Vintage Texas Wine Blog

VintageTexas Top Ten Texas Wines of 2012 – Red Wines

Dec 192012

VintageTexas Top Ten Texas Wines of 2012 – Red Wines

Moving on from yesterday’s posting of the contingent of five white wines in my 2012 VintageTexas Top Ten Wines (Click here), it’s time to present the red wines that topped my scale this year. I mentioned previously that the selection of just five white wines was hard, but I believe that the selection of the best five red wines was even harder.

Yesterday, I neglected to mention that I purposely did not reference Jessica Dupuy’s fine 2012 top wine list at Texas Monthly Eat My Words Blog during my deliberations. This way you will get a separate view, but perhaps still with some duplicates.

Also, please keep in mind that these are all wines that I’ve personally tasted during 2012, and unlike a certain wine blogger called out by Palate Press (click here), none of these wineries “paid-to-play”.

Well, here goes:

Red Caboose Winery Range Rider Tempranillo Blend, Multi-Vintage

I literally stumbled onto this wine during a trip to the north central parts of Texas during the summer. I paid a much overdue visit to Gary and Evan McKibben the principals at Red Caboose Winery in Meridian. This is the wine that lit Sommelier Bill Elsey and me up on the topic of non-vintage (or more nicely described as multi-vintage) wine. It is a blend of estate-grown Syrah, Tempranillo and Cabernet from the 2008 and 2009 vintages that was oak-aged for 24 months and left unfiltered. It has a dark ruby color, intense licorice, tobacco and coffee characteristics with a long smooth finish. I never thought that non-vintage (urr – multi-vintage) could be so good. Evidently, the judges at the recent 2013 Houston Rodeo Wine Competition thought similarly and gave this wine a double gold award. I can’t remember if this is the award that comes with boots, hat, buckle, chaps or saddle; Gary might look good in chaps!

Photo Courtesy of Jeff Cope – www.TXwineLover.com

Calais Winery La Cuvée du Manoir Tempranillo 2010, Newsom Vineyard

Llano Estacado Cellar Reserve Tempranillo 2010, Newsom Vineyard

I’m going to list these two wines together under the heading of “Texas Tempranillo”. Why….for four reasons: (1) Tempranillo is rapidly becoming the “National Grape of Texas”, (2) it’s the bloggers prerogative, (3) accordingly it helps me to squeeze one more red wine in this category, and last but definitely not least, (4) they are both made from Newsom Vineyards Tempranillo – that’s really incredible starting material.

Both of these wines excelled during our recent #TXwine Twitter Tuesday Tempranillo Tastes and Tweet event in November. That night, we had an intimate dining room tasting of 15 Texas Tempranillos with some friends and ended up having over a half million Twitter impressions with something like 32,000 followers stopping by for a visit and a virtual taste of these wines.

The Calais Tempranillo is what I call “a Tempranillo made by a Frenchman” – unfiltered, thick, opaque red-black color combined with red berry characteristics and well integrated French oak aging. I really liked Ben Calais’s 2009 Tempranillo and love this 2010 (available at the winery).

The Llano Estacado Tempranillo is a well-made wine by the Bruni-Hull winemaking duo. Pleasurable in many ways (flavors, aroma, structure and earthy character) and it’s also affordable and available in distribution in most urban centers in Texas thanks to Spec’s.

Marnelle Durrett and Pierre de Wit – Kiepersol Estate

Kiepersol Estates Stainless Syrah 2010

For this wine, I have to go back to early in the year when I did a tasting of Texas wines at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, and experienced it again at our Sunday morning Texas wine panel at the Austin Food & Wine Festival in April. The Kiepersol Stainless Syrah is a big wine literally dripping with black fruit qualities complete with an underlay of tannic structure, but not a lick of this wine touched oak. It was all done with cold soaking and extended maceration. I’m personally quite proud of Kiepersol winemaker Marnelle Durrett (with encouragement from her father Pierre de Wit) for having the courage and patience to make this wine. It’s wonderful and hopefully there will be more to come.

