The Journey

Cliff Bingham in the Tempranillo Vineyard

The Monday after the Blood Moon, I drove up to the High Plains. It is a beautiful drive, I love Texas; the Hill Country is so scenic with the rolling hills and winding roads. As you travel west you go up a series of plateaus, rising in elevation and the terrain evens out to become very flat with the enormous dome of the sky above.  I was amazed by the number of electricity generating windmills along the way. Well over a thousand of them by my estimation.

There are several very interesting cities along the way; San Angelo and Big Springs just to mention two. My cell phone GPS did an excellent job navigating my route. I was able to drive right to the Bingham Family Vineyards.  The appearance is of the brick farm homes in the area because this was the family home up until a few years ago. There are large vineyard plantings in the fields around the house, barn and winery.  The open space in this part of the country makes gauging distance and size difficult.

Puppy sez "They're ripe!"

Greeted by winemaker, Daniel Bingham and then I meet Cliff Bingham, Grape Grower and so much more. I was guided on a tour vineyards looking at Tempranillo, Vermintino and Dolcetto. Meet the neighbor's puppy, cutest ever, and he loved eating the grapes!

My tour of the winery was with Manuel Lechuga, he has been growing grapes and making wine in the Texas High Plains for twenty-eight years!  Manuel worked with Bobby Cox at Pheasant Ridge Winery until a few years ago. Tasting from a wealth of barrels, Manuel showed me a delicious array of wines; Merlot, Tempranillo, Dolcetto, Petite Verdot and wine in OLD barrels; 2009, 2006 and 2004!  Eleven years in barrel! Does anybody outside of Spain do this?  The wines are profound and amazing! (The Dugout, Cab Blend, is a wonderful result of this extreme barrel aging program.)

After this we went to the Bingham Family home for dinner tasting the wines in bottle. There were numerous family members and several wines to taste. I of course, kept up with it all. (No pop quizzes, please.) It was a wonderful evening and as dinner ended and I was heading back to the winery to stay the night. It seemed like the wonders were about to cease. I was in my car following Cliff in his truck, as we turned on to the FM road he stopped got out and came to my car asking; "Do you want to see harvest?" My answer; "YES!!!"

We pulled to the side of the Tempranillo vineyard we had visited in daylight. It was now after 10:00 pm, a cool night, dark; country dark, the only light the flood lights on the tractors working. One pulling the harvester and two tractors each pulling a bin the size of a modest Winnebago, to receive the grapes from each pass of the harvester.  The tractors with bins then rush over to the winery to pour their load into smaller bins, that are still pretty big. This pour was into a series of three bins with Daniel Binghanm standing in front of them. It looked like a Niagara Falls of grapes.  It is hear that I wished I had my cell phone camera, only all the GPS guidance had zapped my battery to 0%.  (I will be taking pictures next harvest.)  At the winery there is a forklift zipping back and forth, giant bins of grapes being pushed, pulled, lifted and hauled. Destemmer crusher whirling, semi-trucks idling while being filled with bins of Tempranillo right off the vines, and a large team of people working in full court press.  This was more exhilarating that watching the Spurs in the playoffs! This scene was a whirlwind, as was the day. As the semi-trucks headed out to the Hill Country where a great winemaker will take over them and make beautiful wines, I went to bed; exhausted from the long day. The Bingham family kept working through the night.

I stayed the next day we discussed our business plans and agreements. I went to check out "the competition" or wineries I should have visited long, long ago. The Binghams and I easily and cordially came together on our Brokerage Agreement. The next morning we loaded samples into my car with an absolutely breathtaking sunrise for this NEW day!

It was a journey to come up here, one that began many years ago. It feels great, right and very promising. Like anyone on a journey; somehow I am surprised that it has not ended but grown into an odyssey better that I could have asked for...

"Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth!" Psalm 98:4

Easy Like ... Rosé Wine

People make things difficult.  Sorry, but it is true; from rush hour, the work week, the boss, the in-laws, the land lord, the clerk in the store (who is supposed to be there to help!) and many other people in our lives seem to be there just to make things difficult on you.  Take the author for the Sommeliers; Tom Stevenson, in his authoritative tome the New Sotheby’s Wine Encyclopedia, he describes the rosé wines of Provence France "...exotic is the last word that could be used to describe it's dull, flabby contents."  Admittedly wine making has improved since he pinned these words,  yet there remains his words of resistance that Sommeliers and other serious readers of this book have to overcome to develop their appreciation of rosé wines. In contrast from wildly popular web site BuzzFeed: "Rosé haters are either a) sad and ignorant enough to think that “pink is for girls,” or b) individuals who were exposed at a young and impressionable age to white zinfandel (a sugary, mass-produced excuse for wine that rose to power in 1970s California)".  And, so goes the information back and forth, like a great debate, everyone wants to weigh in and give their opinion.  One of my favorite web sites, Wine Folly, says; "rosé wine is both manly and sophisticated."  The hard numbers show that even with "haters" of this type of wine out there the category experiences sales growth of almost 40% annually.  A number that makes other wine styles green with envy.

The great thing about wine is that no matter what the experts and authors say about a wine; you can still pour the wine in a glass and experience it for yourself.  That is the moment of truth, you look, smell and taste, you experience it and you can come up with your own opinion, independent from whatever the "experts" say.  With rosé wine I find this rewarding because the wine is enjoyable and easy. Like the Commodores hit written by lead singer Lionel Richie, it is "Easy...like Sunday Morning."  Rosé wine is easy on the eyes.  Rosé wine is easy on the nose. Rosé wine is easy on the palate.  Rosé wine is easy to pair with food. And, rosé wine is easy to love.

Which is why the Rambling Rosé tasting is so popular every year.  Celebrating another great vintage of the Becker Vineyard's Provencal and their new rosé Jolie!  This is one of the many Culinaria events that take place year round in celebration and support of the culinary arts in South Texas with a special emphasis on the coming Urban Gardens!  We thank every one who participated in this worthwhile, enjoyable and easy endeavor. 

It was a beautiful, and HOT Saturday in the Texas Hill Country AVA, Saturday August 8th, 2015.  Harvest has just begun in our wine region and you can feel the excitement in the air!  Harvest time is great because of all the hope and potential coming in from the fields has the team at the winery excited.  The visitors are also excited to be trying the wines in the tasting room and the six rose wines poured blind into their glasses.

Blind tasting is the only way to accurately judge and assess the quality of any wine.  The picture below shows the six wines at the start of the tasting.  The colors are beautiful and varied from pale pink, often called salmon, to richer pink hues that can become fairly red in appearance.  My notes and review of the wines are below following the order they were presented with the bottom right being the first and the top left wine being last.

Jolie, Becker Vineyards, Texas 2014
Brilliant and beautiful!  A very sexy shade of pink that shimmers and teases.  The aromas are expressive and seductive with cranberry fruit and a very floral rose petal quality.  The flavors are fulfilling and rich; with strawberry and cranberry, some meaty plum, a hint of minerals and a smack of leather in the finish.  This is the NEW rose from Becker made from primarily Tempranillo grapes and it is very impressive and delicious.  It was the hit of the day! 

Cote du Rhone, J Vidal Fleury, Rhone, France, 2014 
Light hues of pink with highlights of orange and gold.  The aromas has a hint of citrus with some berry notes an impression of cured meat and crushed flowers.  The flavor is tart at first, followed by pleasing richness, filled out by strawberry fruit, some dusty minrality heading to the quick finish.  Great wine for meaty and heavier food pairing opportunities.  Founded in 1781, Vidal-Fleury is the oldest continuously operating winery in the Rhône Valley. ( Thomas Jefferson visited the estate in 1787.)  Combining 230 years of tradition with a state-of-the-art winemaking facility.  The rose is made from 50% Cinsault, 30% Syrah, 20% Grenache. The vineyards are on a mix of calcareous, clay, and sandy soil at 650 to 1,000 feet.  

Provencal, Mourvedre, Becker Vineyards, Tallent Vineyard, Mason County, Texas Hill Country, 2014
Limpid pink colors with the deep hues of salmon pink, very classic rose appearance.  With a subtle, genteel aromas of strawberry and cranberry fruit that is tantalizing.  The delicate approach of the wine continues with the strawberry and cranberry fruit expression being very mellow with a wonderful note of orange peal coming in with the reflection of minrality in a finish that whispers into the distance of your taste buds.  This is a crowd favorite that was immensely enjoyed when blind and meet with cheers when revealed at the end.

