Posts Tagged Passport code

I can’t believe March 20th will be the first anniversary since the creation of this blog. I started the blog with some goals in mind and they haven’t changed since:

• Help consumers discover wineries they may not know about and they should visit
• Help wineries with marketing
• Help wine related events with marketing

Gloria and I have at this moment visited 125 Texas wineries and have enjoyed every minute. We’re still learning to tell you what the aromas and tastes are in wine, and probably never will be able to, hence the idea of telling about our experiences at the Texas wineries. We were big proponents of the previous Texas Passport Program which started us on the journey of visiting Texas wineries, and look forward to learning how the new program will work.

The blog started out as an extension to my personal website and after a couple months I decided to make it more professional and came up with the name TX Wine Lover. This allowed me to move the blog to http://txwinelover.com, create a Facebook page, and switch to the Twitter account of @TXWineLover.

A lot has happened in the first year:

• Posted about our experiences at 61 Texas wineries
  • More than one winery’s website has put links to my posts about them
• Posted about visiting and comparing Texas wineries with New York State, Illinois, and San Diego wineries
• Attended and posted about special tasting events and food competitions
• Volunteered at wine festivals to help wineries pour their wine
  • Received our TABC Certification
• Told of our experiences harvesting grapes and bottling wine at more than one winery
• Road trip diaries to Driftwood and Hill Country and Fredericksburg wineries
• Attended my first TEXSOM (Texas Sommelier Conference)
• Participated in and helped host some #TXWine Twitter Tuesday events
• Created lists of:
  • Autumn and Spring wine festivals
  • Texas wineries with lodging
  • Texas wineries on Twitter
  • 2012 Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo Texas wineries with medals which is the only list I know that was done
• Created the first TX Wine Lover awards which seemed popular
• Featured local blogger at Spoken City
• Was a guest on a wine podcast
• Guest blogger on Thirsty Girl website
• Mentioned in other blogs and websites like the Houston Press
• Did a review on a Texas wine but with a viewpoint from many people instead of just my own
• Held our own blind taste test for eight Texas Orange Muscat wines
• Met some great Texas winery owners, winemakers, winery employees, and fellow Texas wine lovers. Some I originally met on Twitter so it was fun to meet them in person.

I guess it has been a busy, but definitely fun year. I have a queue of winery visits to discuss and was always afraid if I wrote about every one we visited, then I wouldn’t have anything else to blog about. From looking at the above list though, I think I should be able to find something.

Already there are plans for the next year. Since a lot of our winery visits were done before the idea of the blog came about, we have had to revisit some of those wineries for pictures, information, etc. before I can write about them, and we have more which need to be revisited. Plus there are wineries which we have not been able to get to yet, not to mention new Texas wineries which are always opening.

I will be attending at least two conferences this year. First up is DrinkLocalWine in Colorado next month and then in August is TEXSOM again. Various other things are planned and it should be another fun year.

I want to especially thank all the people who have tolerated me during the year including the winery owners and winemakers for patience in answering my questions and letting me take photos, but especially Gloria who has had to listen to me talk about Texas wine and the industry in general. Most of all, I want to thank you the reader, for stopping by the website every so often and hopefully enjoying what I write. Please don’t be afraid to give feedback and possible suggestions to keep the blog interesting, and we’ll take this journey together.

Here is the information for current Texas Winery Passport users about the end of the current Texas Winery Passport program and the start of the next one. Be sure to enter your Passport codes!

Dear Texas Wine Enthusiast,

During the recent state legislative session, changes were made to the Texas Department of Agriculture’s (TDA) marketing programs. Among these changes was the elimination of the standalone Texas Wine Marketing Program.

While the Texas Winery Passport Program will end on October 31, 2011, TDA is excited to announce that a new passport program is being developed to continue helping consumers and businesses buy Texas products, including Texas wines.

With the new GO TEXAN Passport Program, we will expand membership participation to include wineries, microbreweries, florists, nurseries, retail shops, bed and breakfasts, restaurants, farmers markets and pick-your-own farms in a virtual passport that can be accessed through our GO TEXAN smart phone app.

We plan to launch this new program in Spring 2012.  Remember, until the new, expanded program launch, you can continue to find up to date GO TEXAN products you love through the GO TEXAN Facebook page, Twitter feed and smartphone app!

