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Bell Mountain Vineyards

October 10, 2012 by Jeff Leave a Comment

http://www.bellmountainwine.com

Bell Mountain Vineyards is located in Fredericksburg. They planted their vineyard in 1976 and the winery opened in 1983. The winery is owned by Robert (Bob) and Evelyn Oberhelman. The winery was originally called Oberhellmann Vineyards but they then changed it to Bell Mountain Vineyards.

Main Street tasting room

When we first went to Fredericksburg, we visited the Bell Mountain Tasting Room which is located on Main Street of Fredericksburg. We were under the wrong impression that you could not visit the actual winery and that is why there was a tasting room. This belief was compounded by the discovery of Oberhof Wines, made by Bell Mountain Vineyards, in the rear of the Das Peach Haus store. Das Peach Haus is a wonderful store which we need to visit every time we make it to Fredericksburg.

Das Peach Haus

After a couple years and ready to make another trip to Fredericksburg, I decided to find out what the true story was and learned you could visit Bell Mountain Vineyards. A plan was then made to visit the winery.

We found the winery outside of Fredericksburg and co-owner Evelyn Oberhelman met us in the tasting room. Tastings are done standing at the tasting bar and it is a free tasting for all open bottles of wine they have. The tasting is poured from the bottles and Bell Mountain Vineyards uses both corks and screw caps. Pretzels are available to cleanse your palate.

During our tasting we learned the Bell Mountain Texas wine was Estate bottled and the Oberhof Wines were sometimes blends and included non-Estate fruit. They do use 100% Texas grapes in their wines though.

Evelyn Oberhelman

The winery also makes Vina Rita Wine Cocktails which is an interesting concept. For those bars which do not have a liquor license but can serve beer and wine, the Vina Rita Wine Cocktails come in flavors such as Margarita and Pina Colada.

After our tasting, Mrs. Oberhelman gave us a very interesting tour of the winery. She explained they produce 7,000-10,000 cases of wine a year. Vineyards surround the winery and Malbec will be planted in 2012.

When you have visited all the big name wineries in Fredericksburg, make a trip to visit one of the oldest wineries in the state and enjoy the hospitality from the Oberhelmans at Bell Mountain Vineyards.

Filed Under: Wineries Tagged With: Fredericksburg, fruit, Hill Country, store, Texas Wine, Texas Wineries, Tour, Vineyard

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

Dancing Bee Winery

September 21, 2012 by Jeff Leave a Comment

http://www.dancingbeewinery.com

Dancing Bee Winery is located in Rogers and is part of the Walker Honey Farm Store. It is owned by Janice and Clint Walker and their son Clint is also a vintner at the winery. Dancing Bee Winery opened in September 2011.

Dancing Bee Winery specializes in honey wine or better known as mead. The name “Dancing Bee” came from one of the ways honey bees communicate with one another which is with a dance language.

I easily found the Dancing Bee Winery which is located in a large building. Chelsea was my tasting guide and she also handles the social media for the Dancing Bee Winery. I found them on Twitter and was one of the main reasons I had to visit the winery when I was in the area. Tastings are held every day which makes it convenient.

Bees built into the wall

There is a tasting fee for five wines which also includes a logoed wine glass. The bottles use corks and the tastings are poured from the bottle. You stand at the tasting bar to do a tasting and fairly close to the tasting bar in the wall is a glass enclosed honeycomb complete with bees. It was interesting examining the enclosure and especially making sure there was no way for the bees to get out!

I learned more about honey wine and mead while at the Dancing Bee Winery. Honey wine dates back to at least 7000 B.C. and is a mixture of honey, water, yeast, and other added ingredients. Honey comes in many different varietals depending on the flowers the bees visit and each has their own unique flavors, sweetness, and color. For example a buckwheat honey is much darker than a clover honey which is what most people consider a normal honey.

There are different types of mead which Dancing Bee Winery offers. Mead is fermented honey and is also called honey wine. Melomel is a wine made from honey and fruit fermented together. Cyser is honey and apples fermented together.

Dancing Bee Winery also makes one wine with Texas grapes from Red Caboose Winery. This wine is called the Texas Two Step and is a melomel made of 60% wildflower honey, tallow tree honey, and 40% Merlot grapes.

Other meads produced are Citrus Tango made from orange blossom honey and fresh squeezed oranges which came out in June. The supply of Cyser-Apple wine bottles is low so unfortunately you are unable to taste that wine which is made with tart apples and wildflower honey. They will be coming out with a winter mead made with honey and cranberry.

For those people who do not care for mead and to supplement their wine menu, Dancing Bee Winery also offer a small selection of red and white wines from other Texas wineries Red Caboose Winery and Georgetown Winery.

A wine club will be coming soon. A gift shop is present primarily with honey products.

Private events can be held at the winery. They have had events before such as Wino Women’s Club, Book Clubs, and Girls Night Out. Other events are planned for the Fall season.

Dancing Bee is on the San Gabriel Wine Trail.