Becker Vineyards Claret 2010

I’ve liked this wine for many years. It’s not expensive (usually in the range of $14-16) and this 2010 vintage is special. I tasted it first as a judge in this year’s Lone Start International Wine Competition in June where we gave it a gold award in their international division. That alone is a statement on this wine’s quality. After the competition when I found out what it was I judged, it knocked me out. Becker Claret has a medium-plus body with a blend of red and black berries and a vanilla-spice note of oak aging. It doesn’t over power but melds when paired with a wide range of foods, from grilled meats, steak apouve, or even salmon.

Llano Estacado Viviano Superiore Rosso 2008

Like the previous wine, this wine has garnered awards year after year and, like truly great wines, stands the test of time. I have representatives of Llano Estacado Viviano from 2000, 2005 and 2007 vintages aging in my cooler and showing well. The 2008 joins them. This Viviano is a blend of about 73% Cabernet Sauvignon and 20% Newsom Vineyard Sangiovese, with a smidgen of other red varieties to finish off the blend. It shows something different every time I taste it, which is what I guess defines complexity and is an attribute of a fine red wine. Dark aromas and flavors predominate but notes of red fruit, coffee and vanilla prevail along with the characteristic cedar of all Vivianos developed during over 2 years of barrel aging.

Llano Estacado Winemakers – Greg Bruni & Chris Hull

VintageTexas Top Ten Texas Wines of 2012 – White Wines

5 Responses »

Dec 182012

VintageTexas Top Ten Texas Wines of 2012 – White Wines

The naming of the top ten Texas wines has become our VintageTexas annual tradition. After Jessica Dupuy’s fine retrospective of her top Texas wines of 2012 (click here), I almost broke down to just posting a link to her site. She had some damn good wines. Luckily, as she mention, there are more and more really good Texas wine to go around, perhaps enough to make three or four top ten lists.

The method for my selections is based on what I’ve tasted during the past year and a revisit of my notes and scores as well. Unlike, Jessica’s selections that are based on getting 18 on a 20 point scale, I decided this year to feature my top scoring wines: five whites, five reds and five (really great) honorable mentions. The five extra wines (honorable mentions) this year were named for specific reasons; something about them I though was notable, unique or different. OK, enough of my blabber; the following list contains my favorite top five Texas white wines:

Pedernales Cellars Viognier, Texas, 2011

I tasted this wine in the heat of the Texas summer (click here) along with its big brother (Pedernales Cellars Reserve Viognier) and its cousin (Pedernales Cellars Albariño). This wine expresses clear, clean fruit character concentrated by the sun, heat and arid conditions from 2011. I think the reason that I chose this over the Reserve Viognier was its lack of oak resulted in penetrating citrus, peach and tropical pineapple and mango notes from grapes mostly from the Bingham and Reddy vineyards well placed on the Texas high plains near Lubbock.

McPherson Cellars Reserve Roussanne, Bingham Vineyards, Texas High Plains, 2010

This wine was one of several notable Texas wine on a tasting panel that I assembled for the Austin Food & Wine Festival back in April with June Rodil, Craig Collins MS and Devon Broglie MS (click here). It was also selected by Guy Stout MS for his tasting panel with Christy Canterbury MW (click here). I’ve had it now probably six times this year and it keeps getting better with its lemony, green tea qualities, silky feel and long finish. Mark my word, Roussanne is destined for greatness in Texas.

Brennan Vineyards Lily, 2010

I discovered this wine one afternoon at 4.0 Cellars near Fredericksburg and by November it was one of my favorites of the year and on my Thanksgivings Day table. It’s Brennan Vineyards white Rhone-style blend of Roussanne, Viognier and Grenache “Blanc”. Viognier drives the nose with floral aromas, with Roussanne yielding lemon citrus notes, smooth feel and finish, and Grenache providing a crisp underpinning on the palate. It’s also become my wife’s favorite having displaced Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc. I just can’t seem to keep it around the house for very long. In fact, I out again!

