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The Family | Meet The Family | Winery Factoids | Our Story | Tasting Room | Wine Awards | Wine 101 | Commercial Filming
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Many of you have asked, "So what's your story here?" Well, here it goes...It all began in 1995 when we tossed around the idea of running a winery. No one in the family had any experience in professional winemaking or vineyard management. But it sounded like fun! Our family is basically midwestern. Gerry and Rosie Wilson used to make dandelion and rhubarb wine in their basement in Minnesota! They both lived in Minnesota for years and raised the Wilson kids there until we all moved to South Pasadena, California, in 1969. (By the way, they just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary!) Rosie was a schoolteacher for many years teaching Home Economics, and Gerry worked for a money management firm. In the early 1990s, they both retired. With all the kids out of the nest in 1995, our parents decided to move. But to where? We kids, sowed the seed and suggested Gerry look at the possibility of moving to wine country in Santa Ynez and growing grapes. Hmmmm. That would be interesting… and fun! Then we heard through a friend that there was a small winery for sale in Temecula. Gerry and Rosie knew this area because it was their getaway place to play golf. So we drove down to take a look. As a family, we all liked the idea of running a winery together, with Gerry and Rosie running the tasting bar. Although we had no experience, we did possess a combination of adventure, risk, go-for-it-ness, and insanity. But there were a few obstacles. We all lived outside of Temecula. Bill and his wife, Jenifer, lived in Mission Viejo; Libby and Craig lived in Solvang, and Mick in Arcadia. So would the whole family relocate? Well, as it turned out, the seller of the small winery really didn't want to sell. After six months of negotiating, he decided that he wanted to keep his winery. (It was probably the best thing that ever happened to us.) So here was a dilemma! As a family, we loved the idea of a winery, but other wineries for sale in the state were prohibitively (no, ridiculously) expensive. We eventually heard of a vineyard for sale in Temecula on Rancho California Road. It had no infrastructure whatsoever (no power, no septic, no phone, no nothin', just grapes). So what do you do? Give up a dream of running a winery because they are too expensive, or go for it and buy a vineyard and build from scratch? Insanity prevailed. We took the risk and bought the 20-acre vineyard in 1996. So Gerry and Rosie sold their house in South Pasadena where they lived for about 30 years and moved to Temecula. They rented house after house until the winery, and their new house, could be built. In the meantime, Libby and Craig Johns moved to Temecula in 1996, and in 1997, Bill and Jenifer Wilson sold their house in Mission Viejo and moved to a mobile home on the property. They lived there with their two little girls as Bill helped build the winery. In 1998, we finally had a large steel frame built for the winery, but we ran into some costly building delays. Rosie jokes that, "During these times, we ate peanut butter sandwiches for lunch, but really lived it up for dinner with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches." The lull lasted for another year, until in late 1998 we got an SBA loan from a bank that believed we could succeed. During these "down" years, we worked on cleaning up the property and the landscaping. We trucked out more than 20 big trailers of trash including mattresses, old couches and toilets just dumped on the property. Besides the vines, it was literally an overgrown dumpsite. The area down by the lower bridge was completely trashed. We all pitched in and planted trees, flowers, and grass. It was tough work digging trenches, pouring concrete, building fences, rigging irrigation, putting in power, etc. And we were basically suburbanites doing most of this ourselves! We all quickly became "country-fied." Because we had NO real background in vineyard management and winemaking (and because we had NO winery at the time), we sought outside help. The vines continued to be maintained by a professional vineyard manager. (Before we bought the vineyard, the grapes that were harvested were sent up to Napa). We slowly started keeping some of the grapes and making wine at other wineries. Our grapes were crushed and fermented and bottled by local wineries who were extremely helpful. No one really knew how good our vines were until we came out with the popular 1996 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon and our 1996 and 1997 Estate Chardonnays. We now had some wine we could sell when (or if) we opened. In 1999, thanks to the loan, we were able to finish the basics of the winery. Our first wedding was held in the lower grass area, and we had dirt for the front lawn. Also that year, Mick moved down to Temecula. Just a few more years of work and endless permitting, and we finally had a real working winery. Wilson Creek held an official Grand Opening in 2000 with over 1,100 people in attendance. Parking was quite a challenge! So here we are now, and we are having a blast! Over the last two years, we constructed the gazebo and the new jazz stage, hosted over 150 weddings, and jumped from 2,000 cases the first year to around 30,000 cases a year now. We are proud to be an integral part of the Temecula Valley - as exemplified by our recent humanitarian awards, wine medals and the Temecula Valley Chamber of Commerce Business of the Year Award in 2001. The whole family is still involved. Gerry is in the tasting room on weekends giving Wine Club tours and signing bottles. During the week, he oversees our finances. Rosie cooks lunch for the staff EVERY day, helps with tasks on our special events, and keeps up with all the flowers (over 2,500 flowers on the property). Gerry and Rosie now have six Temecula grandchildren: Heather (19), Christopher (16), Cassidy (8) and Cambria Wilson (6), and Hayden Johns (3) and Gavin Johns (7). It is truly a family affair. Bill oversees the vineyard management, winemaking, construction projects, and special events. His wife, Jenifer, coordinates the weddings and oversees the gift shop. Libby Wilson Johns does all our Human Resources and payroll. Her husband, Craig, helps with sponsor relations. Mick oversees the Wine Club, marketing, and all the landscaping. Deanna Wilson oversees the point-of-sale system and distribution. We're still learning and growing. We're not out of the woods yet, but we're chopping a pretty good path! The most rewarding part is that we all work together, and Gerry loves the fact that all his children and grandchildren are here. His commute to work is a 200-foot walk through the vines. It doesn't get much better than that. |
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