We first learned about the previous Texas Winery Passport program offered by the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) when I made the “mistake” of taking Gloria to Fredericksburg for the very first time in January 2010. What a great idea! Visiting wineries, collecting stamps, and getting rewards for them. How could you go wrong? That prompted our interest in visiting more Texas wineries, getting better and better rewards, and it eventually resulted with us starting this blog in March 2011. So to say the Texas Winery Passport program is near and dear to our hearts is an understatement.

Unfortunately late in 2011, it was announced because of Texas legislature budget cuts to the Texas Wine Marketing Program, the Passport Program was going to end. Many of our wine friends were visiting more wineries and now there would be no program to entice them plus new wine drinkers to visit Texas wineries.

Fortunately when we were at the 2013 TWGGA (Texas Wine & Grape Growers Association) Conference, we learned TWGGA had stepped up to the plate and was going to resurrect the Texas Winery Passport program. This time though there were going to be improvements making it easier for consumers. In the past paper booklets were used to collect stamps from the wineries visited and after getting a full booklet of four stamps, you entered them in the Passport’s website. Since the majority of people now have a smartphone, the new program will use a free downloaded app and you’ll be able to enter the information while you are at the winery!

Background

The previous Texas Wine Passport program was highly successful. 15,322 individuals entered data into the wine Passport system with a total of 86,347 winery codes entered. That’s a lot of people who participated and visited Texas wineries!

These are some interesting facts on the Texas wine industry:

• Texas wine consumers are on the rise. An estimated 1,438,000 tourists visited Texas wineries in 2011, an increase of 66% from 2005.
• Texas is also the 5th largest wine producing state in the nation.
• There are over 275 bonded commercial wineries in Texas
• Wine tourism in Texas generated over $436 million in revenue
• Winery direct sales account for over $45 million of industry revenue
• The Texas wine industry has a $1.83 billion economic impact

Since the dissolution of TDA’s Passport Program, Texas wineries have suffered a loss of momentum through the tasting room. It was time for somebody to do something about that and TWGGA came to the rescue.

Why use a smartphone app instead of the old paper method? Besides being cumbersome and costly, it is estimated that by 2015, 176 million people in the U.S. will use smartphones (56% of the US population). The fastest growing wine-consuming demographic are ages 21-34 years old and they have smartphones. Plus the app is simple, straightforward, and easy to use!

Wineries

The smartphone app is the way to get consumers into your winery, taste your wines, and collect points as they travel around the state. Besides all the consumers coming to your winery to participate in the TX Wine Passport program, the app will also generate more traffic to your website and social media sites.

Now that you’re excited to be involved, what do you have to do? The first thing is you have to be a TWGGA member. Listings including your winery will include all basic information, address, phone, hours, website plus photos and video footage, and links to social media sites.

Your cost to participate in the program is based on the number of case sales you have.

Your cost amounts only to approximately one case of wine a year.

You will also receive marketing materials for your Tasting Room and social media sites.

Participating wineries must commit to honoring rewards.

Sign up today and drive more business to your winery! More information for you is below.

Consumers

So what do you have to do as a lover of Texas wines to participate? The TX Wine Passport app will be available in July and will work on Android smartphones and iPhones. When you visit a Texas winery who participates in the program (NOTE: they must participate) you simply do a check-in on the app with the code provided by the winery. The app will detect your GPS location and awards points for checking in.

You will accumulate points and redeem discounts at Passport participating wineries at different reward levels. Your current status of Rewards and Check-ins are viewable from the app. In addition there will be an interactive GPS and Google Maps feature showing routes and specific directions to wineries. You will even have a cool Postcard Feature where you can send postcards via Facebook, email, etc. from the app about your experience.

To keep abreast of the current status of the TX Wine Passport app, simply go to their Facebook page and do a Like: https://www.facebook.com/TxWinePassport

If you find your favorite wineries are not in the TX Wine Passport app, then please request them to get involved. The more wineries who participate, the better your chances of more rewards! Sign up information for them is below.