Messina Hof Winery Moscato, Tribute to Innocence, 2011

This was a recent acquisition. On my last trip to Fredericksburg I purchased a bottle of this wine there at the HEB in preparation for our December TXwine Twitter Tuesday event. I already had a bottle the 2010 which was very good. However, when I opened the 2011, the jasmine and orange blossom floral aromas jumped out of the glass followed by bright crisp fruit flavors, light body from the refreshingly and barely sweet fluid. This wine is a wonderful statement from the Muscat Canelli grape that does so well in Texas.

Haak Vineyards Madeira Blanc Du Bois 2010

Ol’ Raymond Haak down in Galveston County just seems to be getting better and better making his Madeiras from both Blanc Du Bois and Lenoir (which he calls by its other name Jacquez). Honestly, I like both. However, I have to admit, while the Haak Madeira Jacquez is probably more in keeping with the style and tradition of Madeira, the Madeira Blanc Du Bois does something special to me. I did a retrospective tasting of Haak’s Madeiras, which was my backdrop for comparison. The 2010 Blanc is simply super with its interesting yellow-copper color, green hue, brisk acidity, caramel sweetness, deep layering and long finish with a salty note from somewhere thrown in for good measure. It is an exceptional dessert and sipping wine over ice.

TXwine Twitter Tuesday: Join Us Dec. 11th, Chat with Chef Josh Watkins on Texas Wine and Food Holiday Pairings

2 Responses »

Dec 062012

TXwine Twitter Tuesday: Join Us Dec. 11th, Chat with Chef Josh Watkins on Texas Wine and Food Holiday Pairings

Happy Holidays everyone! The holidays are always a fun, busy time of year – and shopping to find the right gift can sometimes be stressful. But there’s no reason to stress over picking out some great Texas wines to pair with holiday favorites! Austin’s Denise Clarke (@DeniseClarkeTX) with Jeff Cope (@txwineLover) and me (@VintageTexas) in Houston welcome you to participate in our December TXwine Twitter Tuesday taste and tweet event.

Chef Josh Watkins at The Carillon Restaurant

Join us for the December 11 at 7 pm Central for TXwine Twitter Tuesday chat when Austin native and Chef Josh Watkins will join us and share some of his favorite Texas wines to pair with a holiday menu. Watkins (@chefjoshwatkins) is the executive chef at The Carillon Restaurant, a fine dining restaurant at the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center. His culinary education combined with his San Francisco and Dallas restaurant experience was a huge plus when he joined the culinary team at the historic Driskill Grill under the tutelage of nationally acclaimed chef David Bull. (Watkins and Bull even teamed up and appeared on Food Network’s Iron Chef America). In 2007, he was named executive chef at the Driskill Grill, which earned a consecutive five-star rating.

Watkins’ passion for farm fresh, ingredient-driven food has earned him significant accolades at The Carillon, one of the highest-rated restaurants in Austin. Watkins suggests these Texas wines to pair with some of his holiday favorites:

Duchman Family Winery Viognier

Celery root-apple soup
Spiced apples with brandy syrup

McPherson Cellars Sangiovese

Free-raised veal tenderloin with sweet potato hash, and mustard greens with bacon gastrique
Beef tenderloin with Brussels sprouts and potato puree
Braised beef short ribs with grilled romaine and pickled radish

Fall Creek Vineyards Muscat Canelli*

Buttermilk panna cotta
Manchester cheese
Almond cake

*Fall Creek Vineyards Muscat Canelli is available at The Carillon Restaurant, but is not available in stores. We suggest that you either stop by the restaurant or try Messina Hof Winery Muscat Canelli (Tribute to Innocence) which is available in stores around Texas.

Make sure to pick up these wines to ring in the holiday season and to chat with Josh about pairing wines with food! Look for these wines at Spec’s, Kroger, HEB, Central Market or Total Wine or the wineries. Try a recipe or two and some wine/food pairing. Get some advice from the chef.

