosaic of colors--green trees, brown and grey bushes, tan grasses.

It’s a little more than a mile to the top, and the trail grows steeper. Heat, this August day, rises from the baked earth of the dusty trail.   The sky is a clear blue, marked only by a hawk coasting on the thermals over the orchards below. Moving up the trail, live oaks reappear and their thick branches provide a welcoming canopy of shade.  

About a third of the way to the summit, the heat and the incline prove just a bit too much for two not-so-hardy hikers.    As we make our hot but quicker way down the trail, we plan to investigate two wineries we spotted on our drive.

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Just a few yards from the turnoff to the Mountain is a lane flanked by two signs: The Menghini Winery and J. Jenkins Winery.

The Menghini Winery is the older of the two.  

Toni and Michael Menghini came to Julian from Wyoming in 1980 and started making wine in 1982, using Michael’s experience in the wine business and sweat-equity of their own labor and that of their grown children, “husbands and everyone,” says Toni.   Five of their thirty acres are devoted to grapes.   They buy the rest, trying to keep to all San Diego County grapes.   This day, Michael is in Bonsall, checking on the sugaring of his new Zinfandel grapes.   Toni is the welcoming presence in the wine shop, once an apple packing shed.

Most of their wines are sold out of their winery to local fans.   Her favorite of their wines:   their Sauvignon Blanc.   Set out for tasting this day:   a Merlot, a Chardonnay, a Muscat, and, of course the Sauvignon Blanc.

Like most people in Julian, the Menghinis fought the October fires.   The flames reached the outer perimeter of their property, stopped by firefighters waiting at a nearby home.   Three thousand gallons of wine were lost because of the loss of electricity--now they have a generator.   The winery became a kind of a safe haven for neighbors, who brought their horses, their antique cars and the contents of their freezers.   “We lucked out,” Toni says.   “And we never ate so well.   We had a propane stove, so we cooked dinner for everyone.”  

And there’s more tasting, and more stories, just a few yards away at the Jenkins Winery where Jeanne Jenkins is waiting in the cool wine shop.

She and her husband, Jim, bought the property in 1995 and the winery opened in 2002.   A half-acre of their ten acres is devoted to pinots and pinot noir grapes.  

Like the Menghinis they buy the rest of the grapes they need, mostly from San Diego County growers.

Jeanne, a former registered nurse, and Jim, a pediatrician, built the winery all on their own.   “Neither of us knew what it would take,” says Jeanne.   Jim had the technical background and had been a wine hobbyist, making wines in his kitchen for 35 years.

This is a big day for the Jenkins.   Their new wine shed has just been completed and Jim is up there now, as grapes picked just this week began their wonderful transformation.  

On the tasting counter, an apple wine (surprisingly dry), a Chardonnay, a Syrah, and a special red called “Meritage” that is the Jenkins’ fire story.

They lost their cabernet grapes in the Paradise fire.   To provide them with another red for their sales room, the Belle Marie Winery in Escondido created a special wine for the Jenkins, calling it “Meritage.”

Meanwhile, their most popular wine, a Pinot Grigio, is sold out for the season.  

*******

One last drive in the shadow of Volcan--could we find Santa Ysabel Creek where it comes down from the mountain?    Wait, what are those horses doing in the middle of the road?

Five horses are gathered under a tree, savoring the cool.   We stop to investigate, and one horse (though he looks like he has other forebears) breaks away from his pals to investigate us.  

After a few minutes of mutual admiration with our equine friends (who were surely disappointed we had no apples or carrots) we finally drive away from Volcan Mountain, wine bottles clinking in the back seat, sunburned from our abbreviated hike up the mountain.   Will we ever make it to the summit?   Will we ever find the beginning of Santa Ysabel Creek?   Maybe when it’s cooler.   And we’ll always have the wineries for recuperation!

Notes:

For directions to the Volcan Mountain Preserve, click here.

The Menghini Winery and the Jenkins Winery are both located on Julian Orchards Drive.   Take Farmer Road out of Julian.   At Wynola Road, make a quick right, then a quick left onto Julian Orchards Drive.

The Menghini Winery hosts a variety of community events, including a Grape Stomp and an Arts and Music Festival.   Their telephone number is: (760) 765-2072.

Jim and Jeanne Jenkins’ Winery can be reached at 760-765-3267 or jenkinswinery@earthlink.net.

Deborah Johnson

© August 2004

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