Beer, Wine & Spirits in West Covina

Cozy candlelight and flickering lanterns cast soft shadows in 55 Degree Wine’s cellar, where waiters eagerly pair customers’ palates with weekly rotating wines. Featured on Best of LA Weekly in 2012 for its wine program, the winery stocks more than 2,000 labels, of which up to 60 are spotlighted in the cellar’s monthly lineup of pours. Though most vintages are Italian, ambrosias from Europe, South America, and other far-flung climes find homes in the shop after being tasted and approved by store owners. The thermostat, appropriately set to 55 degrees, helps keep elixirs fresh and patrons comfortable, but guests may wish to bring a sweater or particularly affectionate bear.

Since the first vines began to climb across Hamilton Oaks Vineyard in 1989, Ron and Connie Tamez have worked with a dedication to craft a selection of fine wines. Having sworn off pesticides and herbicides, the two collaborate with ladybugs and red-tailed hawks that thrive by devouring crop-threatening pests. After picking, sorting, and crushing the naturally grown harvest, Ron and Connie complete the Old World process by aging the wines in French oak barrels for 20 to 34 months, or until each grape sees its own shadow.

Visitors are welcome to sample varietals such as chardonnay, zinfandel, and cabernet sauvignon during tastings and tours of the Trabuco Canyon vineyard made by appointment. Tastings last between 45 and 60 minutes and provide guests with the opportunity to picnic with a packed lunch on the sun-dappled outdoor deck and purchase bottles for favored mailmen.

Having grown up on a farm in central Canada, Marlowe Huber already knew about crop harvesting and soil when he began making wine in the early 1980s. He refined his skills still further by studying oenology in Vancouver before embarking on his first wine-business venture with his brother, Darren. Together they ran two wineries in British Columbia for 15 years before opening Laguna Canyon Winery in 2003.

Today, staffers pour out a diverse selection of Laguna Canyon wines at two tasting rooms in downtown Laguna Beach and at the winery itself. Marlowe and Darren also collaborated with marine artist Wyland to create his Wyland Cellars label, whose bottles he adorns with colorful undersea scenes. Grapes for these wines are sourced from low-yield growers in Napa and Sonoma valleys, who cultivate subtle flavors by hand-picking and home-schooling their fruits.

Agua Dulce Winery unfurls its trellised vines and winemaking facilities across 90 acres of the Sierra Pelona Valley. The grapes rely on the valley's cool evening breezes and alluvial soils to maintain the earthy, peppery flavors and restrained acidity that characterize the region's wines. Medium- and high-toasted barrels from France, Hungary, and the United States each lend their own influence to the freshly fermented creations, aging the juice and subtly tweaking the flavorful interplay of rich fruit and restrained spice. The winery's selection includes a robust zinfandel that can pair with smoky barbecue or grilled meats and a bold cabernet sauvignon, which spent two years contemplating its escape from an international mixture of oak barrels.

Though they loved wine, Les and Dorian Linkogle didn't move to Temecula for the grapes; and even though their land was home to one of the largest, oldest olive trees in the city, they didn't move for the landscape. They moved to give their motocross cyclist son a place to ride his bike, but in time the siren song of the vines got through to them. In the late 1990s they planted acres of grapes—viognier, merlot, zinfandel, cabernet sauvignon, and riesling—to ship to other vintners. However, it wasn't long until the Linkogles began handcrafting small-lot artisanal wines of their own under the banner of Briar Rose Winery.

Soon, Briar Rose Winery's vintages began racking up accolades and awards in international competitions. All of the winery's wines are unfiltered with no sugar added, and many are aged in oak barrels. Guests can literally taste the fruits of these labors at the winery's tasting room, sipping zinfandel, a bordeaux blend, and Talking Frog, a wine lager that becomes a prince when you drink it.

When Robb MacLeod's home ran out of room for his hundreds of batches of home brews—and the award ribbons they amassed—he turned to the casks of professional breweries. Now the head brewmaster at Alcatraz Brewing Company, MacLeod crafts signature and seasonal beers, such as Weiss Guy Wheat, Penitentiary Pilsner, and the caramel-laced Big House Red, which patrons can confidently imbibe as indignant wolves attempt to blow it down. In the brewery kitchen, chefs slather burgers with garlic puree, sage stuffing, and roasted peppers, smoke pork with dark ale, and hand-toss thin-crust pizza. Amiable waitstaff ferry plates and beer flights to Alcatraz's patio and around the San Francisco–themed dining room, which includes a to-scale replica of the Golden Gate Bridge and a stray wisp of ever-lingering fog.