2024 Texas Fine Wine Retrospective and Perspective Tasting

Texas Fine Wine is celebrating their 10th anniversary this year and one event this year was the Retrospective and Perspective Tasting that was held at Spicewood Vineyards on February 3^rd. The event had been held in previous years and this was the first time I personally was able to attend. The wait was worth it.

The tasting event featured a library wine, current release, and barrel sample of a wine from each winery: Bending Branch Winery, Duchman Family Winery, Pedernales Cellars, and Spicewood Vineyards. Executive director Denise Clarke, who has been with the organization since its founding, introduced the event to the full crowd of attendees. Since it is the 10^th anniversary of Texas Fine Wine, the library wine for each winery would be from 2014.

Pedernales Cellars

First up was David Kuhlken, co-founder and executive winemaker of Pedernales Cellars. He explained the wines that were available for tasting:

• 2014 Tempranillo Reserve. 100% Tempranillo which was a blend of Texas Hill Country and High Plains fruit. It was explained that 2014 was difficult that year.
• 2020 Tempranillo Reserve (78% Tempranillo, 15% Graciano, 3.5% Alicante Bouschet, 3.5% Cinsault). Double Gold at 2023 Finger Lakes International Wine Competition and Gold at 2023 San Francisco International Wine Competition.
• 2022 (77% Tempranillo, 9% Graciano, 7% Touriga Nacional, 7% Mourvèdre). From Kuhlken Vineyards where the 13-acre vineyard was founded in 1995.

Spicewood Vineyards

The next speaker was Ron Yates, owner of Spicewood Vineyards.

• 2014 Good Guy (46% Tempranillo, 18% Graciano, 18% Cabernet Sauvignon, 18% Merlot). Silver medal at 2018 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition. Ron Yates explained how there was large hail in 2014 in Spicewood. He was in the town of Spicewood when the hail started, drove quickly to the winery, and thankfully, the hail stopped at the vineyard with very little damage.
• 2020 Good Guy (40% Tempranillo, 20% Graciano, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot). Released January 2024.
• 100% Tempranillo and this will be 50% of the Good Guy blend. From the 32-acre Spicewood Estate Vineyard that was founded in 1992.

It is always entertaining at Texas Fine Wine events, whether that be virtual tastings or in person events like this, to hear the banter between Ron Yates and Dave Reilly from Duchman Family Winery. Ron believes that Tempranillo is the best red wine for Texas whereas Dave believes it is Aglianico.

Duchman Family Winery

We were about to find out if we preferred Tempranillo or Aglianico since Dave Reilly spoke next.

• 2014 100% Aglianico from Oswald Vineyards aged 36 months in oak and 12 months in bottle.
• 2018 100% Aglianico from Oswald Vineyards aged 36 months in oak and 12 months in bottle.
• 2022 100% Aglianico from Oswald Vineyards.

Dave Reilly told in an interesting story how the winery years ago received Italian visitors from where Aglianico originates. They asked if the winery had any Aglianico, and the answer was yes, but it had not been released yet. Regardless, they wanted to taste it. After the tasting, they wanted to know how it was so good for such a young wine.

Bending Branch Winery

It was time to taste the wines from Bending Branch Winery and Jennifer Cernosek spoke next.

• 2014 100% Tannat – Newsom Vineyards. 2014 was the first year with Tannat from Newsom Vineyards. Jennifer explained that cryo-maceration is freezing the grapes and then the defrosted grapes are fermented which extracts about 50% more of the color, flavor, and tannins than conventional fermentation. This wine used cryo-maceration. 90 points from 2018 James Suckling American Wine Revolution and Gold medal at 2018 Lone Star International Wine Competition.
• 2019 100% Tannat – Newsom Vineyards. Cyro-maceration followed by Flash Détente to extract more color, tannin, and flavor from the skins. Bending Branch Winery is the only Texas winery to currently have a Flash Détente system. Gold at the 2023 Houston Rodeo Uncorked! International Wine Competition.
• 2021 100% Tannat – Newsom Vineyards. The Tannat came in at 27 Brix and cryo-maceration was used.

There were questions from the audience after each speaker which provided more information about the wines and the winery itself. As is true for most barrel and tank samples, there was no doubt the barrel samples were not ready for bottling and amazing how much a barrel provides to the finished wine.

I talked with David Kuhlken after the event where I commented how it was fascinating how each winery had their own signature grape, Spicewood Vineyards – Tempranillo, Duchman Family Winery – Aglianico, Bending Branch Winery – Tannat, and wondered if it was planned that way when Texas Fine Wine was founded. He said it was not planned that way and even though Pedernales Cellars makes many different types of wines, he would say their signature grape also is Tempranillo.

Overall, the tasting and event was very educational and well worth it. I hope I can attend the next one too.