High Plains - Texas Wine Lover

2013 Newsom Grape Day and High Plains Vineyard Tour

March 29, 2013 by Jeff Leave a Comment

Are you ready to learn more about growing grapes or better appreciate the effort Texas grape growers put in to help Texas wineries make quality wine? If so, then April 26-27 near Lubbock is where you want to be.

On Friday, April 26 is the annual Newsom Grape Day held at Neal Newsom’s barnery. On Saturday you can sign up for the 2013 Terry County Vineyard Tour. Between these two events you will definitely learn more about grape growing and be able to meet some of the top names in the Texas growing industry.

Newsom Vineyards - Sign

As mentioned, Newsom Grape Day will be held at Neal’s barnery or barn for those who didn’t read my post on visiting Newsom Vineyards. The location can be found on the Newsom Vineyard’s website. You must RSVP to Neal Newsom (neal@newsomvineyards.com) for the lunch.

This is the agenda for this year’s event:

8:00 – 9:00 Registration
9:00 – 9:15 Welcome – Neal Newsom
9:15 – 10:15 Mechanized Balanced Cropping: A Strategy to Reduce Crop Loss from Adverse Weather Conditions by Dr. Keith Striegler, Flint Ridge Winegrowing Services
10:15 – 10:45 Break & Vineyard Equipment
10:45 – 11:15 Clarification of Unfermented White Juice Using Flotation by Greg Bruni, Llano Estacado Winery
11:45 – 12:00 Newsom Scholarship Recipients
12:00 – 1:00 Lunch
1:00 – 1:30 Tempranillo on the High Plains by Neal Newsom, Newsom Vineyards
1:30 – 2:15 Alternative Grape Varieties by Dr. Ed Hellman, Texas A&M AgriLife and Texas Tech Univ.
2:15 – 3:15 A Viticulturist’s Perspective on Grapevine Virus Problems and Solutions by Dr. Keith Striegler, Flint Ridge Winegrowing Services

High Plains Vineyards - grapes

The next day Saturday, April 27 the Texas Wine and Grape Growers Association and the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service Terry County will host the 2013 Terry County Vineyard Tour.

The tour will begin with registration at 9:00am at the new Texas Custom Wine Works facility (http://www.texascustomwineworks.com). This new facility is located on the north side of County Road 460 between FM 403 and Highway 137, on the South edge of Brownfield. The address is 1823 County Road 460. It is the only building there. If you turn off the Seagraves Road on FM 137, County Road 460 is about one mile from that intersection. Turn west and it is the only building on County Road 460 and it is a huge building.

Buses provided by the Brownfield Independent School District will visit vineyards in the south and east portions of Terry County before disembarking for a lunch sponsored by Terry County Farm Bureau.

After lunch the tour will visit vineyards in north and west Terry County. The tour will conclude by returning to Texas Custom Wine Works.

For reservations/tickets please contact Scott A. Russell, Extension Agent-Integrated Pest Management, at (806) 637-8792 or via e-mail (preferred) at: sarussel@ag.tamu.edu. Reservations will include the tour and an evening meal at the Diamante Doble Vineyard located south of Tokio, Texas. Tickets will be forwarded via e-mail or USPS.

RSVP by April 22, 2013 to ensure your seat, lunch, and the evening meal. They will need your reservation to prepare meals.

I will be attending both days and I hope to meet you there!

Filed Under: Announcements Tagged With: education, Grape Day, Grape Growing, High Plains, Newsom, Tour, Vineyard

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

2012 Grape Camp

November 8, 2012 by Jeff Leave a Comment

When we stayed at Neal and Janice Newsom’s Bed & Breakfast in the High Plains, their son Nolan said I really needed to go to Grape Camp. Who am I to disagree? I joined TWGGA (Texas Wine & Grape Growers Association) and registered for Grape Camp which occurred November 4-5 in Fredericksburg.

Registration started at 7:15am on Sunday which was going to be kind of tough for me since I had tickets to a concert the night before in Houston. I made reservations at a hotel about halfway between Houston and Fredericksburg (thank you for the clock change to give me an extra hour) and found the pavilion just after 7:15. TWGGA’s Executive Director Debbie Reynolds was present registering people as they arrived.

Debbie Reynolds – Executive Director of TWGGA

Day one was for new growers and I waited for the session to start at 8:00am. I was a little surprised to see Neal and Janice Newsom arrive and said hello to them. Later Nolan Newsom would arrive too. Since the second day was for advanced growers, I just assumed at least the really advanced grape growers would only show up for the second day. But as I learned after Cliff, Betty, Clint, and Alexis Bingham from Bingham Family Vineyards arrived too, all said they always learn something new.

