Moravia Vineyard & Winery

Moravia Vineyard & Winery is located in the back hills of Schulenburg and is owned by Luca (he wouldn’t let me use his last name here). Update: See the bottom. The winery opened on June 23, 2012.

Driving up the road to the winery is a nice vineyard in front of the winery. From the regular looking outside of the building, I entered a beautiful tasting room with tables, seating, and a tasting bar. I was greeted and said I would like to do a tasting. I had my choice of where to do the tasting and I chose the rear tasting bar.

When the tasting guide found out I was taking notes for the blog, she told Luca who then presented me the tasting of his wines. There is a tasting fee for 3 wines and a higher tasting fee for 5 wines. Moravia Vineyard & Winery produces Lenoir and Blanc du Bois wines from their estate vineyard. On the tasting menu, there are three vintages of Lenoir and three vintages of Blanc du Bois. However, next to the Blanc du Bois it said “Limited Near Sold Out Ask Manager” where there would usually be glass and bottle prices. Since they only make the two wines they also offer two wines from California grapes, a Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, and wines from Pleasant Hill Winery. Since I have had the Pleasant Hill wines which were available, Luca offered me only the Lenoir and Blanc du Bois wines. The bottles were uncorked and the tastings poured from the bottle.

Luca explained how he grows the Lenoir and Blanc du Bois in the vineyard and makes his wines from there. The grapes are grown organically without the use of fertilizers or pesticides.

He offers the California grape wines and Pleasant Hill Winery wines since there are a limited number of wines for people. He will soon be offering a Messina Hof Gewürztraminer to add to the tasting menu. He wants to eventually offer only 100% Texas grape wines and knows he could get grapes from elsewhere in Texas to fulfill that goal, but he wants to stay with what comes out of his estate vineyard.

I was able to try the 2012 Blanc du Bois and even though I was interested in buying a bottle, I was not allowed to. I’m not quite sure why tastings are given then of the wine and why the bottles are sitting in the tasting room with others like they are available to buy.

Also available on the tasting menu are apéritif wine cocktails like Peach, Blueberry, Raspberry, Pear Banana Italian Bellini’s, Austrian Spritz, and Mimosas.

Moravia Vineyard & Winery produces around 425 cases a year and hopes to make about 2,100 cases. The tasting room can be rented for private parties and meetings. According to the winery’s website, complimentary mountain bike rentals and route maps are available for use if you want to ride in the countryside.

We always try to take a photo of the owners or winemakers of the wineries we visit to show people there are real people behind the great Texas wines we drink. Unfortunately, Luca would not let me take his photo because this blog is on the Internet instead of a printed newspaper which would then have been allowed.

If you are ever in the area around Schulenburg, stop by Moravia Vineyard & Winery to try their Lenoir and Blanc du Bois.

Update: We visited Moravia Vineyard & Winery again. This time Luca knew us and respected how we treated his winery. As a result, there was no problem in taking photos of Luca Suschitz and he even treated us with doing a tank sample.