Here’s how you participate: If you don’t already have one, just sign up for a free Twitter account at www.twitter.com. 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. On TweetChat the hastag will be added automatically. If using TweetDeck or another Twitter application, you will need to add #TXwine in your Tweets.

This month we are also going to be posting to Facebook before, during and after the event. Click here and login and follow, post and discuss on Facebook.

Port-Style Wines: Not Just for Old Fogeys Anymore! Ports Come in Chocolate and Pink!

2 Responses »

Nov 282012

Port-Style Wines: Not Just for Old Fogeys Anymore!

My new Texas Wineslinger wine column on Lubbockonline.com went live tonight (click here). It was a bit of a free form narrative titled “Texas Has Many Ports in a Storm” and is based on a few references and a quick survey of friends and professional associates that like a splash of Port wine every now and then. The credits include the following:

Kevin Simon – University of Houston

James King – Texas Wine School

Don Pullum – Akashic Vineyard & Consultant Winemaker

Guy Stout MS – Glazer’s

Paul Bonarrigo – Messina Hof Winery

But, Guy’s quote was the one that’s stuck with me. He’s right…Port isn’t a boring stogy old sweet wine any more only fit for cigar smoking old guys. Sorry Guy!

One example is the wine featured in the photo above – 2008 Boom Chocolatté made by Brushy Creek Vineyards. It’s a chocolate-infused, Tannat Port-style Texas wine that won a gold medal at the 2012 Lone Start International Wine Competition. A few weeks ago, I tasted it at TWGGA’s grape camp after running into winery owner Les Constable at dinner. Les opened his tall thin bottle of Boom Chocolatté and it was obviously unconventional and a definite hit with all that tasted it that night. I came home with the balance of the bottle and tried it out on friends and family since then, and in both cases, it made them say Wow!

On Les’s Brushy Creek Vineyard website, he describes Boom Chocolatté as…

“This sinfully rich dessert wine will awaken your senses with an explosion of blueberry and chocolate flavors. Enjoy this wine with your favorite dessert, or use as a topping for ice cream or cheesecake.”

At $42.99 a bottle, Boom Chocolatté ain’t cheap, but it’s worth it. It’s both powerful (19% alcohol) and powerfully good making a little go a long way.

– — – — –

One of the contributors to my Port wine column on lubbockonline.com James King sent me an email that further supported my case that Port-style wines are hot and getting hotter in the marketplace. He referenced information from Shanken News Daily that indicated:

Port shipments to the U.S. were up 11% in 2011 (and rising another 5% in 2012 through August).

In an interview with Adrian Bridge, CEO of The Fladgate Partnership, Bridge said:

“In the U.S., the really strong growth is in aged Tawnies. We’re seeing double-digit growth on 20-year-old Tawnies and up, which is phenomenal when you consider that two-thirds of distribution in that segment in the U.S. is through restaurants.”

That’s the conventional stuff…now listen to this…

Ever heard of Croft Pink? It’s Port Rosé. Yep, you heard me right.

This innovative new Rose style of Port has been made by a new technique which extracts fresh, fruity flavors and a subtle and delicate pink color from limited contact with the skins of classic Port grape varieties, grown in top quality vineyards of the Douro Valley. It has created the perfect opportunity for Port to be consumed in the warmer months of the year when Port may not otherwise be the drink of choice. This port is best served chilled and is an excellent aperitif accompanied by roasted almonds or olives. It is also a delicious accompaniment to lighter desserts and fruit. Try some of the Croft Pink Cocktails. Or pour over ice and mix with soda. It’s gaining acceptance, despite Port’s very traditional image?

Bridge said, “We needed a slightly different approach to get it into restaurants, because sommeliers, even in this day and age, were accustomed to Port being red. So we decided to bring it in through the bar, which meant promoting cocktails and engaging bartenders. But we encourage Croft Pink to be drunk on its own as well. People are receptive to Pink. It’s bringing in a new generation and creating new consumption occasions.”

Click here to check it out.

Remember…Port’s not just for old fogeys anymore. I think that Guy’s right.

