Pinot Grigio
Trilogy Cellars will be a new winery opening in the High Plains in Levelland. The winery is a joint venture between vineyard owners Steve Newsom of Amanecer Vineyard, Chace Hill of Krick Hill Vineyards, and Rowdy Bolen of Bolen Vineyards. Permits and winery remodeling are underway and they are hoping for an opening in July.
In the meantime, the wine is being made with the help of a Lubbock winery and we were honored to have a special sneak preview of three wines. Steve and Cindy Newsom brought the samples to us while we were staying at Buena Suerte Vineyards with Bill and Gail Day. It was a fun evening of tasting and talking about the new wines and future winery.
Steve, Chace, and Rowdy’s vineyards are in Hockley County in the High Plains, so that night Steve made a point to note there are more counties in the High Plains that have vineyards than the usually talked about Terry County where Brownfield is located.
The first wine tasted was a 2015 Pinot Grigio. The winery owners were a little unsure what to do with the wine. The “problem” is that the Pinot Grigio was not clear in color like most people are accustomed to seeing. There were no faults in making the wine or with the taste, but leaving it a little longer on the skins and fermenting whole berry left the wine with a little color. The traditional way in the United States most people see has the color stripped off, although there are areas like Oregon whose Pinot Gris wines are a yellow to copper-pink color. The Pinot Grigio came from Steve’s vineyard and was harvested with a Pellenc harvester. This wine will be ready when the winery opens.
Pinot Grigio
The second wine tasted was a 2015 Malbec. The fruit again was harvested with a Pellenc and came from all three vineyards. It was whole berry fermented and they are looking for a fall release. Even though they are going to wait to release it, the wine was very good with typical Malbec flavors.
Last was a 2015 Merlot which will be available for a spring 2017 release. The Merlot came from Steve’s 40 acre vineyard. Once again, this is going to be a very tasty wine.
L-R: Steve Newsom, Jeff, Bill Day
We enjoyed having a sneak preview of Trilogy Cellars’ wines and cannot wait to visit the winery once it opens.
Gail and Bill Day were pleased to have hosted the preview tasting and participated in tasting the great wines from Trilogy Winery, soon to open on the square in Levelland, TX. Congratulations and best wishes to the newest Texas High Plains winery!