Gray skies, temperatures on the chilly side and a few drops of rain couldn’t deter hundreds of wine lovers from enjoying the World of Wine barrel tasting event presented this past weekend by the Temecula Valley Winegrowers Association. 27 wineries offered tastes of their wines, though not all offered barrel samples. If you check out my ticket on the right side of the page, you’ll note I paid a visit to every single participating winery. Ah, the sacrifices I make in being a wine writer.

I tip my cap to the Temecula Valley Wine Society who did a stellar job checking people in, pouring wine, serving food and so much more. It was great to see Marshall Stuart, Jim & Christine Hart, Dorian & Les Linkogle, Ray Falkner, Nick Palumbo, Marcelo & Damian Doffo, Robert Renzoni, Bob Olson (owner of Danza del Sol, formerly Filsinger), Jennifer & Rick Buffington, Phil Baily, Steve & Valerie Andrews and to meet South Coast’s head Chef Dean Thomas, Van Roekel winemaker Gus Vizgirda and Dave & Gail Bradley, owners of Read more »

It was a picture perfect day in Temecula Wine Country for Valentine’s Day. I’ll let the photos do the talking. Read more »

Future site of Lorimar Winery's visitor center & tasting room

“I’ve got a song in my heart, and I want our visitors to have a song in their hearts when they spend time here.” Temecula’s newest winery, Lorimar, has a music note on several of its bottles. When I asked co-owner Mark Manfield why, that was the answer I received. Mark grew up in the bar and restaurant business, working in his dad’s restaurant in Kansas City, MO since he was nine years old. When he left college he took over the bar and remained in charge until they lost the family business they had owned since 1948 to eminent domain. Mark moved to California and got into real estate and Read more »

Steve & John Thornton

In my last post I reflected on the incredible events that have happened in the few months since we launched WINEormous. I had intended that to be an all-encompassing story, but what has happened to us in the Temecula Valley alone deserves its own focus. WINEormous began as a concept. It would be a blog with stories focusing on wineries and the people who make them run – owners, winemakers, pourers, folks on the bottling line, all of them. We are blessed that there is so much material in our own backyard. At last count there were more than thirty wineries in the valley with more on the way. I’ve written about seventeen of them, so I have my work cut out for me.

When you’re new, you start with a blank canvas. Getting your foot in the door can be a daunting proposition. Linda Kissam was instrumental in opening many, many doors for us. She now serves as executive director of the Fallbrook Area Visitor’s Bureau and is the former executive director of the Temecula Valley Winegrowers Association. When I first approached her about lining up interviews with some of her clients, she delivered in a big way. I thank Linda for setting up stories about Thornton, Orfila, Keyways, Oak Mountain, Temecula Hills, Villa di Calabro, Briar Rose, Ponte, Tesoro and Fallbrook Wineries for me. I have her to thank for putting me in touch with Vine Times magazine, a publication for which I now contribute. She arranged for me to attend a luncheon with members of the International Food Wine and Travel Writers Association of which I am now a member. I’ll be joining Linda this coming Saturday for Read more »

For the most part I’m going to let the pictures do the talking. This past Saturday and Sunday, 25 Temecula Valley wineries opened their doors for guests to taste from the barrels and enjoy a bite or two of food. I was pleased to see folks like Bill Wilson from Wilson Creek (literally running trays of food from the kitchen) and serving barrel samples of late harvest Zinfandel, South Coast Winery owner Jim Carter and Executive Winemaker Jon MacPherson pouring wine, Thornton Executive Winemaker Don Reha pouring barrel samples of ’07 Syrah, Joe Hart cooking and his family serving wine and food, Marcelo and Damian Doffo pouring barrel samples and serving delicious food cooked by the fire in their brick oven, Dorian Linkogle at Briar Rose serving Les’ Zinfandel/Barbera blend, Mike and Mindy Calabro offering their olive oil and barrel samples of the Super Tuscan and Nick and Cindy Palumbo serving homemade tacos and pouring wine. Meeting Audrey Cilurzo, one of the pioneers of the Temecula Wine industry, was a real treat.  I was equally disappointed by some of the owners who did not put in an appearance. Hope you enjoy the pictorial story of a great weekend.

Don Reha

Callaway Winery

Stuart Cellars

Dorian Linkogle & Disney Pianist Rod Miller

Maurice Car'rie

La Cereza

Hart Family

Joe Hart

Jon MacPherson & Jim Carter

Wiens

Cindy Palumbo

Palumbo Vineyards

Nick Palumbo

Bill Wilson

Crispin Courtenay

Audrey Cilurzo

Mike Calabro

Villa Di Calbro

Marcelo Doffo

Foote Print

Dean Foote

Doffo Brick Oven

Cheers!

