Avensole Winery (now Truffle Pig)

Avensole — and we’ll get to the name change in a moment — sits on a wide, lake-fronted parcel midway down the Rancho California trail. It’s one of the more polished destination properties in the valley: 21 acres of estate vineyard, a man-made pond, broad lawns that double as the wedding venue, and a tasting building scaled for a steady stream of weekend traffic. Most regulars still call it Avensole. The signage now reads Truffle Pig.

The 2025 rebrand

The short version: in early 2025, a group led by Robert Renzoni (of the eponymous Renzoni Vineyards down the road), restaurateur Domenic Galleano, and winemaker Olivia Bue acquired the property from the Lytton family. They rebranded it Truffle Pig Winery and opened Domenico’s Italian Chop House on site in May 2025. The wine club was renamed the SWINE Club. A members-only late-night space called the Pig Pen Lounge was added.

The property history goes back further. The land was first planted in 1986 by Budd Van Roekel and Maurice Car’rie, the same family behind the long-running Maurice Car’rie tasting room a couple of miles east. The Lytton family ran it as Avensole from 2013 until the 2025 sale. We’re publishing under the Avensole name visitors still recognize, but the experience on the ground today is the new Truffle Pig program.

The wine

We’re hedging here. Under the new ownership the lineup is still being reset — Renzoni’s portfolio leans Italian, Bue is rotating through the existing inventory while she dials in her own picks, and the bottles that were on the menu under Avensole are gradually being replaced. What you can count on at the bar today: a Sangiovese (the Renzoni house style is well-developed there), a Cabernet Sauvignon from estate fruit, and a rotating estate red blend that changes by vintage. The Italian-leaning bias of the new team is the through-line worth tracking.

We’d hold off on declaring a flagship bottle until the 2025 and 2026 vintages settle into the lineup. Ask the staff what’s pouring well that month rather than committing to a specific reserve sight unseen.

Domenico’s Italian Chop House

This is the move under the new ownership. Domenico’s runs as a full-service Italian chophouse — pasta, steak, the kind of menu Renzoni and Galleano have built their restaurant reputations on — and it’s open seven days a week with extended Friday and Saturday hours. The dining room is finished in the style you’d expect from an Italian steakhouse: dark wood, leather banquettes, an open kitchen.

The dinner-and-tasting combo is genuinely strong. You can do a flight on the patio, walk 50 yards to the dining room, and have a real meal without leaving the property. That kind of vertical integration is rare on the trail and is the main reason to book a visit here over an alternative.

The grounds and the Pig Pen

The lawns and the pond are the photograph everyone takes home. The patio overlooks both, and on a clear afternoon the lakefront seating is the seat to ask for. The Pig Pen Lounge — members-only — keeps later hours than the main tasting room and gives the SWINE Club its own quieter space. If you’re considering joining the wine club, the lounge access is a meaningful piece of what you’re paying for.

Wedgewood still books weddings on the property on weekends, and that’s the part to plan around.

What we’d skip

Saturday afternoon visits when a wedding is on the lawn. The crowd doesn’t quite fit the lakefront-tasting fantasy you came for. Check the events calendar before you book, or come Tuesday through Thursday when the property is quieter.

Who this is for

Truffle Pig is the right pick for date nights, dinner-and-tasting combos, and Italian-food fans who want a real meal as part of the visit. It’s also a strong wine club value if you’re going to use the Pig Pen Lounge access regularly. The property scales nicely for groups of four to six on a non-event day.

It’s not the right pick for small-estate-tasting purists, anyone trying to avoid a wedding-venue setting, or visitors price-sensitive enough to feel the higher tasting fees on the trail. The lake view is real, but you’re paying for it.

Practical notes

The tasting room is 21+ on Friday through Sunday. Reservations are recommended for both the patio and Domenico’s, especially on weekends. Tasting fees run higher than the trail average — closer to South Coast or Ponte than to a mid-tier estate. The lot is large but fills early on event Saturdays.

The lakefront table at sunset is the seat worth booking ahead. The new ownership is still finding its footing, so check back in six months — the 2026 vintage release will be the real test of where the wine program lands. For the broader Italian-varietal context the Renzoni team is building toward, Robert Renzoni, Bottaia, and Ponte are the natural cross-references, and the Italian Varietals in Temecula guide is where we map the whole category.