As Bridge says, Port’s for a whole new generation now. Think pink!

The Winemaker that Mark Penna Just Never Ran Off

1 Response »

Nov 242012

The Winemaker that Mark Penna Just Never Ran Off

This week, in my Texas wine column in the Lubbock Avalanche Journal and on lubbockonline.com (click here), I interviewed Duchman Family Winery winemaker Dave Reilly. He is an interesting fellow particularly when he talks about how he made his transfer from construction to winemaking at Duchman Family Winery in Driftwood, TX.

Dave and I have something in common. We both made our entry onto the Texas wine scene after our wives told us that we were working too much and we needed a hobby. It might be the same for Dave that it is for me…there’s a fine line between a hobby and mental illness. I rarely do anything halfassed; it’s full-bore or nothing. I got mine genetically from my Mother, Beatrice Kane, who was a master quilter. She didn’t make just a few quilts, she made them for everyone in the family and in many cases more than once. She taught classes, worked on community quilts at church and local organizations, made bags, jackets and wall hangings to name just a few things that ended up quilted. In addition to that she tried her hand at soap making and even winemaking.

Dave told me that it all started with ten vines, then another ten vines. After that, it was a half acre and another half acre, then three. Before he knew it, he had seven acres under vine. But, Dave still wanted more.

Through a neighbor, Dave met ex-Llano Estacado winemaker Don Brady and before he knew it, he was interning with Mark Penna, the original winemaker at Duchman Family Winery. Mark was both a fine and gentle man, avid scientist and someone that readily shared what he learned and experienced about Texas winemaking from time he spent around the state at Pheasant Ridge, Llano Estacado, and CapRock and as head winemaker at Ste. Genevieve in Ft. Stockton. Click here to read more about Mark Penna.

Dave gives lots of the credit for his winemaking education and entry into the Texas wine industry to Mark and what Dave calls “The Mark Penna School of Enology”.

To read more about the story of winemaker Dave Reilly who is contributing greatly to the evolving Texas wine experience, click here.

P.S. After the story was released, Dave contacted me by email to correct one statement that I made.

He said, “Thanks for the great write up. One small thing… out of respect for Mark, I was brought on in 2006 to plant the vineyard because he didn’t have enough help. He was diagnosed [later] with cancer in the spring of 2008. Mark was a very strong man when I started here in 2006.”

Thanks for the clarification. I feel that I can speak for all that know you when I say thanks for your contribution to Texas wines. I’m glad that Mark had you to continue on with his Texas winemaking legacy.

A New Way to Elevate Texas Wine Production and Quality: The Champagne Connection

5 Responses »

Nov 172012

A New Way to Elevate Texas Wine Production and Quality: The Champagne Connection

This week, in my Texas wine column in the Lubbock Avalanche Journal (click here), I talked with Austin’s wines.com and Red Room Lounge sommelier Bill Elsey about interesting and somewhat surprising connections between grape growing and winemaking in Texas and in the northern French wine region of Champagne. I think that I may have caught some people off guard to the point of thinking that we both went over the cliff on this one.

However, I believe that we came up with a way around one of the major stumbling blocks of Texas wine production: vintage-to-vintage variability. The work around is really nothing new. It’s more like borrowing a page from the play book of Champagne, another region that is challenged with a highly variable, continental climate.

As acknowledged by Oz Clark in his book, Grapes and Wines: The Definitive Guide to the World’s Greatest Grapes and the Wines They Make (click here), wine regions in continental climates typically have greater variability year-to-year in the weather leading to colder winters, late spring freezes and shorter summers. This is the result of not having close access to a large body of cold water near by like they do in most coastal regions of France, California and other places in the modern wine world. This sure describes what we have in Texas. However, we are at the opposite end of the climatic extreme to Champagne. Champagne fights of the effects of cool, damp summers, while Texas fights heat, drought and the occasional late spring freeze.