TDA would like to thank all of our Texas wineries and dedicated Texas wine consumers for participating in the Texas wine passport program since 2008; I hope each of you discovered something fun, made some new friends along the way and enjoyed your tour of Texas wine country.

For those of you currently engaged in the passport program, we will honor each level you obtain up to the closing date on October 31, 2011, and you will have until November 15, 2011, to redeem your rewards. If you have any questions, please contact us at gotexan@TexasAgriculture.gov or (877) 99-GOTEX.

Thank you for your participation in the wine passport program, and we hope to see you all GO TEXAN with the NEW passport next year!

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 imposed on the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) and funding for the Texas Wine Marketing Program, along with many successful wine outreach initiatives, was dissolved on August 31, 2011. As our valued partner, we want to inform you that as a part of these changes, the Texas Winery Passport Program is ending on October 31, 2011 and a broadened passport program funded by all GO TEXAN members will take its place early next year. Consumers will soon be sent an email informing them of this change, and the information will be posted on TDA websites.

While we have all celebrated the success of the Texas Winery Passport, we look forward to new opportunities for the promotion of wine along with other Texas products under the GO TEXAN program. Most significantly, we are excited to announce that a new passport program is being developed to include participation by all GO TEXAN businesses so consumers can GO TEXAN all the time. We will include wineries, microbreweries, florists, nurseries, retail shops, bed and breakfasts, restaurants, farmers markets and pick your own farms in a virtual passport that can be accessed through our GO TEXAN smart phone app. Knowing the success of the original passport program, we hope you will be an active participant in the development of this new initiative, and we will keep you posted on our progress. We plan to launch this new program in Spring 2012.

TDA would like to thank all of our Texas wineries which have participated in the program since 2008; working with each of you has been a pleasure. I think we all discovered something new, made friends along the way and enjoyed working to grow and prosper Texas wines and wineries. The new passport is an opportunity to continue this successful tradition.

For those participants currently engaged in the passport program, TDA will honor each level obtained up to the closing date on October 31, 2011, and participants will have until November 15, 2011, to redeem rewards. Please direct consumers to contact us at gotexan@TexasAgriculture.gov or (877) 99-GOTEX if they have questions about how to complete their passport.

Thank you for your participation in the wine passport program, and we hope you will GO TEXAN with the NEW passport next year! If you are not already a member, please visit www.gotexan.org to join the GO TEXAN program today.

As we learned before, the Texas Winery Passport program will be restructured in some way starting in September. If you have any Passport codes you have yet to enter into their website, I would recommend doing it today before the end of this month (August).

As we have mentioned before, the Texas Winery Passport program is definitely something you should be involved with if you are visiting Texas wineries. The rewards get better and better as you visit more wineries. Even though the Texas Winery Passport program will be changing in some way at the start of September, we still recommend collecting passport codes as you visit Texas wineries.

We have reached a passport level where the rewards are now given out by the wineries instead of the Texas Department of Agriculture. The latest reward chosen for us was an overnight stay and private candlelit wine dinner for two in the barrel room at Los Pinos Ranch Vineyards. This of course sounded great to us, and it didn’t hurt that Los Pinos Ranch Vineyards is one of our favorite wineries.

The challenging part was trying to arrange a date that would work for both Los Pinos and us. Andrea Taylor from Los Pinos was very helpful in arranging a date. The issue was that Los Pinos currently has one cottage available and we had to find an available night where other guests had not already reserved the cottage. In addition, we had to choose a time period where harvesting would not affect the barrel room dinner. We decided on a date which should have fit between two harvest periods and have availability of the cottage.

Our overnight stay was going to be on a Saturday night but since we were driving four hours to the winery, we decided to see what else we could do during the weekend. We headed to East Texas Friday night and went to KE Cellars in Tyler. I had arranged with Twitter friend Darlene for us to meet her and her husband Roger there to enjoy some of the Texas wine KE Cellars offers and to listen to the live music.

We arrived earlier than expected but enjoyed looking at the variety of Texas wine KE Cellars sells. We bought a bottle of Llano Moscato and found a table in the live music room to wait for Darlene and Roger. It was not a long wait as they soon arrived. None of us had met before, but after almost two hours of a fun conversation it seemed like we had previously been friends. Upon leaving, we all said we would have to get together again when one was in the others part of the state.

