Posts Tagged road trip

Day two of our Way Out Wineries road trip came and we were excited to start the day. We would be meeting Facebook friends Laurie Ware and her husband Shelly, along with Dave and Kelli Potter and their beautiful daughter Annali. I had met Dave in person before but it would be the first time meeting the others in person. We headed to the first winery of the day, Bluff Dale Vineyards, where we would first meet Laurie and Shelly.

We arrived at Bluff Dale Vineyards and very shortly Laurie and Shelly arrived. Chris Hayes, son of owners David and Theresa Hayes, was handling the tasting room and started us on our tasting. Chris was very knowledgeable and fun to talk to. We had the chance to meet Theresa Hayes and then David Hayes, and both welcomed us to their winery.

Chris gives tour at Bluff Dale Vineyards

While doing our tasting, we learned about Bluff Dale from Chris. Afterwards he took us on a tour of the production facility. All the winemaking is done by hand from making the wine all the way up to bottling with friends. Chris did a wonderful job on the tour and tasting and makes a wonderful representative for Bluff Dale Vineyards.

We then discussed with the Wares how to get to the next winery, and we decided to follow them since they had previously been to the wineries we were visiting for the day. After a fairly short trip, we arrived at Barking Rocks Winery. Upon walking up to the winery a “major” disaster happened as I dropped my new iPad. I have dropped my iPhone a couple times over the years with no problems as I have always used a case. Even with a case surrounding the iPad, it must have hit the ground the wrong way and the glass screen shattered. Thankfully it didn’t break completely and the iPad still worked, otherwise I wouldn’t be writing this post at this very moment. Fortunately I had purchased the AppleCare Plus plan and will be using my first of two replacements.

Tiberia at Barking Rocks

We walked into the winery and owner Tiberia was behind the tasting bar talking to another gentleman. We met Tiberia and he introduced us to his neighbor, followed by setting us up for a tasting. While tasting, another couple came in to taste and we made room for them at the tasting bar. Tiberia was fun to talk to and we enjoyed tasting his wines. He gave us a tour of the barrel and tank room, including a fermentation tank which required stirring. The story of the Barking Rocks logo was discussed but we will save that for our post about Barking Rocks Winery.

We thanked Tiberia for his hospitality and headed to our next winery where we would be meeting the Potters. We pulled into Lost Oak Winery, formerly Lone Oak Winery, where they were setting up for a wedding. Since Laurie and Shelly are wine club members and live nearby so they can visit often, they had previously learned it was going to be a 6:00pm wedding.

Lost Creek Vineyards

Laurie and Shelly were greeted at the door while we took our photos of the outside of the winery. When we walked in we discovered Dave, Kelli, and Annali had already arrived and greetings took place. Virginia from Lost Oak checked to see how we wanted to hold our tastings and we decided on a nearby table in the tasting room. Lost Oak Winery has a large selection of wines to select from and we each tried to decide upon five wines. Gloria and I coordinated our efforts so we could share each other’s selections to taste ten wines.

While we tasted, owner Gene Estes arrived to say hello. Laurie had also arranged for all of us to be able to meet Gene. We had a nice conversation with Gene and he was polite to answer any questions asked. Gloria and I mentioned we were fortunate to have visited 4.0 Cellars already and having met Kim McPherson there, we have now had the pleasure of meeting all the owners of 4.0 Cellars. Gene had to pick up his wife at the airport and we thanked him for taking time to talk to us.

After our tasting, we did the self-guided tour of Lost Oak Winery and met Jim Evans, winemaker, at the production room. He was waiting for us (thank you again Laurie) and he gave a tour of the production room. Jim said he had some wine he wanted us to taste and we were able to taste a Gewürztraminer which was still in the tank and is going to be a winner. He then gave us all a mystery wine which he wanted us to guess. Nobody could and it was revealed to be a 50/50 blend of Viognier and Roussanne. We thanked Jim for his time and finished our self-guided tour back to the tasting room where we checked out.

