Sparkling Wines of Summer: The Texas Hill Country Wineries Hold a Respectable Place in the World of Sparkling Wines – Blind Tasting Panel Results… “Texas Takes on All Comers!”

Texas history is rife with tales and legends, and some even indicate a special place for Champagne, the classic French sparkling wine. But, it is sometimes hard to know the difference between historical fact and its embellishments. The one thing I can say about sparkling wines is… “TRUTH is usually spoken in results of BLIND TASTINGS.” These are where the tasters cannot see the labels and are left to only the resources of their educated palates to discern the best of the bunch. In this case, the truth was that Texas Hill Country Wineries hold a respectable place in the world of sparkling wines proven in their worthy scores and prices comparable with many benchmark wines from around the world. Read further for the details and results of the blind tasting.

A Texas Legend of Champagne

On the misty Spring morning of April 17, 1836, Generalissimo Santa Anna and his forces arrived proudly in New Washington flush with their previous victories.  The army that Santa Anna then led across the coastal plains of Texas in pursuit of General Sam Houston’s forces was formidable, but also cumbersome. It was burdened with Santa Anna’s three-roomed carpeted tent with silk curtains, his opium cabinet and a large supply of French Champagne. Some say that Santa Anna’s defeat to Sam Houston’s forces was due to his overindulgence on Champagne, opium or both.

Texas Now Holds a Place the World of Sparkling Wines

Bringing this thought up to today, Texas, the fifth largest wine-producing state, is now appears to be coming into its own on a wave of Texas-made sparkling wines. Some are made by the same process as French Champagne. It’s called Méthode Champenoise or méthode traditionnelle with a second fermentation and carbonation occurring in the bottle in-situ.

As way of acknowledgement, Elisa & Christopher (in this tasting) located in the Texas Hill Country is the first Texas winery where the origin of the grapes and the méthode traditionnelle process all occur within the state.

Some Texas sparklers are made using the charmat method where the finished wine is carbonated in a separate tank by the addition of carbon dioxide before being transferred into the bottle.

Also, a group of Texas sparkling wines are made by Méthode Ancestrale, also called Pétillant Naturel or “Pet-Nat” for short. They undergo a single fermentation in which the fermenting grape must is bottled before the end of alcoholic fermentation.  Another thing, in Texas, there is almost no limit to the number of possible grape varieties and wine blends that can be found in its sparkling wines due to the wide variety of Texas-grown grapes many of which originally come from Mediterranean climes and not cold European wine regions.

Texas Sparklers vs. the World

Recently, I helped organize a blind tasting of  Texas sparklers that were intermixed with French Champagne and Cremant, and other sparkling wines from California and around the world (Spain, South Africa and Tasmania). The tasters/judges were friends and associates that, in the past, made up part of the Houston Chronicle tasting panel lead by Dale Robertson, the paper’s long-tenured wine columnist before his retirement.

This group included one Houston-based Master Sommelier, tasters that have worked in the wine trade,  civilian wine aficionados and collectors, and two wine writers, all with educated palates. I mention this to highlight that the tasters had experienced palates for evaluating wine, with their brands sight unseen.

The wines were separated into three groups according to winemaking method: a) Méthode Champenoise / méthode traditionnelle, b) charmat method, and c) méthode ancestrale (Pet-Nat), and included both whites and rosés. They were all solicited from Hill Country Wineries and did not intend to represent all regions of Texas or all Texas wineries making sparkling wines. Perhaps next time the field of contestants in the blind tasting of sparkling wines will expand.

Results – Méthode Champenoise / Méthode Traditionnelle Wines

Four  white sparklers ended up in a virtual “dead heat” for first place with scores in the range 89-90 out of 100. These are shown below along with highlights from the judges’ comments and prices. The were from California, France and from Texas:

• Schramsberg (2021) Blanc de Blancs (North Coast, California) $37 – “Crisp and Lemony”
• Gerard Bertrand (2021) An 825 Cremont de Limoux (Limoux, France) $25 – “Creamy with a clean finish”
• Madame Zero (NV) Blanc de Blancs (Champagne, France)  $70 – “Yeasty,  lovely mousse, long finish”
• Heath Sparkling Wines (2020) Blanc de Blancs (American) $55 – “Great layered flavors, yummy”

There were two more Texas white wines with lower but still respectable scores of 88 and 84 respectively that included:

• Elisa Christopher (2022) Brut Sparkling Trebbiano (Texas High Plains) $42 – “Crisp melon, yellow apples, big flavor”
• Messina Hof (2022) Brut Sparkling White Wine – Pinot Blanc, Semillon blend (Texas) $35 – “Citrus notes, modest body”

