Leoness Cellars
A hilltop estate on the De Portola Wine Trail, where the ceremony lawn looks down over twenty acres of Cabernet and the walk to dinner goes straight through the vines.
A working winery that happens to have the best view on the trail
Gary Winder and Mike Rennie founded Leoness in 2003, though the estate vines went into the ground in 1996, hand-planted with selected clones and rootstocks. The hilltop tasting room opened in 2006 and the restaurant followed in 2012. In 2008 it became the first Temecula winery to earn four consecutive 90-point scores. The wedding side of the property is built around the twenty-acre Rolling Hills Cabernet Sauvignon estate, with sightlines running out toward Mount Palomar.
A venue we have come back to across several years
Leoness is one of our longer relationships in Temecula. We have photographed weddings here across more than one season, and we know the three people you are most likely to be emailing during planning. On an estate this spread out, that familiarity is practical rather than sentimental: it means we already know how long the golf cart takes to get the wedding party from the suites to the pergola, and how much light is left in the vineyard rows once the barrel room doors open.
Good to know before you book
- One wedding a day, exclusive use, with five hours of event time and a midnight curfew.
- Catering is in-house. There is no outside catering.
- No outside beverages of any kind are permitted on the property, including wine and beer. The estate pours its own.
- Two dressing suites come with full-day exclusive access.
- Chauffeured golf carts move the wedding party around the estate.
- Restrooms are limited: two inside and two outside. Worth knowing when you plan the cocktail hour.
- Dog friendly, and complimentary parking with no valet requirement.
- Pricing sits behind a request form rather than being published, so treat any figure you find on a directory as unconfirmed.
Where we like to shoot
- The pergola lawn, with the vineyard rows falling away behind the couple and the valley beyond that.
- The overlook toward Mount Palomar, which is the widest frame on the property.
- The vineyard rows themselves during the walk down from the ceremony to the barrel room.
- The barrel room for something moodier, and as the reliable answer when the weather turns.
- Golden hour, roughly 60 to 90 minutes before sunset, is when we try to steal the couple back for portraits.
How the day moves down the hill
An elevated private lawn under a white pergola, seating up to 200, with the Cabernet estate below it and Mount Palomar on the horizon. It is the reason people book this venue, and it is at its best late in the afternoon.
One of the largest in Temecula wine country, renovated with chandeliers and stained concrete floors. Guests walk down through the vines to reach it. Reported seated capacity varies between sources, with 175 the more commonly quoted number for the room itself against 200 for the property.
Everything comes from the estate. Food is the in-house culinary team, drink is the estate list, and nothing may be brought in. If you had a family wine or a particular spirit in mind, this is the conversation to have before you sign.