Posts Tagged store

The 14th annual SpringFest was held in historic Old Town Spring on March 31st and April 1st. Like last year we volunteered to help the wineries pour their tastings. We were just hoping the weather was not going to be like last year when it was very cold the first of two days. When we volunteered, I was told the festival was moved to the end of March instead of the beginning like last year to hopefully avoid that problem. It looked like a great decision as the weather was beautiful all weekend.

We volunteered for the first shift which involved setting up too. When we arrived at the festival volunteer check-in, we were unsure which winery we would be helping. Earlier in the week, I had two wineries say they hoped we would pour for them. Check-in time came and we learned we would be helping Red 55 Winery. The winery is owned by Miranda Lambert’s parents and is located in Lindale, TX. If you are not aware, Miranda Lambert is a famous country singer who grew up in Tyler, TX.

Last year all the wine tasting was held in Preservation Park and this year it was moved out on the streets. This was a great idea to get people to roam Old Town Spring and visit the stores, but sometimes people needed to be directed to where other wine tasting locations were. There were two major locations, one smaller location in Gentry Park, and Wimberley Valley Winery did their tastings inside their tasting room located in Old Town Spring.

We found the street where Red 55 Winery was to be and only one winery was currently setting up at just past 9:00am. The festival was to start at 10:00am. Other wineries started showing up to set up their tables and fortunately some of them knew the tables designated for the specific wineries. When the two representatives from Red 55 Winery showed up, we started setting up the table.

Unfortunately they had forgotten some of their items in a truck in a nearby town, but like happens most of the time, other wineries help each other. Billy Cox from Retreat Hill Winery loaned a tablecloth to cover the table. A bucket was needed to hold the chilled wine on the table and I offered to go search for one. After trying unsuccessfully at a few stores, I asked the volunteer lead and she took me to Wimberley Valley Winery because she thought she had seen one there. We met Jana Valentine from Wimberley Valley Winery and she had exactly what they were looking for. I returned to the table with it and the table was set up and ready to go.

Well, it was ready to go but most tables were still waiting for the wine to be delivered. It was being delivered by truck at various times and I believe most wine was delivered by 10:30am. The good thing is most visitors to the wine festival had not started arriving yet, so it was not a big issue.

Tasters started arriving and soon everything was working in a nice groove. The representatives from Red 55 Winery were very knowledgeable about the three wines which they brought: Red 55, Kerosene, and Crazy Ex Girlfriend. They enjoyed talking to the tasters and telling them about the wines and the winery. At that point Gloria and I did not need to do much except for occasional errand runs.

The next shift’s volunteers showed up and we were released from our volunteer duties. We then got the chance to visit the other two wine tasting sections and taste some wine which we have not had before and also visit with some representatives we had previously met at other festivals.

From our count, a total of 17 Texas wineries participated in the wine festival which were: Bernhardt Winery, Calais Winery, Chisholm Trail Winery, Clear Creek Winery, Cork This! Winery, Dionisio Winery, Enchanted Manor Winery, Fall Creek Vineyards, Landon Winery, Los Pinos Ranch Vineyards, Maydelle Country Wines, Piney Woods Country Winery, Pleasant Hill Winery, Red 55 Winery, Retreat Hill Winery, Three Dudes Winery, and Wimberley Valley Winery.

We had a great time tasting and of course volunteering earlier, and will definitely be volunteering again next year.

http://santamariacellarswines.com

Santamaria Cellars is owned by Martin and Angela Santamaria and opened in October 2011. Martin (pronounced Marteen) is the winemaker and was born in Mendoza, Argentina. He moved to the United States in 2000 and served as the winemaker at Dry Comal Creek Vineyards and Winery in New Braunfels until 2005. He founded Santamaria Cellars during that time and began making wines under his own label.

There has been confusion regarding what the correct name of the winery is. I have seen Santa Maria Cellars (on their website and even wine bottle labels), SantaMaria Cellars, and when we arrived at the winery there was a banner with Santamaria Cellars.

Angela Santamaria was at the winery and we got the answer to the winery’s name. The name should be Santamaria Cellars but the labels had been produced incorrectly, website done incorrectly, etc. but their goal is to eventually get it all clarified. Martin Santamaria was not at the winery because he was in downtown Fredericksburg at Texas Wine Cellars, a store specializing in Texas wine, and he was giving tastings and autographing bottles.

Tastings at the winery are done while standing at the tasting bar. There is a tasting fee for whatever wines they have available and there were 8 wines available when we were there. If you buy two bottles, the tasting is free. The bottles are corked and the tastings are poured from the bottle.

During our tasting, Angela told us a little history and future of the winery, Martin’s history on how he was going to move to California but stayed instead in Texas, and how she was a good customer of Martin’s wines before the winery opened which is how they first met.