The next morning Gloria and I decided to do something a little thrilling – zip lining. I had previously done it near Austin but it was Gloria’s first time. Wired (http://www.ziptheusa.com) claims to have the tallest towers and longest zip lines in Texas. They definitely were taller, longer (longest being 1,115 feet), and faster than the previous ones I had done. Fortunately we had decided to get there at 8am because as expected, the heat eventually got extreme. Gloria had a fun time and said she would do it again.

After making a nice visit to Crump Valley Vineyards (post to come soon), we headed to Los Pinos Ranch Vineyards. As we drove down the narrow bumpy road to their winery, I received a phone call from Gerald Jones, their Sales Director, asking if we were there yet. Talk about timing. It turned out he was on the road again with a refrigerated truck and probably wouldn’t be back at the winery that evening. He was checking to see how late we would be staying in the morning. We said we could wait until he got back. In the morning however, he texted us saying he probably would be much later than he had anticipated. It turned out to be another missed opportunity to see Gerald again. Gerald, if you’re reading this, just request us to help work your table at the next Old Town Spring SpringFest.

We checked in at the tasting room and met Andrea who I had been corresponding with, so it was nice to put a name with a face. She told us earlier in the week that harvesting was unexpectedly happening sooner than normal because of the heat, so we probably could not have the barrel room for the dinner. We were given a choice to either reschedule or just eat in the main dining area. The dining room was fine for us. We were told to pick any table and they would reserve it for us for the evening. We chose a nice corner table in the rear where it was a little more private but still had a nice view of the stage where jazz would be happening later in the evening.

Andrea said the barrel room and production facility was busy at the moment with workers harvesting Sangiovese which had just come in. She brought us in to show us what was happening and they were loading the grapes into the destemmer. Owner Jeff Sneed was helping out and said hello to us. I mentioned how we saw they just came out with a Moscato and couldn’t wait to try it. He told us he thought it was the best label yet on their wine. That made sense because when you see the label, it has a picture of Jeff on it. Yes, he’s one funny guy.

We received the key to the cottage and checked it out. The cottage was very nice and romantic, complete with Jacuzzi. After unpacking, we headed back to the tasting room to quench our thirst.

After sitting at our table, our waitress asked what we would like for dinner. We had a choice between the normal tapas menu or the Chef’s Special that evening: scallops in prosciutto cups with sautéed spinach and potatoe crispadoros. That sounded delicious so it was an easy choice for us. We also would receive a bottle of wine and the Chef’s Special menu said the vintner recommended either the Chardonnay or Moscato Reserve. This was working out perfectly so we of course chose the Moscato.

We chose to get a pizza margherita as an appetizer. The bottle of Moscato arrived but we decided to do a tasting of their sweet and dry wines first to decide if there were any other wines we would like to drink later or buy to take home. As mentioned previously in the Los Pinos Ranch Vineyards post, the tastings are done a little differently than other wineries since they are served at once in test tube-like bottles. We are normally white wine drinkers but we really liked the Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, so we decided to ask later to get some bottles to take home.

We finished our tasting and the scallops arrived. The dinner tasted as delicious as it looked. The jazz trio started and we enjoyed listening to the music while eating dinner and of course enjoying the wine.

After we finished dinner and the band had taken a break, we were pleasantly surprised when Jeff Sneed sat down at our table. He apologized for the way he looked since he had come from finishing the grape harvesting, but he looked fine to us. We had an enjoyable and fun conversation talking about wine, wineries, problems creating wine labels, and how they used to have themed events. One event he held was how he met his wife who is now the Chef at the winery. He said the Sangiovese from last year was made with New Mexico grapes, but the current one which they had just crushed was from Texas. He could not wait to get that wine bottled and have 100% Texas wine. He thought the band was on a really long break, so he excused himself to check on them.

We had a fantastic evening listening to jazz, eating dinner, drinking wine, and feeling like we were part of the family. Staying in the Los Pinos Ranch Vineyards cottage was an even bigger plus. After a peaceful night of sleep, we packed up and headed for the long trip home.

If you ever get the chance to visit East Texas, we highly recommend spending some time at Los Pinos Ranch Vineyards. Tell them Jeff and Gloria sent you!