Tasting Room Manager Francine Parr, left, samples wine with customer Patti Gurney of Roseville. The Wine Rack is located next to Lou La Bonte’s Restaurant on upper Lincoln Way in the Bowman area. |
For Auburn native Tina Wilkins, wine is something of a family tradition. A mother of two, Wilkins is now the shop host at The Wine Rack on Lincoln Way in the Bowman area and a partner in Viña Castellano winery.
Wilkins graduated from Placer High School in 1984 and grew up on the family ranch, which is now the winery.
“My grandmother made 200 gallons of wine every year as most European immigrants did,” she said. “So I grew up drinking wine.”
She moved away from Auburn for a dozen years, but when she returned, her father had an idea. “He always wanted to do an olive orchard or vineyard, so I took the bait and started taking small vintner classes at UC Davis,” she said. “I took those classes to specifically see if we could grow the Spanish varietal Tempranillo.”
The wine grape can be difficult to grow, but on visits to Spain to visit family, they noticed it thrived in that climate, which is similar to that of Auburn. They planted a test crop at the ranch and discovered the grape did very well. “After our first crop, we decided we could do this commercially,” she said.
The winery recently took one of five gold medals awarded by the San Francisco Chronicle to Tempranillo-based wines. In California, there are more than 50 producers of the grape. Their syrah also took a gold medal while their cabernet franc garnered a silver.
“It’s a big deal because unlike regional contests, this is judged based on price range,” she said. “So we were against every region, including Napa and Sonoma.”
Her husband Craig is a partner in the winery. When asked if that makes for tense moments at home, she laughed. “Always.”
The Wine Rack, a wine-tasting room offering wines from Viña Castellano, Mt. Vernon, Dono Dal Cielo and Green Family, opened in mid-December 2007.
The 42-year-old mother of two boys (Chance, age 11, and Cooper, 9) said that she doesn’t have time for many hobbies. “I love to ski, but food, wine, and my family are my passions,” Wilkins said. “Between my family, church and winery, I don’t have much time. Food, wine and God, I’ve got it covered, but not necessarily in that order.”
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