Sponsorship / Advertisers

There are two sponsorship opportunities available for wineries. If you want to be a title sponsor, look at all this that you’ll get:

• Splash page advertisement when user opens first screen after Home screen
• Home screen map with location markers for your product/place
• Logo placement on the upper navigation bar
• Intermittent banner ads on the bottom of all listing screens
• Logo placement on Home screen
• Logo placement in email marketing campaigns and frequent social media mentions

Email Debbie Reynolds at debbie@twgga.org for title sponsor costs which gives one year exclusivity when the Passport feature launches August 1, 2013.

The other sponsorship opportunity is to have a Banner Ad. The benefits of a Banner Ad are:

• 320px x 50px banner ad at the bottom of the screen
• Targeted advertising by geographic location
• Targeted advertising by manufacturer or operating system
• Ads can be text and title, or ads can be images
• Participating email marketing campaigns and frequent social media mentions

The cost to have a banner ad is only $100 a month and is available when the Passport feature launches August 1, 2013.

By now you’re probably ready to sign up to participate in the TX Wine Passport program! To do so, simply complete three easy steps:

1. Complete the registration form.
2. Pay the Initial Fee and Annual Fee based on your winery size (determined by annual cases produced).
3. Sign the contract. When steps one and two are complete, you will receive a link to “Hello Sign”. This link is to an online contract where you will fill in your winery name, G permit number, date, and sign online.

This page on the TWGGA website includes all the information on how to sign up for the app: http://www.txwines.org/Foundation.asp

Information courtesy of Texas Wine & Grape Growers Foundation, Inc.

The July 2013 #TXwine Twitter Tuesday concludes our celebration of gold medal winners from the Dallas Morning News and the TEXSOM Wine Competition that was held in February.

As in the previous two months for the #TXwine July Twitter Tuesdays, we will taste three gold medal wines. Tweeters can order a special #TXwine Twitter Tuesday three-pack of the wines which will be discussed for July.

There is still time to order and ship in time for the July chat. Messina Hof has graciously volunteered to be the central point for you to order the wine. Since the weather in Texas is already getting hot, we highly recommend you order the last set of wines quickly both to avoid any heat problems in shipping and to ensure you get the wine in time for the chat.

Join us for the July #TXwine Twitter Tuesday on July 9th from 7-8 p.m.

The wines for are:

• Eden Hill Vineyard & Winery Albarino-Viognier 2012
• Messina Hof Winery & Resort Father and Son Cuvee Riesling 2012 (@Messina_Hof)
• Pedernales Cellars High Plains Tempranillo 2010 (@PedernalesWine)

To order your special Texas wine three-pack, please go to www.messinahof.com, select either location, and then click on Shop Online. Select the item Wine and then look for the special TXwine Twitter Tuesday three-pack for June and July. Even easier, just click here to go directly to that page.

By having the Texas wine three-pack shipped to you directly, we are excited more people can get involved to taste and tweet during the next #TXwine Twitter Tuesday. We hope you take advantage of this special opportunity to taste some gold medal wines.

We look forward to seeing you on Tuesday, July 9th from 7-8 p.m. CST for a night of tasting and tweeting. Please remember to include #TXwine in your tweets so everyone participating in the chat can see your tweets!

Cheers!

Denise, Jeff, and Jessica

@DeniseClarkeTX, @TXWineLover, @JDewps

Additional Details:

NOTE: If you’re new to Twitter, here’s how you participate:  just sign up for a free Twitter account at www.twitter.com. You can also go to the TweetChat room set up for #TXwine (http://tweetchat.com/room/TXwine). No registration is required; you can login using your Twitter account info. In the TweetChat room, participants are invited to follow tweets, add comments or tasting notes and share thoughts as participants taste and discuss the wines.

If TweetChat is not working, another website that can be used is: http://www.tchat.io/rooms/txwine

On TweetChat and TChat the hashtag #TXwine will be added automatically.

If you are using TweetDeck or another Twitter application, you will need to add #TXwine to your tweets.

Earlier in April we learned Pedernales Cellars had won a grand gold for its 2012 Viognier Reserve at the Lyon International Wine Competition. There were over 3,000 entries and out of approximately 200 grand gold medals, the Pedernales Viognier was the only one from the United States. A grand gold identifies a first place finish but also a unanimous vote among the judges.

This past weekend, sixteen Texas Viognier wines went head to head competing with each other, two California Viognier wines and a Viognier from the modern home of the grape, Condrieu, France in a blind taste test judged by seven professional sommeliers. The result, Texas wines took the top six spots with Pedernales Cellars 2012 Viognier Reserve taking the top honors.