Check out my Texas Wineslinger column to see how multi-varietal and multi-vintage blended wines (common in Champagne) can help Texas wine growers and wineries build a buffer between them and weather to maintain more consistent production and wine quality at the same time. It just means that Texas wine consumers will have to learn a new lexicon: proprietary wine names versus what California taught them about single varietal wines.

I will rest my case after you taste a wine from Red Caboose Winery: their Range Rider multi-varietal, multi-vintage blend of Tempranillo, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon (click here).

Texas Wineries Win Top Awards in the 2013 Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo International Wine Competition

4 Responses »

Nov 142012

Hats off to the Houston Rodeo Wine Winners for 2013

Texas Wineries Win Top Awards in the 2013 Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo International Wine Competition

The 2013 Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo International Wine Competition Champions are:

Grand Champion Best of Show – Alexander Valley Vineyards CYRUS, Alexander Valley, 2008
Reserve Grand Champion Best of Show – Williams Selyem Westside Road Neighbors, Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley, 2010
Top Texas Wine – Pedernales Cellars Viognier, Texas, 2012
Top Country Wine (Italy) – Bolla Amarone, Veneto, 2007
Top All-Around Winery – E & J Gallo Winery, Modesto, Calif.
Top Wine Company – Messina Hof Winery, Bryan, Texas
Top Sparkling Wine – Gosset Excellence Brut, Champagne, Non-Vintage
Top White Wine – Consilience Wines Viognier, Santa Barbara County, 2011
Top Red Wine – Silkwood Wines Alicante Bouchet, California, Non-Vintage
Top Sweet Wine – Yalumba Museum Reserve Antique Tawny, Barossa Valley, Non-Vintage
Top Value Wine – Cycles Gladiator Winery Pinot Noir, California, 2011

This was the 10th annual International Wine Competition judging and boasted 2,884 wines from 943 wineries in Texas, across the United States and around the world. Twenty-one countries participated in the competition and 2,293 medals were awarded by 20 panels of judges, consisting of wine experts, collectors and knowledgeable consumers.

“It’s great timing—now you know what to serve at your special holiday dinners!” said Skip Wagner, Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo president.

Champions will be awarded buckles, chaps and saddles at the Rodeo Uncorked! Roundup and Best Bites Competition Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013. In addition to the champion wines, the Best Bites competition features offerings from select Houston-area restaurants and caterers vying to earn attendees’ votes in the Best Bites Competition. The top restaurant awards will be presented that evening, along with three new special titles: the Roundup and Best Bites Tasty Tradition, Rookie and Outstanding Showmanship awards.

All champion wines will be auctioned at the Rodeo Uncorked! Champion Wine Auction and Dinner Saturday, March 2, 2013.

For tickets and more information for these Rodeo Uncorked! events, visit www.rodeohouston.com, email wine@rodeohouston.com or call 832.667.1128.

Guests of the 2013 Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo also can enjoy a selection of award-winning wines by the taste, glass or bottle at the Rodeo Uncorked! Champion Wine Garden, located in Carruth Plaza. For more information on tickets and events in the Champion Wine Garden, visit www.rodeohouston.com.

The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is a Section 501(c)(3) charity that benefits youth, supports education, and facilitates better agricultural practices through exhibitions and presentation. Since its beginning in 1932, the Show has committed more than $330 million to the youth of Texas. The 2013 Show runs Monday, Feb. 25, through Sunday, March 17. For tickets and more information, visit www.rodeohouston.com.

TXwine Twitter Tuesday – Tempranillo Taste and Tweet Extravaganza (7pm Central Tomorrow 11/12/2012)

3 Responses »

Nov 122012

TXwine Twitter Tuesday – Tempranillo Taste and Tweet Extravaganza ( 7pm Central Tomorrow 11/12/2012)

Well, get ready for the biggest TXwine Twitter Tuesday event of the year. Join us at 7 pm Central at the Tweetchat room set up for #TXwine (http://tweetchat.com/room/TXwine) to taste through a long list of Texas Tempranillos. The list of participating wines and wineries just keeps getting longer. So long, in fact, that we are going to make this a two hour tasting extravaganza. I guess I should have anticipated that this event would get huge since Tempranillo is now the “national” red grape of Texas. We also have professional tasting groups in Houston and Austin participating, too. Taste, tweet, follow, repeat!

