Wilson Creek Blog
Events, News, Recipes & more!

Some Helpful Tips to Make Online Shopping Easier!

We love to see you here at the winery as often as you can, however, there are many opportunities and exclusive offers that you can access directly from your home or office. Because these exclusive offers are only available to Wine Club Members, you have to log in to your account to receive the discounts and view the special offers.

Visit www.wilsoncreekwinery.com and follow these helpful tips to login to your online webstore account:

• Your username is the email you used when you signed up.
• If you joined the wine club at the winery, your webstore shopping profile will be setup within 48 hours of joining and you can verify it.
• If you are using your online webstore account for the first time, you must “activate” your account, and reset your password. Click on “verify account” as seen below and follow the prompts.  You will receive an email to verify and reset your password.

• If you joined our wine club online, your account is immediately activated with the password you created. No need to do anything else, you are ready to shop!

While logged in, you will receive discounts on any orders you place, you can review any pending orders and track online order shipments.
There will be certain times when you will need your Member ID number. This number is included on the  emails you receive from Wilson Creek, please keep it in a safe place for reference.

For additional assistance logging into your webstore account, please email barbara@wilsoncreekwinery.com

RECIPES TO MAKE WITH OUR ORANGE MIMOSA SPARKLING WINE

CHAMPAGNE DREAMS
Orange Mimosa with pomegranate liquor, garnish with orange slice

CHOCOLATE OBSESSION
Orange Mimosa with chocolate liquor

THE INCORRIGIBLE
Orange Mimosa with pomegranate liquor and raspberry

AMERICAN GLORY
Orange Mimosa and lemonade

ORANGE BLOSSOM
Orange Mimosa and ginger liquor

ORANGE ROYALE
Acai berry liquor and top with Orange Mimosa

CHAMPAGNE COBBLER
Orange Mimosa with curacao and add lemon juice

MORNING GLORY
Orange Mimosa and cherry brandy with a dash of Bitters

MOON over MIMOSA (Beermosa) 
Orange Mimosa with Blue Moon or Shock Top (Belgium White Ale)

For more Sparkling Wine recipes, click HERE

Emmanuel Community Demonstration Garden, Fullerton, planted a small vineyard called the ‘Back Forty’ in 2014. With approximately 100 vines, four rows of Merlot and four rows of Zinfandel, this vineyard serves more than just wine drinkers. After two years of growing, we had our first vintage in 2016. Our aim was to produce sacramental wine for the Church along with wine for our Guild members. We had reasonable/drinkable quality wine that continued to improve each year.

However, during the 2018 Harvest, we noticed that several bunches of grapes had dried up like raisins and the leaves were blotchy thus turning red and dying. The harvest in 2019 wasn’t any better! The vines contained many red colored leaves, which dropped off the vine and brought along the shriveled-up grapes with it. So, we set about finding answers to our problem. After much research and consideration, we thought it was a possibility that we had Pierce’s Disease. What is Pierce’s Disease you may ask? PD is a disease that affects grapevines and is prevalent across the US spanning from California to Florida. The contents of this disease infects different plant hosts and negatively affects the yields of many economically important crops-many more than just grapevines!

Through our research, it was recommended that we join the Temecula Valley Small Wine Growers Association. During the first session we attended, on Zoom, they were talking about Pierce’s Disease. Greg Pennyroyal, Vineyard Manager of Wilson Creek Winery in Temecula, and leader of the association, had instructed concerned grape-growers to drop off samples of their vines to be sent off and tested for this deadly disease-PD. After receiving a plethora of samples, he promptly sent them to their testing site in hopes of being able to salvage vines for the concerned vineyard managers.

A few weeks later, we learned that unfortunately, all of the samples had PD. Although the disease is not harmful to man, it is a death toll for many vines. Because there is no real way to stop this disease from overtaking the vines, the only alternative was to dig them all up and plant anew. This time, we made sure to plant a disease resistant vine that would last and not be overtaken.

We arranged to meet Greg and his foreman, Pedro, at Wilson Creek Winery to discuss our situation and to get their expert advice. Greg shared that he and Pedro had some work planned in Rancho Cucamonga in a couple of weeks and that they would be glad to come and visit our vineyard before returning to Temecula.

