Dotson – Cervantes 2010 Texas Gotas de Oro (Drops of Gold): A Delightful Pairing

Dotson – Cervantes 2010 Texas Gotas de Oro (Drops of Gold): A Delightful Pairing

You may recall, almost two years ago I blogged about a morning that started like this:

“It was 9:30 on a weekday morning when the doorbell rang. I expected this as, the evening before I received a call from Alphonse Dotson. He said that he and his wife Martha were going to be in Houston visiting his Mother. They were on the verge of releasing their first wine and wanted to stop by to visit with my wife Delia and me.”  For more, see: https://vintagetexas.com/?p=1229

Well, last week I received another call from Alphonse from his Certenburg Vineyard in Voca, Texas. He informed me that he and Martha were releasing their second offering of Gotas de Oro: “Drops of Gold”. It was a 2010, and they’d like to stop by to give us a taste of it.

My wife and I have gotten to know both Alphonse and Martha better in the past couple years and they previously stopped by with Alphonse’s mother, Sterling Ann Certenburg, for my mother’s 100^th birthday party back in February. It was a delight to meet Sterling Ann and my mother thoroughly enjoyed her company. This gave me the idea to suggest that we get the mothers back together for the celebration and tasting of Alphonse’s and Martha’s Dotson – Cervantes Texas 2010 Gotas de Oro.

Last time I was captivated by their wine. It was Gotas de Oro, Muscat Canelli, Premium American Wine as there were not enough grapes from Texas at the time to make it Texas appellation. However, this time, I noticed right off the bat (or bottle) that the wine’s label sported the comforting words….Texas!

The Dotson – Cervantes 2010 Texas Gotas de Oro, a blend of 61% Muscat Canelli and 39% Chardonnay, was as good as, if not better, than their previous wine. I recalled, Alphonse said that they wanted to make Gotas de Oro, a Texas wine and it only took them two tries to make it happen. Not bad, not bad at all!

As we tasted the 2010 Gotas de Oro, I recognized that it was a tad softer than I recall of its predecessor, but the 2010 lacks nothing. My palate found the wine having much the same citrus, pear and most importantly ginger but the finish was softer and refined. Depending on first, middle or last pour, the order of these three essences moved around a bit, but they were all there. If you’re of the ilk to enjoy a spot of sweetness before or after dinner, or splashed over ice with sparkling water by poolside, I highly recommend that you give it a try. This is a premium wine without a doubt.

After the tasting and a bite of lunch, Alphonse and Martha had to leave for a tasting at Spec’s Smith Street Store about a mile down the road, and for a meeting with Spec’s Bear Dalton. The mothers, however, had the opportunity to talk the afternoon away. It was a truly delightful pairing!

The only thing missing that I recalled from our previous tasting was the beautiful drops of dew that hung on everything the morning of our tasting two years ago. Well, if you’re in Texas, I don’t have to tell you that we’ve been hot and dry, a condition not very conducive to the formation of dew drops. Well, the following weekend, we finally had a break in the weather in Houston. It included two days of rain and barely a week later, a lovely dew lit morning.

Thanks Alphonse and Martha for bringing your wonderful drops of gold to pair with the return of our Houston morning dew…another delightful pairing.

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If you go to Spec’s Smith Street store, you can find Dotson-Cervantes 2010 (Texas) Gotas de Oro 2010 in the Texas wine section (across the aisle from the Bourbon whiskey) or in the dessert wine section with the Muscat de Beaumes de Venise. Click here for link.