Fredericksburg - Texas Wine Lover

Texas Hill Country Wineries Wine Trail Grows

April 9, 2013 by Jeff 2 Comments

Texas Hill Country Wineries

Texas Hill Country – Last week the current 32 member wineries of the Texas Hill Country Wineries association voted to add 3 new winery members and a 2nd location tasting room for an existing member. This brings the total of association members to 36.

Hye Meadow Winery, located in Hye, Texas right on Highway 290, is still under construction but plans to open end of April or early May. Wines include Chardonnay, Shade Tree Blush, Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon and Edelzwicker. Hye Meadow is owned by Mike & Denise Batek, winemaker is Jeff Ivy. www.HyeMeadow.com

Lewis Wines, located in Johnson City, Texas just off of Highway 290, produces wines from 100% Texas grapes. Owner and winemaker Doug Lewis opened in 2012 and offers tastings by appointment only and has building a barrel room in the plans. www.LewisWines.com

Wedding Oak Winery, located in historic downtown San Saba, Texas, produces Texas-grown wines, blending Old World traditions with New World flair. Wines include Sangiovese, Tioja, Viognier, Wedding Oak White, and Wedding Oak Bridal Blush. Wedding Oak is owned by Mike & Lynn McHenry, winemaker is Penny Adams. www.WeddingOakWinery.com

Fiesta Winery Fredericksburg, located in downtown Fredericksburg, is a second tasting room for Fiesta Winery in Lometa. The Fredericksburg location carries all of the Fiesta wines produced by the Baxter Family and operated by David and Cynthia Ritchie. www.FiestaWinery.com/Fredericksburg

The addition of these new members confirms that the Hill Country is a growing wine destination and the association will continue to support this growth through events, marketing, education and community partnerships.

For additional information on Texas Hill Country Wineries, please visit www.TexasWineTrail.com.

Filed Under: Announcements Tagged With: Fredericksburg, Hill Country, Texas Hill Country Wine Trail, Texas Wineries

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

Fiesta Winery – Fredericksburg

February 4, 2013 by Jeff Leave a Comment

Fiesta Winery in Bend opened a tasting room on the main street of Fredericksburg in September 2012. Before leaving Fredericksburg one weekend, I stopped in to visit the tasting room.

Fiesta Fredericksburg outside

Surprisingly co-owner Sally Baxter was behind the tasting bar. I was not expecting to see Sally there since she is usually at the winery and she said she just happened to be there. David and Cynthia Ritchie moved to Fredericksburg and are the General Managers of the tasting room.

Fiesta Fredericksburg inside

It had been a few months since we had visited Fiesta Winery but Sally somehow remembered what we had tasted while there and told me what was new since our visit. One new wine was Happy Trails which is a Chardonnay with hints of peach. It is made from non-Texas grapes and had that unoaked Chardonnay taste with the peaches which enhanced the flavor. A bottle came home with me.

There is a tasting fee for five tastings which includes a complimentary wine glass. If you purchase three bottles, your tasting is free. I enjoyed tasting the new wines in the new setting.

Fiesta Fredericksburg bar

There is a nice gift shop in the tasting room with clothing, crackers, wine accessories, and other food items. The location of the tasting room is near some of our favorite stores in Fredericksburg so we will enjoy stopping by whenever we are in town.