The last winery of the day was nearby Sunset Winery. We arrived and after meeting owner Bruce Anderson, we thought we would be tasting outside on the wood deck since the tasting room was full. They had offered a Groupon purchase and some people were there taking advantage of the great offer which included a tour and tasting. I went to the tasting room to take a photo and met Birgit Anderson, Bruce’s admitted “boss”, who said the people in the tasting room would be leaving soon and we could taste in there.

Sunset Winery

We went to the tasting room and Dagmar pleasantly handled our tastings even though it was complicated with six people selecting different wines to taste. While we were tasting and even though they were very busy, Bruce gave us all a history of Sunset Winery. The Wares and Potters had previously visited and toured Sunset Winery, so after our tasting Bruce gave Gloria and me a very quick tour of the winery. This was just enough time as the Groupon tour arrived and he then had to help them.

Our winery visits were over, but the day was not as Laurie and Shelly directed us all to a BYOB Italian restaurant. During dinner we all finally had a chance to talk amongst each other and had a great dinner and evening. It was time to say goodbye to each other and we said we would all get together again sometime in the future.

Dave & Kelli Potter, Jeff, Gloria, Shelly & Laurie Ware, Annali Potter in front

Even with our semi-hectic schedule of two days, we did not get a chance to visit Rising Star Vineyards and re-visit Fiesta Winery. We will need to make those part of an upcoming road trip.

We finally had the chance to make the journey northwest to the Way Out Wineries wine trail for the weekend. Our first visit of the day was to Pillar Bluff. We had visited Pillar Bluff before but that was before the ideas of this blog came up. Owner Gill Bledsoe was in the tasting room and welcomed us in as we were the first customers to visit the winery on the Friday. Later two other couples came in and Gill said that was unusual for a Friday morning.

We enjoyed Pillar Bluff’s wines in addition to Gill’s humor. We then learned Pillar Bluff makes an Orange Muscat. Somehow I missed that Orange Muscat when searching for every Orange Muscat made in the state of Texas preparing for our blind taste test of Orange Muscats. We enjoyed it and a bottle came home with us.

We said goodbye to Gill and without us saying anything, he knew we were heading next door to Texas Legato to see his sister-in-law Sulynn Bledsoe, and jokingly asked if we needed directions since they are literally .2 miles down the road.

We arrived after that long drive to Texas Legato and Sulynn Bledsoe recognized us when we walked in. We had seen her last at the Houston Wine Festival last Fall and she says I look exactly like one of their friends – poor guy. Sulynn was just finishing up cleaning up the tasting room and we began our tasting. We learned Sulynn and Bill Bledsoe actually live in Arlington making it a three hour round trip drive to the winery for them.

We were enjoying our tasting and another couple arrived, one of the couples from Pillar Bluff. We all laughed but their arrival wasn’t totally unexpected since the wineries are so close. We were pretty sure we wouldn’t see them at our next winery Brennan Vineyards though, since there were other wineries in between.

Sulynn was a lot of fun and the tasting was enjoyable. We shared their Port style wine served in a tiny Port sipping glass which had a glass formed straw on the side. I tasted it first and I guess Gloria did not see me drinking it. When she went to drink it, she drank from the large glass opening instead of the straw, and ended up spilling the wine from the straw on her leg. No big deal as Sulynn was there to provide a towel to wipe it up. We occasionally like Port at home so we bought a set of the sippers.

We finished our tasting and headed to Brennan Vineyards. I have been following winemaker Todd Webster (@txviognier) on Twitter and we message back and forth, but have never had the chance to meet in person. I tweeted to him we were on our way so he would be ready.

We arrived at Brennan Vineyards and Gloria was immediately impressed with the three large buidings comprising the campus. Entering the tasting room we met Tina Marken, hospitality director. She texted Todd and while we were waiting, wouldn’t you know it, but the couple who had been at Pillar Bluff and Texas Legato showed up. We had a bigger laugh this time and they swore they weren’t following us, but were on their way to Dallas and decided to visit wineries along the way. They were a nice couple to taste with.

Todd arrived after the start of our tasting and we had a nice conversation with him while he took over pouring our wines to taste. During our tasting co-owner Trellise Brennan visited the tasting room and we took a photo of her and Todd together. Later on, Pat Brennan walked in and we were able to get a photo of the three of them this time. Everybody was so nice. We finished a great tasting with Todd and he then gave us a tour of the winery. It was definitely an impressive production facility and event center.

