Visiting the Great Texas Wineries and Enjoying Wine
We were invited to spend the weekend at the winery The Vineyard at Florence by our friends Mike and Carol. We gladly accepted the offer and we all tried to determine what other wineries were nearby. After looking at the map, I thought why not look to see what wine trails The Vineyard at Florence was on and it turned out to be the Thirsty Oaks Wine Trail. The wine trail includes four wineries: The Vineyard at Florence, Inwood Estates [Read More...]
http://www.dvinewineusa.com D’Vine Wine is a boutique winery specializing in custom wines. Besides enjoying the wine D’Vine Wine makes, the vintners can guide you through the process of customizing your very own wine. You can then create a personalized label for your wine bottles. D’Vine Wine starts their winemaking process by using the juice rather than using grapes. This gives them the ability to select from a wide variety of wines. All grape juice used is from outside Texas. If you [Read More...]
The 2013 Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo International Wine Competition Results were announced and I posted a filtered list of the Texas wineries from the results. Now it’s time for a little analysis of the results for the Texas medal wines. First, it is a little confusing because this is the 2013 wine competition but it’s only 2012 right now. That’s because the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo doesn’t happen until 2013. Clear now? As we all heard, the top [Read More...]
The wines have been judged and after a full weekend spent by 100 judges organized in 20 panels, from November 10-11, the results are in for the 2013 Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo International Wine Competition. They judged 2,884 wines from 943 wineries in Texas, the United States, and the world. 21 countries participated in the competition and 2,293 medals were awarded. Here are the top award-winning wines: Grand Champion: 2008 Alexander Valley Vineyards CYRUS, Alexander Valley Reserve Grand Champion: [Read More...]
http://www.texashillsvineyard.com Texas Hills Vineyard is located in Johnson City and is owned by Gary and Kathy Gilstrap along with their son Dale Rassett. Dale manages the vineyard, Gary is the winemaker, and Kathy manages the tasting room. Texas Hills Vineyard planted their vineyard in 1995 and the winery opened in 1999. We have been to the winery more than a few times and as you arrive at the winery, the large vineyard is located along the driveway. Grapes grown at [Read More...]
http://www.clearcreekvineyard.com Clear Creek Winery, Vineyard, & Resort is located in Kemah and is owned by David Skinner. Dee Pedraza is the general manager. Bob Besgrove and Samantha Choate share the winemaking duties with David Skinner. Clear Creek Winery has a luxury bed and breakfast called the Clipper House Inn & Vineyard which is located at the rear of the winery. David Skinner and Kristen Hopper bought the bed and breakfast in 2006. The bed and breakfast has seven antique filled [Read More...]
http://www.solaroestate.com Solaro Estate is located in Dripping Springs and is owned by Barbara Haderlein and business partner Robert Fritz who is also the winemaker. Robert Fritz’s family bought the property in 1909 where the winery stands today. The first estate vineyards of 8 acres were planted in 2002 with Barbera. The vineyard size grows all the time and today there are 15 acres of vineyards on the 160 acre property and Montepulciano is also grown among the three vineyards present. [Read More...]
http://www.grannymuffinwines.com Granny Muffin Wines is located in Palestine and is owned by Mike and April Johnston. I had not heard of Granny Muffin Wines until I saw they won two awards at the Lone Star International Wine Competition with their Red and White Zinfandel. On my way to Dallas for the TEXSOM conference, I had to make a slight detour to Palestine to visit Granny Muffin Wines. Granny Muffin Wines is located on the top floor of the Texas Art [Read More...]
http://www.fiestawinery.com Fiesta Winery is located in Lometa and is owned by Stephen and Sally Baxter. The winery opened September 25, 2010 and we happened to visit Fiesta Winery the first week they were open. I say happened to because we were at Alamosa Wine Cellars and they told us about the new winery which had opened nearby. When we first visited the winery, most of the wines were sweet wines and since we do not shun sweet wines, we did [Read More...]
http://www.caprockwinery.com Cap*Rock Winery is located in Lubbock and is owned by Catherine Bodenstedt. Phillip Anderson is the General Manager and Michael Vorauer is the winemaker. Catherine Bodenstedt purchased the winery in August 2010 after multiple auctions. Instead of retelling the story of the auctions and other proceedings, please read the blog posts on VintageTexas starting at http://vintagetexas.com/blog/?p=2243. We arrived at Cap*Rock Winery when they opened and as soon as we drove to the entrance, we immediately had to stop the [Read More...]