Chateau Bonnet, Bordeaux, 2014
Transparent salmon pink hues and a lacy, light and attractive appearance.  The aromas are shy; subtle berry expression and hints of tart apple. The flavors are a little more forthcoming with cherry and berry notes and a richness enhanced by an unexpectedly pronounced herbaceousness.  Over all a very satisfying wine with that surprising bell pepper flavor making it a prime wine for pairing with salads and seafoods.  Château Bonnet has been in the Lurton family since 1897. Château Bonnet, the largest estate in the region, with vineyards consisting of 50% Merlot, 50% Cabernet Sauvignon; 17-year-old vines planted on clay-limestone, clay-siliceous soils.  It offers the best of both “Old” and “New” worlds; it is château grown and bottled in the legendary “terroir” of Bordeaux, France by famed producer André Lurton. AND... sealed by a screw-cap, making them easy to close, store, and travel with.  Easy.

Alexander Vineyards, Bordeaux, France, 2014
Oh so light in appearance with the orange relections of salmon pink and a bright beauty in the glass.  Intriguing aromas of “gunflint” minrality (a kind of smoky note) and the impression of fresh berry fruit.  The flavors start out tart with strawberry fruit that is straightforward and enjoyable with a Lou Bega "Mambo No. 5" flavor experience with a little bit of acid, and a little bit of minrals, and a little bit of fruit, and a little bit of ... hitting the right spot for rose wine; purely pleasurable and easy.  Made from 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot from the unlikely Bordeaux location of the Texas Hill country.  The winery was opened by Claude Alexander in September 2013 believing that it’s about the quality of wines produced no matter if the grapes are grown in Texas of half-way around the world.

Rosé D’Anjou, Sauvion, Loir, France, 2014
Bright pink with a shinny happy appearance hinting at the pleasing and friendly aromas of cherries and strawberries with a blooming floral quality.  The flavors are smooth and enjoyable with hint of sweetness over the strawberry and cherry fruit, ending in a rich finish.  A great wine to step up from white zinfandel and into a more serious and mature wine selection.  Made from 70% Groslot, 30% Gamay grapes from 30-year-old vines planted in schist-clay soil in the Sevre et Maine region best known for their Muscadet wines. Still family-owned, all of Sauvion’s winemaking is done by fourth-generation vintner Pierre-Jean Sauvion. 

All six wines are excellent! Every one of them will make for an easy and enjoyable selection for your next bottle of wine.  The category of rosé wine is more popular than ever, both seatings for this event were sold out.  The attendees were already rosé wine  drinkers and enthusiast.  This is great news because this is a category of wine that Texas can make in quantity and quality that rivals the best rosé wine in the world.  I thank the Becker's leadership in making these wines and providing this forum to develop our knowledge and experience with rosé wine.

On the tasting panel with me was: our hosts Dr. Richard Becker and his son Dr. Joe Becker both are was very insightful in their tasting comments, the Becker Vineyards winemaker Jon Leahy who is a very funny guy, author extraordinaire and co-founder of Savor SA web site John Griffin who is unsurpassed in his passion for rosé wine, our very own science teacher Dana from Alexander Vineyards (Texas, not California) helping us understand why we liked the wines, and Nichole Bendele the tasting room goddess of Beceker Vineyards with a great wit and humor with a sharp pallet for wine tasting.  Blind tasting is great and if you can get a panel of experienced tasters to talk about their experience it is amazing!  The experience is heightened and everyone learns from the sharing of their own personal impressions on the wine.

The wines were made all the better by the cuisine of Chef John Brand of the Hotel Emma in the historic Pearl in the midtown of San Antonio.  It was a Branzini fish aka European sea bass and it clearly demonstrated how well rosé wines pair with food.  If you are ever in doubt on which wine to pair with almost any meal you can reach for a bottle of rosé wine, it is very food friendly.  The ultimate test that proves this is Thanksgiving dinner; the turkey, the ham, dressing, potato salad, green bean casserole, cranberry relish and everything else on the table will go with rosé wine!  

Do you have a favorite easy to enjoy rosé wine?  Please comment below...

Milestone: Alamosa Wine Cellars Closing

There are events in time that mark the boundary between that time and this time.  Sometimes we see them in hindsight and sometimes they are obvious to everyone when they occur.  This milestone may not be obvious to everyone, so I have appointed myself to draw it to your attention.  Alamosa Wine Cellars is closing; Labor Day weekend; September 6th, last day.  You MUST go visit this winery before it closes!!!

One of the Way Out Wineries (WOW!) between Lampasas and San Saba, it is a bit of a journey and well worth it.  The owners, Jim and Karen Johnson, planted grapes here in 1996, and proceeded to change how Texans grew grapes and made wine.  They were the pioneers out on the frontier of warm climate grape growing and artisanal winemaking, literally and figuratively.

