A Few Texas Wine Facts:

Texas is the 5th largest wine producing state in the country.

Texas is the 4th largest wine consuming state in the country.

Texas has more than 3,500 acres of vineyards planted throughout the state.

Texas has more than 180 wineries across the state, a few of which are producing award-winning wines that are standing up against California, French, and Spanish wines.

Last weekend Texas winemakers, grape growers, sommeliers and food and wine writers met in Dallas for two important conferences, The Go Texan Drink Local Wine Conference and the 2009 Texas Sommelier Conference. For four days the world revolved around wine, wine, and more wine.

Texas Wine: Eat Local, Drink Local

The Go Texan Drink Local Wine Conference commenced Friday evening with a festive winemaker’s dinner at Le Cordon Bleu and continued Saturday with a few panelist seminars focusing on how to get more people to drink Texas wine.

You may not know it, but Texas winemakers are winning gold and silver medals in wine competitions nationwide. In recent years, Texas wine quality has significantly improved as winemakers have started to move from growing the Bordeaux and California basic three (Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, and Merlot) and have experimented with grapes that are less well known, but better in the Texas soils. Grapes such as Tempranillo, Sangiovese, Malbec, and a handful of other Rhone, Italian, and Spanish varietals.

“Texas makes the best Texas wine in the world,” says conference panelist Greg Bruni, executive wine maker for Llano Estacado Winery, which has been at the forefront of growing Texas-friendly grapes in the state. “But you have to go in with the game plan to grow what works best here.”

But how do you change the perception that Texas doesn’t know how to make good wine? Yes the French have been doing it for centuries, but many forget that in the 1960s, Robert Mondavi was trucking around with his bottles of wine begging people to just take a taste. It wasn’t until the 1973 that a little Chardonnay from Chateau Montelena and a robust Cabernet Sauvignon from Stag’s Leap blew the minds of the French when they won a very highly publicized blind tasting.

Of course, gaining national recognition is secondary to simply getting Texans to drink their own wine.

You don’t go to Italy to taste Spanish Rioja and you certainly don’t go to France to drink Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. It simply makes sense to drink to local product. But while we’re proudly savoring our Texas-grown vegetables, artisanal cheeses, and grass-fed meats that restaurants are so fervently serving, it would be great if restaurants were supporting their local wine-producing farmers as well with a few Texas bottles on the wine list.

Texas Twitter Taste-Off

Having discussed these challenges for Texas wines for the better part of the day, the next step was to actually taste a few of them. Well ok, more than a few. There were 45 of them. And just to add a little spice to the festivity, the tasting was presented as the first-ever “Texas Twitter Taste-Off,” which had more than 50 conference panelists, writers and bloggers, and wine enthusiasts tasting and “Tweeting” their way through the Texas-sized list of featured wines. Of course, the “Tweets” got more and more interesting as the one-and-a-half hour event went on. The taste-off winners included:

Best White Wine – Dry Division: Flat Creek Estate, Pinot Blanc, 2008

Best White Wine – Sweet Division: Haak Vineyards & Winery, Madeira Blanc du Bois, 2006

Best Red Wine – Dry Division: 
 Inwood Estate Vineyards Tempranillo-Cabernet, 2005

Best Red Wine – Sweet Division: 
 Sandstone Cellars IV Red Port-style wine, 2006

Texas Sommelier Conference 2009

On Sunday, the conference shifted from local to global with the kick off of the 5th Annual Texas Sommelier’s Conference at the Four Seasons Las Colinas in Irving Texas. Here, more than 150 sommeliers and wine aficionados from around the state convened for a series of tastings and informative seminars on everything ranging from Spanish Riojas and Austrian Grüner Veltliners to the increasingly popular rice wine, Sake and yes, even Texas wines had a special preview.

While the conference was taking place, there were also 21 Texas sommeliers competing in a blind tasting for the award of Texas’ Best Sommelier. The prize includes round-trip tickets, tuition, and a scholarship for a Court of Master Sommeliers certification program.

The winners: John Honefenger of Tony’s restaurant in Houston won 3rd place, Anibal Calcagno of Brenner’s Steakhouse in Houston took 2nd place, and June-Ann Rodil of Uchi in Austin stole the show with first place.

Tagged: brenner’s steakhouse, flat creek, haak vineyards, inwood estate, llano estacado winery, sandstone cellars.