This month’s featured Winemaker Profile is Kyle Allen from Turtle Creek Vineyard. The tasting room at their vineyard is a gorgeous facility with the tasting room and vineyard overlooking Turtle Creek and the beautiful hillside. There is also a tasting room in downtown Kerrville called Turtle Creek Olives & Vines where you can also enjoy Kyle’s 100% Texas estate-grown and produced wines. We are happy to present Kyle Allen as this month’s Winemaker Profile.
- What did you do before becoming a winemaker?
Growing up, I worked in land development with my parents’ small business, and later became an independent contractor, mostly clearing raw land and doing road work. I began farming grapes with the Schulse family in 2016.
- What is the toughest challenge about being a winemaker in Texas?
In short, the biggest challenge is farming the grapes. The number one factor in good wine is good fruit.
We humans love grapes, but so does just about every other living organism in the state of Texas. So, the trouble is winning the competition for the perfect ripe grapes…that is, if the weather doesn’t destroy them first.
- Is winemaking an art or a science or both?
To be done well and consistently, it requires both. There is always science behind great art. The arts inspire the scientific endeavor as well. The painter needs manufacturing and chemistry for their pigments, the stone carver needs metallurgy, etc. Sculpture and painting are themselves a study of geometry and architecture. Music is based in physics and mathematics. Winemaking is no different. With technological advances at our disposal, we can express ourselves in winemaking through rigorous testing, data keeping, logic, and reasoning, or by taste, feeling, and intuitive acts. New studies and technologies are being developed constantly to aid the winemaker in overcoming both modern and age-old challenges.
- What is your favorite food and wine pairing?
I will drink wine with anything. I don’t have a particular favorite. Though I do appreciate the fact that proteins molecularly bond with tannins, and thus consuming a high-protein food (such as cheese) with tannin-rich wine changes one’s experience of both. I enjoy experimenting with this phenomenon. But mostly, I just enjoy wine on its own.
- If you didn’t make wine, what would you do?
Start making wine.
I have also been a musician since I was a kid, playing a number of instruments and forming numerous bands over the years. I’ve always been an independent artist, and though music was never my main career, it plays a huge role in my life. I have performed all over the world and have written and released a number of albums. I am about to release another album, probably by this summer. I am also very interested in human history. I have made it a life pursuit to investigate the mysteries of our ancient past, and to travel and take others to see amazing ancient sites around the world, such as in Egypt, Peru, or the Fertile Crescent. These things also influence my writing and music (as does the wine).
- What first attracted you to winemaking and how long have you been doing it?
I’ve always enjoyed making things, whether it be art, music, building, or even cooking meals, so the prospect of making wine was naturally attractive to me. When we saw our first small crop of grapevines breaking through the vine shelters at Turtle Creek Vineyard, we started doing research and experimenting with kit wines. That was in 2017. In 2018, we purchased some High Plains fruit and made a few barrels. It was exciting.
- What is the most common question you are asked as a winemaker?
“Can I taste some?”
- After a long day in the winery or vineyard, what do you do?
I like to have an ice-cold Coors Light.
- What’s the greatest part about being a winemaker?
I would say the most rewarding thing is after all the planning, preparation, long hours, hard work, and then waiting, to finally cork that bottle, pour it with the team, share a toast, and to taste something so good. There’s nothing quite like that.
- What is your winemaking philosophy, that is, what are you trying to achieve with your wines?
Excellence is always the goal. The philosophy is to achieve this with the least amount of intervention possible.
- Anything else you would like to add?
I would like to give a big shout-out to our whole team at Turtle Creek. Each person brings to the table their skills, contributions, and dedication, which together have made these wines a reality. Also, a big thank you to all of our customers for rewarding us with their company and patronage.
If you are a wine grower or winemaker, and have not been featured yet in a Grower Profile or Winemaker Profile, please contact us!
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