Walker Family Vintners 2005 Season Wrap Up...
- First-Ever Wine Competition - Results - Yeah, baby!
- Here just in time for the Holidays - Distinctive Wine
Gifts, an overview of our Award Winning Wines, and
more on our site!
- The Pressing of the New Zin is Complete!
- The 2005 Crush is accomplished!
- The 2004 Vintage is bottled...and it is superb!
- Thanks to all who helped this year!
- The 2004 Vintage is filtered, prepared for bottling!
Walker Family Vintners Earns Double Silver!
It was the first time in 11 years of family winemaking history that the Walkers entered any of their home vintage in a public competition. As we had hoped, it was a successful gamble.
During the late afternoon of Saturday, October 8th, we watched nervously as six judges tasted each of ten wines entered into the Home Winemakers' Competition, as part of the festivities at the Annual Grape Harvest Festival sponsored by the Rancho Cucamonga Chamber of Commerce. At the end of it all, the results showed Walker Family Vintners earning a Silver Medal for our 2004 Cucamonga Valley "Old Vines" Zinfandel and a Silver Medal for our 2004 Temecula Valley Syrah! Not a bad showing for both wines that are only a little over one year old. We're hoping they will age well over the next couple of years and perhaps bring us a Gold one day!
Thanks go out to Gino Filippi of Filippi Winery and Vineyards, who suggested that we enter our wines into the competition. Thanks, also, to my darling wife, Angela, who came out to witness our victory after all her years of support. Of course, thanks to Clayton and Donovan, who have often helped produce the wine in one way or another.
The awards are forthcoming and pictures will be posted sometime in the next few weeks.
A proud (but nervous) George stands by as the wines are judged.
The wines are lined up and ready to be judged.
Available Now!
We are now offering our distinctive glassware, decorative sack cloths, Crush & Bottle Aprons, Double Magnum Bottles, wood wine boxes, and polo/golf shirts for sale on our website! You'll can't purchase our award winning wines; However, we would love to share some with you as a gift! (I can only give my wine away as a gift to friends and family since I don't have a license to sell alcohol) And, yes, we'll ship!
No, we're not intending to make big bucks. However, winemaking is not only a fun and fulfilling hobby, but it periodically gets a bit expensive. While we have given away our wines over the years to family and friends, it's time to try to get a little return on the investment to keep future vintages possible. These items will make great gifts for your wine-loving family and friends, or perhaps they would add a touch of distinction to the wine cellar, closet or wine nook in your own home!
Check out the WineGiftsInfo and GiftGallery page links on the left sidebar!
A bottle of the 2002 Vintage Zin rests among the vines in the Walker Estate Vineyard in Alta Loma, Rancho Cucamonga, California.
The Pressing of the New Zin is complete!
Click on 2005Pics4 in the left menu for details and pictures.
Crush is Accomplished!
On Saturday, August 27th, 2005, more than 50 adults and 11 kids attended the 2005 Crush & Bottle Fest! Thanks to Filippi Winery & Vineyards in Rancho Cucamonga, we crushed 1000 pounds of excellent old vines Zinfandel...and thanks to Weaver Vineyard of Temecula, who allowed Eli Goren, myself, my two kids (Clayton & Donovan) and their friend (Matt), to pick more than 700 pounds of wonderful Chardonnay, which we then crushed, pressed, and placed into carboys for overnight settling in preparation of pitching the yeast for fermentation the next day! The afternoon of the 27th culminated with the Kids Crush and the completion of bottling more than 325 bottles of Old Vines Zinfandel and Syrah from the 2004 Crush. What a day it was!
Someone once said, "A picture is worth a thousand words"...well, we've got pictures worth about a million words on a number of page links to the left. So start clicking and start viewing. As I have time over the coming days and weeks, I'll endeavor to caption each photo or perhaps a group of photos. Until then, enjoy the pictures themselves. If you attend and you have your own pictures, please send me a CD or email them to me and I will post them, too! Watch for short stories in the next couple of weeks, depicting the event. If any one of you has any comments you would like me to post, please email them to me, too, and I will be pleased to post them on a special page.
2004 Wine is Bottled!
The 2004 vintage (15 gallons of Syrah, 40 gallons of Zinfandel, and 10 gallons of Kids Crush) was bottled at the Fest ... (more to come)
Thanks to All Who Helped This Year!
More to come!
The 2004 Vintage is Filtered
The 2004 Vintage was filtered on Saturday, August 20th, in preparation for bottling at the Fest. This marks the first year that we have ever used a filtering device to clear our wines to a crystal ruby finish. Thanks to Master Wine Filtration Expert Larry Hogan, the first-ever filtering of Walker wine took place nearly flawlessly. The team effort (with Larry doing most of the work, including most of the heavy moving and the cleaning up) resulted in finely polished and very flavorful wines, brilliant in both color and clarity.
This site is in a very early work in progress status (I just started it earlier this year). Please check back weekly for new postings and information. I'm not only trying to figure out this whole web-posting thing, but I'm trying to do a decent job of it. Any help or ideas will be appreciated. Email me at cpowalker@aol.com with comments and suggestions...please.
Aprons are Back for 2005!