After spending nearly three hours with Bill Wilson, I have a much clearer understanding of how Wilson Creek grew to become the player it is today in the Temecula Valley. It’s a fascinating story. We sat in Bill’s office – a table outside near the tasting room on a beautiful autumn morning. He told me he was facing a mid-life crisis in the mid ’90s. He had spent 13+ years in the financial industry and it just wasn’t fulfilling. After trying a few other ventures that didn’t pan out, he asked his best friend what he should do and his friend advised him to open a winery. Having just returned from the Temecula Valley, his friend had met a winery owner who wanted out of the business and was willing to carry paper. Bill’s dad Gerry was getting ready to sell their home in Pasadena and move to Santa Barbara. After discussing things with Bill, he agreed Temecula was a better option. He then called his brother, an ordained minister in Sacramento and asked what he thought of the idea. His brother responded by reminding him what Jesus’ first miracle was. He saw no problem with the idea at all. When he approached his sister who lived in Solvang, she said that she traveled with a suitcase of wine glasses. Her only question was… why Temecula? After doing some research, Bill came up with five reasons:

1. There were only thirteen wineries at the time.
2. The land was affordable.
3. People were making good wine there.
4. The location was good, close to both San Diego and Los Angeles.
5. It offered more of a lifestyle change than an income opportunity.

With the family on board, they bought the property. At the time it was nothing but grapevines. There was no electricity, no buildings and the gardens below were used as an illegal dump site. Bill listed his qualifications for starting a winery. He liked wine and they knew how to throw a pretty good party. The path to getting the doors open was strewn with roadblocks. The Wilsons didn’t come from deep pockets and the wine industry is an expensive game. They did it on what Bill calls a “pauper’s nickel”. They borrowed money from friends and family, phone calls he says were the hardest they’ve ever had to make. “We did beg”. At that time, Bill says, “it was so bad that for lunch we had peanut butter sandwiches and for dinner we had the luxury of putting jelly on them.”  When they did finally open, that made them appreciate what they had that much more and made them willing to work that much harder to run a successful business. They didn’t just say to their first customers “come on in” they said “THANK YOU”. “We were real people starting something that real people don’t start. We were too stupid to know better, yet smart enough to get it to work out.”

As their grand opening approached on the Y2K New Year’s Eve, they wanted to come up with something different. Bill’s wife, Jennifer, wanted something “unusual and fantastic”. They asked a producer if they had anything unique. When they got the first samples, nothing jumped out at them. Again they asked for something different. The producer told them they were working on something they thought would be a winner and asked if they wanted to try it. Shortly afterward they received the first batch of Almond Champagne and fell in love with it. After tweaking the recipe, they ordered 10 cases thinking that would last them a while. It sold out in four hours. Bill’s reaction? “Holy #!@&!” They then ordered a palate. That lasted six days. Wilson Creek’s Almond Champagne put them on the map. Bill likes to say they took wine tasting off the snob shelf and made it fun again.

Wilson Creek’s growth has been meteoric; so much so that it’s made it very difficult to keep up with demand. They know they can’t compete on price with the big discounters, so what they offer is an experience you can’t get anywhere else. They make an effort to go the extra step. If you don’t see Bill, you’re likely to run into his mom and dad, Gerry and Rosie, or his wife, brother, sister, brother-in-law or sister-in-law. They all work at Wilson Creek. Bill knows it’s critical to have something that differentiates you from the rest of the field. In Wilson Creek’s case, the “it” factor is family.

Last year they opened The Creekside Grill. Bill said the kitchen wasn’t designed to be a restaurant kitchen, yet they keep putting out amazing food. He calls it the “little kitchen that could”. We had a delicious lunch and I mentioned how big the portions were. He said they’d rather spend a little more money and give you enough so you can take something home rather than risk having you be disappointed by a meager serving. The restaurant affords them flexibility and the opportunity to provide better events. They brought winemaker Etienne Couper on board in 2007 and he is overseeing his third harvest. With Couper making their wines, Bill says they’ve gone from hit or miss to a home run every time. His goal was to provide him with a facility worthy of his skills as a winemaker. Most of their wine comes from grapes grown on the estate: Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, Merlot, Mourvedre, Viognier, Muscat, Syrah, Petite Sirah, Petit Verdot and Grenache. I tasted across the board and was duly impressed by by the overall quality of the wines. You’ll see Bill’s sense of humor, too, in their Pinot Noir/Mourvedre blend Pinot-Mour and their You Bet Shiraz. Say them out loud.

Bill feels confident that the key players are in place, but you won’t find him resting on his laurels. “When your name is on the marquee and you’re here, hearing it firsthand from customers that aren’t afraid to tell you good or bad, it takes a toll on you.” He never wants to lose the personal touch, but as the winery grows it becomes increasingly difficult. Bill is striving to find a balance, managing time spent at work, with family and his personal life. “I’m selling a product that provides enjoyment to people and as long as people are happy I want to be here to experience it along with them. I’m very blessed they pay me for that. We appreciate what we have here and and we want to share that with everybody – and have everybody appreciate it as much as we do. That’s the key to our success.”

