The celebration marking the 25th anniversary of Wilson Creek & Vineyards is underway.
“Twenty-five years in any business is a success,” said Bill Wilson, Chief Executive Officer of the family owned winery.
This year over a quarter million patrons will visit the scenic winery, tasting room and restaurant the Wilson family has built from the ground up on Rancho California Road. “It just blows me away,” Bill told me as we sat on the balcony of the tasting room putting a dent in bottle of their fine Petite Sirah. “It is far beyond my wildest vision.”
It didn’t start out that way. It almost didn’t start out at all. In the mid-1990s, while seeking a career change, a friend told Wilson about a small winery for sale in Temecula. Bill pitched the idea to his family including parents Gerry and Rosie and siblings Mick and Libby and their families. “We wanted a lifestyle change,” he said. Admittedly, no one knew much about the wine business.
In 1996, after the deal to buy the existing winery fell through, the family purchased an existing vineyard. Family members sold their homes in the Pasadena area, combined their savings, and made the move to Temecula. Most moved into mobile homes on the property.
Construction of the winery began in 1997. Then it stopped. “We put up a ‘Coming Soon’ sign,” Bill laughed. “It was there for two years. We even decorated it for Christmas.” Construction resumed in 1999.
At that same time the continued existence of Temecula’s wine country was in question. In the late 1990s an exotic bug found its way to the Temecula Valley and began to decimate the vineyards.
The glassy-winged sharpshooter spread a bacterium called Pierce’s Disease among the 3,500 acres of grapes in the region. To stop the spread vineyard owners began tearing out rows and rows of grapes. Eventually just 1,000 acres remained.
“Some were saying Temecula’s days as a wine region were done,” Wilson said. “I’d convinced everyone in my family to quit their jobs, sell their homes and move here. We’d spent every penny. We were in deep. I kept thinking there was no way this could happen to us.”
Scientist, with funding from local, county state and federal agencies, eventually were able to tame the spread but the damage was extensive.
Still, the family remained optimistic. In 1999, before their winery opened, the Wilson’s sold wine they had produced to Temecula Valley Balloon & Wine festival organizers for $3 a bottle.
“That was our very first wine sale,” he said. The Wilson Creek booth at the annual festival had a long line.
“People loved our chardonnay,” Bill said. “I knew then we were going to make it.”
The winery, Temecula’s 14th, opened in 2000. These days more than 50 wineries make up the region. Temecula Valley’s Wine Country contributes more than $900 million to the economy of Riverside County. The wine industry here supports over 5,600 jobs and more than 1.2 million visitors paid for wine tastings in 2023.
Many of those visitors stop at Wilson Creek. Patriarch Gerry Wilson passed away in 2020 at age 90. Rosie still makes the rounds of the grounds in her golf cart and other family members of the now three-generation family business are always on hand.
Since the early days, family, both the Wilson’s and patrons — their extended family — have been the priority. “The business has been the cake,” Bill said. “The icing on the cake are the people of Temecula. If you put your arms around the people here, they will put their arms around you.”Wilson Creek has a number of events planned to celebrate their 25th anniversary. Find out more at www.wilsoncreekwinery.com.
(Featured photo at top: Early days of Wilson Creek)
