Vintage Texas Wine Blog

Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo First Wine Country Tour Visits the Texas Hill Country

Oct 252014

Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo 2014 Wine Tour Group

Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo’s First Wine Country Tour Visits the Texas Hill Country

By now, most of you know October is Texas Wine Month. Well, it could have been no better time than this month for The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo’s (HLSR) Wine Sales and Events Committee (click here) to organize their first ever wine tour. On the three-day weekend of October 3-5, they welcomed committee members and fellow wine aficionados for a fun and event-filled weekend tour of Texas hill country wineries October 3-5, 2014.

This tour provided “wine-trail riders” special tastings, gourmet food and wine events including bus transportation, meals, hotels and special meetings with winery personnel. It was a first-hand opportunity to personally experience the Texas Hill Country that was recently named as one of Wine Enthusiast’s Top Ten Wine Destinations of 2014 (click here). A special feature of the tour, none other than Doc Russ Texas Wineslinger (me) rode the trail with the tour participants and was available to answer Texas wine questions and provide interesting insights and stories of the birth, re-birth and evolution of the Texas hill country wineries.

HLSR Texas Wine Tasting at 4.0 Cellars

The tour started on Friday afternoon and after checking into their hotel rooms in Kerrville, the party caravanned to 4.0 Cellars on the Route 290 Wine Road east of Fredericksburg. There we tasted a selection of wines from HLSR award-winning wineries McPherson Cellars, Brennan Vineyards and Lost Oak Winery. The wines were enjoyed with hors d’oeuvres while they explored and relaxed on well-appointed grounds. This first evening was made even more enjoyable courtesy of the previous day’s cool front that overnight changed the seasons from Summer to Fall. Continue reading »

Winners at the 2014 Austin County Wine Show

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Oct 202014

Grand Champion Jerry Watson, Silver Medalist Martha Tarkington and Bronze Medal winner Ken Krienke at the 2014 Austin County Wine Show (Photo credit: Barker Photography – www.barkerphotography.com)

Winners at the 2014 Austin County Wine Show

I once spoke with Texas high plains winegrower Neal Newsom about the differences in growing grapes for wine and growing other crops like hay and cotton. He looked back at me and said, “When we go to show, it’s a heck of a lot more fun when we meet-up to review and discuss wine grapes and drink wine than we have at hay meetings.”

Well, that is exactly how I feel having recently been a judge at the 2014 Austin County Wine Show Non-Commercial Competition sponsored by the Austin County Grape Growers Committee. I had far more fun tasting (and afterwards) drinking wine than I would have had chewing on a stalk of hay, that’s for dang sure.

Having been a wine judge for several years now, it was also good to see (and taste) that the wines made by amateur (non-commercial) winemakers in Texas continue to get better every year. It is good to see that Blanc Du Bois, the white grape of the Gulf Coast and post oak plains continues to be gaining acceptance by winemakers and consumers alike.

This year’s winners were:

Dry Red Wine: Gold – Scott Greene; Silver – Doug Rowlett; Bronze – Ken Krienke

Sweet Red Wine: Gold – Billy Schaffner and George Holm – Tie; Silver – Martha Tarkington; Bronze -Martha Tarkington

Dry White Wine: Gold – Barrett Rouse; Silver – Scott Greene; Bronze – Jerry Watson

Sweet White Wine: Gold – Jerry Watson; Silver Martha Tarkington; Bronze – Ken Krienke

Fruit / Berry Wine: Gold – Dave Grimme and Billy Schaffner – Tie; Silver – Dave Grimme; Bronze – Alfred Tomasek and George Holm

Dessert & Port Style Wine: Gold – Barrett Rouse; Silver – Kenneth Wuensche; Bronze – Scott Greene

Kit Wine (Non-TX) Grapes – Dry Red Wine: Gold – Alfred Tomasek; Silver – Richard Clayton

Kit Wine (Non-TX) Grapes – Dry White Wine: No awards given

Kit Wine (Non-TX) Grapes – Sweet Wine: Gold – Richard Clayton; Silver – John Martine; Bronze – Richard Clayton