We decided to spend a Sunday afternoon wine tasting with our friends Roger and Kathy. The fact that Palumbo Family Winery was having their wine club pick-up party was a good enough reason for me.

Although the focus of this post is on boutique wineries, we started our journey at one of Temecula’s largest wineries, Wilson Creek. Neither Laura nor I had visited the winery in several years. Roger and Kathy are members, so they hosted us. Immediately you’re struck by the popularity of the place by the sheer number of cars in the parking lot. The front tasting room was packed, so we headed to the back where we found a bar we could squeeze into.

Lori set us up with four glasses and we began to taste. I started with the ’07 Sauvignon Blanc and found it to have a nice, floral nose with a crispness on the palate and a smooth finish. Equally good was the ’07 Viognier, dry and perfect for a hot summer day. I moved to the reds, starting with the ’06 Estate Mourvedre. I thought this was the best wine I tasted at Wilson Creek, with a great plum nose and vanilla on the finish. It’s always a pleasant surprise to find a winery producing a 100% Mourvedre.  Next up was the ’06 Estate Legacy, a Bordeaux blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc and Malbec. It tasted fine, but the nose eluded me. One of the things I enjoy most about a fine wine is its nose, and strangely enough, there wasn’t one to be found here. The final red was the ’06 Estate Zinfandel. This was a very smooth Zin, fruit forward with a satisfying finish. To top things off we enjoyed an “Almond Joy”, with the “Decadencia” Chocolate  Port in a chocolate shot glass. You take a sip, they add Almond Champagne, you drink it and eat the cup. That’s very tasty!

Our next stop was at Doffo Winery. To be completely honest, I was apprehensive. Two previous visits had left us disappointed. We kept hearing raves, though, and decided to try our luck again. What a difference. We saw Marcelo Doffo at the tasting bar and he turned us over to his gracious son Damian. We started with the ’06 Viognier. It was delicious… lots of green apple and very refreshing with a great finish. Next was the ’05 Syrah – jammy and fruit forward with smooth peppers. We moved on to a vertical tasting of the ’04, ’05 and ’06 Cabernets. The ’04 spent a full two years on American Oak. It’s a dark Cab that drinks beautifully and will definitely age for some time to come. The ’05 Cab is more fruit forward and smoother and was the favorite of three of the four of us (Laura preferred the ’04). The ’06 hasn’t spent much time in the bottle and it shows. I have no doubt it will develop into an excellent wine and I look forward to tasting it again in a year or so. Damian wasn’t done with us yet. The ’07 Mistura, a 60/40 Cab/Syrah blend with minute amounts of Petit Verdot and Cab Franc is another young wine that will undoubtedly develop into an outstanding wine. The ’06 Malbec is a great example of the varietal – although only in the bottle for a couple of months it shows lots of fruit and plenty of character. The next wine floored us all. This ’06 blend of Cabernet/Syrah and Cab Franc hasn’t been released yet and is only being made available to wine club members. I was sworn to secrecy on the name of the wine.  We tasted the ’07 Private Reserve Cabernet. It’s incredibly good now and I think it’s going to be a monster.

Damian said he “wasn’t done with the dog & pony show” yet. We tasted three late harvest wines: the ’08 Muscat, very sweet with apricot and peach notes and a big honey finish. The non vintage Zinfandel Port had a remarkable nose and a silky smooth finish. The final offering came with a story. During the ’05 harvest, somehow an entire row of Syrah grapes was left on the vines. Marcelo discovered the near raisins when he returned from a post harvest vacation. They crushed what there was and it sat in oak for three and a half years. The late harvest wine was going to be dedicated to Marcelo’s granddaughter, but his daughter miscarried. Another daughter got pregnant, the first daughter became pregnant again, and the resulting late harvest Syrah is called “Los Nietos” (the grandchildren). On the back of the bottle are the words “on earth as it is in heaven”. There were enough grapes to produce one barrel, and it is ambrosia. I will return to Doffo this weekend to spend more time with Marcelo and Damian and will do a story on them and the winery.

Roger and Kathy had never visited Briar Rose before, so we made that our next stop. I’ve already written extensively about Briar Rose, so I won’t rehash it. Suffice it to say their wines are excellent and the tasting room experience is relaxing and unhurried.

The final stop of the day was Palumbo Family Vineyards for their wine club pick up party. Nick was behind the grill cooking carne asada (delicious!) and Cindy was pouring at the tasting bar. We took home bottles of the ’06 Cab/Shiraz and ’06 Merlot. Nick continues to craft wonderful wines.

edit: by popular demand (okay, 1 request) here are Nick & Cindy’s dogs.

I’m glad we had the chance to visit Wilson Creek, and I want to return for  more in depth visit. For my money though, you can’t beat the boutiques. Doffo, Briar Rose and Palumbo are among the best the Temecula Valley has to offer.