TX Wine Lover

Rodeo Uncorked! Roundup and Best Bites Competition is a food and wine event held in Reliant Center for those who wish to try the award-winning wines from the International Wine Competition and taste signature dishes submitted for competition by area catering institutions and restaurants.

After the entire list of International Wine Competition results were announced in November, 2011, the next day I compiled a list of the Texas wineries who had won, and from what I have been able to tell, mine is the only such list compiled. Buckles, chaps, and saddles would be awarded to the champions at the Rodeo Uncorked! Roundup and Best Bites Competition on February 19, 2012. When I received an invitation to attend the event, I gladly accepted the offer.

To recap, the ninth annual Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo International Wine Competition had 2,454 wines from 736 wineries in Texas, across the United States, and around the world. Twenty countries participated in the competition and 1,817 medals were awarded by 18 panels of judges, consisting of local, national, and international wine experts.

For the Rodeo Uncorked! Roundup and Best Bites Competition, in addition to trying the champion wines, guests were able to sample food from area restaurants and catering institutions, and vote on their favorites in the Best Bites Competition.

Since this was our first time attending the event, we were not entirely sure what to expect. We arrived early since we heard the event was sold out and there were going to be 4,000-4,500 people there. While waiting for the event to start, I read through the program and noticed the Texas wineries and wines which were going to be there, so I was excited to try some wines which we have not been able to try yet. The layout of the Reliant Center had been set up with tables/booths in a three layered circle which made it easy to walk around.

Russ and Delia

Gloria and I met up with Russ Kane (http://vintagetexas.com/blog/) and his beautiful wife Delia. Russ and I decided to take simultaneous phone pictures and link to our photos when we blog. Here is the link to his blog post and photo of my significant other Gloria and me. We then planned a course of action for our adventure. Since Russ and I were obviously biased towards Texas wineries, the decision was made to try to see all those wineries first and then if time allowed, go around again and try other wines.

Wines were being poured either by the winery representatives themselves or by volunteers. Unfortunately while walking through the booths, the names of the wineries with the wines we wanted to try were where the program indicated, but the wine wasn’t. It was understandable that not all winery representatives could attend, but it was unclear why there were a lot of missing wines which were supposed to be available for tasting.

Paul and Merrill Bonarrigo - Messina Hof

We were impressed that some winery owners were present and pouring their winning wines, such as Messina Hof (Paul and Merrill Bonarrigo with Paul VII and Karen Bonarrigo and their daughter Sophia Marie), Fall Creek (Ed and Susan Auler), and Piney Woods Country Winery & Vineyards (Alfred J. Flies). Also representing Llano Estacado Winery was Bill Freidhof, Vice President Sales & Marketing.

Best of Show Marchesi Antinori Sri Guado al Tasso

We tried to taste all the Grand Champion Saddle winning wines but only made it to a few. We did try the top Texas wine Messina Hof Solera, and the Grand Champion Best of Show Marchesi Antinori Sri Guado al Tasso. It was understandable why these wines were big winners. We also stopped at various non-Texas wine booths which had notable wines or which we wanted to compare against the same Texas wine variety.

Of course the event was not just about the wines but the Best Bites competition, and there were a lot of restaurants vying for the awards of the evening. The food booths were intermixed with the wine booths and it made for a nice setup. All the food we tried was excellent and we were soon very full. Definitely come very hungry and thirsty if you are going to attend next year’s event.

All champion wines will be auctioned at the Rodeo Uncorked! Champion Wine Auction and Dinner on Saturday, March 3, 2012. The program indicated the event has already been sold out.

It was an enjoyable evening as we got to enjoy some of the best wines from around the world and the best food from the Houston area. We would highly recommend attending next year’s event if you are able.

If you are on Twitter then you will surely want to follow various Texas wineries and vineyards. Twitter makes it easy to follow a group of users by creating a list of those users. When you click to view a list, you’ll see a stream of Tweets (posts or status updates) from all the users included in that group.

