Maurice Carrie was the first of what are now 19 wineries in Temecula in Western San Diego County. That was in 1986. That's not the only thing that's made this winery famous. A tasty sourdough bread snack is almost as popular as the wine. The loaf of bread has a surprise inside. The surprise is French Brie cheese.

Winery owner Maurice Van Roekel just stumbled onto the hors d' oeuvres while puttering around in her winery's kitchen. "We didn't have anything for lunch one day while we were working so guess what I did? I just started playing around with what we had in the cupboard," van Roekel said.

She makes her sourdough and Brie by first taking off the top of a loaf of French bread and cutting a round hole in the middle of the loaf. She then spreads butter throughout the hole and sprinkles seasonings in the middle. Softened Brie is added. The bread is cooked open-faced in the oven until it is brown. Now the good part, just take a chunk of bread and dip spread the Brie over it. Of course you have to enjoy it with one of Maurice Carrie's 16 different award-winning wines.

This is one of two wineries Maurice and her husband, Bud, own. The other is Van Roekel, one you can't miss because of the charming windmill. It's hard to believe the couple traveled cross-country to retire here.

"My husband's not real good at retiring. We found a vineyard and he wanted to buy it. He promised this would be a hobby. Instead, the business exploded and Maurice Carrie produces 35 thousand cases of wine a year. The wines are very affordable at $8.00 to $11 a bottle.

For more information on Wineries of Temecula Valley call 1-800-801-wine or log onto www.temeculawines.org.