If you’re looking for a well structured red wine that’s rich with dark red fruits, you can stop your search with Tannat. It’s taste is usually described as ripe red fruit (think black cherry) with supporting notes of licorice, vanilla, dark chocolate, espresso, and of course, a good tannic grip.
Our Hill Country Tasting Stop this week is at Vintner’s Hideaway in downtown Fredericksburg. This is where you will find a very special limited production wine made by Rustic Spur Vineyard. It’s their 2018 ”Gramps” Estate Tannat, a wine that has spent 36 months ruminating in neutral American Oak barrels and whose name honors a family icon “Gramps” who was a was a ranch cowboy.
OK, you might ask why are we going to Vintner’s Hideaway in downtown Fredericksburg, TX, for this wine and not the winery? Well, it’s because Rustic Spur does not have it’s own tasting room and doesn’t need one. Please continue…
Vintners Hideaway was created to be a wine destination that offers people the opportunity to explore fine Texas Wines in an intimate “non-hurried” atmosphere. It was started by Jim and Ranae Mills and daughter Sherah, and by-the-way, the Mills family also own Rustic Spur Vineyards. Vintner’s Hideaway serves double duty featuring the Mills Family’s own Rustic Spur wines while also offering a place for other winemakers (many from small, boutique wineries around the State of Texas) to showcase their wines, too. For a current listing of featured wines and wineries at Vintner’s Hideaway click here.
Back to the wine… The 2018 ”Gramps” Estate Tannat was matured by slow micro-oxigenation the extended aging in neutral oak. So, based on my tasting, the tannins while noticeably present but are nicely textured and support the rich fruit characteristics of the wine. This is a wine that needs to be tasted to be believed because most wineries do not allow this much time for barrel aging before bottling and sale. The ”Gramps” Tannat pairs well with sausages from various types of meats, roasted lamb, duck confit and assorted aged cheeses, and don’t forget the possibilities with a well marbled and aged beef steak or even a well-prepared chicken fried steak (see below).
Over the years, Vintner’s Hideaway has turned into a hangout of sorts for winemakers and educated consumers looking for small-lot, high-quality Texas wines. Many times, they are found in a clutch at the bar or in the corners of the tasting room. Besides wine tasting and sales, Vintner’s Hideaway is a great place to hear winemakers telling unique and very personal stories about their wines, definitely more revealing than the notes on the bottle.
The location now housing Vintner’s Hideaway was originally a Nash Rambler auto dealership and it then spent a few more decades providing automotive tires and service. The Mills family spent several months were repurposing this venue into an upscale wine tasting room with a very cool vibe. It’s high time to add Vintner’s Hideaway to your next hill country trip – click link or see below for details:
Normal operating hours: Thursday – Saturday from 12:00 pm – 6:00 pm and Sunday from 12:00 pm – 5:00 pm.
Address: 207 South Llano, Fredericksburg, TX 78624
T | (830) 992-3370; E | info@vintnershideaway.com
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