All of Santamaria Cellars’ wines use 100% Texas grapes from the Hill Country and Lubbock area. Santamaria Cellars uses Chilean oak barrels for their Texas wine. There is a small gift shop present with wine accessories and the winery has a wine club.

We had a great tasting with Angela and we thought it would be fun to meet Martin in downtown Fredericksburg. Angela said she was also going to be meeting him there shortly. After a stop at another winery, we found Texas Wine Cellars in Fredericksburg and Angela was already there along with Martin who we then met. We had a nice conversation, tasted a little more, and bought a bottle of their wine which Martin autographed.

Martin and Angela Santamaria

Santamaria Cellars is a new addition to the Texas Hill Country Wine Trail and we recommend you stop by to see them when you are in the Fredericksburg area.

It was raining the day we visited the winery and since our photo of the outside of the winery did not come out well, we would like to thank Grant Broker and Julie Schmitz for providing a photo of the winery.

After having searched often for Texas wines to participate in TXWine Twitter Tuesday or other mentions of Texas wine I wanted to try, I thought I would find out where do you buy your Texas wine?

Obviously if you live near or are visiting a Texas winery that is the best place to get Texas wine. The wineries should have all their wines available and you will not have to search for it. For the rest of us, we need to go to a retail store to buy Texas wines.

Since we live in the Houston area, here are some stores we are aware of which sell Texas wines.

• Grocery stores like Kroger, HEB, Randall’s, Fiesta, Whole Foods Market, and Central Market
• Liquor stores with the biggest one being Spec’s. Other good stores I have seen are Wine Styles, Top Shelf Wine and Spirits in Sugarland, and Value Discount Liquor selling the hard to find Chisholm Trail wines. Most liquor stores carry a small selection of Texas wines. A nearby store has bottles from Messina Hof with labels which are extremely old so I’m not sure how well the wine has aged.
• A little further from Houston in Montgomery is Rancher’s Daughter which carries just Texas wines with a very large selection

In our travels, we have also come across stores and tasting rooms who also sell Texas wines.

• KE Cellars in Tyler has a large selection of just Texas wines
• Lone Star Wine Cellars in McKinney sells many other local Texas wines in addition to their own
• Handy Farms in Scroggins has a decent selection of just Texas wines and they’ll let you taste any of them before buying

That is what we know of. To help others, where do you buy Texas wine?

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 Jones from Los Pinos Ranch Vineyards had requested for us to help him. Fortunately when we arrived to check in for the day, we were told we could switch to the Los Pinos table so we headed to the wine tents.

Let me back up a little bit. Friday night I received a tweet on Twitter at my old Twitter address from Billy Cox Jr., owner of Retreat Hill, saying, “our wine in Houston and Austin Spec’s store. Come by and visit us tomorrow at Mont wine and music festival.” Retreat Hill was the first winery we blogged about and Billy didn’t know about my new @TXWineLover Twitter address. He was also unaware we were volunteering at the wine festival. I replied in the morning when I read the tweet that we would be volunteering and see him there.

Later on at the festival after we saw Billy a few times, we found out from Billy what actually happened the previous night. He walked over to Steve Morgan from Saddlehorn Winery, laughing, and explained to us the two of them were drinking the previous night and somehow my name and blog came up. He decided he would tweet me right then and there, and in turn was hoping for me to retweet it (“social media,” he said) which I did do on a later tweet of his about the Montgomery Festival. It was a perfect example of social media at its best.

Billy Cox Jr.

At the time of our shift, Gloria and I went to the Los Pinos table where Gerald Jones instructed us what we needed to do while pouring. It wasn’t long before customers came to the table and were ready for tasting the Los Pinos Texas wine. All 16 wineries were allowed to bring two types of wine. Los Pinos had brought their Grand Reserve Meritage, a blend of 80% Cabernet Sauvignon and 20% Merlot, which was a Lone Star International Wine Competition medal winner. The other wine they brought was Sweet Rodeo Red. For those asking for wines, the sweet wine was obviously Sweet Rodeo Red and the dry was the Grand Reserve Meritage.

We initially had questions like “how dry is it” or “how sweet is it?” Unfortunately we had learned what we needed to do to pour but we hadn’t had a chance to taste the wines to be able to answer those questions. We quickly resolved that problem. We often were asked if there was a white to taste and were sorry to tell them there were only the two reds present. We then directed them to Rancher’s Daughter within walking distance where they could get other Los Pinos wines.

Last year the day was very hot, however the weather was beautiful this year. Wind did come up at one point and started blowing things off tables. Fortunately Gerald had most of the items on the table taped down so we didn’t have problems. But at a neighboring table, someone had put their wine glass down to get their tasting and the wind slid the glass across the table causing it to fall. Fortunately it didn’t break.

