Wines of the World: Drink Texas Wine
There is a flurry of excitement about Texas wine. It’s time to broaden horizons and try them at winery tasting rooms, wine bars, or at restaurants by the glass or bottle. Buy several at your local wine shop and have your own personal taste-off. Chances are one of them may be just perfect for your own house wine.
Today there are 181 bonded wineries in the state....a long way from the 29 that existed in 1989. Opening a winery which often starts out as a hobby with retired folks who have a lot of passion for agriculture, the grape, and people, turns into a whole lot more work than they ever imagined..
It takes time to find the land to purchase......site trumps selection anytime if you are growing your own vines. If you decide to buy your grapes, it’s a big deal to get on the list of a grower to supply you. There is a huge shortage of grapes in Texas. Most recently the freeze of April 7, down to 26 degrees, can be considered a natural disaster in a vineyard manager’s mind. Fewer grapes mean less wine which means less or no profit, so some wineries buy grapes from New Mexico or even California.
Marketing the wine is a totally separate aspect. Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) has become pro-active with its GoTexanWine website and program with funds allocated to design wine trails and promote Texas wine tastings. It looks like the successful grants program for wineries to plant more acreage in vines will continue.
The recent GO TEXAN Drinklocalwine.com Conference in Dallas featured a tasting of 45 Texas wines from 23 wineries, all with 100 percent Texas fruit. The winners were as follows.
Gold Winners:
Best White Wine – Dry division
Flat Creek Estate (www.flatcreekestate.com) Pinot Blanc (Texas Hill Country) 2008
Best White Wine – Sweet division
Haak Vineyards & Winery (www.haakwine.com) Madeira Blanc du Bois (Texas) 2006
Best Red Wine – Dry division
Inwood Estate Vineyards (www.inwoodwines.com) Tempranillo Cabernet blend (Texas High Plains) 2005
Best Red Wine – Sweet division
Sandstone Cellars IV (www.sandstonecellarswinery.com) Red Port-style wine (Mason County Texas) 2006
Silver Winners:
White Wine – Dry division
Llano Estacado (www.llanowine.com) Viviana, white blend (Texas) 2008
White Wine – Sweet division
Texas Hills Vineyard (www.texashillsvineyard.com) Orange Muscato, Newsom Vineyard (Texas High Plains) 2005
Red Wine – Dry division
Inwood Estate Vineyards (www.inwoodwines.com) Magellan, Bordeaux blend w/Tempranillo (Texas) 2006
Red Wine – Sweet division
Landon Winery (www.landonwinery.com) Grand Finale Texas Tawny (Texas High Plains) 2002
Sixty wine makers, wine writers, bloggers, and wine lovers participated in a Twitter Taste-Off at the Drinklocalwine Conference. Russ Kane, publisher of wine blog Vintage Texas, said that the number of impressions on the Internet about Texas wine and wineries for the event totaled more than 200,000. To read some of the twitters and get some interesting leads on new Texas wines search the twitter feed www.search.twitter.com. Use hashtag “DLW09" (DrinkLocalWine 2009).
