This year, we’ve decided to offer up a retrospective of some of the top Texas wines for 2012. Starting November 1, I began tasting through a sampling of more than 60 different Texas wines including selections from larger, well-known producers including Llano Estacado Winery, Fall Creek Vineyards and Messina Hof, to smaller estate producers including Calais Winery, Perissos Vineyard and Winery, Pontotoc Vineyards, and Landon Winery. I tried to get as wide of a selection as possible. There are MANY Texas wines out there, which means it’s virtually impossible to try them all. In the end, I’ve managed to whittle down a list of 10 reds and 10 whites that span a breadth of the great winemaking Texas is seeing right now.

A few things to note:

1) I tried to taste wines that were available at the time of evaluation. (November 1—December 15). There are a number of beautiful wines that I’ve tasted throughout 2012 that could easily have earned a spot on this list, such as the McPherson Cellars Roussanne Reserve or the Lost Oak 2010 Syrah—but these were not available in circulation. I should note that since tasting through these wines in the past month, a few of them now have very limited availability, but were able to find at the time of evaluation.

2) All of the tastings were done blind. Once I collected the wines for tasting, all of them were brown-bagged and opened by a third party before tasting in an effort to keep all evaluations objective and fair.

3) Each wine tasted was awarded a score between 1 and 5 in the categories of nose, palate, finish, and overall drinkability for a total of 20 points per wine. The final list is based on the top scoring evaluations.

4) Finally, and most importantly, this a list compiled based on my own personal tastes and overall understanding of what well-made, balanced wine should taste like. But in the world of wine, as with good Texas barbecue or Tex-Mex food, what really matters is what tastes good to you. Discovering that for yourself is the most rewarding part of learning more about Texas wine.

This is a list of all wines that scored 18 or higher in overall points in alphabetical order.

Red Wines

Brennan Vineyards 2010 Dark Horse

~$19 – Winery (Brennan Vineyards and 4.0 Cellars)

One of the first showings of Texas grown Nero D’Avola, a Sicilian grape known for its sweet tannins and peppery flavors. This wine is lighter in style, but big on complexity. It’s smoky and spicy with hints of bright red fruit, wild orchid, white pepper and even a little bacon. If this is what we have to look forward to from Nero D’Avola, I look forward to seeing more of it in the future.

 

Duchman Family Winery 2010 Montepulciano

~$22 – Select grocery and liquor stores, winery

This wine works well as an every day wine that can easily make the grade for a special occasion. It’s fruit forward with blackberry, blueberry, vanilla and cinnamon on the nose with a hint of earthiness and medium tannins on the palate. Montepulciano has been a consistent work horse for Duchman from vintage to vintage.

 

Duchman Family Winery 2010 Nero D’Avola

~$20 – Winery

The first two Nero D’Avola wines released in Texas this year also happen to make this list. The fruit in this wine has dark blackberry and aromatic ripe blueberry. You’ll find notes of vanilla and baking spices, but also a bit of leather and excellent tannic structure on the palate.

 

 

Inwood Estates Vineyards 2009 Magdalena 

~$50 – Select liquor stores, winery

This wine is an example of how beautiful Cabernet Sauvignon can actually be in Texas. The nose has rich, ripe red fruit, soft vanilla and the perfume of walking into a greenhouse full of violets. With such a big nose, the wine is actually lighter on the palate balanced with a hint of acid and nervy tannic structure.

 

Llano Estacado Tempranillo Cellar Reserve 2010

$16 – Grocery stores such as HEB, select liquor stores, winery

For those who are unsure of Texas Tempranillo, this wine makes a good introduction. Not only because it’s just a good wine in general, but because it’s a rounded, approachable version of what this often cantankerous grape can be like. You’ll catch hints of raspberry, blackberry, bacon, smoke and portobello mushroom.

 

McPherson Cellars Sangiovese 2009

~$16-$18 – Some grocery stores, Spec’s, select liquor stores, winery

Rich with dark cherry and raspberry, a little forest floor, and a hit of vanilla, this full-bodied wine has a lovely round finish and drinks beautifully. (Note: This is a wine that is For Sale In Texas Only, which means less than 75 percent of the wine is from Texas. The remainder is from neighboring New Mexico.)

 

Pedernales Tempranillo Reserve 2010

~$30 – Select liquor stores, winery

This Tempranillo gives us a glimpse at the true nature of Tempranillo in Texas. It’s a finicky grape with dark fruit, mushroom, tobacco and often a little leather. The Pedernales tames some of the wild tannic structure in this grape without stripping it down too much. You also find hints of cinnamon, vanilla, and a touch of green parsley. This wine is rustic, yet elegant.

 

Perissos Vineyard and Winery 2010 Racker’s Blend

$45 – Winery

Seth Martin of Perissos Vineyard and Winery likes to get the most flavor from his estate grapes, which grow on a peaceful tract of land in the Colorado River Valley near Marble Falls. Each year, he selects a portion of each of the red varietals that grow on his property to blend into his Racker’s Blend. A true field blend, the percentage of grapes varies from year to year. This 2010 vintage is big with ripe dark and red fruit, rich floral perfume and a melange of cocoa, cherry and fresh tobacco. With more than 15% alcohol, it’s not a wine for sissies.