Janice and Neal Newsom

The session started with President Bobby Cox welcoming everybody to Grape Camp. The day’s sessions were geared to new grape growers with topics such as “Overall Planning for Developing a New Vineyard,” “Overview of Major Grape Diseases and Management Strategies,” and “Creating a Spray Program.” One comment which remained in my mind was as a vineyard owner, you will now become a meteorologist to watch the weather as it can vastly affect the vineyard.

Bobby Cox

As the day’s sessions continued, I looked around to see who I had previously met. We were fortunate to visit a lot of the vineyards and grape growers in the High Plains so I knew those people we had met. In fact, Jet Wilmeth from Diamonte Doble Vineyard and Texas Custom Wine Works who we met when visiting Lubbock sat next to me. I asked him how the progress of Texas Custom Wine Works was coming along and he said they hoped to be up and running by next spring.

It was a decent sized crowd for the first day and I met some new grape growers who had either just started their vineyard or was planning on starting their vineyard. It was interesting seeing some of the new wineries who were present indicating they were really trying to learn more about their business.

During breaks, people could visit the ten exhibitors who were present. I recognized one person at a business, however, I knew him from being a winemaker. That was Tim Drake from Flat Creek Estate. I learned he also has a business called Texas Wine Lab who provides enological testing and winemaking consulting for Texas winemakers. Also present signing his great book about the Texas wine history entitled The Wineslinger Chronicles was Russell Kane.

As the end of the day’s session was nearing completion, more people showed up including advanced growers. After the day’s session was complete there was going to be a wine and cheese reception followed by dinner and nobody wanted to miss that. I also met Mike Batek and Jeff Ivy of Hye Meadow Winery which is planning on opening next spring. From the sounds of the wine they will be introducing and photos of the wine labels, I can’t wait to visit!

Jeff Ivy and Mike Batek from Hye Meadow Winery

There was a break between the end of the sessions and the start of the wine and cheese reception. Since I didn’t have a nearby hotel, I headed to where the reception was going to be held. It seemed others had the same thought and we all met at the Inn on Baron’s Creek to determine exactly where the reception would be. I was running around the two buildings with the Binghams, Larry Epp, and others to find the reception room. We eventually found Debbie Reynolds and followed her to the room.

Soon many Texas wine bottles emerged as some were initially present and people were bringing their own bottle(s) of wine. It was a great tasting selection prior to dinner. I met other winery owners who I had previously met and for the first time met people like Les Constable from Brushy Creek Vineyards and Jorge Jaber from Jaber Estate Winery. It was a pleasure talking to everybody and trying any new wines which were brought.

Les Constable from Brushy Creek Vineyards

The barbecue dinner was excellent and I sat at a table with others including John Rivenburgh and Jennifer Beckmann from Bending Branch Winery who were a lot of fun. The day was over and it was time to get ready for the second day.

As the second day arrived, more people were present and I recognized more familiar faces. I also met other High Plains vineyard owners for the first time such as Joe Riddle from Uva Morado Vineyards, Bill Day from Buena Suerte Vineyards, and Alan and Matt Bayer from Bayer Family Vineyards. It was a pleasure to finally talk to Penny Adams, former viticulture advisor for the Texas Hill Country vineyards and now winemaker for Wedding Oak Winery.

The second day session was a larger group of people than the first day. As was true from the first day, Fritz Westover from the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service presented different sessions. Some second day sessions were “Pierce’s Disease Tolerant Varieties,” “Addressing Seasonal Nutritional Needs in the Vineyard,” and talks about different diseases which are encountered in the vineyard.

Fritz Westover – Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service

I have to admit since I am not a grape owner that a lot of the discussions were unfamiliar to me. However I grew a greater appreciation for the grape growers in Texas who are trying to provide quality Texas grapes for the Texas wineries. I cannot begin to list all the names of the people from wineries and vineyards who I met, but I know I can’t wait to see them again.

It has been a wonderful thing to learn that the vast majority of people who we have met in the Texas wine industry are just plain friendly folks. Maybe it’s the common bond of wine which brings out the friendliness in people but I am grateful I can be a very tiny part of it.

If you are not a grape grower or winery owner but would like to join TWGGA, you can sign up with a Friend membership on their website: http://www.txwines.org As I have learned in this short time, you will not regret it. See you at the next event!