To make it easier for you, I have created a Twitter list of all the Texas wineries, vineyards, and winemakers I can find on Twitter. Instead of you having to find all of them yourself, you can simply subscribe to my list. Go to my Twitter Lists page and click Subscribe to follow the list called “TX Wineries & Vineyards.” If I missed some, and there certainly is a good chance, please let me know and I’ll update the list.

Depending on the Twitter client you are using or the Twitter web interface, you will then select the List to view instead of your normal Timeline of Tweets.

If you do not want to follow the entire list of Texas wineries and vineyards, the members of the list are below so you can individually follow certain users. Enjoy!

Texas Wineries

Texas Vineyards

Texas Wine Trails

Texas Winemakers

http://www.williamchriswines.com

Williams Chris Vineyards is located in Hye on US Highway 290. The winery opened in 2009 and is owned by William “Bill” Blackmon and Chris Brundrett.

The tasting room is located in a 100 year old house which has been renovated and has various rooms where you can do your tastings. The front room has a large wooden bar and is the focal point when you first walk into the winery.

The last time we visited, our tasting guide was Monica. We tasted standing at their large tasting bar. There is a tasting fee for tasting a select number of wines, but the tasting fee is refunded with the purchase of two or more bottles. The wines are poured from the uncorked bottles. Monica was new to being a tasting guide so Andy, who we had previously met elsewhere, helped her answer some questions.

William Chris Vineyards use 100% Texas grapes in their Texas wine. In addition to owning the winery, Bill and Chris own and operate a vineyard management business which oversees over 40 acres in the Hill Country and High Plains of Texas. They also use other vineyards throughout the state. Their philosophy is to do as little as possible to the grapes when making their wine including minimal sulfites and handling, and small batch fermentation. In 2011 they produced 4500 cases of wine.

While tasting or enjoying a glass of wine, you can buy food such as gourmet cheese and salami, soda, and water. A small gift shop is available with clothing and wine glasses.

A wine club called the Hye Society is available which offers various benefits including member only events. When we were at the winery last, they were setting up the adjacent event center with dinner tables for the Hye Society and a private tasting of their new wine.

Live music is held every Saturday in addition to other events throughout the year. An oak grove outside the winery welcomes you to sit under the trees to enjoy drinking their wine.

On our Fredericksburg road trip of days one and three, we were fortunate to meet both Bill Blackmon and Chris Brundrett. We had more time to speak with Chris and had fun conversations with him. We also got to taste a new wine which they had just bottled. We were lucky to get a photo of both Bill and Chris, including getting their autographs on a bottle of their wine.

Chris Brundrett and Bill Blackmon

William Chris Vineyards is on the Texas Hill Country Wine Trail. If you plan on visiting any of the wineries on US Highway 290 near Fredericksburg, definitely stop in and visit William Chris Vineyards. Hopefully you will get a chance to meet Bill and Chris too.

http://www.wacowinery.com

Tehuacana Creek Vineyards and Winery, also known as TCV, is located in Waco and is owned by Ulf and Inga-Lill Westblom, both originally from Sweden. Ulf is also the winemaker. They started planting the first of four vineyards in March 1997 and the winery opened to the public in 2006. To help others, including myself initially, Tehuacana Creek is pronounced like “To-walk-in-a-Creek.” The name of the winery comes from the creek which runs on the border of their land.

When I visited, Jenny greeted me on my way up to the winery. Inside were the Westbloms but Jenny handled my tasting. Tastings are done while standing at the tasting bar and the tastings are free for all available wines. I was able to taste nine wines when I visited the winery. The wine bottles are corked and the wines are poured from the bottle. You can buy food while at the winery which you can enjoy while drinking their Texas wine.

