San Pasqual Winery is set to celebrate 15 years at their downtown La Mesa Tasting Room located on La Mesa Blvd. this December with festive wine events for the public to enjoy. San Pasqual Winery is San Diego’s first urban winery and produces approximately 3,000 cases of wine each year. The winery sources its grapes from a variety of local and renowned vineyards across California, and produces the wine at La Mesa Wine Works, located in the La Mesa commercial district. San Pasqual Winery is a family owned and operated winery located in La Mesa. Owners, Mike and Linda McWilliams, purchased the winery in 2009 and have grown it into the thriving business it is today. The winery boasts three tasting rooms, including La Mesa Wine Works, La Mesa Village Tasting Room & Gallery, and Seaport Village Tasting Room.
At the La Mesa Tasting Room on Dec. 7, is San Pasqual’s Vintage Wine Tasting Event from 1-4 p.m., featuring a tasting of 10 vintage wines from 2009 and beyond, prize giveaways from local businesses, and the opportunity to speak with owners Mike and Linda McWilliams.
On Dec. 8, from 1-4 p.m., guests can try up to 10 different sparkling wines at its Bubble Bash Tasting Event, including the return of a San Pasqual favorite, Brut Rose. There will also be wine gift sets at special pricing for holiday gifting and entertaining. Additionally, there is a $10 discount on bottle purchases at each event throughout the weekend.
Mike McWilliams said that they never planned on owning a winery, but from Chicago, they went back for a visit and found a champagne and jazz lounge they really enjoyed called Pops for Champagne.
“We really like that, and we never saw anything like that in San Diego, so we thought that when we retired, we should startup a champagne lounge in San Diego. One day, walking down in Gaslamp, we both saw a perfect place for a champagne bar,” he said.
He said after talking with the landlord, who knew they were looking for a place for a wine bar, he told them he always thought that location should be a champagne bar. But the spot did not work out for them for a few reasons, plus it was in the middle of the recession. They decided to keep looking for a location for a wine bar, thinking they could convert it to a champagne bar after the recession. They found an urban winery in Pacific Beach for sale, and the winemaker said he would stay with them and create their wine. That is when Linda McWilliams became involved in the wine making process.
“Most wine making is cleaning things,” she said. “As we approached harvest season, we saw him less and less. It had us a bit worried because we did not know what we were doing, so I thought maybe I could make wine.”
Linda McWilliams took a college course at Mira Costa College with Jim Hart at the same time as she was a full-time middle school speech therapist. She said the Pacific Beach winemakers took her under her wing, one of which was Adam Carruth, who taught her the day-to-day of making wine.
“Between the class and Adam working with us, our first vintage of 2009, we still have some bottles left and they still taste pretty darn good. We started feeling more confident, securing more contacts for grapes. I wanted to continue with my wine education, so I took an intensive summer chemistry program to get the UC Davis wine making certificate. We still had one kid at home, and I was still working my day job. So, it took a little while to get through all that. But then I got brave and learned more about vineyards and working in vineyards. We did a lot of harvesting of grapes ourselves and developed great relationships with local growers. It kind of went from nothing to a fun, growing family of people working together,” she said.
Mike McWilliams said they got things started in Pacific Beach, but the location did not have much foot traffic, so they knew they needed another location for a tasting room. Living in La Mesa, by coincidence, they saw a storefront with a rent sign, and while thinking it over at a restaurant in town, they ran into then mayor Art Madrid. It was his birthday, so he invited them to sit with them for a glass of wine. They told him that they were looking to open a wine tasting room locally, and he was adamant that the idea was great for La Mesa.
“When the mayor is telling you he is going to be your biggest supporter and telling you that you must do it, we felt obligated. So, we did. We went through all the permitting process and opened on Dec. 11 during Christmas in the Village in 2009. We then moved the winery itself to La Mesa in 2013, again with support from Mayor Madrid, who supported rezoning the location in the industrial area because there was still an old law that you could not make fermented fruit products, probably a prohibition rule,” he said.
In 2014, the McWilliams’ opened another location at Seaport Village, again by chance as they walked around and saw a vacant storefront, taking over the entire building shortly before the pandemic with the plans of making that location an event center, which is now done.
“We just hosted an event for 150 down there and do things like that on a regular basis now,” said Mike McWilliams.
“We get a lot out of our business,” he said. “We really feel like we are a community in a community in La Mesa. We kind of feel like we are the ‘Cheers’ of wine bars.”
Linda McWilliams said going through the process of making wine they are proud of, going into this business, the one thing they did not think about was the people.
“So many nice, wonderful people out there in the world that we got to know and call them friends. We never thought it would be about the people. We are still a small business, and Mike and I talk about how much we love talking and pouring wine for people, and seeing them enjoy it,” she said.
Mike McWilliams said there are many other ways “to make a buck,” so they are not in this business to get rich.
“But we love the work we do and meeting the people,” he said. “We really do appreciate the local support that we have received in La Mesa.”
Tickets for each event are $20 for San Pasqual Winery Wine Club members and $25 for non-members. Tickets can be purchased online at www.sanpasqualwinery.com.