Pontotoc Vineyard 2011 San Fernando Academy 

$25 – Select Central Texas outlets including East End Wines (Austin), House.Wine and Lincoln Street Wine Bar (Fredericksburg), Sandstone Cellars Wine Bar (Mason), Salt Lick Cellars (Driftwood), winery (info@pontotocvineyard.com)

This is a big wine. What’s that former soap opera? The Bold and the Beautiful? That’s this wine. And not just because well-loved Mason County winemaker Don Pullum threw just about everything but the kitchen sink in here. (Cabernet Franc, Sangiovese, Mourvedre, Cabernet Sauvignon, Carignane, Tempranillo, Grenache and Syrah) But because it’s just a great all around red wine—especially for the Texas steak lover. On the nose is lush dark fruit,  green pepper, vanilla and cocoa, and a little bit of dark forest floor. This is a big, balanced wine at a restrained 12.5 percent alcohol. Get some.

William Chris Vineyards 2011 Hunter

$32 – winery

For those of you who enjoy Pinot Noir for its red fruit and earthy qualities, this is the Texas Wine for you. Let me be clear that this is NOT a Pinot Noir. In fact it’s a blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Mourvedre. But this wine has all the elegance and complexity of a French Burgundy. Excellent bright, red fruit with a refined finish.

 

Honorable Mention: Messina Hof Cabernet Franc Reserve, Salt Lick Cellars 2010 Mourvedre, Duchman Family Winery 2010 Aglianico, Landon Winery Tempranillo Reserve 2011, Llano Estacado 1836

White Wines

Becker Vineyards 2011 Fumé Blanc

~$10 – Select grocery and liquor stores, winery

One of the top sellers from Becker, this is a consistently good wine that balances the best of its citrus, peach, and white flower aromas with a dry, balanced finish. And at $10, it’s a top pick for an every day white wine.

 

 

Brennan Vineyards 2011 Lily

$18 – Select grocery and liquor stores, winery (Brennan Vineyards or 4.0 Cellars)

This wine was a happy surprise. Its aromatic bouquet of white and yellow flowers with hints of honeysuckle and apricot almost trick the senses into thinking it may be a little sweet, but it turns out to have a balanced off-dry finish with good acidity that prevents it from being cloying. Excellent wine for spicy foods.

 

CapRock Winery 2010 Roussanne

~$15-$17 – Select grocery and liquor stores, winery

This golden beauty took home a gold medal from the 2012 Dallas Morning News and TEXSOM International Wine Competition this year. And with good reason. With lush citrus, young peach, and a touch of minerality, this is a great wine to have on hand during the summer time.

 

 

Duchman Family Winery 2010 Trebbiano

$12 – Winery

Those who like bone dry wines brimming with minerality and a hint of citrus will love this wine. Lemon zest, a touch of red apple and hot, wet limestone dominate the nose and palate with a balanced, rounded finish. A perfect white for a red wine drinker.

 

 

Hilmy Cellars 2011 Muscat Canelli

$22 – Winery

Typically this is a wine that you might find on a dessert wine menu. Muscat Canelli tends to reveal quite a bit of sugar in the wines it produces. And while this wine definitely has hints of sweetness, it also has a beautiful balance with acidity. If you like sweet wine, you’ll love this one. If you DON’T like sweet wine, I’d still give it a try with spicy Asian food like Thai or Szechuan Chinese. That little touch of sweetness will pair perfectly with the heat from the food.

 

Lost Oak Winery 2011 Riesling

~$17 – Winery (Lost Oak Winery or 4.0 Cellars)

If you’re a Riesling fan, you’ll probably like this wine. If you’re NOT a Riesling fan, I encourage you to try this wine. It’s not the cloyingly sweet syrup you’ve come to expect out of a Blue Nun bottle. This Riesling is dry with citrus, apricot, white tea, and the faint scent of honeysuckle. The crisp finish is similar to what you’d find in French Alsatian Rieslings—not surprising considering owner/winemaker Gene Estes spent a few years living in Alsace.

 

McPherson Cellars 2011 Les Copains

~$12-$14, Some grocery stores, Spec’s, select liquor stores, winery

Pretty on the nose and pretty on the palate, this is the kind of wine that can please all friends at the table. Rather fitting since its name is French for “friends,” which is particularly how the fruit, sophistication and complexity of this blend of Viognier, Roussanne and Grenache blanc work together in this wine. Note: the 2011 vintage was almost sold out when this wine was sampled. Look to the 2012 vintage in the Spring of 2013.

 

Pedernales Cellars Reserve Viogner 2011

With a strong focus on Viognier as the primary white grape in their program, Pedernales Cellars continues to hammer out a standard of elegance for this grape that is creating a foundation for what Viognier should taste like. Not only in Texas, but anywhere else. Swoony floral characteristics with ripe pear, melon and apricot as well as a hint of juicy fruit gum perk up the nose, while a dry and crisp finish with balanced acidity make this wine the perfect alternative to your average Chardonnay.

 

Perissos Vineyards and Winery 2011 Roussanne

$34 – Winery

You can almost taste the complexity in this wine simply by looking at its bright golden color. Grown on the High Plains, this French Rhone varietal shows off its very best in this wine with ripe pear, yellow flowers, cantaloupe and honey-baked fruit on both the nose and palate with a crisp finish. This is a perfect example of what Roussanne can do in Texas soil.

 

Vineyard at Florence 2011 Aurelia

~$30 – Select liquor stores, winery

For a long time, Texas has taken stabs at producing wine from the American hybrid Blanc du Bois. But the reviews have often been mixed. The Aurelia from the Vineyards at Florence is finally the exception. A beautiful wine with soft tropical fruit along with a fragrant floral bouquet of white and yellow flowers. Its crisp, dry finish leaves a hint of minerality, making this a perfect warm-weather wine with food.