For those who attended the 2004 Crush & Bottle Fest, you will be pleased to know that the Fest Aprons will be back, this year with a bit different imprinted logo design. For those who are first-timers at the 2005 event, distinctive aprons are provided to all Fest-goers for two reasons: to double as a big nametag when you write you name on it with a permanent laundry marker, and to protect you from the staining power of the fruit of the vine. So grab yours when you get here!
New for 2005!
This year, in addition to the complimentary aprons, we will also give each Fest-goer (excluding children, of course) your own commemorative bottle of the 2004 Vintage, either Syrah or Old Vine Zinfandel! All you have to do is choose!
Also, we will have a table set up with distinctive wine glasses and sack cloth towels(each with a Walker Family Vintners logo) for purchase. These items will be sold as a charitable fundraiser for a very good cause, a special cause which we will be happy to share with you then. The glasses will be sold for $6 each, the towels for $4 each. Of course, you don't need to buy anything if you don't care to. Wine glasses will always be provided, gratis, for your drinking and tasting pleasure!
In addition to the above, we will have a silent auction for two handsome and "refillable" double-magnum bottles, one each of Old Vine Zinfandel and Cucamonga Valley Classic Red (50% Zin & 50% Syrah). "Refillable" means that you can return them to us for refilling at no additional cost, up to 3 times over the next year! That is the equivalent of 16 bottles of wine over the course of a year! Similar such double magnum bottles of great wine sell at retail wine shops for up to $150 or more!
Here we are picking Chardonnay grapes in Temecula at the Weaver Vineyard. What a day it was on Friday, August 26th! 106 degrees at the peak of the day...next year we're starting alot earlier! Thanks to John & Donnie Weaver for all their kindness toward Eli, me, and the kids. And thanks to Eli and the kids for all their hard work in picking over 700 pounds of grapes that will eventually become perhaps 40 gallons of wine and champagne!
We had a great time this year, with lots of friends and family helping out. Each night, I'll post more pictures. Here are just a few to start...
More to come!!! Check back later...
Following the 2005 Crush, the fermentation process began. Five 23-gallon containers held the Zinfandel, nine 5 & 6-gallon jars (carboys) held the Chardonnay. All were ready to have the yeast pitched. And then, there was fermentation. The wonderful smells of yeast interacting with the natural sweetness of the juice, well, were nearly overcoming. It is always a sight, a scent, and a feeling to enjoy! Check out the pictures below, and imagine how magical the inside of the wine shed must be...
6-gallon carboys of Chardonnay grape juice - note the foam forming at the top of the juice as the fermentation begins.
A close-up of a 6-gallon jar of Chardonnay during fermentation...
A view of a half-wall loaded with Chardonnay...one day to become either sparkling wine (Champagne) or luscious, buttery, tasty Chardonnay wine.
The old vines Zinfandel must in their fermentation containers just before the yeast is pitched. Each day during a minimum 7-day fermentation process, I "punch the cap" at least a couple of times per day to reintroduce the skins that have floated to the top back into the juice below. This keeps the top-most skins from drying out, while allowing the skins to continue the process of transferring their tannins, flavors, and wonderful coloration into the juice.
Following fermentation, the Zinfandel is left in the containers for an extra three weeks for an "extended maceration." An extended maceration permits the wine to extract even more tannins, flavor characteristics, and color from the skins. I use argon gas to cover the newly fermented wine and protect it from air and oxygenation that would turn it to vinegar. The lids are placed on top to keep the argon gas in place. The wine is stirred every two days, and the argon gas is replaced to ensure continued protection. It will soon be time for the press! Look for the press pictures in 2005Pics#4!
The press was a great success, thanks to Eli's help! For the fourth year in a row, Eli shared the Walker family's passion for making wine. Along with doing most of the heavy lifting, Eli was there again to provide his now expert services in wine preparation and production. In short...he helped crush then press the new wine. This year we used an expensive (but rented) bladder press that allowed us to express even more wine from the must, a job typically somewhat more difficult using the old-fashioned oak slat, manual screw-down press. The result? Check for yourself below!
Eli is pictured here scooping the Zin must into the bladder press tube. Once the press is full of grape skins and seeds, a lid is screwed down on top and an attached water hose is turned on. The water and its pressure fills the interior rubber bladder, expanding the bladder and pressing the skins against the stainless steel tube, forcing the juice through small holes and draining the juice into a tub for transfer into 5-gallon carboys. Whew! What an involved process!
OK, finally you see a picture of the winemaker himself, me! Yes, I actually helped Eli! In fact, we started out in a team effort, then realized that one of us could man the press while the other filled the carboys. The enhanced system worked well! Note the empty fermentation containers behind...I cleaned those later in the day!
Ahhhh, here it comes...the wine begins to flow as the bladder begins expanding.
Wow! Now that's a flow of new wine!
OK, here we are at maximum output...that bladder press rocks! Note the beautiful dark ruby color. Once the wine sits in the carboys for a couple of days, most of the heavy sediment will settle out and the new wine will become a beautiful, transluscent, ruby red color. Those pictures will follow in 2005Pics#5.
The last carboy to be filled...a successful and rewarding process!
Eli's such a ham...and so photogenic!
2004 Pics
2002 pics