Native Grape / Mustang Wine: Gold – Danny Koester; Silver – John Martine; Bronze – Alfred Tomasek

Blush Wine: Gold – Kenneth Wuensche; Silver – Kenneth Wuensche; Bronze – Barrett Rouse

Overall Winners: Grand Champion – Jerry Watson; Reserve Grand Champion – Barrett Rouse

Overall Austin County Winner: Grand Champion – Scott Greene

Jerry Watson, Overall Grand Champion from this year’s judging for his sweet Blanc Du Bois, said, “I started making wine from kits in the seventies then in the nineties, when we started growing, I moved on to fruit and then grape wines. Normally, I make dry Blanc Du Bois, but this year, I also made some sweet Blanc to keep my sweet wine drinking friends happy.”

When I asked him what it took to make good wine with Blanc Du Bois, he said, “A good slow, cold fermentation works best; something around 50-55 F that takes 2-3 weeks to complete. Then, make sure that the finished wine has a good sugar/acid balance.”

Jack Palacios & Scott Greene – The grapes for Scott’s gold medal, Grand Champion Syrah was grown in the Palacios family vineyard in Brenham, Texas.

Scott Greene, this year’s Austin County Overall Grand Champion, wanted to make sure the man who grew the grapes that were in his award winning wine was acknowledged. He said, “I want to make sure that you mention Jack Palacios. The Syrah in my wine was the produced in his vineyard. Syrah is not exactly a big grape for this part of Texas and Jack and his operation are to be commended. The Palacios family have been growing vinifera grapes with some success for several years not to far from here in Brenham. I have been the beneficiary, as I made the wine, but Jack should get an award for growing the grapes.”

Then, Scott added an additional note that indicated he was looking for further winemaking challenges. He said, “I’m still trying to find the Holy Grail for making a Black Spanish red table wine.”

Scott, as you well know, many have tried, but very few have succeeded. Perhaps it will be next year for you. Maybe it will be a Black Spanish/Syrah blend. Congrats to you and all participants and winners of this year’s Austin County Wine Show.

VintageTexas: It’s Good to Know We’ve Made a Difference

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Oct 152014

VintageTexas: It’s Good to Know We’ve Made a Difference

I was perusing my recent issue of Food & Wine Magazine (November 2014), when I spotted F&W Executive Wine Editor Ray Isle’s article titled “The Great American Wine Challenge”. He talked about his wine tasting experiences in places like Arizona, Texas, New York and Virginia.

My attention was focused as I read Ray’s lead-in where he described his not so good wine tasting experiences in Texas with his father many years ago. Then, he flashed forward to the 2013 Austin Food & Wine Festival and his narrative included his preliminary misgivings having accepted an invitation to be on a wine panel about Texas wine at the Austin festival. Ray said…

“But, as I tasted through the wines, what I felt instead was relief and, to be honest, a frisson of pride for my home state. The wines weren’t just good: they were very good.”

After reading this, I read it again and with the hairs on the back of my neck standing at attention, I set the magazine down on my lap with a smile on my face.

I said to myself, “I organized that Texas wine panel in Austin.” I also selected the wines and moderated the panel. As I sat there rewinding my memories of how it all unfolded, I recalled that It was only after muddling it over in my mind (should I, shouldn’t I, should I, etc.) that I decided to reach out to Ray. I knew it was a long shot getting this nation wine luminary on the panel. While the festival was sponsored by Food & Wine, national media types tend to go invisible when the words “local wine” are spoken. But, I wanted to see if Ray would be willing to be a member of the Texas wine panel was going tobe a good one. He would be joining Austin master sommeliers Craig Collins and Devon Broglie, and local advanced sommelier June Rodil. The only problem was…I did not have Ray’s contact info.

2013 Austin F&W Festival Texas Wine Panelists (Photo credit: Matt McGinnis): Ray Isle on Left followed by June Rodil, Devon Broglie MS, Russ Kane, Paul M. Bonarrigo (non-panelist), Craig Collins MS.