After saying goodbye to Todd and Tina, we headed next to say hi to Jim and Karen Johnson at Alamosa Wine Cellars. We were going to visit another winery on the wine trail but we were running short on time so we’ll need to come back sometime. We arrived at Alamosa and Jim Johnson was there who greeted us. We asked which wines were new and tasted the new wines Jim had made. Fortunately we can now buy most of Alamosa’s wines locally.

Our last stop of the day was San Saba Wine Cellars in appropriately enough San Saba. They have not opened yet but Mike and Lynn McHenry had invited us to visit and we gladly took them up on their offer. I have been following their well-documented website and Facebook page with the construction of their winery and it looked like it was going to be very nice. The question though was how good were the wines.

I called Mike to let him know what time we would be arriving and we met him and Lynn across the street from the winery since the winery was still under construction. They gave us a tour of the construction and told us of their plans and goals. It then came time to try some of the wine they already have. I’m going to have to leave you in a little suspense though as that will be an entire blog post on its own, but let me just leave you with one word: wow.

We promised we would be back to visit when the winery was open, and after eating some local barbecue, it was time to call it a night.

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.

http://www.messinahof.com/mhhillcountry

Messina Hof Winery and Resort located in Bryan and owned by Paul and Merrill Bonarrigo opened an extension to their fabulous winery in Fredericksburg on October 20, 2011. The new winery is called Messina Hof Hill Country.

In our last trip to Fredericksburg we made a point to visit the winery. It was very easy to find right on the stretch of highway 290 near Fredericksburg with the large castle tower in front of the winery.

Messina Hof Hill Country has ten acres which includes a Wine Garten, Manor Haus Bed and Breakfast, VIP Room, and Guest Center. The tastings are done in the large open Guest Center. You can also enjoy a glass of wine or flights of wine in the Wine Garten, an outside patio with seating. The Manor Haus at the rear of the winery and away from the highway has four individual retreats individually themed and decorated. Each Haus has its own private patio.

We parked and entered the winery through the tower’s front doors. We learned previously that VIP members at Messina Hof Winery and Resort in Bryan would get the same VIP benefits in Fredericksburg.

It was a Thursday night so fortunately there was a light turnout. We surveyed the large room we had entered. The large room, the Guest Center, is designed like a family room with a white grapevine carved Italian marble gazebo in the rear of the room. Tasting bars are on each side of the room with a nicely stocked gift shop at the front entrance. The VIP Room is to one side and can be reserved for a private occasion such as a dinner, private tasting, or a wedding.

Marisa greeted us to handle our tasting. She directed us to one of the tasting bars and for our tasting fee, handed us five wooden nickels. This was new to us so Marisa explained. She said since it can get busy, instead of trying to remember how many wines a person may have tasted, the taster gets five wooden nickels. One nickel can be used for one Messina Hof wine tasting or two nickels for one Paulo wine tasting. Since each wooden nickel has a $2 value, they can be used for flights of wine. The tasting fee also includes a Messina Hof etched wine glass.

As in Bryan at Messina Hof Winery and Resort, the tastings are poured from the bottle. Crackers are available to cleanse your palate between tastings.

It was nice to learn that Messina Hof Hill Country only serves 100% Texas wine. There are also some special wines made specifically for Messina Hof Hill Country which you cannot get in Bryan. The special wines have different labels from the normal Messina Hof labels and are special blends of some of their most popular wines. At the time of our visit, there were 45 wines available for buying or tasting.

Since the Houston Rodeo’s International Wine Competition had recently been held and Messina Hof’s 2004 Solera was declared the best Texas wine, that was one wine we immediately wanted to taste. It was a delicious wine and a bottle found its way to our car.

Free tours are available of the facilities including the four villas. Live music is available on Saturdays in the Wine Garten.

