As we found out earlier from Bobby Champion, Jr., former State Coordinator for Wine Marketing at the Texas Department of Agriculture, the Texas Winery Passport program was going to be restructured. An email was sent to Texas wineries yesterday regarding the current Passport program and a “new and improved” program will begin next year. Be sure to enter any Passport booklets you have by the end of October. As you know, during the 82nd Texas Legislative Session, budget reductions were {Read More}
Montgomery Wine and Music Festival
September 18, 2011 by Leave a Comment
We attended the Montgomery Wine and Music Festival last year and had a great time tasting the Texas wine from the numerous wineries which were present. As a result of volunteering at this year’s Old Town Spring SpringFest, we decided to volunteer at Montgomery too. We received the information prior to the day, September 17, and were going to help pour for a winery from 1:00pm-3:00pm. The volunteer schedule had us working together for a Texas winery but previously Gerald {Read More}
TXwine Twitter Tuesday
September 3, 2011 by Leave a Comment
The Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) started doing Texas Twitter Tuesday on the first Tuesday of every month. A special winery guest would be invited and people could tweet during the 7:00-7:30 evening with that guest to discuss three Texas wines. Since the Texas wine marketing ended on August 31st, a community-led TXwine Twitter Tuesday was announced to take place next week hosted by VintageTexas (Russ Kane) and Denise Fraser. See more information at http://vintagetexas.com/blog/?p=5325 Special guest this week is {Read More}
Update on the Texas Winery Passport program – Winery Email
July 31, 2011 by 5 Comments
As I found out last week from Robert (Bobby) Champion Jr., State Coordinator for Wine Marketing at the Texas Department of Agriculture, the Texas Winery Passport program will continue in some capacity after August 31st. We were at a winery a few days after that. A couple was visiting the local wineries and the Texas Winery Passport program came up because they were unaware of it. The employee of the winery confirmed what Bobby had told me, but surprisingly, they {Read More}
For Now, the Texas Winery Passport Program will Continue
July 26, 2011 by 3 Comments
There have been reports recently that the Texas Winery Passport program will end on August 31st, 2011 because the Texas government cut the wine marketing budget. Even some Texas wineries we have visited recently have told us the same thing, and one even had a sign posted with that information. I decided to find out the correct information straight from the main source, Robert (Bobby) Champion Jr., State Coordinator for Wine Marketing at the Texas Department of Agriculture. Things of course {Read More}
2011 Texas Wine Budget Cuts
May 20, 2011 by Leave a Comment
We as consumers heard that funding for Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) programs which support the Texas wine industry was going to be cut. We had a request to write to our state representatives and senators, and educate them how important the funds are to the Texas wine industry. I wrote to a senator and a representative, and surprisingly got a quick response from my representative Patricia Harless. Here is the letter I wrote: Dear Rep. Harless, I have heard {Read More}