After realizing my dilemma, I called Austin-based Texas wine marketing maven Denise Clarke after recalling that she had been part of a previous Texas wine marketing delegation to New York City and by chance maybe she had the information I sought. Sure enough, Denise came through with Ray’s contact information and I made the connection with him and he accepted my invitation.

Ray’s comments in the Food & Wine magazine article continued with praise for one of the panel’s featured wines. He said…

“My favorite, a Tannat from Bending Branch Winery in Comfort, Texas – a little town of about 2,300 people that about as non-Napa-fancy as a town can be – was spicy, powerful and polished, and a good red wine as I’d tasted in the past several months.”

Ray also admitted that the Austin tasting was the first of his several eye-opening American wine experiences. For that, I was pleased to be part of Ray’s American “wine awakening”, too.

Two other Texas wines featured in the F&W article were 2012 Duchman Family Winery Vermentino, Pedernales Cellars Texas Tempranillo.

Thanks Ray for the shout out for our local Texas wines from your national stage. Also, thanks to Denise who came through for me when I needed critical information from her Texas wine marketing files. It feels good to know that we’ve made a difference in helping to get Texas wines the national respect they now deserve.

Fall Creek Vineyards: A Wonderful New Venture in Driftwood, Texas

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Oct 132014

Fall Creek Vineyards: A Wonderful New Venture in Driftwood, Texas

The biggest news that I’ve heard is some time started with an email out of the blue from Susan Auler that said, “Just wanted to let you know about our wonderful new venture.”

The details that followed were about a new Fall Creek Vineyards location in Driftwood, Texas. The plans are to open a new winery tasting room that will be directly across the road from the entrance to Salt Lick BBQ. Most of you have seen wines made at Fall Creek Vineyards that carry the single vineyard designation of the Salt Lick Vineyard (SLV). For one thing, this new venture will be very convenient for harvesting of SLV grapes.

Ed and Susan Auler are the husband/wife duo that pioneered growing of Vitis vinifera grapes (the classics of Europe) and winemaking in the Texas Hill Country. That all started thirty-five years ago with their vineyard and winery in Tow, Texas, when it was not a given that wine grapes could even be grown in Texas. Ed was also the leading force behind the petition to the Federal government that formed the Texas Hill Country AVA (American Viticultural Area). Well, they accomplished a lot back then, have not backed off in recent years. They showed this by hiring a world-class winemaker in Sergio Cuadra from South America to head their Texas winemaking operations. What better way to celebrate their 35th year in the wine business than with a new venture.

Susan said, “Ed and I are excited about our new activities in Driftwood. We actually have been working for three years on plans to build in the Driftwood area to be close to Scott Robert’s Salt Lick Vineyard, but plans to build got stalled, and we were introduced last June to this existing property directly across the road from the Salt Lick entrance.”

They saw it, thought it was perfect for their purposes and have been working diligently for the last 4 months to change the property from residential to commercial for the purposes of making it a Fall Creek Winery Tasting Room. According to Susan, “The building lends itself perfectly to becoming a winery. Our winery in Tow will remain our primary production site, and Tow tasting room will continue daily operations with special monthly events, wine club operations, etc.”

The Fall Creek Driftwood operation will include a small winery production area, three tasting bars, along with beautiful indoor and outdoor areas for sipping with small plates of food being served. The rock patio with large water feature, and gardens will be inviting. The Driftwood tasting room will also have what the Auler’s describe as a “Wine Library” for special tastings and wine club members. Additionally, they plan for the facilities to be a gorgeous wedding and event location with a guest house and another room as part of a small inn.

Susan said, “The Ed and I have had a particularly good working relationship with Scott Roberts at the Salt Lick. The Roberts grow good quality grapes, and Sergio Cuadra our manager of winemaking operations monitors the vineyards year round to be sure we produce the best quality, premium wines. This will make the job easier having this nearby property. Our plan is to eventually plant 5 more acres of our own grapes on the property.”

Susan admitted that things were moving fast now with plans to start up operations in Driftwood in late November or December. They are making some renovations which will be completed by Thanksgiving. Then, they will simply be waiting on new state and Federal licenses to be issued. She said, Ed and I hope to be able to toast the new property with our friends, associates and followers soon after that.”