The full results are here:

Notes:

1) All the wines from Texas wineries are designated “Texas Viognier” on the label.

2) Texas wine prices are from the winery web site for a single bottle purchase. Case discounts usually apply. Prices for the other wines are single bottle prices that were paid at retail stores in Dallas.

The organizer of the event, Andrew Chalk, an editor at CraveDFW, said, “I put together this tasting because, after four years touring over 80 Texas wineries, I concluded that Viognier was the white grape that was most successful in the state. In fact, I felt it was reaching a level comparable with California Viognier (although maybe not that of France). I was baffled that the national media did not include Texas wines when they evaluated Viognier. Clearly, this was a matter that only the facts would settle: a blind tasting of French, California and Texas Viognier by expert palates to determine where the wines stood.”

You can read more about the blind tasting event with Andrew’s post at CraftDFW entitled “Texas Viognier Is Tested Against California and France – And Comes Out The Winner.”

Congratulations to all the Texas wineries!

Pedernales Cellars 2012 Viognier Reserve

It is ironic the blind tasting event was held recently and that Pedernales Cellars came out on top in the tasting. During our Memorial Day weekend trip to Fredericksburg, we came home with the same Pedernales Viognier Reserve and will soon be posting a wine review on it.

Besides wine festivals which are held across the state where multiple wineries come to present their wines, some wineries are holding their own winery festivals having events at the winery and of course letting everyone enjoy their wines.

Here is a list of known winery festivals and if you know of more with a link to the festival information, please let us know.

As people arrived, Ian Eastveld from NICE Winery greeted them and presented them with something chilled from coming in out of the hot weather, the NICE Winery Sauvignon Blanc. Jennifer then took over to present the three red wines from Bending Branch:

• 2010 Tempranillo from Newsom Vineyards
• 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon from Newsom Vineyards
• NV Tannat from Reddy Vineyards

NICE Winery co-owner Ryan Levy arrived soon and intermingled with the guests. The tasting room was comfortably full with people from the NICE Winery wine club, Bending Branch Winery wine club, and friends of the wine club members. Conversation flowed as people met new wine friends and enjoyed the great wine.

We were also able to taste with others a NICE Winery Rosé which we had not tried. On top of the excellent wine being served, there were platters of cheese, crackers, and meats.

All in all, it was an excellent evening at the NICE Winery and we want to thank both the NICE Winery and Bending Branch Winery for working together to put on a fantastic event.

This is just a prelude of things to come so keep watching for future news!

Perrine Winery is located in College Station and is owned by Beth Perrine Leopold and Rick Leopold. I wasn’t sure of the correct pronunciation of Perrine and was told the last part rhymes with “wine.” The winery opened Thanksgiving Day in 2011 and Rick does the winemaking.

We had tasted a couple of their wines at a festival last year and I was finally able to make a trip to the winery. Perrine Winery is very active on Twitter so it was nice to really talk to the people behind the Twitter account.

Perrine Winery is located in a shopping center and is very easy to find. The custom micro-winery does not have a vineyard even though both Beth and Rick grew up in the agriculture business. After a couple years of research, they decided to start a micro-winery which could be something to have ready for retirement.

The tasting room has comfortable couches, chairs, and tables and I could see why people would enjoy stopping by after work for a place to enjoy a glass of wine. Beth and Rick were both present and they walked me through a tasting.

There is a tasting fee for six wines and trying to decide which ones is a challenge since Perrine Winery makes over 50 wines. There are four series of wines available:

• Brazos Breeze Series – semi-sweet fruit infused wines. They blend natural fruit flavors after the wine is complete.
• Vin de Maison Series – dry to semi-dry light to medium bodied table wines.
• Perrine Series – medium to full bodied varietal table wines.
• The Huguenot – premium whites, reds, and dessert wines. The series was named for Daniel “The Huguenot” Perrine who was the first Perrine to come to the new world from France in the mid-1600′s.

Tastings are poured from the uncorked bottles and you can stand at the tasting bar or sit at a table. Crackers are served to cleanse your palate. You can buy a meat and cheese plate or gourmet chocolate bars, but they welcome food to be brought in whether you bring it yourself or have it delivered. You can buy a glass of wine or bottle to enjoy after a tasting.

