Weekend At A Winery: Enjoy Wine, Chocolate & Meet A Camel

TEMECULA, CA — When a wine tasting comes with chocolate truffles and a petting zoo — that equates perfect pairings!

Temecula-based Chapin Family Vineyards now is hosting wine and chocolate pairings at its new satellite site at Sugarplum Zoo & Chocolates, a private zoo that houses an exotic menagerie that includes mini horses, mini donkeys, a selfie-loving tiny cow, Daisy the pig, Ophelia an Asian Water Buffalo and Zeus the camel. And ... goats, sheep, chickens, turkeys, quail and ducks.

Sugarplum Zoo & Chocolates is owned by Lani Rager, who has run her chocolate business for 15 years, supplying sweets to five-star hotels for their turn-down services.

Five years ago, she opened her therapy and petting zoo, initially for special-needs guests and now to the general public. Rager said adding wine tastings seemed an ideal venture, as her business is smack in the middle of Temecula Valley wine country — hence the partnership with Chapin Family Vineyards

Winery founder and owner Steve Chapin also agreed the match was a good one.

"I've always admired Lani for her energy. She has a quality personality and a quality product," Chapin said, adding she's also "well known for her chocolate truffles."

The winery-zoo arrangement is "going even better than I anticipated," said Chapin, who launched his grape-growing enterprise roughly 20 years ago after a lengthy career as a medical technologist, microbiologist and laboratory specialist in the San Diego region.

His boutique winery, on Summitville Street, began with an initial planting of 5 acres in 2002 and now sells 15 different varietals. Chapin operates a seven-day-a-week tasting room and also sells its wines online.

At the nearby Sugarplum locale, patrons, 21 and older, can enjoy a glass of wine, a chocolate pairing and the zoo experience daily from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on a walk-in basis. Zoo admission with Chapin wine tasting (six wines) paired with chocolate truffles is $35 per person.

The wine menu includes Cabernet Sauvignon, Aglianico, Syrah, Montepulcano, and a port blend with Zinfandel, Grenache, and Alicante, along with two whites: Albarino; and Sauvignon Blanc.

Chapin said he chose Alicante and Montepulcano to pair with the chocolates as they are less fruity and better complement the chocolates. He also selected his Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon and blend to pair for their fruit expressions.

And as the creative Rager routinely experiments with her chocolate offerings, pairings may change each week. But to give an example, one recent menu included a dark chocolate with Madagascar vanilla, milk chocolate with banana, raspberry cassis and dark chocolate with Tiera Masu.

Sugarplum, at 39695 Berenda Road in Temecula, sells artisanal chocolates, honeys and jams produced on the farm and also features a bistro café, Gracie's Lunchbox, that serves lunch Thursdays through Sundays 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m.

For more info on Chapin Family Vineyards, follow this link. And for details on Sugarplum Zoo & Chocolates, go here.

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