Flat Creek Estate has partnered with H-E-B to relaunch their wines in distribution. The highlight of the new relationship with H-E-B will culminate this fall when H-E-B and Flat Creek Estate will offer the first UT GAMEDAY wine experience in a custom-built 4,000 square-foot Flat Creek Wine Garden with a live music platform as well as the premier feature in the Texas Cowboys Pavilion on the northeast corner of the Texas Exes Alumni Center. Flat Creek Estate will be the Official Wine of the University of Texas Athletics in 2024 featured throughout DKR stadium via LED video board jumbotron, LED balcony rail banners, eight stadium clubs, and more than 130 private suites.
Flat Creek Estate has re-launched its Italian blend wines for distribution in all H-E-Bs. The wines have new labels that are capturing attention and customers, here in Texas and beyond. The new eye-catching labels were a project spearheaded by owner Eva Horton. Internationally recognized photographer Adam Jahiel created the photography. The winery issued a statement saying, “The objective was to mirror the brand imagery with the wine quality and to show the parallel between the global authenticity of traits; the grit and hard work of the Old World cowboy (whether you are from the U.S., South America, Italy, Spain, etc.) and the hard work ethic that goes into our vineyard management and winemaking at Flat Creek Estate, which shows up as craftsmanship in the bottle.”
The wines available to H-E-B will be their Super Texan, Four Horsemen, Estate Montepulciano, Reserve Pinot Grigio, and Sparkling Almond. The Super Texan has already been added to over 130 current sets in the Houston area. Customers will need to let their favorite H-E-B wine stewards know which of the other four wines they would like.
The new owners of Flat Creek Estate recently hosted 24 Houston H-E-B wine stewards over two nights to introduce the relaunch of their wines into the retail market. The winery has already hosted similar wine education events for H-E-B wine stewards in Austin and San Antonio. They have plans to meet with H-E-B wine stewards in North Texas soon.
The educational dinners are all part of a robust campaign the winery has been pursuing over the last year since they signed a distribution agreement with Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits as reported last November by Texas Wine Lover.
Flat Creek Estate has already obtained placements in several restaurants around the state including the Houstonian, Houston Oaks Country Club & Retreat, and the Musaafer in Houston. In Austin, they are available at the Four Seasons, the Commodore Perry Estate – Auberge Resorts Collection, The Grove, both Cru locations, Sapori Italian Roots, the Horseshoe Bay Resort, and the UT Club. They have also already secured placements in Florida at the JW Marriott Marco Island Beach Resort and a high-profile farm-to-table account in Santa Rosa called M&P by Farrington Foods. They have plans to branch out further to Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Nevada, and New York.
The new owners are all longtime friends led by Eva Horton. One of the partners is Sean Rolie, Director of Marketing. You may recognize the name. Sean is the Executive Producer and Chief Engineer at Warm Audio in Austin, and his father is Gregg Rolie, who was the original lead singer for Santana and Journey while playing keyboards.
Sean Rolie
The team’s influx of capital and marketing expertise has allowed winemaker, Olivier de Certaines, to concentrate solely on creating fantastic wines. He is a third-generation winemaker from Beaujolais who studied in Burgundy. When he first visited the winery, he immediately fell in love with the Italian varietals the original owners, Rick and Madelyn Naber, had the foresight to plant.
Olivier de Certaines
Olivier met and spoke with the first group training at the Houstonian. He had to rush back to Marble Falls the next day for an early harvest but was able to speak to the second group the next evening via Zoom. You can read more about Olivier in his Winemaker Profile.
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