Perrine Winery has won awards with their wines from competitions such as the Finger Lakes International Wine Competition, South West Wine Challenge, San Antonio Wine Competition, and Houston Rodeo International Wine Competition.

One thing I learned during my visit is how Perrine Winery works with the neighboring businesses. They do various things like provide wine to a store to make chocolate truffles and wine for business parties. A nearby business makes cupcakes and Perrine Winery offered their selection of wines with cupcake pairings:

• Strawberry blush with strawberry cupcake
• Orange Moscato with double chocolate cupcake
• Moscato with carrot cake cupcake
• Iced blue with caramel sea salt
• Pink Moscato with double vanilla

Perrine Winery enjoys food pairing as they have also paired their wine with flavored pecans from Royalty Pecan Farms in Caldwell:

• Brazos Red with Cinnapecan
• Milano Sunset with Cocoa Blanca
• Orange Melange with Cocoa Leche
• Gewürztraminer with Spiked and TexMix
• Cranberry with Cranberry Crunch
• Sangiovese with Sweetly Peppered

They have become so good at food pairing they have even been asked which of their wines pairs best with a McDonald’s Happy Meal.

Events like parties, birthdays, showers, art/wine classes, and live music are held at Perrine Winery. In addition they also come up with very innovative events which are offered at the winery such as Teacher Tuesday, De-stress Wednesday, and Thursday Nurse’s night.

Since Perrine Winery offers over 50 wines, they decided recently they needed to stop making a few wines so they came up with a Survivor Flight which is a take on the television show Survivor. They have 8 wines on the “island” and people can vote for their favorites on the list. At the end of 7 weeks, the lowest scoring 3 wines will be voted off the winery and retired from their cellar.

Rick Leopold and Beth Perrine Leopold

Perrine Winery offers customers to make their own custom wine along with their own custom labels. In addition, a gift shop is available with clothing, wine accessories, and food items.

With a large selection of wines available, make a trip to relax at Perrine Winery.

The 2013 Lone Star International Wine Competition was held on June 3-4 at the Grapevine Convention Center. Judges from Texas and California judged wines from all over the world entered in three competitions: Texas Competition, International Competition, and Limited Production Competition.

Awards were given for Grand Star – Best of Show – in all three competitions in the Red Wine, White Wine, Fortified Wine, Late Harvest/ Dessert/Ice Wine, and Rose’/Blush Divisions. Gold, silver and bronze medals are awarded. Best Varietal and Wine Bottle Label awards were added for the 2013 competition.

These are the wine medal results of the Texas wineries from the competition in addition to the wine label winners at the bottom of the first table. You can download the entire final results from all the wineries here.

Texas Wineries

Wine Bottle Label Competition Winners

The four rooms inside the main building are basically identically furnished with a king-size or queen-size bed, a sitting area at the foot of the bed, a wet bar with mini fridge, microwave, and dishes, and to top it off it has a gas fireplace. The rooms also have a small hair-dryer, lighted vanity mirror, iron and ironing board in the bathroom, a clock radio with iPhone dock beside the bed, coffee pot with filters and coffee, and a flat screen TV over the gas fireplace. Let me tell you about my favorite part of the whole room if not the whole experience!! The shower. It is a room of its own! Twenty-five square feet of luxury big enough to share complete with dual rain shower heads. I couldn’t wait to take my shower in the morning!

Speaking of morning…morning means breakfast. Breakfast after a phenomenal night’s sleep on a very comfortable bed. I usually don’t sleep well in strange places. But after the busy day we had touring the Wine Highway, the bed was very welcome and it allowed me to sleep very well. So I arrived to the breakfast table very refreshed and ready for something scrumptious. We were not disappointed! KK was busy preparing Bananas Foster French toast with strawberries on the side and WOW did it smell great!! Pretty soon two more couples joined us at the long picnic style table and conversations flowed as easily as the coffee and orange juice. KK knew we needed to be out the door in time to make our first appointment of the day and she did a great job getting us fed in a timely manner. We thanked her and loaded up and hit the road to Garrison Brothers Distillery arriving with time to spare.

While we were eating breakfast we mentioned to KK that we would like to stop at the store and pick up steaks for dinner and could we use the grill on the back deck. She assured us that would be fine and she would even leave the grilling utensils on the table for us to use. True to her word when we arrived back late that afternoon the tools were on the table and the grill was ready for us to use.