Sergio Cuadra, Susan Auler and Ed Auler

Dotson~Cervantes Something Red: And, Definitely Worth the Wait

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Oct 012014

Alphonse Dotson & Martha Cervantes & their Something Red

Dotson~Cervantes Something Red: And, Definitely Worth the Wait

We met in Mason on a Saturday in September not really knowing much more than what Alphonse Dotson told me over the phone earlier in the week. He said, “Russ, my brother, I’ve got something for you to taste. It’s something red that, you know, I feel has been worth the wait.”

As my wife and I dined on gorditas with Alphonse Dotson and his wife, Martha Cervantes, at the Sandstone Cellars wine bar, it all became more apparent.

When Alphonse flashed me the bottle, on the label, his wine announced itself saying, “Something Red. 68% Cabernet Sauvignon – 32% Merlot. Texas Hill Country – 2008.” Yes – 2008!

Dotson readily admitted, “It’s taken a little time to get this wine, our first red, to market. And, it’s also something somewhat unusual.”

The way I understood the story that unfolded during our meal, Alphonse and Marta had some delays getting their Cabernet and Merlot harvested in 2008…something related to issues with the harvester not showing up. Best I can remember, the grapes were eventually harvested somewhere around 28 Brix. Then, one fermentation turned into several fermentations, but yielded an inky black wine with north of 15 percent alcohol. They both refer to this wine being “on the edge of late harvest” as does on the wine’s label. Then, because of the uniqueness of the wine, the intended path for this wine had to change. Unfortunately, at that point, Alphonse and Martha were not as far along with their Pontotoc winery project as they expected to be. So, the wine sat in barrel and then in tank for an extended period, until this year (2014).

I will say that I had some second thoughts before tasting Dotson~Cervantes 2008 Something Red. First. I knew at the start that spicy Mexican food wasn’t going to be the best match for this “near-late-harvest-big-boy” wine. Alcohol and spicy chili is no heavenly pairing. Secondly, I know that even the best of wines can go wrong if stored in barrel or tank too long. But, as Alphonse said, “You know Russ, patience is a virtue”, right about the time when I brought the wine to my lips.

The wine vapors were immediately carried aloft with still remarkably fresh fruity characteristics of black plums, blackberries and currents. On my palate, the wine was substantial and getting even more fruity by the moment and mixing with nuances of vanilla and baking spice. But, after the next bite of pork gordita and green chili salsa, I knew this was not the heavenly match for this wine.

I said, “This wine needs a steak. A steak with nice fat content, a ribeye would be my choice. Even better, a ribeye with a nice char on it. Something that’s barely medium rare, too.”

Well, this week, I had my chance to make a proper pairing for Dotson~Cervantes Something Red. Yep, it was the steak, cooked just the way I described.

Hopefully, you can find Something Red for yourself. And, you know, I agree, patience is a virtue and this wine was definitely worth the wait.

P.S. If your able to find a bottle of this mighty fine wine, read the label. I like wine labels that tell a story. But, in true Dotson style, he gives thanks to his friends that helped him make this wine – Ed (Auler) and Sergio (Cuadra).

Time to Show Us Your Stuff: Austin County Wine Show & Non-Commercial Competition

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Sep 222014

Time to Show Us Your Stuff: Austin County Wine Show & Non-Commercial Competition

Are you an non-commercial or amateur wine maker? Well, show us your stuff. This is a professionally judged competition that will give you a side-by-side comparison of how your wines stack up versus other wines.

The annual Austin County Wine Show and noncommercial wine competition will be held October 11, 2014, at the Turnverein Building, Austin County Fairgrounds, Bellville, Texas. There is no charge for entry, and you may enter as many wines as you wish, but you will have to pay the entry fee to the fairgrounds to submit your wines for competition.

Click here for the competition rules and entry form. Wines can be entered into the following classifications:

Red Wine – Dry
Red Wine – Sweet
White Wine – Dry
White Wine – Sweet
Fruit/Berry
Dessert/Port Style
Kit Wine/Non-TX Grapes
Native/Mustang Grapes
Blush

Entries must be check in from 2-3 pm on the day of the show (October 11, 2014) and the judging will begin promptly at 3 pm. After the judging, entrants and the public will be invited to a tasting and the awards ceremony.

