This past weekend my wife and I I had the pleasure of visiting the Malibu Wine and Beer Garden. My wife and I are both wine club members and this was the very first wine club I joined. My first experience with Malibu Wine was at the tasting room located off of Mulholland in the hills above Malibu. I used to go there with my friends to listen to live bands and enjoy their wines. Unfortunately, that location closed down after a fire ravaged the area.
They opened a new location in West Hills is the Malibu Wine and Beer garden. It is a nice venue but complaining neighbors prohibit them from the cool music we were used to. Even though the live bands are gone, the ambiance is there. The main building is an old Spanish barn built of stone and the outdoor seating area is beautiful with shaded seating and cool lights hanging from the trees. It’s a beautiful place in the western San Fernando Valley to sit with friends and enjoy good wine.
As a wine club member, I have a new shipment coming. My wife and I weren’t sure what we wanted in this next order so we thought we would head on over too the Malibu Wine and Beer Garden for a tasting(included with our memberships) so that we could make a selection we would be happy with. – I was excited to try their new Moscato. I heard it had hints of citrus fruit, which was something I loved when their Orange Muscat was available.
There was a pretty good sized crowd when we arrived at the valet, and a good sized line at the bar. – there was no line at the bar for members. We stepped up and ordered our flights. I ordered whites while my wife ordered a red flight. Our plan was to split everything. There were no seats outside, but we found seats in an empty stall in the old barn. The barn was perfect since it was getting quite warm out. The barn stall we sat in had 4 seats and 2 small tables made from wine barrel cut in half.
Just outside the barn were a couple of food vendors. One was cooking pizza, and the other was grilling burgers. I ordered a couple of the burgers while my wife kept watch over our barn stall. We set out our flights on one of the barrels and devoured our burgers. They were delicious!
Next, we rinsed our palates with a glass of chilled water and then began our tasting. We enjoyed all of the whites, which included a Pinot Blanc, a Chardonnay, and the Muscato. We enjoyed the first two wines and LOVED the Moscato. The Moscato was a light, clear gold color with a scent of mixed fruit, including citrus and berries. I noticed a sweet citrus and berry flavor and a honeydew melon finish. The cool, sweet wine was the perfect medicine for the heat outside.
After the Moscato, all of the other wines sort of fell short. I don’t know if it was due the heat of the afternoon, or that we had become used to the sweeter flavors. The closest runner up was the 2021 Rose of Zinfandel. This was also a great sweeter wine for a warm day with mixed hints of berries, watermelon, and peach. I really enjoyed this wine too, but it didn’t compare to the Moscato.
We finished up our tastings and made our way back to the members bar to choose what we wanted in our shipment. We asked for 3 bottles of the Moscato each. – We want to be ready for the summer.