Salt Creek Wine Company is the perfect date and wine tasting location for Southern Orange County

On July 26th I took my wife to Salt Creek Wine Company for a wine tasting. The experience we had was nothing short of amazing.

It was our one-year anniversary so I wanted to do something special and memorable. My wife and I love wine, but aren’t what you would call connoisseurs.

I thought it would be nice to try wine tasting, you know, classy yet fun, so I found Salt Creek Wine through the local Chamber of Commerce.

I called up and got a hold of Heidi, one of the owners. I told her it was my anniversary on Sunday and I wanted to make it special. Heidi told me not to worry, and that she would take care of everything!

Perfect Atmosphere for a Wine Tasting

When we got there that Sunday we were greeted by both owners, Bob and Heidi Fisher, two of the nicest wine specialists I’ve had the luck of running across.

Now, let me tell you, I was a little scared that we might have to deal with stuffy wine snobs, but it was the complete opposite. The feeling we got was that they wanted to bring us into their exciting world of delicious wines.

The attention they paid to keeping us in a nice calm wine drinking mood was not ignored in the decor. When you walk in to the shop you almost get the feeling that you’re in a modern country home, with cute plants and fruit decorations, and even textured wall paper. Whoever did the decorating definitely knew how to use colors and textures to make people feel right at home.

The seat reserved for us was at the far end of the shop in a nice dark romantic corner, just like I asked for. They had even taken the time to actually put out a flower, chocolates, and a beautiful congratulatory card (I found out later that Heidi had actually picked the flower from her garden especially for us!! Talk about stellar customer service!).

As luck would have it, Sunday is mimosa day at Salt Creek Wine, so they started us off with a traditional orange juice mimosa and a nice sugar-free raspberry mimosa to get us warmed up. The wines we tasted were on a printed list known as the “flight“ and almost as if they receive frequent first-timers, they promptly showed us where the cheese and bread was and explained how the wine tasting works.

Knowledgeable Wine Staff

Along with each new glass of wine, we got a small bio from either Bob or Heidi. They let us know where the wine was from, how it was made, and a short description of the flavor. A beautiful touch, since it kept us involved and educated. Then they would leave us alone to enjoy the romantic atmosphere they had so lovingly created.

Once we got to the Chardonnay on the flight, my wife whispered that she wasn’t that into it and I think Bob and Heidi could tell by how slow she was drinking it. They came right over to put her at ease.
“If you don’t like a wine, just dump it. No one will think it’s rude– that’s the point of a wine tasting. You’re going to like some and hate others. That’s how you learn your palate. Believe me there are as many palates as there are people so please don’t be embarrassed if you need a dump bucket to throw it out.” After soothing her fears, they then explained the most likely reason she didn’t like the wine.

After a brief discussion on how some Chardonnay has a more citrus flavor like the one my wife tried and disliked, and others a more buttery flavor, Heidi proceeded to give us a Chardonnay on a different end of the flavor spectrum which wasn’t on our flight. They are such wine enthusiasts they wanted to serve it to us just so we could learn more about the wine. How about that? And the efforts did not go unrewarded for our hosts. We actually ended up buying a bottle of that buttery Chardonnay since we liked it so much.

Without going into too much more detail, I’ll say we spent a good hour and a half just enjoying wine and talking. Salt Creek Wine definitely made my anniversary a romantic and special day we won’t forget.

Bob and Heidi are truly amazing at what they do; they found wines that were moderately priced and tasted fantastic. My suggestion is if you haven’t tried a wine tasting at Salt Creek, you need to make your way down there soon! If you have a date coming up, this is the perfect place to get things started in the right direction. When you call to make a reservation, tell ’em Reza sent you!