 

Honorable Mention: Duchman Family Winery 2010 Vermentino, Fall Creek Vineyards 2011 Chardonnay

- Jessica Dupuy

Tagged: Becker Vineyards, Duchman Family Winery, Hilmy Cellars, llano estacado winery, Lost Oak Winery, McPherson Cellars, Pedernales Cellars, Perissos Vineyard and Winery, Pontotoc Vineyards, texas wine

OpenTable, an online restaurant reservation and review system, recently announced the honorees of the 2012 Top 100 Restaurants with the Most Notable Wine Lists in the United States. The list was determined by the combined opinions of more than 5 million reviews submitted by verified OpenTable diners for more than 15,000 restaurants. According to OpenTable’s press release, American fare restaurants dominated the majority of the list.

Five Texas restaurants – Block 7 (Houston), MAX’S Wine Dive (Austin), MAX’S Wine Dive (San Antonio), Mercy Wine Bar (Dallas), and The Tasting Room (Houston) – were featured on the list.

“We were thrilled to learn that three of our locations were honored by OpenTable diners and recognized as having some of the top wine lists in the country. Our company vision statement is ‘To revolutionize the wine experience,’ and our teams work diligently to provide the best possible products from around the world at the lowest prices in the marketplace – both for on-premise consumption and for take-home retail sale,” Jonathan Horowitz, chief brand officer of Lasco Enterprises, LLC, told TEXAS MONTHLY. “We say ‘Thank you’ to all our guests and to OpenTable for this recognition.”

Lasco Enterprises, LLC is the parent company of MAX’S Wine Dive and The Tasting Room.

Tagged: austin, Block 7, Houston, Layne Lynch, MAX's Wine Dive, Mercy Wine Bar, san antonio, texas wine, The Tasting Room

What do you do when one of the best winemakers in the state invites you to make wine with him and his daughter? You say, yes! Which is exactly what I did when Kim McPherson of McPherson Cellars suggested I join him and his daughter, Kassandra for a his first ever attempt at bottling a dry Chenin Blanc.

Truth be told, Chenin Blanc is more of a cool climate grape. World class wines are made with it in the Loire Valley of France. (You’ll also find beautiful examples of it from South Africa.) And while it’s origin in the rather cool, Maritime/Continental climate of the Loire Valley would make it an odd fit for Texas—particularly in the dry, red clays of the High Plains—for some strange reason, it grows almost like a weed here.

“It’s been like this since the first day Chenin was planted in Texas soil,” says McPherson. “It’s never failed.”

Chenin Blanc wines are more commonly associated as being slightly sweet with aromas of ripe pear, apricot and sometimes honey as is common with Vouvray wines from the Loire Valley of France. But the grape can also make beautiful, crisp, dry wines as you’ll find in Savennières wines from the Loire. And if you’re looking for a demi-sec (sweet) Texas version of Chenin Blanc, you’ll find a great example from Fall Creek Vineyards (~$7). But McPherson had his mind set on making a dry Chenin, one that would stack up well against his other award-winning lineup of white wines including the Les Copains white blend, Roussanne, Viognier and Albariño, which won a coveted double gold medal from the San Francisco International Wine Competition this year.

“The unfortunate thing is that Chenin has a bad rap,” says McPherson. “Somehow the public just doesn’t really like it. Which is sad because it just makes really nice white wine. Everyone makes it sweet, but in Texas, I think it should be more like a Provence-style white wine that’s dry and refreshing and BOOM—great!”

McPherson knows a grape grower in the High Plains, Joe Vasquez, who has a small plot of 28 year-old Chenin Blanc vines. In the past McPherson has used these grapes for blending with some of this other wines including his white sparkling wine made from 85 percent Chenin Blanc and 15 percent Muscat Canelli for a scoach of sweetness on the finish. But McPherson has always wanted to make a dry Chenin, and this year, the time was right.

So, I trekked up to Lubbock a couple of weeks ago to check out some of the madness that is grape harvest season in the High Plains and to try my hand at making wine. (Don’t worry, the reality is, I just watched and asked a lot of questions. Kim and Kassandra—a recent masters grad of the esteemed oenology program at University of California at Davis to match her father’s—did all the real work.)

I soon found that making wine is a lot more of a “hurry up and wait” process than you might think. First of all, you have to wait for the grapes to get to their optimum sugar levels, or “degrees brix,” the measurement commonly used in America. Once the grapes are ready to pick, you’ve got to line up a harvester and delivery time. In our case, the grapes were ready to pick, but the actual picking and delivery time changed three times over the course of three days for these grapes.

To put it mildly, it was a mess. In fact, we didn’t actually get the grapes in the tank until my final day. McPherson sped me to the nearby airport to catch my plane with just minutes to spare.

It was nearly 3 p.m. by the time the grapes hit the crush pad, and boy did they look baked and toasty in that hot metal bin that had been trucked more than half an hour from their vineyard in the hot August sun. But McPherson wasn’t worried. After more than 30 years in as a winemaker, most of which has been in Texas, he’s seen his fair share of ups and downs in harvesting. And despite the setbacks with the more than 6.4 tons this year’s Chenin Blanc harvest yielded, he was ready to roll his sleeves up and do what he does best: make really good wine.

Without getting into the piddly details, here’s how the process went. The grapes were all poured into a large outdoor tank and fed up a conveyor belt into the “crusher/destemmer,” which does exactly what you might think: crush the grapes, take out the stems and leaves. The grapes are then pressed to separate the juice from the grape skins and voila, you have wine!

