Write Off the Vine: Texas Wine News – September 23, 2011
Texas Wine of the Month: Salt Lick Cellars Sangiovese Reserve, 2009
by Jessica Dupuy (Eat My Words/Texas Monthly)
When it’s young, the wines tend to be a little light with hints of bright fruit, strawberry and a little spice. When aged in oak for a while, they can grow in depth and complexity.
But perhaps more importantly, Sangiovese does really well in Texas.
This month’s Texas Wine of the Month selection comes with the help of sommelier Richard Arnold, of Houston’s La Colombe d’Or. Originally an Austin native, Arnold nurtured a growing passion for wine while managing wine lists in Colorado restaurants Potager and Larkspur as well as notable Texas locales such as Del Frisco’s, Vic & Anthony, and Pappas Brothers. He was also one of the first to help open Spanish-inspired Malaga in Austin with Jay Knepp and Jennifer Robin, both of whom are now with the wine program at the Salt Lick Cellars in Driftwood.
More: http://www.texasmonthly.com/blogs/eatmywords/?p=3968
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A Taste Of Texas Wine at Westin La Cantera (San Antonio)
From Vinously Speaking Wine Blog:
The vinous trio of Veronique Cecilia Barretto, Melissa Unsell and Stephane Adjou team up to bring San Antonio a full-bodied, easy reading, humor-filled, down to earth wine blog! Join them in building up San Antonio’s urban wine culture one post and one glass of vino at a time!
Vinously Speaking is all about the development and revolutionizing of the urban wine culture of San Antonio! And when events are held that promote that, well we love that even more! So when The Westin La Cantera Resort here in San Antonio invited me to join them for an exclusive social media wine tasting event, you better believed I accepted!
The event they put on was called “A Taste of Texas Wine” and they invited a few local bloggers to come taste some delicious Texas wines, selected and discussed by their in-house sommelier Steven Krueger and well-known Texas wine blogger, Dr. Russ Kane of Vintage Texas.
A Taste of Texas Wine Offers Something Beyond the Same Old Chardonnay
From: Griffin to Go (By John Griffin on SavorSA):
Steinheimer’s Lounge at the Westin La Cantera features a treasure map on the ceiling that supposedly points to hidden gold. But on Friday night, the gold was found in glasses, as the bar was the setting of a Taste of Texas Wine Tweet-Up.
Wine from Haak, Becker, Alamosa and Inwood Estates.
Resort sommelier Steven Krueger and Vintage Texas wine blogger Russ Kane led a tasting of four uniquely different Texas wines, each made from grapes that extend far beyond the California classics, Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon.
“Texas is its own growing region, unique,” Krueger told the audience of local bloggers and tweeters. “You walk into a Texas winery and you don’t know what they’re going to serve you … and that’s a challenge.”
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Drought Proves Mixed blessing for Texas Wineries
By Sarah Bahari (Star Telegram)
Months passed with hardly a drop of rain at Homestead Winery, but Gabe Parker knew he would produce some of the best wine he ever tasted.
“The quality is through the roof,” said Parker, who runs wineries in Ivanhoe and Denison. “Grapes are small, but intense with so much flavor.”
A severe drought has crippled agriculture across Texas, but it has produced one small bright spot: tiny, rich-flavored grapes that are making intense wines. At wineries across the state, grape crops have shrunk, in some cases dramatically, but growers say they made up for those losses in flavor.
The explanation? Grapes need some water to grow, Parker said, but too much water swells the fruit and dilutes the sugar.
More: http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/09/18/3377315/drought-proves-mixed-blessing.html
Harvesting Aglanico. A great late ripening vine, start @ 9PM and will go all night 7.7 acres. That will make a bunch of TEXAS wine.
Yum….can’t wait.