Even though the rooms were full for the weekend we never felt crowded or intruded on by each other.

There is a lovely back patio with a table and chairs beside a 6-person Hot Springs Spa. Up the hill at the end of a path is a screened in shelter with chairs and a hammock. What a lovely place to come and unwind.

KK is a wealth of information about the wineries up and down Wine Highway and the Hill Country wines themselves and would be able to point you in the direction of any you would like to visit.

We are planning our trip next year and I’m pretty sure Lazy T Bed & Breakfast will be on the itinerary, as it should be on yours on your next visit.

Earlier this year I heard about a new tasting room opening up in Fredericksburg called Six Shooter Cellars. It was going to be a joint effort of six Texas wineries but from everything I could find online, I could not find the names of all six wineries. Initially announced was Cross Timbers Winery and Yepez Vineyard with Billy Cox later announcing Retreat Hill Winery & Vineyard would be involved. I then learned Clear Creek Winery was the fourth winery. The last two wineries was a mystery until we visited Six Shooter Cellars. Upon visiting Fredericksburg on May 25th, we learned we had timed it correctly as it was the soft opening day for the winery. There we learned the two other wineries were Cowtown Winery and a new winery in Lubbock called Blazing Barrels.

We visited the winery with two other couples, were greeted at the door, and directed to the tasting room in the center. The tasting room in the center is surrounded by hanging wood siding which we learned came from a tobacco barn in Kentucky. The winery has a western theme and it is seen throughout the winery including even the saying on the tasting sheet, “You keep the glass! (We don’t do dishes!).”

There is a tasting fee for 6 wines which includes a nice logoed wine glass. You can select 6 wines from the various wines offered from the six wineries but since the winery had just opened, wines from Retreat Hill and Blazing Barrels were not yet available to taste. The wines are poured from the bottle and there are crackers available to cleanse your palate.

As we tasted, I heard a hello and there was David Skinner who we had previously met at his Clear Creek Winery. He explained the concept of Six Shooter Cellars was they wanted to push Texas in our faces. I think they accomplished this very well with the western theme, along with the six-shooter (a common name for the six-chambered gun used in the old west), the six wines in the tasting, décor in the winery, and especially the choice of the six wineries.

David Skinner and Bob Besgrove

David then introduced us to Bob Besgrove, the owner of Cowtown Winery in Fort Worth. We still have to visit Cowtown Winery so it was nice to meet the owner first hand and we look forward to a future visit to Cowtown Winery.

VIP Room

On one side of the winery is a VIP room with a long table for wine club members including a few comfortable chairs. On the other side is a gift shop offering wine accessories and pottery from Michael Obranovich.

It was not mentioned but according to the website Six Shooter Cellars will offer a signature blended wine created once a year when the six winemakers collaborate on the wine.

The partnership of the six wineries looks like it should be a winner. In the future, we will have to get back in the saddle and mosey on down to Six Shooter Cellars. (Yeah, I went there)

We all met at our first stop for the day which was Lewis Wines. I had previously visited by myself and knew Gloria would like the wine in addition to the other couples. It wasn’t long before Doug Lewis got us all started with a tasting and co-owner Duncan McNabb soon arrived at the winery. As expected, everybody enjoyed the wines and the winery. If you haven’t made an appointment for Lewis Wines yet, do it on your next visit to the Fredericksburg area.

Doug Lewis and the gang

A new winery which will be opening soon, probably at the end of July, is Hye Meadow Winery and we all have been watching the process of building the winery on Facebook. I have been fortunate to meet both the owner Mike Batek and winemaker Jeff Ivy at different TWGGA events and could not wait to finally visit the winery. Even though the winery is still being completed, Mike offered to show us around the winery. We met Mike and his wife Denise at the winery and they gave us a tour around the winery. There is still finishing up of the winery to do but I can already tell it is going to look very nice when complete. Mike showed us the tasting room building which is adjacent to the event center building, and we ended up at the production building in front which is going to hold a large amount of equipment and storage. Dave wrote more about Hye Meadow Winery on his blog.