We need to compile Jim Johnson's firsts in Texas; he helped produce Becker Vineyards’ first Viognier in the early 1990s, he was the first to grow Sangiovese and the first to commercially bottle Tempranillo.  The first to plant and bottle Verdelho, and I am sure there are many more.

My fondest memory is attending a Paso Robles seminar in Austin and during the question and answer session there was this couple asking about the clone of root stock the growers were planting on.  This was a much more technical question than the sommeliers and wine pros in the room were asking.  After the seminar I went and meet Jim and Karen Johnson, needing to know who they were.  It has been a pleasure knowing them ever since; tasting their wines, selling their wines, introducing their wines to new customers, hosting wine dinner with them, attending wine dinners and festivals with them.  I am here to tell you that the Texas wine industry is in the place it is today, poised to step onto the world stage, because of the hard work and inspired vision of Jim and Karen Johnson.

If you have not been to Alamosa Wine Cellars; you must go, the clock is ticking.  Jim and Karen plan to sell every last bottle of wine in the tasting room and the property itself!!!  You do not want to miss this piece of Texas Wine history, you must see the vineyards and winery and taste the delicious wines that have a strong sense of the place they are from.  They are offering big discounts on cases and individual bottles through Sept. 6, the last day they will be open. And they also will have fun events up until then, including an intimate retrospective tasting on Aug. 8 that will showcase some of Alamosa’s best vintages over the years, “the stuff we’re most proud of,” Jim Johnson says. Get tickets for the Library Tasting here.

Alamosa Wine Cellars, 677 County Road 430, west of Bend. 325-628-3313, alamosawinecellars.com.

Texas will go on to surpass New York and even Oregon in winemaking.  Texas wines will someday be available throughout the nation and even in other countries.  These milestones will be remarkable and newsworthy when they happen, we will all celebrate!  I for one will look back to this unlikely spot on the a bend in the Colorado river and appreciate it's out-sized contribution it made to the maturing and the direction of the grape growing and winemaking in Texas.  I will be there cheering "Remember the Alamosa!!!" 

Wedding Oak; growing tall, standing out from the landscape

Over 400 years ago a oak tree sprouted here. It grew, slowly at first, then it's strength and stature grew it began to stand out from the landscape. The large impressive oak became the symbolic site of numerous ceremonies and weddings, beginning with Native Americans, continuing with early settlers from the Santa Cruz de San Saba mission of 1758, whose ruins are located upstream on the San Saba River at Menard, and to the locals of today who look to this tree as a testament to the enduring qualities of life and the majestic beauty of all creation.  Great inspiration for this winery's name, after all, like this majestic oak's roots, wine reaches back through time reminding us of all the shared pleasures of life — requesting we slow down long enough to appreciate the blessings of the land while enjoying local food and wine with friends, family and community.

On Monday I got to visit Mike and Lynn McHenry at their Wedding Oak Winery.  An unassuming storefront off the town square in San Saba.  It is a beautiful tasting room with great atmosphere; almost living room like feel that is very comfortable and inviting.  Seemed almost cozy.  Windows into the production part of the winery hint at the larger operation.  Going through the door opens up to the barrels and beyond this is another door to more winery area and beyond that is another door still more winery.  This is a much larger winery operation than it first appears and just a few minutes of talking to Mike and Lynn you will catch on that their aspirations are as big as Texas!  Like their wineries namesake, they are digging in deep roots and growing tall; standing out from the landscape of Texas wineries.

And, their wines are ready for the world stage!  Tasting through their line up convinces me that Penny Adams is making the best wines of her life.  The whites are crisp and clean, refreshing and balanced.  The "Wedding Suite" of wines is the triple treat of delicious wines, easy drinking, and brilliant branding/packaging.  This line should be the 'cash cow' for the winery.  

That being said, their real stunning and brilliant wines are the red wines... a long time favorite of mine is the Terre Rouge, this is made from the grapes grown in Mike and Lynn's High Valley Vineyard, it is a textbook example of grape type matched to geology and location.  The aromas have a floral quality reminiscent to wild roses with cherry and cranberry.  The flavors are bold and bright with sour cherry, raspberry and cranberry with notes of leather and tobacco heading into the complex and smooth finish.  The shorthand on this wine is that it is a Texas rendition of Chateauneuf du Pape, one of the world's greatest wines and one MORE Texas wineries should be trying to recreate. (Soap box to come...)  