The three of us were handling the wine tasters at a nice pace. It wasn’t too crowded or sparse, just a nice flow of traffic coming to the table. Gerald had to take a nature break at one point so Gloria and I were left to man the table. I’m not sure how the volunteers who were alone would be able to handle it without the tasters backing up and perhaps giving up on trying any of the wines at the table. I think Gloria and I made a good team and we kept the pouring working well.

Gloria and Gerald Jones

One of the funniest things happened to Gloria. An older gentleman who was with a woman came to her to do a tasting for the two of them. He later came back by himself with one glass. Gloria recognized him and said, “Welcome back. Would you like another tasting?” He said he wanted a double tasting this time. Gloria said, “Oh, you like it.” His reply was, “No, I want to get her happier before I get her home!”

Without a doubt, the Grand Reserve Meritage was the hit of the table. A lot of people who said they don’t like dry wines or even some who only like white wines tried it, and the expression on their face and comments were often, “Wow that is good.” We often got requests on where they could buy a bottle of it and fortunately a tent was available where people could buy any of the wines at the festival.

Our 3:00pm shift ended but our replacement volunteer had not yet arrived and even though Gerald said we could leave, we said we would stay and help. The Montgomery Festival people were also appreciative. Our replacement showed up at 3:30pm so it was our turn to be a wine taster and make the rounds.

Out of the wineries which were present, we have visited all except Sunset Winery so we had to try both of the wines they brought. At their table volunteering was also Ron Saikowski, a wine columnist for many newspapers and magazines, who I had previously commented with on Facebook about meeting at the festival. We had a nice conversation while Ron poured the Sunset Winery wines for us and explained about them.

We finished our round of the winery tables, stopped in to say hello to Rendy Kerr from Rancher’s Daughter, and took the shuttle back to the car. It was a nice day and we vowed to volunteer again at next year’s festival.

http://www.red55winery.com

Red 55 Winery is part of the Miranda Lambert Store located in Lindale. If you do not know who Miranda Lambert is, she is a popular country singer and was born in Tyler, Texas. The store gets top billing at the location, so most likely most people stop by to see memorabilia from Miranda Lambert and purchase any gifts.

The winery opened in 2006 and is owned by Miranda Lambert’s parents, Rick and Beverly Lambert.

When we walked into the store/winery, nobody was present except a girl sitting in an office overlooking the room. She asked if she could help us and we learned later her name was April. When we said we were interested in a tasting, she looked a little bothered but came out to the tasting bar to help us.

We were told the first wine chosen to taste is free but there would be a charge for three more after that, and most of all there was no sharing. That came as a shock since we have never heard that one before. With April not being very pleasant, Gloria was immediately turned off, said she now was not interested in tasting, and went to walk around the store.

I decided to do the tasting, but felt like I had to hurry during it and really felt uncomfortable. I sat at the bar during the tasting while April poured from the un-corked bottles.

She answered my questions and told me their grapes came from a small vineyard with the rest of the grapes being from around the state. By looking on the Piney Woods Wine Trail site, I learned the small vineyard is LouViney Vineyards located in Sulphur Springs. The wines are named after Miranda Lambert’s songs and April could not tell me what type of grapes are used in the wine. She made the comment that 65% of the grapes had to be from Texas though. Hmmm, I keep getting told different percentage numbers. According to the GO TEXAN website, it is 75% right now.

April said that Miranda Lambert now lives in Oklahoma but does visit the area sometimes.

While tasting, Gloria asked if she could go upstairs and April said sure. I asked her what was upstairs and she said basically a rummage sale. After I quickly finished my tasting, I went upstairs to see what was there. There are some gift items present, but there is also used clothing that Miranda Lambert and her fiancé Blake Shelton has worn which you can purchase. Blake Shelton is also a country music star and one of the judges on the current television show “The Voice.” I decided not to buy Blake’s old jeans.

The store does have music events as there is a small stage, and of course a gift shop for Miranda Lambert items.

We are guessing April gets a lot of lookers at Miranda’s items, but it is a store and supposedly a winery, so her attitude was not expected. If Miranda’s parents want to have a serious winery, they need to do something about the location and give the winery more of a focus.

The Red 55 Winery is on the Piney Woods Wine Trail.

Update:

We volunteered to pour wine at Old Town Spring’s 2012 SpringFest. When we arrived, we discovered we were assigned to help Red 55 Winery. Like the other wineries, they brought three wines: Crazy Ex Girlfriend, Kerosene, and Red 55. Since visiting Red 55 Winery, we had visited Crump Valley Vineyards and learned they were now making the wine for Red 55 Winery and were going to tweak a few of the wine formulas. The three wines brought to the festival were definitely much better than I remembered tasting at the winery. The winery representatives were also very nice and through another winery’s representative, I heard the owners, Rick and Beverly Lambert, were also extremely nice. Unfortunately I believe we just had a bad visit to the winery. The wines are getting better, the primary people involved in the winery are nice, and we look forward to visiting Red 55 Winery again the next time we are in Lindale.