Well, not exactly. First, you have to let it has to ferment. And before that can happen, we had to separate any left over solids in the juice that weren’t caught in the pressing process. To do this, usually winemakers have to let the juice sit in a cold tank to let the solids separate.

Imagine a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice. When you let it sit for a few minutes, you notice a foam start to separate and rise to the top of the glass. Or when a pint of Irish Guinness is poured, you watch as the creamy head begins to rise to the top. That’s what happens during the “cold soak” of grape juice for winemaking.

This process usually takes a few days. But not for McPherson. This year, he let technology do the work for him with an Italian designed “Ecoflot” from Della Toffola. This little pump enables the solids to clarify from the juice very rapidly. Like in less than an hour rather than a few days. With this year’s massive harvest, the Ecoflot allowed McPherson to save days of time in pressing and racking his wines to allow for more tank space with each new delivery of grapes. In short, he maximized his efficiency.

After using the handy little Ecoflot, a few adjustments had to be made to the juice including acidification and a little sulphur dioxide.

“I try to minimize these additions, but they’re just necessary to making wine,” says McPherson.

Note: Despite what some people may realize, the addition of sulphur dioxide and certain acids, such as tartaric acid, which is a naturally occurring acid in grapes, is a common practice in winemaking all over the world and has been for centuries. Sulphur Dioxide is actually a bi-product of fermentation from added yeasts. (Up to 5-7 parts per million.) It’s a topic to be discussed later down the line, but the big takeaway is, if you’ve been drinking any wine from your average grocery store shelf, it’s been adjusted with sulphur dioxide and some form or naturally-occurring acid.

 

McPherson also added a few yeast nutrients to help spark fermentation with the addition of yeast. In this case, he added “Alchemy II,” a yeast blend from Scott Laboratories to formulated to work well with Chenin Blanc fermentation. From then, we just had to let the yeast and the juice do it’s work.

It’s been about three weeks since we set up our dry Chenin Blanc. After checking with McPherson yesterday, it turns out the fermentation is almost complete. From that point, he says he’ll probably let the yeasts “settle out” on their own and fall to the bottom of the tank. Over the next month he’ll stir these spent yeasts or “lees” to add a little creaminess and complexity to the wine before racking the wine, removing the yeast and fining the wine for clarity. By December, we’ll be ready to bottle and I’ll be back up to Lubbock to help make it happen.

To date, we’ve selected the bottle—a dead leaf green color like the kind you see with most Chardonnay wines—and we’ve decided to use the more efficient screw cap instead of a cork. We’ve even been able to determine a general $12/bottle price for the 400 cases we’ll be able to yield of this wine. The only thing left is to figure out a name for this Texas dry Chenin Blanc.

Any ideas?

We’ll continue with the final result in December…

- Jessica Dupuy

Tagged: Chenin Blanc, Ecoflot, Jessica Dupuy, Kim McPherson, McPherson Cellars, texas wine

Want to know how Texas wines rate on a national level? Yes, many are winning national awards from East Coast to West, but how does the general sphere of wine experts view regional wine, and more specifically Texas wine? I recently had a few minutes to catch up with Food & Wine magazine wine expert, Anthony Giglio who will be on deck to discuss a few different wine topics at the inaugural Austin Food and Wine Festival this April. (Tickets on sale here.)

Giglio is a New York-based wine expert, CBS Radio wine correspondent, wine and cocktail speaker and author and is the editor of the annual Food & Wine Magazine’s Wine Guide—which reviews around 1,000 out of close to 4,000 wines tasted. He’s also guiding a 10-day tour of Sicily this summer for 20 people. Want to go? I know I do, but the tour sold out in three days. So we’ll just have to hope he offers another one.

TM: Having traveled all over the world tasting wine, what are your thoughts about regional wine and, more specifically, Texas wine?

I’ve written a lot about regional wine and I can tell you that the challenge for different regions across the country is weather and climate. The big three wine states—California, Washington and Oregon—are blessed with amazing weather that other parts of the country just don’t have. On the East Coast, for instance, you just don’t get 360 days of sunlight like you do on the West Coast. Without great sun, you can’t have great grapes. So they have to adapt.

Texas has plenty of sun, but it also has heat. It also has a constant struggle with Pierce’s disease (a bacteria disease which suffocates the vines), and a lot of other weather challenges. There are a million things to contend with. I visited Dry Comal Creek about a year ago and loved their wines, especially what they’re doing with native Black Spanish grapes.

But I’ve seen it so many times where people think it’s going to be this romantic thing to start a vineyard and what end up realizing is that they’re basically farming. But it’s farming at its ugliest. And it doesn’t matter how much money you have to put into it, you’re still fighting nature and nature cannot be controlled.

Texas is making some notable wines and has a wine history that predates California by a few hundred years through the Spanish missions, and it should also be proud of the fact that it was Texas rootstock from Thomas Munson that essentially saved the European wine industry, in the late 19th Century. That wouldn’t have happened if it hadn’t been for a Texan.

NOTE: Phylloxera is a small pest to grapevines worldwide that is native to North America. The pest was introduced to Europe when botanists collected specimens of American vines that carried the pest and brought them to Europe. The result was virtual plague on European vines that decimated the European grape growing industry. Because phylloxera are native to North America, the native grape species are resistant to the pest, but as Europe found out, their grape vines were not. Some estimates hold that between two-thirds and nine-tenths of all European vineyards were destroyed. The remedy to the epidemic that came from North America was also discovered in North America by notable Texas horticulturist, Thomas Munson, whose work on Native American rootstock development provided European grape growers with phylloxera-resistant stocks, a discovery that saved and restored the European wine industry as we know it.