For other information on the Austin County Fair, go to http://austincountyfair.com.

Hope to see you there!

Llano Estacado Winery’s Best Wines Keep Coming: Viviano and 1836

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Sep 132014

Llano Estacado Winery’s Best Wines Keep Coming: Viviano and 1836

While many of the recent accolades for the Texas wine industry have come from relative newcomers with boutique wineries, it’s good to see that long established Texas wineries continue to define quality and character of some of Texas’s finest wines and get them into distribution around the state. In this regard, Llano Estacado Winery needs to be singled out as being one of the first modern-day Texas wineries (established in 1976), the largest premium winery in Texas, and a winery that almost 40 years from its inception keeps offering wines that can compete in the super-premium category nationally.

Llano Estacado Winery’s Executive Winemaker and V.P. Greg Bruni is a leader in these quality efforts since he came to make Texas wines after leaving a successful winemaking career in California. Greg, winemaker Chris Hull and their winemaking crew continue to bring home awards with their wines, several of which were recently called out in major International wine competitions. Two of these wines also acknowledge this state’s 2010 grape harvest that I feel will be long recognized as one of the best of all time in Texas.

According to Greg Bruni, “The clear message I would like to send to Texas wine drinkers is that in my opinion the 2010 vintage in Texas was an excellent one for red grape maturation particularly in our Cabernet Sauvignon, Sangiovese, Tempranillo and Syrah grapes from the west Texas and high plains vineyard. In my 20-years as a Texas winemaker, vintages vary in their ability to produce fruit of optimal maturity, but 2010 was one of the years where exceptional grape quality was broadly achieved.”

You may ask why are we discussing the 2010 vintage when it’s now 2014. That’s four years later. Well, Llano Estacado is just now releasing some of the Best-of-the-Best wines they have from the 2010 vintage.

Greg continued, “So the short answer is this exceptional grape quality from the 2010 vintage has allowed us to achieve our quality target for our super-premium wines. In response, we let these wines barrel age beyond our normal 24 to 36-month and even 40-month protocols.”

Personally, I’m always leary of over-oaking wines, particularly Texas wines as it tends to degrade the fresh, fruit character Texas wines can offer. But, in this case, I’ll admit that for the following two wines from Llano Estacado and the 2010 vintage, the proof is in the tasting.

2010 Llano Estacado “1836”, Texas

Those of you that got some of the 2008 vintage of this wine won’t need much prompting here. It’s a classic Cabernet-Syrah blend, just a smidgen heavier on the Cab, but it would take a chemist to determine that. So, let’s just call it a 50:50 blend made from Texas High Plains and what Bruni calls is West Texas “desert” grapes. This wine brings lusciously opaque red-black color and ripe dark fruit characteristics. The barrel treatment acknowledges the special quality of the fruit with extended 28-month aging in French and American oak barrels. The tannic structure of this wine is a great match for the wine’s heavy extraction and presence in the glass and will make this wine last years if properly cellared.

This “1836” (San Francisco International Wine Competition Double Gold Winner) while aimed at “On Premise” accounts (like major restaurants), is a great find if you are lucky enough to locate a restaurant serving it. I will try to follow up with some advice on this. Perhaps, some of this wine might find it’s way into retail stores as did its 2008 predecessor.

2010 Llano Estacado Viviano, Texas

As most of you already know, I’ve been a fan of Llano’s red Viviano blend for years. The winemaking team at Llano Estacado do now make this wine every year, it’s saved for the really fine vintages when the opportunity presents itself. Well, 2010 was it for Viviano and I believe that this is one of the best Viviano’s Llano Estacado has released. For me it’s the wine’s combination of dark berries and tart red fruits that comes from this blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Sangiovese (70:30 blend). The wine exudes month watering fruit even after 43 months of oak aging. Yes, that’s right – 43 months (I checked to make sure it wasn’t a typo in the release materials). The complexity of this wine is enhanced by the time in barrel to provide a long list of secondary spicy and aromatic characteristics. It also has a firm but quite pleasant tannic structure that pairs well with grilled meats and game that also bodes well for it’s longer term aging potential.