In addition to information from Jenny, Ulf also talked with me and gave me a history of his wine making and the winery. Ulf explained how he came from a wine making family. Not professionally, but his mother made apple wines and his grandfather made barley wine. So it was just a natural while he was in college in Europe he made his first wine in 1974. In the tasting room, he still has the very last bottle of the very last wine he made in college unopened. It was called Krökarvin. Ulf said every time someone who understands Swedish comes into the winery and sees the bottle, they start laughing because they know what it means: “Wine to get drunk on.”

Tehuacana Creek Vineyards and Winery uses about 75% Texas grapes. The first varietal grown was Norton and they were the second Texas vineyard to plant Norton in 1997. They followed that by planting Blanc du Bois and Black Spanish which they use to make a port. The winery has two acres of vineyards where they also grow Favorite, a clone of Black Spanish, and Herbemont. Tehuacana Creek Vineyards and Winery makes over 18 different kinds of Texas wines, all blends. When the wine is oaked, they use American oak barrels.

Both Ulf and Inga-Lill have 35 years of experience of being semi-professional wine tasters by being wine judges, wine critics, and teaching wine courses. Their philosophy on creating their wine blends come from the consumer point of view and they would never blend anything they wouldn’t buy themselves.

Tehuacana Creek Vineyards and Winery also makes Mulsum which is a white wine sweetened with honey made from a 2,000 year old Roman recipe and it is their number one seller. During the holidays, a warm Swedish Glögg is made which is very popular. The winery produces about 500 cases of Texas wine a year.

Free tours are available of the production facilities in the nearby building. There is a nice gift shop and in fact I bought two waiter’s corkscrews which I had been looking for. There are also jams and cheeses available in addition to wine accessories and other gifts.

Tehuacana Creek Vineyards and Winery has a wine club. They also hold wine tasting classes and wine tasting gourmet dinners.

Live music events are held at the winery in addition to private parties. They plan on building a bigger tasting room and event room for weddings and parties.

If you are in the Waco area, you will not regret stopping by and visiting Tehuacana Creek Vineyards and Winery.

Most people know Russ Kane as VintageTexas, the self-proclaimed Texas Wine Czar. @VintageTexas is his Twitter name and accordingly he writes a blog called Vintage Texas in which he imparts his knowledge of Texas wines and his experiences traveling throughout Texas and other wine regions in the United States.

I was visiting a Texas winery near the start of my winery visits and after talking to the winemaker for a while, he said I should really follow Vintage Texas as I would learn a lot. That is exactly what I did and indeed I have learned quite a bit from reading Russ’s Vintage Texas blog.

I learned Russ Kane also lives in Houston and since that time we have run into each other occasionally. On a recent meeting, I asked Russ about his upcoming book called The Wineslinger Chronicles.

Russ explained he started the Vintage Texas blog in 2008 primarily as an exercise to write. He soon realized that the stories he posted there could be the basis for a book. Russ worked on a book proposal and received a book contract in 2009 with Texas Tech University Press. He finished writing the book at the end of 2010. The next year was spent editing the book back and forth with the publisher. Now The Wineslinger Chronicles is scheduled to be available to the public mid-February, 2012.

When I was talking with Russ, he was excited because he had just received the first real copy of the book. I got the chance to hold it and flip through the pages. I had ordered my copy when it was first announced that pre-ordering was possible, so I was excited myself to see what I would eventually be receiving in the mail. Bottom line is I am impressed.

The book is a lot thicker and heavier than I had imagined. This is not a cheap quality book. I can only imagine all the stories Russ has told. Russ talks about the Spanish origins of Texas wine, the history of Texas winemaking, and includes stories of modern day growers and entrepreneurs with his travels around the state. He has been gracious to post excerpts of the book on his Wineslinger website.

If you have any interest in Texas wine and the history of Texas wine, I would highly recommend ordering your copy. The book is available for pre-ordering at most online bookstores and you can even order an autographed copy directly from Russ himself at his website. The book will also be available as an eBook.

Now I’m even more excited and cannot wait to get the book I ordered!