Naca Valley Vineyard

Naca Valley Vineyard is located in Nacogdoches and is owned and operated by the Mouton family, including Earl “Buzz” and Wanda Mouton along with members Wanda, Scott, Chelsea, and Amanda.

You will find the winery on the outskirts of Nacogdoches. My GPS did not bring us to the exact location but traveling a little further down the road brought us to the sign and driveway for Naca Valley Vineyard. Following the road up to the winery will find you looking straight ahead at the one-acre vineyard of Blanc du Bois and Lenoir. Also on the 62-acre estate is a pond, natural flowing springs, a forested area, and more.

The vineyard was established in 2013 and the winery started selling commercially in 2016. In April 2017, the tasting room was opened.

We met Buzz and Scott Mouton first, and they explained about the winery. A nice display of wines they had made along with recent medals was in the room, and they explained that most of the artwork on labels is done by friends and family. Showing that it is a family affair, the tasting bar was actually made from Buzz’s grandmother’s desk. You can see the different pieces of the bar and how they might have fit into the desk. It was definitely a great job done building the bar.

But now it was time to taste! Tastings are done while standing at the tasting bar, and the tastings are poured from the bottle. While you are doing a tasting, you can view the production area from windows between the tasting room and the production area. While looking at the tasting menu of wines, I had to ask how much a tasting was and how many wines it included. It was explained that there are three flights available, of two, four, or six wines. I later saw the information for that was near the bottom of the tasting menu. It might be a good idea to put it at the top so customers know what to expect while they are looking through the wines.

We chose the four-wine flight and Buzz Mouton started our tasting. These are the wines I chose to taste:

• 2018 Blanc du Bois, off dry – Henderson, TX
• 2015 Southern Belle (Roussanne, Muscat Canelli), off dry – Texas High Plains
• 2016 Primitivo – Texas High Plains
• 2017 Tempranillo – Texas High Plains

Some other wines available are:

• 2017 Riesling, semi-sweet – Texas High Plains
• 2017 Stellar (50% Orange Muscat, 50% Muscat Canelli), sweet – Texas High Plains
• 2017 Sunset Blush (Orange Muscat, Muscat Canelli, teeny bit of Black Spanish for color), off dry – Texas High Plains
• 2017 Bad Day Rosé (Black Spanish), sweet – Henderson
• 2016 Merlot – Lamesa, TX
• 2018 Blueberry, sweet – Angelina County, TX

For the cooler weather, a spiced wassail is also available. If you are hungry, you can buy food for the tasting such as a cheese, meat, and cracker tray.

One nice thing about the tasting menu is it shows the Brix of the different wines including a nice legend to show the Brix means Dry, Off Dry, Semi-Sweet, or Sweet.

As you can see, all the wines listed above are Texas wines and the winery uses only 100% Texas grapes or fruit. Buzz Mouton is the winemaker and the winery produces between 800-1,000 cases a year.

During the tasting, Wanda Mouton arrived to join the discussion and explain more about the winery. We learned that the winery plans on building a 5,500 square foot pavilion to handle weddings, concerts, and events, and also have cabins allowing people to stay overnight. There are also plans to expand the vineyard and to develop the property more with hiking trails and memory gardens.

Inside the tasting room, there is a large gift shop with very unique gifts. Besides the common wine accessories and winery merchandise, there are some very nice wooden products like a wine caddy, coasters, and wood wine boxes which include custom engraving. The wood products are made available by a local craftsman. And for the ladies are some very nice wine clutches.

If you find yourself near the Nacogdoches area, definitely make some time to visit Naca Valley Vineyard.