We were told that a vineyard would be planted in early 2012. Recently I made a one day road trip to Fredericksburg and stopped by the winery to pick up some more wine. Sure enough, a vineyard had been planted in front of the winery. It doesn’t look like much now since it is brand new, but when it grows more it will look fantastic in front of the winery. Marisa was working and even though it had been a couple months since our last visit, it was a pleasant surprise when she recognized me and wondered where Gloria was. The friendly and welcoming staff that is always present at the Bryan location of Messina Hof has definitely extended itself into Fredericksburg too.

There is no doubt Messina Hof has another winner at their Fredericksburg location and we highly recommend you stop by to visit when you are touring the Fredericksburg wineries.

Our final day in the Hill Country arrived and we woke up to pouring rain and cold weather. The initial plan was to visit Garrison Brothers Distillery, the first and oldest legal distillery in Texas, on the way back home, but since we started taking photos of owners and winemakers in addition to getting autographs on wine bottles, we decided to head back to Sandstone Cellars Winery instead.

Scott Haupert signing our bottle

We arrived right after they opened and Scott Haupert was there, like he has been every time we have visited. When we asked if he could sign a wine bottle, he said he never has done that before. He, the other owner Manny Silerio, and winemaker Don Pullum usually sign books. In the past only Don and Bill Worrell, the artist for their bottle labels, have signed wine bottles. So Scott took the little tool they have set aside (actually a modified nail) and engraved his name in the wine bottle’s label for the very first time.

We were hoping to get Don’s signature too and Scott said he should be there shortly. Next door to Sandstone Cellars Winery is another family operation Santos Taqueria (http://www.santostaqueria.com). This was an old gas station which has been converted to a restaurant. This is not your typical Tex-Mex restaurant because the food is made the Old World way. The reason for this is because Manny’s mother, Santos Silerio, originally from Durango, Mexico, actually runs the restaurant using her recipes.

Two days prior when we were at Sandstone Cellars Winery, I tweeted on Twitter we were there and one of my Twitter friends @Friscokid49 asked if we had eaten at the restaurant because it was one of his top 5 real Mexican restaurants. We could either head home or since it was near lunch time, take his advice to eat lunch and wait for Don to arrive. We chose the food which was a wise decision.

Manny Silerio signing our bottle

We picked up menus and decided we would try shrimp gorditas. Gloria placed the order and we learned it was Manny’s sister who was taking our order. You can also see the food being made right there with Manny’s mother leading the way. Gloria asked if Manny was around. She was told he was and they would give him a call. Our food arrived and a short time later in walked Manny Silerio with engraving tool in hand. He had gotten the word from Scott we were looking for an autograph on the wine bottle. He said we made a good choice on the shrimp gorditas and we thanked him for braving the rain to come autograph our bottle.

After our delicious meal (you really need to eat at Santos Taqueria if you’re in Mason) we walked back to the winery. Don arrived shortly and autographed the bottle too. He had seen on Twitter previously where we were asked about eating at the restaurant and was glad we had gotten a chance. We said one last goodbye and started our trip back home.

However instead of going directly home, we had to stop and visit the recently opened Westcave Cellars Winery first. We found the winery and it was surrounded by vineyards. It must look beautiful when they are green. Walking into the tasting room we were greeted by owners Allan and Margaret Fetty in addition to another couple enjoying the Texas wine. Margaret started a tasting for us while we enjoyed a nice conversation with both couples.

Allan and Margaret Fetty

Allan is the winemaker and Westcave Cellars usually only gives reserved tours for six people or more. Since the winery was not busy, Allan graciously gave us a tour of the production facilities behind the tasting room. He admitted there isn’t much room for all the equipment and it has to be moved around during different stages. However Westcave Cellars is still able to put out a decent quantity of cases during the year. Allan continued to talk to me after the tour while Gloria went back to the tasting bar. Later we discovered all of them at the bar having fun and of course drinking more wine. We had to say goodbye, but we will be back to Westcave Cellars Winery sometime in the future.

On the drive home we reminisced about our four day trip. Even though the days were mostly long, we had such a fun time meeting new people, visiting new wineries, and re-visiting favorite wineries. We will definitely be making a trip back to the Hill Country and Fredericksburg again in the future.

Please read the posts for Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3.