Mike Batek

To finish up our visit with Hye Meadow Winery we went to the Hye Market next door which offers wine, beer, and bourbon tastings in addition to a nice selection of food and beverages. Mike started a tasting for us and then Chris Black from Hye Meadow showed up to take over.

Also at Hye Market was Mark Watson, owner of Compass Rose Cellars, giving a tasting of his Papillon Pinot Grigio. I know they make a Merlot too but since they also now do tastings at Taste Buds in Wimberley, perhaps that wine was there. The Pinot Grigio tasted good and I can’t wait for the winery to officially open, perhaps at the end of the summer.

Mark Watson

After Hye Market we headed to Pedernales Cellars. They had just released their 2012 Reserve Viognier which recently won a Grand Gold in the French Lyon International Wine Competition, so I had to make a quick stop to get a bottle of the wine before it was sold out. We were fortunate to meet co-owners Fredrik Osterberg and Julie Kuhlken who we had a nice conversation with, albeit too brief. They told us Pedernales Cellars will be sponsoring a hospitality suite at TEXSOM this year so anybody who goes will get a chance to enjoy their wines plus some other Texas wineries in the suite.

Fredrik Osterberg and Julie Kuhlken

It was time for another quick stop at 4.0 Cellars because Brennan Vineyards had recently released their new version of the Dark Horse Nero d’Avola and their first Tempranillo. Fortunately the wines had made their way to 4.0 Cellars so it was nice to be able to stop and make a quick purchase.

We had heard earlier this year about a new tasting room which was going to open up in Fredericksburg called Six Shooter Cellars. There is not a lot of information on the website and from what we read there would be six wineries participating in the tasting room, but we could not find the names of all six wineries. Fortunately the day we were driving down Highway 290 was their first day of opening and we found out when we stopped. The six wineries which make up Six Shooter Cellars are Cross Timbers Winery, Yepez Vineyard, Retreat Hill Winery & Vineyard, Clear Creek Winery, Cowtown Winery, and a new winery in Lubbock called Blazing Barrels.

We were greeted at the door and directed to the center tasting room which is surrounded by wood siding from a tobacco barn in Kentucky. We all started a tasting by selecting the wines we wanted to taste. Unfortunately there were no wines present yet from Retreat Hill and Blazing Barrels but we were told they would be arriving soon. We then got a chance to meet David Skinner, owner of Clear Creek Winery, and Bob Besgrove, owner of Cowtown Winery. The western-themed winery looks like it will be a fun time and I will have more information in a future blog post.

David Skinner and Bob Besgrove

It was time to check in at the Lazy T Bed & Breakfast where we would be spending the weekend and we found it easily just south of Fredericksburg. We quickly unloaded the cars because we had an appointment with winemaker Don Pullum of Sandstone Cellars at 4:00 pm. We jumped in our vehicles and headed to Mason.

I had met winegrower Dan McLaughlin at a couple TWGGA events and since his Robert Clay Vineyards is also located in Mason, we invited him and his wife Jeanie to join us at Sandstone Cellars. After notifying Don Pullum we were going to be a little late, we arrived to find Dan McLaughlin already there enjoying a glass of wine with Don. Introductions took place and Scott Haupert, co-owner of Sandstone Cellars, started a tasting with all of us. Jeanie McLaughlin soon arrived and joined in with the fun followed soon by Manny Silerio, co-owner of Sandstone Cellars.

Don Pullum, Dan McLaughlin, Manny Silerio, Scott Haupert

After a wonderful tasting, we were all hungry and conveniently went next door to Manny’s mother’s restaurant Santos Taqueria to eat. We all enjoyed the authentic Mexican food and the nice weather outside as we ate.

Now that our stomachs were satisfied, Don Pullum offered to take us to Pontotoc to see the location for his upcoming winery along with two other wineries. Pontotoc was a longer drive from Mason than I anticipated but the small town soon came into view with the vineyard beside the road. We pulled up to an old small strip center and after getting out of our vehicles, Don first brought us to the ruins of the San Fernando Academy which was behind us. Now instead of a building was a beautiful wildflower memorial garden for his wife.

