Bed and Breakfast - Texas Wine Lover

Grape Creek Vineyards

October 25, 2012 by Jeff Leave a Comment

http://www.grapecreek.com

Grape Creek Vineyards is located in Fredericksburg. The winery was first opened in 1985 by Ned and Nel Simes. Ned passed away in 2004 and Brian and Jennifer Heath bought the winery in 2006. They wanted to bring the “Tuscany in Texas” wine experience to life. Grape Creek Vineyards is situated on a 100 acre property along highway 290 in Fredericksburg.

We have visited Grape Creek Vineyards a few times and every time I wanted to take the trolley tour of the winery but there always seemed to be some reason why we couldn’t. I made a point the last time we visited to not have any interruptions so we could take the tour.

After the usual nice drive through a vineyard, we arrived at the winery and checked in for the trolley tour. Unfortunately the trolley tour costs $20 which seems a little expensive for a tour but it does include a wine glass and a special tasting during the tour. During the tour we first visited the expanded production facility and barrel room. The old production building stands next door and is now used as the barrel room. The special tasting during the tour in the barrel room is getting to taste the same wine from different types of barrels to show how a barrel affects the taste.

We also learned various things during the tour such as Grape Creek uses nitrogen when filling their wine bottles. Grape Creek has the oldest underground wine cellar in the area, but I forgot to ask why we didn’t get to see it. It was an interesting tour and at the end, the next trolley arrived and we got the chance to meet Jeff who does a weekly column on Facebook for Grape Creek.

After the tour we did a tasting in the second tasting room. Previous times we visited there was one primary tasting room which also contained the wonderful gift shop. Now the primary tasting room is the second tasting room where they can funnel people off to the other tasting room if needed.

You can do a tasting standing at the tasting bar in either room. There is a tasting fee for six wines which includes a free wine glass even if you do not take a tour. The wines are poured from their uncorked bottles with a measured pourer. Wine crackers are available for cleansing your palate.

Grape Creek Vineyards uses about 80% Texas grapes. The rest come from New Mexico. A lot of the Texas grapes come from Lost Draw Vineyard in the High Plains and others from the Tallent Vineyard located near Mason. Winemaker Jason Englert has lived on the property since 2004 which makes it easy for him to visit the production facility. Jason previously worked at Llano Estacado Winery. Grape Creek Vineyards produces about 13,000 cases of wine a year.

An extensive gift shop is available with clothing, wine accessories, cheese, meats, crackers, etc. and has won our TX Wine Lover awards before. A bed and breakfast room is present for those wanting to stay overnight at the winery.

There is a wine club at Grape Creek Vineyards and live music is held at the winery in addition to other events such as weddings.

Grape Creek Vineyards is on the Texas Hill Country Wine Trail and the Wine Road 290 Wine Trail.

Filed Under: Wineries Tagged With: Bed and Breakfast, Fredericksburg, Hill Country, Texas Hill Country Wine Trail, Texas Wine, Texas Wineries, Tour, Vineyard, Wine club

Clear Creek Winery, Vineyard, & Resort

October 5, 2012 by Jeff 5 Comments

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 cottages with six of them from the 1930′s and is located on nearly an acre of manicured gardens. The Innkeepers are Barbara and Jerry Hopper who are David’s parents-in-law.

Clipper House Inn

There was a D’Vine Wine in Kemah which we had previously visited. David Skinner bought the D’Vine Wine location in 2007, renovated it into Clear Creek Winery, Vineyard, & Resort, and opened July 8, 2011. Reading articles about the new winery made the winery sound impressive which meant we had to return to Kemah to visit. I saw a contest advertised on Facebook for a free night at the Clipper House Inn & Vineyard given by the Bay Area Convention & Visitors Bureau. I entered and was surprised when I was notified I had won. Now was the perfect opportunity to visit the new winery and have a nice stay after visiting the winery.

We arrived at the Clipper House Inn and after checking into our cottage, we met Barbara and Jerry Hopper who showed us around the Inn and then brought us to the winery. The winery is a beautiful three story Tuscan inspired building and a party was taking place on the ground floor. We entered the elevator and went to the second floor. The second floor is the production area and the third floor is where the tasting room is. Barbara was originally going to give us a tour of the winery but she said her son-in-law was going to give us a tour instead. When we reached the second floor, we were introduced to David Skinner, her son-in-law, and then I was able to put two and two together.

David Skinner

David of course had a wealth of information about the winery. We told him we had been there previously when it was just D’Vine Wine and he said that building is now their restaurant Tabella. The winery is located behind the restaurant.

One of the first questions I had to ask is what I had read when the winery was first opened. The comment I read said they were planning on being the biggest producing Texas winery and they were going to use only California fruit. David said right now they are producing 30,000 cases of wine a year and eventually they will be able to do 100,000 cases which will put them in the top 10 of Texas wineries. Regarding the California fruit, there was no denying that and the fruit comes from California as grapes, must, or juice by using custom crush facilities in California. Clear Creek Winery does have a small vineyard at the winery and they have looked at the High Plains for Texas grapes. However, David said the price for Texas grapes are about the same or more expensive than California grapes.

David showed us the production room where stainless steel tanks are the first thing visible in the room. When the winery first opened, the room did not have a ceiling which meant you could view the production room from the third floor tasting room windows. However they needed to expand with more production space so they had to add a floor and put more tanks on the third floor above. They are already looking to expand again as they need a new production floor and more storage space. In the production room stands what looks like a huge half barrel but actually is an oak fermenter which they use to ferment their Chardonnays.

