Knox Circle Winery / Froggy Wines

Knox Circle Winery / Froggy Wines is located in Huntsville and is owned by Richard and Debbie Henriksen. The winery opened December, 2013, and is the first winery to open in Walker County.

We arrived at the winery and the fence next to the tasting room was decorated with frogs and other colorful decorations. The sign out front said Froggy Wines in bigger letters than the URL of Knox Circle Winery, so we had to find out the story.

Debbie Henriksen met us inside the tasting room where I began a tasting. Tastings are done seated at the tasting bar in the two-room building. The front part of the building is the tasting room and the rear of the building is where both Richard and Debbie Henriksen make their wines. They both attended Grayson County College to study enology.

There is a $10 fee for tasting five wines and that includes the wine glass and chocolate truffles. The wines are poured with a measured pourer from the uncorked bottles, and there are crackers on the tasting bar to cleanse your palate.

So, the first question I had to get clarified was Froggy Wines. Debbie said that Froggy stood for “Forever Rely On Gods Gifts to You.” She also has collected frog paraphernalia since she was a child, so that was another good reason. The legal name of the winery is Knox Circle Winery (the street the winery is located) but they are doing business as Froggy Wines.

One wine is made from Wild Mustang grapes across the street from the winery. The rest of the wines currently come from Lodi, California. They have wines in the works from Texas grapes including a Black Spanish wine and Blanc du Bois with grapes from Therapy in the Vines vineyard located in Henderson, Texas. Also in a small barrel in the tasting room is Tempranillo, which has been in the barrel since October of last year.