TM: One of the things that Texas Grape growers and winemakers have found in the past 10 years or so is that warm weather grapes such as Spanish Tempranillo, French Viognier and even Italian Sangiovese do better in Texas than other cooler weather varietals that have done well in California.

AG: I think it’s brilliant that they’re using Spanish [and Southern French and Italian] grapes! I was surprised to learn how well Tempranillo was doing in Texas, but it really makes sense. I think there’s something poetic about the Spanish grapes making landfall in Texas since it was the Spanish that began the whole industry there centuries ago. And I’m so glad that they’ve decided to stop the madness of growing French grapes everywhere.

It’s the same thing Chile and Argentina have done. They have grapes there that you don’t expect and that’s what is making them successful. I don’t need to drink another new Chardonnay for as long as I live as long as there are white Burgundies from France and Chardonnay from California.

I think Texas is really still in its infancy as far as having the kind of wine that it had 30 years ago because they’re finally not in the bind of saying “We have to grow Chardonnay or Merlot because that’s what everybody likes.” Instead, they’ve figured out how to grow these warmer climate grapes that work better for the Texas climate. I’m interested to see  where the state will be 10 years from now.

TM: How does that discovery in Texas pertain to regional wines across America?

The majority of Americans love wine now. It’s more approachable than it has ever been. But, because of the way California first started marketing their wines many many years ago, Americans in general talk about grapes when referring to wine rather than region. They say, “My favorite Chardonnay is,” or “My favorite Cabernet Sauvignon is,”

But very few people talk about appellations, or where the wine comes from. It’s just not how we talk about wine. Which is funny because it’s exactly the opposite in Europe. Europeans are always scratching their heads at Americans because we’ll say “Oh, I love Chardonnay,” But they want to know, from where? Conversely in France, when you say you love white Burgundy, they automatically know you’re talking about Chardonnay, but the key is that you’re defining a very specific taste and flavor profile of that wine because of the region it is from.

I think the discussion for Americans is going to start to move in that direction. I think in the next decade we’ll hear more and more people say that they like Washington Cabernet Sauvignon, Anderson Valley Pinot Noir or even Texas Hill Country Tempranillo, realizing that place matters completely when you’re talking about wine. Instead of going into a restaurant and saying, “I’ll have a Chardonnay,” people will say, “Can I have an oaky California Chardonnay,” or “I’d prefer a crisp, white Burdundy,” knowing they’re talking about the same grape, but completely different styles of wine because of where they’re from.

TM: So Texas wine will have a part in that overall discussion?

AG: Someone may see a Texas Sangiovese and say, “I’ve never heard of that grape before.” But in asking questions about it, they’ll eventually find that it’s the same grape that is used to make wines that they are very very familiar with such as Chianti or Super Tuscans.

Those wines may not taste the same if you put them side by side. In fact, they most likely won’t, but when you tell them that the same grape they use in Chianti is the Sangiovese and that this is a Texas version of Sangiovese, people will start to understand that place really does matter when it comes to understanding the grapes that make the wine.

TM: So as a wine expert/educator/speaker, how do you go about teaching people about different wines?

AG: I never want anyone to feel uncomfortable about not knowing certain things about wine. I tend to treat it like a game of Jeopardy. People love trivia and when you talk about wine, it’s a lot less intimidating if you’re giving them a chance to participate.

I’ll say, “You like this Champagne? What are the grapes that make Champagne?” A lot of people that Champagne IS a grape. But when you tell them that the sparkling wine is actually made with three primary grapes: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunniere they’re usually blown away. It’s a great way to start a conversation.

Guys love to tell me that they love Cabernet. It’s like a right of passage or something. I

l’ll be in an elevator or on a plane with someone and tell them I write about wine and they say, “I had a great Cabernet last night, I love Cabernet.”

And I think, “Well of course you do. You’re American and you’re male, so of course you love Cabernet.”

But if I say, “How about Bordeaux? Do you like many Bordeaux wines,” and they’ll give me a deer-in-the-headlights look not realizing that most of the world’s great Bordeaux wines are primarily Cabernet Sauvignon. But when they ask about it we always end up in a great discussion and they end up with ideas of a few new wines to go out and try.

I still come across plenty of people these days who are snobby about wine and I am right there to let them know that I have zero patience for any of it and I will not stand for anyone being made fun of for what they may not know about wine.

Wine should be a part of everyone’s life. Robert Mondavi once said something like “Like what you drink and drink what you like and everything will be fine from there.” That couldn’t be more true.

I threw about 2/3 of what I learned as a sommelier out the window because it’s not what Americans need to know or even care about. What they really want to know is how to feel confident about wine and not be intimidated by something that is essentially fermented grape juice.

TM: So what can we expect from you at the Austin Food and Wine Festival in April?

AG: I’m doing three different seminars. One is called “Temperature Tantrum” where I’ll discuss how people need to drink wine at the correct temperature to be able to really enjoy it. I won’t get too scientific about it, but I’ll show people how much the taste of wine changes after just five minutes in an ice bath. If you taste the same wine blind at different temperatures, you would never believe it was the same wine. I’ve given the seminar many times before and I’ve made complete Temperature Tantrum soldiers out of it. People now go into restaurants and tell their waiter how to chill their wine correctly if they don’t do it right off the bat. It drives restaurants crazy, but now those people are enjoying their wine even more.