Clear Creek Winery uses a sophisticated bottling machine from Italy which can do both Stelvin screw caps and corks, and can fill 2000 bottles of wine an hour. All it takes is a little adjustment and they can switch the bottling from one closure to another. The fruit wines and lower priced varietals made at Clear Creek Winery uses screw caps whereas natural corks are used for the other wines. There is about a two to one screw cap vs. cork ratio of closures used.

Clear Creek Winery is always experimenting with new things. Some wineries are using kegs to store their wine instead of bottles and Clear Creek Winery has looked into something new which I haven’t heard of: recyclable kegs from KeyKeg. It is a bag in a ball and actually looks like something from my college days, a beer ball. Bag in a box is also currently being used by Clear Creek Winery.

Since the winery recently opened, their first barrel aged wines will be coming out later this year. Speaking of barrels, next to the production room on the second floor is a nice barrel room with a long table in the middle of the room. They use a blend of American and French barrels with the French barrels holding their Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon. The barrels are used twice and most of the barrels are medium toasted however some are heavy toast. The heavy toasted barrels are used for the Cabernet Sauvignon.

Wine dinners and special events are held in the barrel room. Other events held at the winery include Ladies Night on Thursdays, Happy Hour on Fridays, and Wine-A-Rita specials on Sunday.

Clear Creek Winery will still produce D’Vine Wine in addition to their own labels. I was curious what relationship D’Vine Wine in Galveston had with Clear Creek Winery since they usually appeared together on websites. We discovered that David Skinner owns both in addition to a D’Vine Wine in Garland.

I had read David Skinner was a professor at Rice University but thought that was pre-Clear Creek Winery days, but we learned he still teaches at Rice University. He told us a student once did a case study on how to make money in the wine industry and came up with the answer that money was in wineries and not vineyards. Hence that is where David is concentrating his resources.

After our great tour with David Skinner, we were left in the tasting room so we could do a tasting of wines. There are actually four tasting areas with one main tasting room and the others are used if needed. In the main tasting room, you can sit at the tasting bar or sit at a table. There are different tasting fees depending on the types of wines you want to taste: Special Reserve/Ports, Classic Reds & Whites, or Fruit wines. Tastings are poured from the bottle and crackers are provided for cleansing your palate. You can buy food from the restaurant Tabella in the front of the winery which offers appetizers, flatbreads, and small plates.

Clear Creek Winery has already won awards for its Riesling, Merlot, and other wines at different wine competitions like the Finger Lakes International Wine Competition in New York. There is a nice gift shop with wine accessories, clothing, jellies, and spreads. Private tours and tastings are available.

We were impressed how D’Vine Wine in Kemah has grown into Clear Creek Winery and is making more than just fruit wines now. We definitely recommend stopping into Clear Creek winery to visit if you are in the Kemah area.

Filed Under: Wineries Tagged With: awards, Bed and Breakfast, bottling, fruit, restaurant, Texas Wine, Texas Wineries, Tour, Vineyard

Flat Creek Estate Vineyard and Winery

October 2, 2012 by Jeff 3 Comments

http://www.flatcreekestate.com

Flat Creek Estate Vineyard and Winery is located in Marble Falls and is owned by Madelyn and Rick Naber. Flat Creek planted their vineyard in 2000 with 6 acres and 6,000 vines. Today there are nearly 20 acres of vineyards among the 80 acres of property. Grapes grown are Shiraz, Sangiovese, Montepulciano, Tempranillo, Muscat Canelli, Pinot Grigio, Pinot Blanc, and different Portuguese Port varietals.

The winery opened in 2001 as a 5,500 case winery. It was later expanded to a 10,000 case winery in 2009 and today they produce about 10,000 cases of wine a year.

Flat Creek Estate won the category of best tasting room in our first TX Wine Lover Awards. We were not disappointed in our choice during our last visit when we entered the tasting room. You enter the tasting room on the second story and have to walk down stairs or take an elevator to the first floor of the tasting room.

We were the only ones in the winery at the time since it was on a Thursday and that was fine with us as we could enjoy the quietness while we did a tasting. You do a tasting while you sit at a table. There is a tasting fee for your choice of six wines which includes the wine glass and your choices are brought to your table. The tastings are poured from the bottles and Flat Creek Estate uses both corks and screw caps. Crackers are available for cleansing your palate and chocolate is available for the sweeter wines.

Flat Creek Estate uses 50% estate grapes, 10% Hill Country grapes, and 20-30% High Plains grapes. The remainder can come from California regions depending on the year’s Texas grape harvest.

During our tasting we had the pleasure of meeting Madelyn Naber. We talked about new wineries which have opened and which ones we were going to visit next. It was a nice conversation with a very pleasant lady. We had previously met her husband Rick at the 2011 Houston Wine Fest.

Rick Naber

I mentioned to our tasting guide how I had previously tried to find out if tours were available for just two people. We learned tours are available only for groups of 8 or more. Luckily since it was quiet and Tim Drake, Flat Creek’s winemaker, was handling the cold fermentation in the nearby production room, we got a short impromptu tour with him which was nice. Tim Drake joined Flat Creek to become the winemaker and vineyard manager in the summer of 2011.

The gift shop is very nice with olive oils, wine accessories, and you can also purchase soda or water for non-drinkers. A wine club is available.

A bed and breakfast is available along with a restaurant which is open Fridays and Saturdays. Flat Creek Estate does not advertise they have a bed and breakfast on the website because it is one room and is booked a lot for weddings. It can be reserved for up to 6 people. There is a full kitchen and patio with grill. They also book their Vintner’s Quarters often on the nights of their special dinners which is done on the first Saturday of every month plus a few additional theme dinners throughout the year.

An event center, now the bistro, was built in 2005. The bistro is open from 11am-4pm Tuesday-Sunday. The event center still holds private dinners, receptions, and weddings. Outdoor events such as weddings are held in a nice stone Pavilion.