Pontotoc future wineries

Back at the buildings, Don explained the buildings in order from left to right originally were a saddlery, barbershop, post office, and a movie theater. The buildings are being turned into the tasting room and production room for Pontotoc Vineyard, Dotson and Cervantes winery, Don’s Akashic Vineyards winery, and again the restored movie theater. Carl and Frances Money, owners of Pontotoc Vineyard, were unfortunately away due to family but Carl’s uncle Ronnie Money was there to help show us around. While touring the buildings, lo and behold Alphonse Dotson and Martha Cervantes pulled up. They happened to be driving home and just stopped by, so it was a pleasant surprise for all of us as they joined us for the rest of the evening.

Jeff, Gloria, Alphonse Dotson, Martha Cervantes

We ended up in the Pontotoc Vineyard production room with Don showing us how different grapes can be blended together to make the perfect wine. We tasted the different wines from the tanks and he showed how one wine could have a fast start and long finish, but had a gap in the middle. The job of the winemaker at that point is to fill in the gap so it becomes a balanced wine. At the end of tasting various wines, we got to the one which filled in that gap and was balanced. It was a very interesting demonstration.

Don Pullum explaining blending

Ronnie showed us the homestead house and then as much of the vineyard as we could since it was dark at that point. It had been a wonderful visit to Pontotoc and we can’t wait to go back and visit in October when all three wineries are expected to be opened. I could go into more details on our Pontotoc visit but Dave Potter wrote a wonderfully detailed post on our visit.

We had a very productive, busy, but extremely fun day and it was now time to call it a night. Sunday morning arrived and we met KK Taylor of Lazy T Bed & Breakfast as she prepared a delicious French toast breakfast for us.

One thing a few of us said we had to do was visit Garrison Brothers Distillery located in Hye. That was great to hear as Gloria and I had tried visiting a couple times in the past but never made it at the exact hour the tour was to start. We made sure we arrived 10 minutes in advance of our tour time and had no problems this time.

We jumped on board the hayless hay ride which took us up the hill to the distillery. The tour of Garrison Brothers was very interesting starting from where the corn, wheat, and barley is brought in, moved to the fermentation room which in fact makes beer, and finally to the distillery house where the stills are used to cook the beer. Some interesting tidbits were that bourbon is a protected spirit meaning that it can only be made in the United States, much like Champagne can only be made in France. The whiskey coming out of the still is called White Dog and is clear in color. Bourbon gets its darker color from being in a barrel which can only be used once. We then got to the point where we could taste the bourbon. Even though it was 11:00 am, it was a great start to the day.

Dan Garrison

After tasting the Texas whiskey, it was time to get back to wine. We had received an invitation to Messina Hof Hill Country so we headed there. We met general manager Dena Kasberg who had arranged a tasting bar just for our group. A great tasting was done and one wine which Gloria and I as VIP members of Messina Hof had not yet had was the Admiral’s Reserve whose proceeds go to the National Museum of the Pacific War. Dena said Paul V. Bonarrigo thinks the Admiral’s Reserve is his best Port yet, and we couldn’t disagree. Since my father served in World War II in the Pacific and has visited the museum, two bottles came home with us, one for him who we will be visiting this weekend in Florida and one for us to enjoy. Actually we may end up enjoying both of them, one there and one here, but it’s the thought that counts, isn’t it?

We all thanked Dena for the tasting and went to our next appointment which was at Hilmy Cellars. One of our favorite tasting guides is Vinny at Hilmy Cellars and we also wanted to meet Josh Fruland who works there. We arrived at Hilmy Cellars and met Josh outside. Upon entering the winery, we saw they had room for us set up at the table Vinny was working at. After meeting owners Neldie Gonzales and Erik Hilmy, Vinny started our tasting of the new wines which had recently been bottled. Even though they were young wines, they were already good and you could definitely taste the potential. Once again Hilmy Cellars, even though being a fairly new winery, surprised no one with excellent wine.

We said our goodbyes and headed to the next winery, William Chris Vineyards. Anne showed us to a tasting room and we enjoyed a nice tasting of William Chris wines which is always great. We had not seen the new additional tasting room which had been built and was impressed by the room. There were a lot of people visiting the winery with five tour limos outside but the winery was able to handle the number of people with no problem. Great job!

Unfortunately at this point it was time for Gloria and me to head home. The Potters and Wares went on to visit at least a couple more wineries that day. It had been a very busy, but very fun weekend, and we cannot wait to get together to do it again!

Dave, Kelli, Shelly, Laurie, Jeff, Gloria