I’m also doing a seminar on Chardonnay versus Burgundy. So many people associate Burgundy with very fancy, expensive red wines or horrible, cheap gallon wine from California. But so few people know that the term “Burgundy” is not to describe a color, but a region from France. And few people also know that there is white wine from Burgundy and that white wine is made from Chardonnay. I’ll talk about the different styles of Chardonnay like the refined, minerally, crisp Chardonnay of Chablis as well as the over-the-top oaked Chardonnays like the kind you’d see women with big shoulder pads drink in Dynasty in the 1980s.

I’ll also do a similar class on Syrah and Shiraz, which are actually the same grape, just different based on where they’re grown. The Rhone region in France is known for Syrah, and the Australians essentially nabbed the same grape, began growing it in their country and changed the name to Shiraz. The grapes may be the same, but the wines taste very different. It’s the same discussion on how PLACE matters when you’re talking about wine.

- Jessica Dupuy

 

Tagged: Anthony Giglio, Austin Food and Wine Festival, Dry Comal Creek Vineyards, Food & Wine magazine, Jessica Dupuy, texas wine

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

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of visiting the High Plains of Texas, where among other things (including peanuts and cotton), they grow grapes. For wine. Some of the best wine in the state. In fact, if you’ve recently had what you consider a great bottle of Texas wine, the grapes have probably come from the High Plains. (Most of the wines we have selected for the Texas Monthly Wine of the Month have grapes from this region of the state.)

Aside from the gale-force wind storm that kicked up funnels of dust and a few of our skirts, I enjoyed traversing hundreds of miles with winemakers, grape growers, wine educators and a few other journalists to learn more about why this region is so vital to the Texas wine industry. In short the sandy loam soils, the dramatic temperature changes from day to night, and the dry-as-a-bone weather makes this place a grape haven. You may not have the chance to visit the Panhandle very often but below are some of the key places worth noting in this area:

•                Llano Estacado Winery: One of the larger wineries in the state making a broad range of beautiful wines under the direction of Executive Winemaker Greg Bruni. Some of their more notable selections include Viviana, Viviano, a 2009 unoaked reserve Chardonnay, and an 8-year Chairman’s Reserve port.

•                McPherson Cellars: Owned by Kim McPherson, the son of Llano Estacado co-founder and Texas wine pioneer, Doc McPherson, this winery is the one to watch in Texas. When it comes to making wines representative of Texas terroir, McPherson may actually be a genius. But don’t take my word for it, try for yourself. I’d suggest the 2010 Viognier, the 2010 Rosé of Grenache-Syrah, the 2010 Tré Colore, and the 2010 Rousanne, which was bottled only a few of days ago. Of course, it will be a short while before these are on the market, but the 2009 varieties are worth a try as well. And at about $12-$15 a bottle, you can’t lose.

•                Cap Rock Winery: Under new ownership, the Texas wine community has great hopes for the future of Cap Rock. A few wines to watch from here: 2010 Chenin Blanc, the 2010 Rousanne, and the 21010 Tempranillo.

•                Newsom Vineyards, Bingham Family Vineyards, and Reddy Vineyards: These expansive tracts are home to some of the best of the best grapes in Texas including Bingham Vermentino for Duchman Family Vineyards, Tempranillo for Inwood Estates, and Muscat for Brennan Vineyards.

In the next few months we’ll explore what’s ahead for Texas Wine Education, how the 82nd Legislature will effect the Texas Wine Industry, and we’ll meet a few of the growers who have made such an impact on Texas terroir. Stay tuned!

- Jessica Dupuy

 

 

Tagged: Bingham Family Vineyards, Cap Rock Winery, Jessica Dupuy, llano estacado winery, McPherson Cellars, Newsom Vineyards, Reddy Vineyards, Texas High Plains, texas wine

Mason, Texas. It’s not just known for topaz digging, deer hunting, or its claim be the home of authentic Cooper’s Barbecue—as opposed to the famed smoke pit in Llano. But we’re not discussing barbecue today. Instead, we’d like to note that Mason has fast gained recognition for its small little wine tasting room off the town square—the home of Sandstone Cellars Winery.

Though much of the Hill Country is made up of limestone and granite outcroppings, the Mason area is known for its sandstone deposits, which makes for a sandy soil rich in iron and minerals that according to Sandstone Cellars winemaker, Don Pullum, make for aromatic wines. Something celebrated Texas sommelier Drew Hendricks of Pappas Bros. restaurant in Houston noted when introduced to Sandstone Cellars wines earlier this year. Hendricks is not only the Corporate Wine Director and Director of Education for Pappas, but sits on the board of the Guild of Sommeliers and is the co-founder of the annual TexSom Beverage Conference in Dallas. Both he and Master Sommelier, James Tidwell of the Four Seasons Las Colinas began the conference as a forum for Texas sommeliers to continue their education and challenge their palates in annual blind tasting competitions.

“This conference has been a great way for Texas sommeliers to get to know each other and sharpen their knowledge of wine,” says Hendricks. “There’s always something new to be learned in wine.”

Learning about Sandstone Cellars’ portfolio of wines, was certainly an example to Hendricks about the many notable selections of Texas wine, which is why this month’s Texas Wine of the Month comes from this lonely little winery out in Mason: The Sandstone Cellars VII, Touriga Nacional, 2009.