More information on these and other premium wines from Llano Estacado Winery is available online at: www.llanowine.com

TXwine Twitter Tuesdays are Back!

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Sep 042014

If you are a Texas wine lover, here is your chance to meet-up with other Texas wine aficionados. Jessica Dupuy, Denise Clarke, Daniel Kalada, Jeff Cope and I welcome you to join us starting Tuesday September 16 at 7 pm Central. Details are provided by Jeff Cope below:

From: Jeff Cope at txwinelover.com…

Starting September 16, TXwine Twitter Tuesdays will be held bi-monthly, that’s every two months, so be sure to watch for when the next one will be. They will normally be held the second Tuesday of the month and that will be the same most of the time, but may change some months like this month.

This month’s #TXwine Twitter Tuesday which will be held on Tuesday, September 16. This month we will be celebrating the Texas wines which were served at the 10th anniversary of TEXSOM this past August.

This will make it easy for everybody to find a wine to enjoy and discuss during the chat since many Texas wineries participated at TEXSOM. The wineries participating were:

Bending Branch Winery
Brennan Vineyards
Duchman Family Winery
Hye Meadow Winery
Kerrville Hills Winery
McPherson Cellars
Messina Hof
Pedernales Cellars
Spicewood Vineyards
William Chris Vineyards

The other change for Twitter Tuesdays are additional hosts besides Denise Clarke, Jeff Cope, and Jessica Dupuy. Back to join Twitter Tuesday is Russell Kane (VintageTexas.com) and joining the hosting ranks is Daniel Kelada. Certain Twitter Tuesdays will have specific hosts and for this month’s Twitter Tuesday, Denise and Jessica will be hosting.

Join us for the September #TXwine Twitter Tuesday on September 16th from 7-8 p.m. CST. Grab your favorite wine from one of the wineries above and we look forward to seeing you for a night of tasting and tweeting.

Please remember to include #TXwine in your tweets so everyone participating in the chat can see your tweets!

Cheers!

Denise, Jeff, Jessica, Russ, and Daniel (look for @DeniseClarkeTX, @TXWineLover, @JDewps, @VintageTexas, @txwinejournal)

Additional Details:

NOTE: If you are new to Twitter, here’s how you participate: just sign up for a free Twitter account at www.twitter.com. You can also go to the TweetChat room set up for #TXwine (http://tweetchat.com/room/TXwine). No registration is required; you can login using your Twitter account info. In the TweetChat room, participants are invited to follow tweets, add comments or tasting notes and share thoughts as participants taste and discuss the wines.

Another Twitter chat website which works well is:
http://www.tchat.io/rooms/txwine

On TweetChat and TChat the hashtag #TXwine will automatically be added.

If you are using TweetDeck or another Twitter application, you will need to add #TXwine to your tweets.

Brennan Vineyards: It’s OK to Taste in the Library!

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Sep 042014

Last Saturday, I made the run up to Comanche from Fredericksburg to participate in Brennan Vineyards premier Library Tasting. In the middle of the Labor Day weekend, the traffic was light, the air humid and clouds well formed above.

Pat Brennan, welcomed the group and acknowledged his winery’s 10 years in operation. He gave thanks that his winery now had the resources (and ten years of wine) to hold this tasting. Also part of the wine presentation were Rebecca Connelly now involved in the winery’s marketing and Todd Webster with five years as Brennan’s winemaker.

Pat Brennan admitted that when he and his wife Trelise bought the old 19th century stone house (now the winery’s tasting room), some adjoining property (now their vineyard) and a tractor they didn’t have any agricultural experience. They didn’t think of doing anything other than growing grapes, especially not making wines. It is amazing to see what ten years, a few enology classes and a friend named Tiberia could do. We were all gathered in the Brennan Vineyards Austin Houston to taste the fruits (and wines) of Doc Brennan’s vision and labor.

