Ponte Winery

Bench trials before the blend

Bench trials set the terms for Mark Schabel, Winemaker at Ponte Winery in Temecula, where the estate sits inside the Temecula Valley AVA. His own description of the work keeps the romance in check: “Mostly science. The art portion is part tradition, history, and bench trials to see if the blend comes together.” That sentence gives the bench its proper weight. Schabel’s path into that discipline ran through University of California, Davis and University of Wisconsin–Madison, then across cellar leadership, consulting, and teaching, including enology faculty work at Yavapai College. At Ponte, the relevant lineage is not a named mentor so much as a technical education applied to a family estate that had farmed the land before it opened the winery in 2003. The Ponte family began farming the vineyard ground in 1984, and the winemaking followed after years of watching fruit from the same place. Schabel’s station here belongs to that shift from grower’s patience to cellar decision: fruit, trial, blend, release.

Nearly 300 acres under watch

The craft at Ponte starts in nearly 300 acres of mature vineyards, large enough to give the cellar range but still tied to estate farming rather than anonymous fruit. The house describes its work as small batch, with typical production of 1,500 cases per year for each variety. That figure matters because the portfolio moves across still red, still white, rosé, sparkling, and dessert wines without treating scale as the measure of seriousness. Sustainability here is practical rather than decorative. In the vineyard, moisture sensors read from about a foot and a half up to the surface, giving the team a clearer sense of when the vines actually need water. The method suits Temecula, where irrigation choices carry consequence. In the cellar, the published language around Pinot Grigio and Pinot Grigree points to two different intentions from related material: one light-bodied and high in acidity, the other broader, with pear, peach, honey, and spice in the frame. Schabel’s quoted emphasis on bench trials explains how those choices land, not as theory, but as repeated small decisions before a wine leaves the bench.

A cellar inside a country estate

The place around the work has the scale of a resort, but the vineyard keeps pulling the eye back to agriculture. The winery sits among gardens, event spaces, a Spanish-style inn, and a full-service restaurant, all arranged within the broader estate. Inside, open-beamed ceilings and warm finishes give the tasting room a country formality without stiffness. Conversation carries. The room does not ask for silence, and the wine program does not depend on distance between maker and guest. Ponte’s family motto, “If you like it, it’s good wine,” belongs to that atmosphere; it lowers the threshold without lowering the work. The tasting bar, outdoor pours, and private tastings all lead back to the same fact: the estate grew fruit before it built the hospitality around it. The vineyard is not scenery here. It is the source.

The family frame

Ponte’s importance in Temecula rests on duration as much as polish. The farming began in 1984, the winery opened in 2003, and the inn arrived in 2012 with 90 rooms set among the vines. Those dates mark a gradual widening of the house rather than a sudden reinvention. Schabel’s work at the bench sits inside that family frame, where technical control, vineyard moisture, and small lots have to serve a public-facing wine country estate. The family started with nearly 300 acres of Temecula vineyard.