bottling - Texas Wine Lover

Lewis Wines

March 28, 2013 by Jeff 3 Comments

http://www.lewiswines.com

Lewis Wines is located in Johnson City and is owned by Doug Lewis and Duncan McNabb. Both Doug and Duncan handle all the winemaking, sales, etc. The winery opened February 2013.

Lewis Wines - outside

Doug and Duncan were roommates in college and have been friends since. Doug worked at Pedernales Cellars helping winemaking, harvesting, and anything else which needed doing. Duncan would also help out too. They started making a few barrels of wine at Pedernales to learn the craft of winemaking, and in 2011 they started thinking about making commercial wine. Thus the hatching of the idea of Lewis Wines began.

There are no set hours for the winery as they are scheduling appointments only so people can meet and talk to the winemakers. I visited Lewis Wines with three board members from the Texas Wine and Food Consortium: Craig, Daniel, and Amy.

Lewis Wines - inside

Tastings are held inside the winery among the wine barrels and stainless steel tanks. A tasting bar is set up on top of wine barrels and you taste while standing at the tasting bar. The tastings are poured from the uncorked bottles.

There is a tasting fee for the wines available but the tasting fee is refunded with a bottle purchase. Currently there are three wines to taste:

2010 Tempranillo from Kuhlken Vineyards and Bingham Family Vineyards
2010 Cabernet Sauvignon from Newsom Vineyards
2010 Newsom Vineyard Malbec with about 8% of Petit Verdot blended in

Lewis - wines

We were first able to taste two tank samples which will be bottled on April 16. These were a Viognier and a Viognier/Chenin Blanc blend. The Viognier tasted sweet but it was a dry wine and I can’t wait for the bottles to be available, probably in May.

In addition to these wines, they recently bottled two more blended wines which we were able to taste even though they are laying down right now for some more aging. The two blends are:

55% Tempranillo, 35% Mourvèdre, 8% Syrah, and 2% Grenache
50% Touriga Nacional, 33% Tempranillo, and 17% Tinto Cão

Lewis Wines uses 100% Texas grapes. They get about 12-15 acres of grapes from Newsom Vineyards and other grapes from the High Plains come from Andy Timmons at Lost Draw Vineyards and the Bingham Family Vineyards. Grapes also come from Parr Vineyards owned by Robert and Dilek Parr and the Round Mountain Vineyard which Doug and Duncan actually manage. Right now grapes they get are Tempranillo, Touriga Nacional, Tinta Cão, Mourvèdre, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Viognier, and Chenin Blanc. In spring 2014 they plan on planting their own vineyard of Touriga Nacional and Tannat.

Lewis - barrels

The winery has many barrels in addition to the stainless steel tanks and they use American, French, Eastern European, and Russian oak barrels.

Duncan grabbed the wine thief and proceeded to get a couple barrel samples. We first tasted a 2012 Round Mountain Tempranillo and then a 2012 Syrah. They are going to keep the Syrah in the barrel probably 8 more months but Amy and I were ready to take a bottle home right then!

Lewis Wines already has a wine club where you can get discounts and wine shipments. The winery location has a beautiful view and the only situation is the high wind gusts which often come daily. They plan on building a barrier to help prevent the wind so people can sit on the patio of the winery and enjoy a glass of wine.

Duncan McNabb and Doug Lewis

We all agreed there was no bad wine tasted and look forward to great things from Lewis Wines. I would highly recommend making an appointment to visit these two energetic winemakers and enjoy their wine.

Filed Under: Wineries Tagged With: bottling, Fredericksburg, High Plains, Hill Country, Texas Wineries, Vineyard, Wine club

D’Vine Wine

January 23, 2013 by Jeff Leave a Comment

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 are interested, franchises for D’Vine Wine are available. Their franchises are committed to being profitable with extensive support offered.

All locations for D’Vine Wine serve similar wines. Today there are 16 D’Vine Wine locations in Texas and Colorado. I have been to the following locations.

Grapevine

http://grapevine.dvinewineusa.com

The Grapevine location is located right on the main street where everyone goes in Grapevine. On the Friday night I visited they were having karaoke. Special pricing on wine is available different days of the week.

Grapevine

Fredericksburg

http://fredericksburg.dvinewineusa.com

The Fredericksburg location has a large tasting bar in addition to many tables and you can do a tasting at either place. There is a tasting fee for six wines and you get to keep the glass. The tastings are poured from the uncorked bottles. A wine club is available in Fredericksburg.

Fredericksburg

Kemah

http://www.dvinewinekemah.com

Kemah was the smallest location we had visited and they were bottling in the same room where we were doing a tasting. Today D’Vine Wine in Kemah has grown into Clear Creek Winery, Vineyard, & Resort. We recently visited Clear Creek Winery and were impressed into how they have grown. If you look at the website link above, you will also see D’Vine Galveston and after visiting Clear Creek Winery, we discovered that is because David Skinner owns both locations.

Lubbock

http://www.dvinewinelubbock.com

During our trips between other wineries in Lubbock, we stopped in for lunch. Albert Bernal is the owner of the Lubbock location.