In the same category, but for the sparkling rosés, the results were also bunched very closely between 92 to 89. They are shown below in order of highest to lowest score in this tight range:

• Madame Zero (NV) Champagne Rosé – Pinot Noir, Chardonnay blend (Champagne, France) $85 – “Boom, fruit, structure, elegance”
• Graham Beck (NV) Brut Rosé – Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Pinot Meunier blend (Breed River, South Africa) $20 – “Red fruit, simple and clean”
• Raventos (2021) Blanc de Nit – Xarello, Macabeu, Parellada, Monastrell blend (Penedes, Spain) $35 – “Tart red fruit, sophisticated long finish”
• Messina Hof  (2022) Sparkling Rosé – Pinot Noir (Texas) $35 – “Tart cherries, strawberries, simple and clean”

Results – Process Wines

This category produced another virtual tie for the white sparklers ranging closely  in score from 88-87 shown below in order of high to low score in this range:

• Hilmy Cellars (2022) Sparkling White Wine – Semillion, Muscat, Albarino, Marsanne, Roussanne blend (Texas High Plains) $30 – “Peaches, apples, satisfying”
• Janz Premium Cuvée (NV) – Chardonnay, Pinot Noir blend (Tasmania) $20 – “Green apple, pear, light and refreshing,
• Carter Creek Sparkling Brut (NV) – Chenin Blanc, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay blend (Texas) $35 – “Minerally, dry, yeast, elegant”
• Kirkland Prosecco (NV) – Glera (Veneto, Italy) $13 – “Light and citrusy, light spice”

For the sparkling rosés in this category, two wine received a score of 88 and one at 84 indicated in order from high to low below:

• Carter Creek (NV) Sparkling Rosé – Tempranillo (Texas High Plains) $35 – “Tart cherry, nice & tasty, drinks well”
• Dandy Bubbles (NV) Sparkling Rosé – Grenache, Mourvedre, Cinsault, Carignan blend (Texas) $38 – “Tart cheery, pomegranate, good bubbly”
• Hilmy Cellars (2019) Sparkling Rosé – Sangiovese, Muscat (Texas High Plains) $26 – “Ripe berries, moderate finish, drink now”

Frizzante (Charmat) Wines

There were two wines in this category. There were both Texas rosés, both were made mostly from Tannat, and as you may have already guessed, they were both from the same winery, Bending Branch Winery. The only thing different were their vintages: 2023 and 2022). The judges’ scores for these two wines were 89 and 85, respectively, shown in this order below:

• Bending Branch (2023) Frizzante Rosé – Tannat, Muscat blend, (Texas High Plains) $25 – “Strawberries, yummy good fruit, good finish”
• Bending Branch (2022) Frizzante Rosé – Tannat, Muscat blend, (Texas High Plains) $25 – “Strawberries, herbal, modest finish”

Last But Not Least – Méthode Ancestrale (Pet-Nat)

To close out the blind tasting there were two Texas Pet-Nats, one a white wine and one a rosé. They received scores of 86 and 83, respectively, shown below in order from high to low:

• Pedernales Cellars (2021) Kyla Sparkling White Wine – Vermentino (Texas High Plains) $35 – “Peaches and pears, spritzy, kombucha-like”
• William Chris (2023) Sparkling Rosé Wild Fermented – unspecified blend (Texas High Plains) $35 – “Tart red berries, very fizzy”

— — — — —

Top scores for the Texas sparklers were garnered by:

• Heath Sparkling Wines (2020) Blanc de Blancs (American) $55
• Messina Hof  (2022) Sparkling Rosé – Pinot Noir (Texas) $35
• Elisa Christopher (2022) Brut Sparkling Trebbiano (Texas High Plains) $42
• Carter Creek Sparkling Brut (NV) – Chenin Blanc, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay blend (Texas) $35
• Carter Creek (NV) Sparkling Rosé – Tempranillo (Texas High Plains) $35

The surprises voiced by the tasters after the reveal were:

• Number 1 – Texas is now making sparkling wine using Méthode Traditionnelle (Méthode Champenoise). In the past, Texas wineries had to ship their finished wines to California to receive their sparkle
• Number 2 – Trebbiano and Tempranillo can make some very palatable sparkling wines in Texas. These are definitely not grapes included in Northern European sparklers.

As I said at the start, there was truth in these blind tasting results. It was that Texas Hill Country sparklers now hold a respectable place in the global sparkling wine world as proven by their worthy scores and generally comparable prices comparable to many benchmark sparklers from well-known and revered wine regions. Texas sparklers are not at the fringes any more. They are in the fray with known quality brands of Champagne and sparkling wines.