Greg was pleasantly surprised with what he saw, saying that it was one of the best designed private vineyards he had ever seen-which meant the world. As they sauntered through our vineyard, Pedro began brainstorming how they could help. He concluded that they would send a group of skilled vineyard workers from Temecula to come and replant our vineyard with vines known to be resistant to PD. We set about preparing our vineyard for replanting.

On March 28, 2021, a Wilson Creek truck appeared in our church parking lot. Before we knew it, we had a crew of 12 helping us revitalize what used to be our prized possession. They worked like a well-oiled machine, each worker knowing precisely what to do. With few breaks, the crew finished the job just before 1pm. Not only had they planted 100 or so vines; they had tied them up to newly placed stakes and modified the watering system for the entire vineyard.

–Emmanuel Community Demonstration Garden and Vineyard

Pumpkin Turkey Chili Recipe

To pair with 2020 Roussanne

Ingredients

1 large yellow onion, diced (about 2 cups)

1 medium bell pepper, red, yellow, or orange, diced

6 garlic cloves, minced

1 1/3 pounds ground turkey or chicken

1 15-oz. can white beans, drained and rinsed

1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes with liquid 

1/4 cup tomato paste, no salt added

1 14-oz. can pumpkin puree

1 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth

2 tablespoons chili powder

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

2 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper, optional

4 cups baby spinach leaves

avocado, optional

Sour cream or nonfat plain Greek yogurt, optional

cilantro, optional

Directions

Liberally coat a large pot or Dutch oven with oil spray and warm over medium-high heat. Add the onion and bell pepper sauté, stirring occasionally for about 7 minutes or until the onion softens. Add the garlic, stir everything together and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the ground turkey or chicken. Use a spatula or a large spool to break up the meat as it cooks. Continue to cook about 6 to 7 minutes, until fully cooked. Add the beans, diced tomatoes, tomato paste, pumpkin puree, broth, chili powder, cocoa powder, cinnamon, cumin, black pepper, and optional cayenne pepper, and stir. Reduce heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Right before serving, add the spinach and mix throughout. Enjoy the chili with desired toppings, such as avocado, nonfat plain Greek yogurt, cilantro, and salsa. 

How to Make our Chef’s Famous “Balsamic Steak” 

Perfectly paired with our ’20 Viognier

INGREDIENTS

For the Marinade

1lb sirloin steak

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard 

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon coarse salt

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper 

For the Salad

1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved 

1/2 red onion, thinly sliced

4 oz. Gorgonzola cheese, crumbled 

2 heads endive lettuce, outer leaves removed, halved, and roughly chopped into 2 in. pieces 

6 cups mixed spring greens

1 corn on the cob, husk removed

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil for drizzling 

For the Gremolata

1 tablespoons basil leaves

2 table spoons parsley, minced 

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tablespoon lemon zest 

For the Balsamic Vinaigrette 

3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/2 tablespoon Dijon mustard

Dash of salt and fresh ground pepper

Directions

In a medium sized bowl, stir together ingredients for the marinade. Place steaks in a large zip-lock bag. Pour marinade over the steaks, seal the bag, and shake to coat. Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes. Make the gremolata: Combine the basil, parsley, lemon zest, and garlic in a small bowl. Set aside. Preheat a cast iron grill pan at a medium-high heat or an outdoor grill. Drizzle corn on the cob with 1 tablespoon olive oil and liberally sprinkle salt and pepper. Using tongs, place on the heated grill. Cook each side until grill marks form on the corn kernels and they are somewhat softened, about 10 minutes total. When cool, slice corn kernels off the cob. Grill steak to a plate and let rest for five minutes. Slice thinly against the grain. In a small bowl, whisk together ingredients for vinaigrette. Toss together half of the vinaigrette, half of the gremolata, mixed greens, endives, tomatoes, gorgonzola, sliced corn, and red onion in a large bowl. Lay sliced steak on top of the salad. Drizzle steak and salad with gremolata and remaining vinaigrette as desired.