This relatively low profile Portuguese red grape is a varietal worth watching as Texas grape growers continue to explore the best grapes for the state, and thereby better defining the Texas terroir. Known for its high tannins and concentrated black fruit flavors, touriga is what Pullum would consider an excellent blending grape for its ability to add spice, complexity, and structure to a wine.

“Touriga grows so well here and I’m a big believer in using it as a blending grape,” says Pullum, who supplies Sandstone with grapes from his own Akashic Vineyards. “The 2009 touriga turned out to be so well balanced that we thought it could stand on its own as a straight wine.”

In Hendricks’ opinion, Pullum was spot on. “The structure is just perfect,” says Hendricks. “I love that the Sandstone wines are a perfect balance between laboratory wines and super earthy Burgundy-style wines. Their touriga is a great example of a good artisanal wine. Sandstone is just doing a fantastic job.” And he’s not the only one to think so, at a dinner pairing on Tuesday evening, Hendricks poured this wine for Ray Isle, Executive Wine Editor of Food and Wine Magazine who later tweeted: @islewine: Mighty excellent ’96 J Prieur Montrachet tonight in the company of equally excellent @drewhendricksms. Sandstone Touriga from TX cool, too.

Hendricks notes flavors of deep dark cherry, mint, plumb, and a mushroom, earthy quality to the wine. “For me, this wine would be braised meat heaven,” says Hendricks. “Pair it with short ribs or a lamb shank, and you’re in for a great meal.”

At $30 a bottle, the Sandstone Cellars VII is a great value for what you’re getting. While it’s not readily available at retail outlets throughout the state it is easy to order directly from the winery. It’s also on the wine list at Fearing’s and The Pyramid in Dallas, and as you may have guessed, Pappas Bros. Steakhouses in Dallas and Houston.

 

- Jessica Dupuy

Tagged: Don Pullum, Drew Hendricks, Jessica Dupuy, Pappas Bros. Steakhouse, Sandstone Cellars Winery, texas wine, Texas Wine of the Month, TexSom

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

Greg Bruni knows a thing or two about wine. A third generation winemaker from California with a degree from the University of California at Davis, and a diverse career in restoring and building California wineries, Bruni has dedicated both his technical know-how and his finely-tuned palate to the art of making good wine. In 1993, he and his wife decided to leave their life in the Santa Cruz mountains and explore a whole new challenge: Texas Wine. Bruni became the head winemaker for Llano Estacado Winery, an estate that was growing by leaps and bounds and having great success with grapes from the High Plains region of Texas.

At the time Bruni was familiar with some Texas wines, but the industry was in its infancy in the early 90s. “I didn’t know what to expect in terms of the viticulture in Texas,” says Bruni. “I had to learn a lot and come into it with an open mind and a pioneering spirit.”

Today, Bruni is Vice President Executive Winemaker and in the past 15 years, the wines he has made with Llano Estacado have garnered silver and gold medals in competitions against wines from all over the world. How does he view the future of Texas Wine? We recently had a chance to sit down with him and find out.

Jessica Dupuy: Texas has come a long way in the past 10 to 20 years with the quality of wine it produces. What do you think it will take to change what people think about Texas wine?

Greg Bruni: Since I’ve been in Texas, I’ve seen a real evolution. There was a time when the wines weren’t as good as they are now across the board in Texas. As we get better as winemakers and grapegrowers then the wines are going to get better.

If we’re going to change what people think about Texas wines, we have to change the way we go about making Texas wines throughout the state.

We’re in the middle of a continental climate, and we need to understand how grapes that we’re growing here that may be indigenous to a Mediterranean climate, for example, are going to yield different chemistries than if we were actually growing them in a Mediterranean climate. All of those things that we balance when making a wine such as acidity and sugars are going to read differently here than they would there. So it’s up to Texas winemakers to understand where the flavors are best for grapes here in Texas.

We make decisions for Llano Estacado wines based on the flavors in our vineyards rather than by sticking to the numbers and chemistry evaluations. In California, for instance, you do both; the chemistry verifies what you’re tasting in the field.

In Texas, if we let the chemistries dictate our decisions, we could lose the flavor we’re looking for. For example, we may lose the fruitiness of our Chenin Blanc if we try to wait to pick our grapes when the sugars are at 22, which is more of a standard number for that grape. Instead, we pick ours when the sugar is around 18 or 19. We’ve had to adapt to what the Texas climate will give us and that’s how you make the best wines.

Jessica Dupuy: We’ve seen a lot of buzz about grape varietals such as Tempranillo and Viognier in Texas. Do you see a particular grape that will rise as a signature Texas grape?

Greg Bruni: We make gorgeous Tempranillo in Texas and beautiful Viongiers. These varieties are very exciting for winemakers here. But at the same time. Llano Estacado and a few other wineries have had a lot of success with more conventional grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon, Chenin Blanc, and even Chardonnay.

If you asked the same question about what the best grape is for California, there is no single answer. It depends on which region of California. It could be Cabernet blends, Pinot Noir, or Chardonnay depending on where you are.

You also have to think in terms of history. If you look at Europe, where Chardonnay is well known in Burgundy, Sangiovese is associated with Tuscany and Cabernet with Bordeaux, these are regions that have been producing wine for two millennia.

In California, where different varietals have succeeded in different regions, they’ve been growing grapes in California for more than a century. We’ve only really been growing grapes in Texas for two decades—with the exception of a few of the larger wineries. We don’t quite know who we are yet.