We have a true cross-section of Texas Tempranillos included: some are widely distributed and some are only available in very limited quality at the winery tasting rooms; some are single varietal wines; some are blends; some are are single vineyard designated wines.

Our anticipated schedule and tasting list is shown below:

7:00 Intros

7:05 Alamosa Wine Cellars El Guapo (Tempranillo blend) – $16 Specs

7:15 Brushy Creek Tempranillo Klassen Vineyard 2011 – $49 at winery

7:25 Calais Winery La Cuvée du Manoir Tempranillo Newsom Vineyards 2010 – $35 at winery

7:35 Cap*Rock Tempranillo 2010 – $11 Specs / Cap*Rock Sweet Tempranillo – $11 Specs

7:45 Fall Creek Vineyards 2010 Salt Lick Vineyard Tempranillo – $30 at winery

7:55 Landon Winery Tempranillo Reserve 2010 Bingham Family Vineyards – $25 at winery/ Landon Winery Tempranillo Reserve 2011 Bingham Family Vineyards – $25 at winery

8:10 Llano Estacado Tempranillo Newsom Vineyards 2010 – $16 Specs

8:20 McPherson Cellars La Herencia 2010 – $11 Specs

8:30 Pedernales Texas Tempranillo 2010 – $20 at winery/ Pedernales Texas Hill Country Tempranillo 2010 – $39 at winery / Pedernales Tempranillo Reserve 2010 – $30 at winery

8:45 Perissos Vineyards Tempranillo 2010 Texas Hill County – $45 at winery

8:55 Ponotoc Vineyards Tempranillo 2011 – TBD

9:05 Plans for December TXwine Twitter Tuesday December 11^th & Good byes

If you have any of these or other Texas Tempranillos, please feel free to taste and tweet about it too. Details are at: http://vintagetexas.com/blog/?p=6783.

NOTE: If you’re 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.

Remember to taste, follow, tweet and repeat! More tastes, more tweets, more TXwine fun! Just remember to sip and spit!

TAPAS Tempranillo Day 2012 – Tasting New World Tempranillos from Texas, California and Oregon

No Responses »

Nov 082012

TAPAS Tempranillo Day 2012 – Tasting New World Tempranillos from Texas, California and Oregon

According to TAPAS (Tempranillo Advocates Producers and Amigos Society) it is officially Tempranillo Day – Thursday, November 8, 2012.

I’m looking at and about to taste five Tempranillos. But, there are not from Rioja or even Spain.

All are from the new world and that is to say that they are quite far afield from the Tempranillian home turf of the Iberian Peninsula. They come from across the pond: Texas (Texas High Plains and Hill Country), California (Caleveras County) and Oregon. These are exciting new wines and after my tasting, I can certainly say that Texas, California and yes, even Oregon can make some pretty darn good Tempranillo wine.

Tasting Notes:

CapRock Winery Tempranillo – Texas High Plains 2010 ($11-14) – Garnet with medium body, fresh red fruit aroma and flavor, and moderately oaked having a crisp cranberry finish. Good sipping red, easy and refreshing on the palate. 12.5% Alcohol.

Fall Creek Vineyards Salt Lick Vineyard – Texas Hill Country 2010 ($30) – Garnet with medium body, ripe red fruit characteristics, medium plus oak yielding leading to a mocha mid-palate and a steely, lead pencil finish. Needs food (grilled meats) – If you know the Salt Lick, you won’t wonder why. 13.5% Alcohol.

Alamosa Wine Cellars El Guapo (Tempranillo blend with 20% Graciano, 5% Garnacha) – Texas Hill Country 2010 ($15) – Medium plus body with red plum fruit aroma and flavor carrying smoky pipe tobacco and graphitic qualities and a bit of burnt fat near the finish. This wine will pair well with Iberian ham and high fat content sausages. 13.4% Alcohol.