The two grape varieties tasted were first Viognier and then Cabernet Sauvignon. Brennan said, “I’d heard that Viognier was a great doing well in Texas. The one from Becker Vineyards was first one I tasted. I liked it and we decided to plant it followed by Syrah and Cabernet.”

The vintages of Brennan Viognier we tasted were 2005 through 2007 and then from 2009 through 2011. The differences of vintage and winery treatment (oaked or not) were apparent. According to Brennan, “The 2006 was the result of great growing conditions that year. This wine was the winner of the Houston Rodeo’s Best Texas Wine.” It was still tasting very well in 2014 too with nuances of apricots and Meyer lemons.

The 2010 Viognier was one of my favorites in the flight. It was a prolific vintage year. Todd Webster said, “I went back to the 2006 Viognier formula that Pat Brennan had with some new oak and a little Semillon in the blend.”

The second half of the tasting focused on Brennan Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon.

Brennan said, “Notice the date of the first wine. It is a 2003 Cabernet that I made before the winery opened and befoer was legally able to sell wine. Back then, I hadn’t thought of making wine (only sell grapes). However, I met Lawrence Tiberia from Barking Rocks Winery while taking wine classes at Grayson College. He brought down his winemaking equipment and set it up in my garage. That was the point where I knew, we were going to open a winery. It gave me the bug to make wine not just grow grapes.”

The 2003 (non-commercial) Brennan Cabernet was inspirational both in terms of its solid characteristics, but also the story that it told of the future of Brennan Vineyards. The next wine was the 2006 Cabernet that Brennan again recalled that it came from a great year all around for grapes in Texas.

The comparison of the Cabernets and the evolution in the Brennan Vineyards winemaking style was perhaps even more predominant than for the Viognier. 2008 brought out aromatics that were enhanced with oak and bottle aging. 2010 lead to changes in how they determined harvesting parameters and incorporated the use of winery techniques like delestage. Theses combined to optimize the ripeness and flavor profile of the wine. In the following years they made adjustments with American and French oak aging and blending with other grape varieties.

The evolution of Brennan Vineyards Cabernet seemed to culminate in its 2010 Reserve Cabernet that again from a season that I believe many years from now people will call Texas’s “Vintage of the Century”. The wine was deeper in color, richer in flavor and texture with more new American oak used to infuse a spicy character into the wine.

It was a wonderful afternoon, well spent as we delved into the evolution of winemaking at Brennan Vineyards.

Saying Goodbye to Texsom 2014

6 Responses »

Aug 302014

As August wains, I need to say my final goodbyes to this year’s Texsom. The new acquaintances, visits with old friend and, oh yes, the education happened and went far to quickly.

After ten years, the “little” sommelier conference that James Tidwell and Drew Hendricks believed could fill an important industry need has. There are far more advanced and master sommeliers in Texas than there were ten years ago. But more importantly, there are many more “in the system” studying, taking certifications and basically taking their career in wine far more seriously than they would have without Texsom. While statistics are not available on this, it appears to me that there are more and younger sommeliers involved than every before in Texas. Texsom should be credited as being the leader that has made this happen.

All this happened in ten years, but it wasn’t without challenges and doubts between the organizers. At this year’s Grand Tasting and best sommelier award presentation James Tidwell said, “There was a point after about three years after the start where Texsom was still ‘upside-down’ with respect to covering its costs with my employer (the Four Seasons Las Colinas Resort).”

It took some serious thinking at that point. But, James and Drew continued and slowly and steadily made progress. From my point of few, it all came together about three or four years ago. It was obvious that Texsom had become a national event for sommeliers and others in the wine trade. This year’s overall attendance for all seminars, tastings, associated courses and competition approached one thousand people.

From the standpoint of Texas wines, Texsom has helped bring them into the national limelight. Many out-of-staters have received their first of Texas wine right here at Texsom. Furthermore, the current relationship between Texsom and the Dallas Morning News wine competition, has added further credibility to Texas wineries that we medals with their wines in the competition.

I’m saddened that Texas 2014 is now over, but I look forward to 2015 when Drew, James and their sommeliers in training, open their tent again for all to attend.

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