Another show stopper is the Reserve Syrah from 2013, it is wisely being cellar aged in bottle right now and will be available next year.  It has 23% Tannat grapes in it and which makes it BIG and brooding.  On the nose there is a pronounced smoky quality venturing into the tar neighborhood. In the flavors licorice comes forward first with black cherry and stony minrality, cracked black pepper and those smoky, oaky flavors.  This is a delicious wine now and in a few more months; the flavors will knit together and become more seamless and more seductive. I can't wait!  

And the other superstar wine I tried was the Harmony Ridge 2012, Tempranillo 57%, Mourvedre 20%, Cabernet Sauvignon 16% and Grenache 7%.  Another example of how great Tempranillo does in Texas!  Expressive aromas with initial flavors on the sour side of the sweet and sour equation.   Lots of black cherry, plum and wild fruit with that dusty Texas minrality and subtle oak.  Balanced and expertly crafted, as good, if not better than many GREAT Spanish Tempranillo blends. 

Take some time and make the trip to San Saba, it is a great Texas town, you can relax and unwind at Wedding Oak, taste their amazing wines and buy a case or two.  You will be glad you did.

Texas WineMonth- Austin Quote

“Nature seemed to have intended Texas for a vineyard to supply America with vines.” Stephen F. Austin. I love this quote. The exact wording and context the Founding Father of Texas said it in is not as important to me as the mindset and experience these words reveal. Mr. Austin and his contemporaries won Texas' independence and were "hacking their living out of the wilderness with their own two hands, burying their children along the way!" (to quote Hawkeye in The Last of the Mohicans. (Great movie!)) Many of them were new immigrants from the Old World; Germany, France, Spain, Italy and other homelands. Some were from places just as hot and dry as Texas, and they had grown vines and made wine in the Old World! They looked around the Texas landscape and could easily imagine vast vineyards here too. Prior to Prohibition, Texas had almost fifty commercial wineries! This was the beginning of what would have been a great industry for our state. Prohibition closed all but one winery; Val Verde in Del Rio.

In the years immediately after Prohibition the California wine industry grew exponentially. They have done a incredible job; growing grapes, vinifying wine and marketing their wine and state. Today they make ninety percent of the wine in the U.S.A. Most wine drinkers in North America who think about wine are really thinking about California wine. Because of this many think that wine country has to be as cool and as wet like California. This is NOT TRUE, there are other regions in the world hot and dry like Texas and they make world class wines. I encourage you to look for Texas wines that are taking their inspiration from these other regions. You might have to go outside your comfort zone and drink a wine other than Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Cabernet or Merlot. But, you will be okay and you might even find a Viognier, Roussanne, Blanc du Bois, Trebbianno, Picpoul Blanc, Syrah, Tempranillo, Malbec, Sangiovese, Lenoir (a.k.a. Black Spanish) or Aglianico grown in Texas that you love even more than those California wines! And, who knows, maybe someday Texas wineries will make enough wine to begin shipping them to the other states in our union and other countries! Achieving that elusive dream that started back when Texas was a brand new state (country.)

Please follow my blog; I will have more to share with you about Texas, wine and the lessons we learn along the way.

Tempranillo, PEDERNALES, Texas

Tempranillo is Pedernales Cellars premier varietal and the heart of their winemaking efforts. In the early 1990s, Larry and Jeanine Kuhlken planted their first vineyard outside of Fredericksburg, Texas. They were pioneers as Hill Country grape growers with only a handful of wineries operating in Texas. It was also a time for experiments with different grapes varieties and viticultural practices. Over time, with carefully managed yields, and as the vines matured, the vineyard started producing consistently high quality fruit with bold, intense flavors.

• Rich Black Cherry
• Raspberry
• Earthy 
• Mineral 
• Spiciness 

This wine is made with fruit from the Texas High Plains and Texas Hill Country, the wine was aged in French and American oak barrels. An excellent example of Pedernales Cellars making some of the best wine in the state. Their estate vineyard has expanded over the years and today consists of 17 acres mostly planted with hot weather varieties such as Tempranillo, Touriga Nacional, Albarino, Monastrell (known as Mourvedre in French), Garnacha (Grenache in French) and small amounts of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Their plantings and winemaking style is natural for a boutique winery focused on making small lots of hand crafted wines.

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