Koi Zen Cellars - S San Diego

Koi Zen is a great little escape from reality. We stopped by on our way Wednesday to the grocery store to pick up some last minute items for Thanksgiving dinner. It was so crowded everywhere it was nice to sit, chat and enjoy a glass of Cab and some chocolate. Koi Zen has various activities throughout the year (upcoming shopping for small business Saturday and a ceramic wreath making class on Sunday). The location is great, small business area but very peaceful and tranquil when you walk inside. The staff is always so welcoming and nice and their wines are great (I am more of a red person but their others are tasty as well). They sell little snacks like chocolates that were really good and have different wine themed gifts if you want to enjoy a glass while doing some light shopping. Great place, well worth checking out!

Love the staff and owners here, we always feel welcomed. The place is a diamond in the rough when you look at its location in a kind of industrial park back behind Home Depot in Carmel Mountain Ranch. Our daughter wanted us to bring her here for her first tasting for her 21st BD and Darius (owner/winemaker) went out of his way along with the other staff to make it an event to remember for her. They all took an interest in reaching her a little about wine. We are members and are glad to support this local, home-grown Mom and Pop winery and to stop in for our “free” monthly glasses of wine.

A fine place to hang out. Professional, friendly service. Wines are very fruit forward, so if that's your thing, this is the place. Snacks like cheese plates are also available.They have trivia nights and other events, so check the website or social media.

Let 's start off with I don 't like wine. So, I didn 't like the two I tasted but the one from the back that was not even close to be ready to be bottled , really had great potential. It was a Port and tasted sweet but not too sweet. I don 't know what else to say to describe it because I don 't know wine talk.I was happily satisfied as I like sweet wines like Moscato 's but not all of them as I am picky wine drinker.The reason it only got 3 stars was because of the entertainment. They had Comedy night that night. The head liner was really good and two other were ok. The other 3 were bad. When I go see a show, I expect all of the entertainment tobe good, almost great. I know, high expectations. Silly me.

Wonderful cozy winery! They focus on mainly reds but they had a few whites that were pretty good. They only have indoor seating but it's a good amount of space. You can do 6 tastings for $20 or buy by the glass or bottle. They rotate the wines on their tasting pretty frequently too. The grapes they have are all sourced from different areas in California (paso Robles, Santa Barbara, lodi, etc. . While the wine was good, the service is really what makes this place so great. Everyone is super friendly and the owner also was walking around saying hi to people. We liked the wine and atmosphere so much we became wine club members! Excited to come back.