The 23rd La Dolce Vita Food & Wine Festival that sponsors the AMOA-Arthouse will take place tonight from 6-9 p.m. at Laguna Gloria.

Food will be served from several Austin restaurants including East Side Showroom, Foreign & Domestic, Moonshine Patio Bar & Grill, Olive & June, Parkside, Ranch 616, and Trace. Famed Austin restaurateur Larry McGuire of Lamberts Downtown Barbecue, Perla’s, Elizabeth Street Café, and Jeffrey’s Restaurant has been chosen as the honorary chef for the evening.

“As a native Austinite, I’ve enjoyed Laguna Gloria, La Dolce Vita, and the museum my entire life, so to be asked to serve as the 2012 Honorary Chef is a real privilege,” Larry McGuire said in a press release. “Not only am I excited about helping AMOA-Arthouse raise funds for its education programs, but I feel that this event stands out from all the other food events in town.”

Cocktails will be prepared by Tipsy Texan’s David Alan and local wineries and distillers including Becker Vineyards, Inwood Estates Vineyards, Llano Estacado Winery, and Pedernales Cellars will be present as well. For more information about the event, check out this link.

Tagged: AMOA-Arthouse, David Alan, East Side Show Room, Foreign & Domestic, Inwood Estates Vineyards, La Dolce Vita Food & Wine Festival, Lamberts Downto, Larry McGuire, Layne Lynch, llano estacado winery, Moonshine Patio Bar & Grill, Olive & June, Parkside, Pedernales Cellars, perla's, Ranch 616, Tipsy Texan, TRACE

It’s not every day you get to meet the man who grows the grapes that make up your favorite wine. The very guy who painstakingly plans throughout the year on when to irrigate, when to prune, when to net the vineyards, what to do when there’s a hail, heavy winds, late freezes and scorching heat. (And I’m probably only scratching the surface of what goes into vineyard management, aka grape farming.) So it’s a particularly special treat when one of the most well known grape growers in the state joins you (and a restaurant full of other wine lovers) for a dinner paired with wines made from grapes from his vineyards.

Such was the case Thursday evening when Neal and Janice Newsom of Newsom Vineyards trekked some few hundred miles down from the Lubbock area to Fredericksburg for a special dinner in their honor at the Cabernet Grill; a restaurant known not only for its great Texas fare, but for its Texas-only wine menu.

Newsom comes from a cotton family with dating back for more than 100 years in either growing the ubiquitous row crop or managing the cotton gins that helped produce the commodity. It was a path he originally began to take in his younger career helping his father manage a West Texas cotton gin and small cotton farm before following a bit of inspiration he received in college from Texas Tech professor and Texas Wine pioneer Dr.Roy Mitchell and planting his first acreage of grape in 1986; a vineyard of Cabernet Sauvignon.

At the celebratory vintner’s dinner at Cabernet Grill, winemakers from across the state gathered with a dining room full of more than 70 guests to applaud Newsom for his Texas-sized leap of faith almost 30 years ago. In attendance was Gary Gilstrap of Texas Hills Vineyard who presented a beautiful Pinot Grigio and Sangiovese from Newsom’s stock as well as Cord Switzer of Fredericksburg Winery who was one of Newsom’s first buyers. (And one of the first to gain Texas wine recognition with a silver medal from the Chicago International Wine competition with a dessert Orange Muscat wine from Newsom Vineyards.) Dan Gatlin of Inwood Estate Vineyards spoke briefly on Newsom’s contribution to Texas wine industry saying “I’ve done a lot of research across North America and I can promise that there are no better grapes than from Newsom Vineyards–hands down.” (more…)

Tagged: Bar Z, Cabernet Grill, Fredericksburg Winery, Inwood Estates Vineyards, Jessica Dupuy, Neal Newsom, Newsom Vineyards, Texas Hills Vineyards, texas wine

From Left to Right: Ron Yates, June Rodil, Dan Gatlin, Mark Hyman, Dr. Richard Becker, Ed Auler, Kim McPherson. Photo by Callie Richmond

As part of the Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival, the pioneers of the Texas wine industry convened on Saturday, April 2nd at Austin’s Hyatt Regency to share a taste of their top wines paired with a six-course lunch by Executive Chef Kevin Dee.

Among this assembly were Kim McPherson of McPherson Cellars, Ron Yates of Spicewood Vineyards , Mark Hyman of Llano Estacado, Ed Auler of Fall Creek Vineyards, Dan Gatlin of Inwood Estates Vineyards, and Russell Smith of Becker Vineyards. June Rodil, beverage director of Congress restaurant and one of the state’s top sommeliers, led each course pairing and moderated an engaging discussion on the current state of Lone Star Wine.

Below are the pairings:

Baby spinach salad with roasted chiogga and white beets, local strawberries and champagne vinaigrette – McPherson Cellars Syrah Rosé 2009 (~$10)

Quail Confit over baby arugula and butternut squash Risotto with toasted pumpkin seeds – Spicewood Vineyards Semillon Reserve 2007 (~$18)

Chicken scallopine over roasted sweet potatoes and watercress citrus salad with Meyer lemon caper sauce – Llano Estacado Viviana 2009 (~$23)

Strube Ranch shortribs, Pure Luck polenta, braised chard – Fall Creek Vineyards Meritus 2006 (~$40)

Bleu cheese selection – Inwood Estates Vineyards “Cornelious” Tempranillo 2007 (~$40)

Local Strawberries with chocolate torte – Becker Vineyards Vintage Port 2009

Of the courses, our favorites included the chicken scallopine, which presented bright, citrusy flavors that balanced perfectly with the acidity and mild sweetness of Llano Estacado’s Viviana white blend.

We also liked the rich braised shortribs rounded out with the full-bodied, dark cherry notes of the Fall Creek Meritus. (Although the big dark fruits in the Inwood Estates Tempranillo also worked well with this dish.)

Our favorites out of the wines?… all of them. Each of them could hold their own against similar varietals world wide.

In the past year, each of these wineries have had at least one of their wines featured as a Texas Monthly Wine of the Month—half of which were paired with this lunch. And with good reason. Not only have these wineries figured out the key to making good wines, they’ve figured out the key to making good Texas wines, which as the past 15-20 years have shown, has been a long and painstaking process in finding the grapes that work best in the state as well as enduring the unpredictable Texas weather patterns.

And while some of the larger wineries have found consistency and high volume sales with wines such as the Becker Vineyards Viognier, the Fall Creek Chenin Blanc, or the Llano Estacado Chardonnay—all of which sell for around $15 or less—all of the wineries have a selection of wines that reflect a more “hand-crafted,” artisan style that have brought each of these winemakers high esteem through the state including Inwood’s “Cornelious” Tempranillo and Fall Creek’s Meritus.(Both of these have smaller production and fly off the shelves for $30-$40.)

But as Fall Creek’s Ed Auler revealed, “Wines across the state have gotten to a point where the quality and value are balancing out,” meaning you can rely on the merit of the wine you’re buying whether it’s a $10 or $30 bottle… Just one more thing to make Texans proud.

Tagged: Becker Vineyards, Congress restaurant, Fall Creek Vineyards, Inwood Estates Vineyards, Jessica Dupuy, June Rodil, llano estacado winery, McPherson Cellars, Spicewood Winery, Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival, texas wine