Twisted Oak Winery “The Spaniard” (Tempranillo blend with 12% Graciano, 4% Garnacha) – Calaveras County California 2009 ($49) – Red-black color, very ripe black cherry fruit aromas and flavors with smoky nuances, heady in the glass, but still pleasantly so. Stiff tannins needs medium rare beef. 14.5% Alcohol.

Abacela Reserve Tempranillo – Umpqua Valley Oregon 2007 (was $40+ but sold out). Purple-black color, a mélange of red and black fruits on the nose and palate with cherry and plums and a hint of caramel and a hard spot of graphite at the end. Dominant fruit helps this wine sip well, but this wine will do nicely with a braised lamb shank, thank you very much. 14.6% Alcohol.

– — – — –

I’m going to be doing some additional tasting of these wines from 7:30 to 9:00 pm Central tonight and will post the comments on Twitter at: http://tweetchat.com/room/TempranilloDay. Join me for more fun.

Also, next Tuesday November 13th is #TXwine Twitter Tuesday and we will have a grand tasting dedicated to a full line of Texas Tempranillos (more than 10 in all) from 7 to 9 pm Central. You can join us at: http://tweetchat.com/room/TXwine. More details on this online tasting event are at: http://vintagetexas.com/blog/?p=6783.Join in and find out why Tempranillo has become the National Grape of Texas!

On the Northern Fringes of the Texas Wine World: BarZ Winery

No Responses »

Nov 022012

On the Northern Fringes of the Texas Wine World: BarZ Winery

After four trips to the Texas vineyards and wineries in the Texas High Plains AVA, I finally found an afternoon to break free from the Lubbock-Brownfield-Plains “Metroplex” to explore the northern fringes of the Texas wine world and visit Monty Dixon at his BarZ Winery in Canyon, TX.

As I drove, the extreme flatness of my surrounding was playing with my visual acuity to the point that I had to asked myself, “Can I actually see the curvature of the Earth here?” Then, a bit later I spotted a strange looking animal at road’s edge and my mind went further causing me a ask, “Was this northern fringe of the Texas wine world a bit like the places on the edges of the old cartographers’ maps of yore where they depicted sea monsters, dragons and such. But alas, it was only a lone coyote or perhaps just a skinny dog.

When I entered Monty’s neo-Quonset high plains wine retreat on the edge of Palo Duro Canyon, I snapped back to reality. We greeted, sat, sipped and talked wines, Monty-style. His wines are not the common tasting room fare; they are aged, mature and soft and made to ponder. At one point, I believed that Monty was determined to give me a taste of nearly every wine in the place. We started with wine from bottles and then moved to tanks. Finally, Monty climbed and thiefed wine from oak barrels stacked to the rafters nearly two stories up. We did, however, stop for dinner with friends on the winery’s patio at canyon’s edge at the last glint of orange-yelow sunlight and eventually ended under the veil of darkness punctuated with the brilliance of west Texas stars.

See more about my fringe-of-the-Texas-wine-frontier tasting experience and discussion with Monty Dixon at BarZ Winery in my Lubbock Avalanche Journal column (click here).

I’m sorry that it took me so long to get there, because the wines were complex, interesting and tasty. I highly encourage you to not wait as long as I did. Monty has four new wines that take you to new horizons in tasting: Sassy S, a Sangiovese blend; Enigmatic, a Tempranillo blend; Quattro, a Rhone blend; and Lil’ Hoss, a Cabernet blend. Monty’s got all the basis covered. Check out the BarZ 2012 harvest slide show on Amarillo.com (click here).

– — – — –

BarZ Winery

19290 FM 1541, Canyon TX 79015
(806) 488-2214; e-mail: barzwines@amaonline.com; web site: www.barzwines.com

The tasting room is now open and they will ship FedEx to your doorstep. Their goal is to produce wines with character and complexity from 100% Texas High Plains AVA grapes. All wines are extended barrel-aged without excessive filtration or fining agents.

Older Entries Newer Entries