Give it another two decades and the next generation will build on what we’ve done. I have no doubt that we’ll be great. But it’s too soon to tell what a star variety will be.

Jessica Dupuy: Other than time, what do you think will help the Texas Wine industry achieve similar status to California with quality wine?

Greg Bruni: If we’re looking at the Texas Wine Industry we’ve got to have young technicians to take this on into the next generation to improve upon what we’ve started. Education is fundamental.

Think about it like this, when I was going to UC Davis in 1974-77, one of my friends was recruited to go to Chateau St. Michelle in Washington. At the time, we thought he was going to the end of the world. Right around the same time, my family was working on developing vineyards in the Central Coast of California (Paso Robles and Santa Barbara County.) In Texas, wineries such as Llano Estacado and Fall Creek were established.

Fast forward to 2010. Now, the state of Washington has an enormous wine industry with some world-renowned wines. The Central Coast of California has more than 40,000 acres of grapes planted and 300 wineries. In Texas, we may have had visionaries to begin planting grapes with some good success, but we didn’t have the technology, or the trained people.

With the exception of a few wineries, most of what was planted in the 1980s in Texas was the result of a few people wanting to retire on a vineyard. So they invested in the land and they planted grapes. They did their own growing and winemaking. They tripped and fell here and there and many of them are still around today, but the majority of Texas wines are sold directly from the wineries. There are only a handful of wineries that have the type of large-scale distribution that you’d find in California.

The biggest difference between Texas and California over the past 30 years is that California had universities with dedicated enology programs, an established industry, and a rich pool of candidates with the technical experience to help make the best possible wines. That wasn’t the case in Texas.

If we can get the education system set up, we’ll be giving our winemakers the technicians and educated workforce so that the work is done in a more scientific order. You have to have people that know how to make it, sell it, financially plan, and know the business model. We’re starting to see that with Texas Tech, Texas A&M, and Grayson College. It’s only a matter of time before we’re up to speed with California.

- Jessica Dupuy

Tagged: greg bruni, llano estacado winery, Meet the Winemaker, texas wine

Ever been to Bend, Texas? Located in the northern part of the Texas Hill Country, it’s considered part of the Way Out Wineries Wine Trail and is certainly around a bend or two of ranch and county roads. Bend is where you’ll find Alamosa Wine Cellars, home to a dynamic winemaking couple, Jim and Karen Johnson, some of the state’s most provocative Rhone-style wines, and the winery from which this month’s Wine of the Month derives.

With the help of San Antonio’s Steven Kreuger, resort sommelier for the Westin La Cantera Resort, we’ve found yet another Texas Viognier that deserves a special nod. As you may remember, this aromatic and fruity French grape has made quite a showing throughout the state with many winemakers and enthusiasts alike calling it one of the star grapes of Texas. Kreuger couldn’t agree more.

He hosts a daily Texas wine tasting at the Steinheimer’s bar at the resort with two-ounce pours of three different wines—and he always starts with a Viognier. One of his favorites, and this month’s Texas Wine of the Month: Alamosa Wine Cellars, Viognier, 2008.

This single-vineyard Viognier comes from the Texas High Valley Block of the Cherokee Creek Vineyard, managed by Hill Country grape-growing guru, Mike McHenry. (Most of McHenry’s grapes go to the Johnsons at Alamosa including Viognier, Orange Muscat and a few others.) According to Kreuger, this particular Viognier has apricot and melon aromatics that are fairly typical of this varietal, but also an added minerality from the limestone and granite topography of the upper Hill Country region.

“This wine is a pure expression of the ‘Top of the Hill Country,’” says Kreuger. “It’s a world class Viognier, that I am very comfortable serving alongside Viogniers from the Rhone region in France. The Alamosa wine is as good, if not better, than all but the most rare and exalted French counterparts.”

Available at popular Texas wine retailers Twin Liquors and Spec’s, the 2008 Viognier retails for about $18 and pairs well with rich meats such as duck, but also makes a great summer sipping wine with fresh goat cheese or smoked gouda. The Alamosa Viognier in particular has a nice acidity to it that makes it a great food wine, without a too “buttery,” or too sweet feel.

Of course, the best place to enjoy the Alamosa Viognier is at the vineyard itself. If you have occasion to visit the Way Out Winery Trail, make a stop at Alamosa Wine Cellars and be sure to taste the Orange Muscat, the signature El Guapo Tempranillo, and Kreuger’s other favorite, the Palette, a true Rhone-style Syrah blend.

“I love the Palette because it is a Texas wine through and through,” says Krueger. “It is not all fruit and flash like a California counterpart, and it is not like the lush, monstrous Shiraz from Australia.  If it is similar to anything else in the world it is the Southern Rhone blend it is modeled after Chateauneuf du Pape.  It’s not the polished new international style that could have come from anywhere, either, it is the old-fashioned, rustic, soulful style that most assuredly came from one specific place, and even though it is like Chateauneuf du Pape, the one place that this wine is from is TEXAS.”

I can say that the Palette is a close favorite for me as well. It’s a big wine—not for sissies—and goes well with wild game such as smoked venison or elk tenderloin. The flavors are dark, earthy, and complex with cranberry, raspberry, and even some mushroom and truffle tones. Give this one a try!

Winery: Alamosa Wine Cellars

Retail Price:  ~$18

Availability: Specialty wine and liquor retailers such as Twin Liquors and Spec’s

Tagged: Alamosa Wine Cellars, texas wine, Texas Wine of the Month, Westin La Cantera