We learned the juice comes from California and then they are off to make their wine. You sit at a table to do a tasting and there is a nice atmosphere in the winery. The wines are poured from the uncorked bottles. There are happy hour prices and flights available for the wines.

As mentioned, we stopped in for lunch and they had a nice selection of Tapas and flatbreads which was very good.

A gift shop is available with wine accessories. Live music is also available at the winery.

Lubbock

Granbury

http://dvinewineusa.com/locations/texas/granbury

On our trip of the wineries on the Way Out Wineries wine trail, we stopped in Granbury at the D’Vine Wine located in the center of town.

Granbury

D’Vine Wine Austin

There was a location in Austin but the week before I was planning on visiting, it had closed.

Filed Under: Wineries Tagged With: awards, bottling, custom labels, Fredericksburg, Hill Country, Texas Wine, Texas Wineries, Way Out Wineries

Holiday Wine Gifts I Would Like This Year

December 19, 2012 by Jeff 6 Comments

The holidays are a time for giving and I’ll be doing my share of that this year, but over the weekend I thought what would it be like to be on the receiving end. If someone asked me what gifts I would like to receive, I would most likely include wine. I thought of doing this post over the weekend and was going to include Texas wines which I have enjoyed during the year and would like to receive. On Monday Jessica Dupuy’s great list of her Top Texas Wines of 2012 came out and Tuesday Russ Kane started his series of Top Texas Wines of 2012. A lot of my favorites are on those two lists and since it didn’t make sense to repeat the same story, a little “going back to the drawing board” took place.

So here are the holiday wine gifts I would like to receive this year and perhaps they might give you an idea for your favorite wine lover. First I have to admit I am a gadget guy. Love ‘em. My philosophy has always been you need the right tool for the job. If it’s a gadget that makes it easier, even the better.

	First I need to get a wine bottle open. We have gone through many various styles of corkscrews from the lever style, to the twist style like the Screwpull with the red ball, the standard wing corkscrew, and more, but my preferred choice today is going old school with a waiter’s double hinged corkscrew. We went to a party where a White Elephant gift exchange took place and there were two electric corkscrews people were fighting over. I have never owned one and since we have seen them used in some Texas wineries who open a lot of wine bottles, it would be nice to give a good one a try.
	Now that the wine bottle is open, it depends on what kind of wine it is as to what is needed next. If it’s a red wine which might need decanting, there are a couple choices. First is a nice decanter where you can let the wine sit out for a while. We do not own a modern style decanter so that would be next on my list.
	If I can’t wait around for the wine to decant, the next best thing is to use an aerator to make the process quicker. We have a Vinturi aerator and it works well but having to hold it over a glass and pour, especially if pouring more than one, can get a little messy. I would like an aerator that is inserted into the bottle and also serves as a pourer with no drips. How easy is that? Remember what I said about the right tool for the job?
	For the white wine which does not need decanting, just pour and enjoy. But what do you do with the bottle between servings? We usually put it in the refrigerator but that brings the ideal temperature down, and if you just leave it on the counter that will raise the temperature. To solve this problem, I would like a new cool gadget called the Corkcicle. Just insert the frozen Corkcicle and problem solved. Since we might have a couple wines open, make that two please.
	It’s time to pour the wine into a wine glass. I can’t begin to count the number of wine glasses we have from different Texas wineries. We started buying them when we first started visiting wineries but realized the quantity was growing rapidly. There are wineries which include the wine glass with the tasting fee so that has added to the collection along with wine glasses received from wine festivals. It’s always a fun game trying to match the winery glass with the winery’s wine when we open a bottle, but I would like a set of titanium-based wine glasses by Schott Zwiesel. Cap*Rock Winery uses these glasses and we were astonished when a demonstration was given. The wine glass was banged against the counter and didn’t break. Since I am occasionally clumsy, this is the glass for me.
	The evening is done, the wine glasses are now dirty, and need to be cleaned. Since I have now started drying our wine glasses instead of letting them air dry, a nice lint free polishing cloth would be nice to finish them. I don’t want to take the chance on breaking a nice Riedel glass while drinking but a Riedel microfiber polishing cloth would do nicely to finish the drying of the glasses.
	Sometimes, okay most of the time, we do not finish a bottle of wine the same night. You don’t want to let air get to the wine and over the years I have tried various brands of vacuum pumps to store the wine. I have found two that work well and we use them most of the time. This year I learned about the Private Preserve wine preserver. This is a can of inert gases (harmless nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and argon) which are sprayed into the wine bottle to displace the air in the bottle and protect the wine and preserve the aroma of the wine. These various gases are also what wineries use when bottling your wine to keep the oxygen away from the wine. Since these cans feel like they are empty when you buy one, maybe a couple cans as a gift would give them some weight. I didn’t think so.
	The only thing missing in my gift list is a way to properly store our wine. Since wine is supposed to be stored less than 60 degrees and it is too hot in Texas to do that, the only proper choice is a wine cooler. We have three wine racks, two small wine coolers, one dorm fridge, and one regular refrigerator in which we store our wines. So my biggest gift this year would be one large wine cooler with dual temperature zones which handles both red and white wines. One that holds more than 75 bottles of wine should work nicely. Hey, I can dream, can’t I?