Baldwin Tastings & Intros...

Just prior to Thanksgiving, the CATTLE had the opportunity to meet some new friends and new colleagues over some Texas Wines and get to work. As the offices on Baldwin were in the midst of a Thanksgiving lunch party, with a dozen or so attendees, Annie Rupani, Artisan Chocolatier and owner of Houston-based Cacao & Cardamom https://www.cacaoandcardamom.com/Default.aspx, brought samples of her exquisite chocolates for a pairing session for an upcoming event, sponsored by Texas Wine & Cattle Company. James King of the Texas Wine School also stopped by our new location and participated in the pairing selection process. He, like everyone else, had encountered very few (if any) Texas wines previously.

This is the part that the CATTLE enjoy the best...the introduction.

The CATTLE selected wines from McPherson Cellars, Duchman Family Winery, Becker Vineyards and Messina Hof Winery for everyone to try. Guess it goes without sayin', but when you round-up some delectable chocolates, some great Texas wines and add a dash of Holiday Spirit; smiles and laughter come standard.

Here's the final pairing list and some of the Texas wines responsible for this day of marvelous introductions...

Mango Caramel / McPherson Cellars (Lubbock, Texas) Albarino

 Guava Tamarind / Duchman Family Winery (Driftwood, Texas) Canto Felice

 Szechuan Peppercorn / Becker Vineyards (Stonewall, Texas) Claret

 Lychee Basil / Messina Hof Winery (Bryan, Texas) Gewurztraminer

 5 Spice Praline / McPherson Cellars (Lubbock, Texas) Tre Colore

 Cranberry, Rosemary / Becker Vineyards (Stonewall, Texas) Viognier

To be continued...

REFLECTIONS

With the anticipation of family, food  & some great Texas wines over the next few months, reflections of a great summertime past are soon to follow. Speaking of a great summer, Becker Vineyards enjoyed a particularly notable summer in the city of San Francisco, California at the 2013 San Francisco International Wine Festival held this past June. America's largest International Wine Competition awarded the 2011 Becker Vineyards Claret a Double Gold Medal, while the 2011 Becker Vineyards Merlot, Reserve received a Bronze Medal. 

Congratulations & CHEERS!...from the CATTLE.

With that said, let's continue with Sophi Z.'s Texas Hill Country adventure...

... By the way there are a handful of tasting rooms in Johnson City where you can taste wine—who knew? When I was a kid it was dry as a bone there and I’m not talking water. We've drunk the Syrah since returning home with marinara pasta and a nice fresh spinach onion salad. We had the other bottle with pasta—stir fried asparagus with diced smoked salmon in a parmesan béchamel sauce. Gosh that was great!

From there we drove into Fredericksburg and secured our room at the Peach Tree Inn which was nicely priced, in the peak of the season. No frills but it’s very clean and you get free coffee and pastries in the AM. Besides there are great restaurants for breakfast in Fredericksburg.

We had breakfast at Winslow’s whose staff keeps the coffee coming and serves breakfast till 11 am.  At 9:45 AM we had some time to kill since the Fredericksburg Winery opens at 10 AM. So we headed to the replica of the little octagonal church that you see pictures of all over town. At the Vereins Kirche, we were greeted by the curator, Mr. Voellmer who let us in early and who gave us a fascinating history, not only of Fredericksburg, but also of the German community in Texas. Fredericksburg also has the Nimitz Museum and the upper stories are shaped like a ship. I recommend it.

Next we headed to the Fredericksburg Winery www.fbgwinery.com. I asked the server to choose my wines and she was so moved, she gave us another taste of an orange Muscat which was absolutely grand. We bought the Riesling named Zellebration! It’s slightly dry and slightly sweet. Lots of good acidity to eat with chicken or fish. I think we had ours with a Tuscan bean salad.

We headed back east on 290 to Torre di Pietra www.texashillcountrywine.com who conducted a great tasting for us and we got to taste a blanc de bois which is a grape and a wine that I have heard a lot about from Raymond Haak of Haak Vineyards. Blanc du Bois is nicely acidic citrusy flavor with a hint of honey taste. I’ve heard some people say banana but I didn’t get that. We bought our bottle of Blanc du Bois. and had it with lemon chicken and a pear walnut salad with smoked bleu cheese. Delish!

That’s all the tastings I had marked but we had heard of another winery near Wimberly to visit so we decided to take the scenic route back to Austin through Wimberly and we ate lunch at a park. We always picnic once on our road trips but I’m afraid all we had left in our cooler was Kashi Go Lean, blueberries and yogurt. But hey it was a beautiful little park in Wimberly and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

We ambled down RR 12 out of Wimberly to Lone Man Mountain Rd. There we found Wimberly Valley Winery www.wimberleyvalleywinery.com which was built in 82 or 83, on thirty acres of land adjacent to a cozy rock cottage. We tasted five wines and settled on Sangria to take home.  We haven’t drunk that yet because I’m determined to have it with paella. By the way, Wimberly Valley also has some outstanding fruit wines like plum.

So there you have it, tastings in the Texas Hill Country all along Wine Road 290. There are others...Becker, Woodrose, or Grape Creek. We had a budget which we stuck to and we still had a magnificent time.

When we return to wine country next year, we’re striking out for Burnet and the vineries north of Austin. J

Texas Hill Country

This wonderful journey continues with a new website, a new location and a new blog...THE CATTLE. 

- We appreciate your patience as construction continues.

As with any journey, discovery can be the sweetest of all fruits and Texas Hill Country offers a wine experience like no other. Guest contributor, Sophi Z., has kindly shared a portion of her journal that produces a great snapshot of one of her earlier Texas Wine Country excursions. 

Duchman Family Winery
2010 Dolcetto

...We left Austin on Slaughter Lane until it dead ends into FM 1826. We took a left and followed FM 1826 until it ended at FM 150; take a left and the Duchman Family Winery is 2.3 miles on the left. The Duchman Family Winery is in a beautiful Tuscan setting. You find a lot of Tuscan settings of wineries in the hill country. The tasting was cheap and the Duchman tasting guy was very generous with his pour. He didn’t even have a pour spout on the bottle J. We bought a bottle of the Moscato and headed for the next winery. We’ll break out the Moscato when I make a cheesecake.

Then we made our way back to FM 150 and made a left on RR 12 to the Driftwood Estate Winery which has a wonderful view of the vineyards. The tasting was around $5. You check off which wines you want to taste on a list. The tasting goes from dry white to rose to red to sweet...

Then we drove to found our way back to 290 West and headed into Johnson City where we lunched at the 290 Café and then found our way to the Texas Hills Vineyard. It’s one mile east of 290/281 on RR 2766, the road to Pedernales State Park. Texas Hills is a rather ironic name since it’s seems rather flat. But this is the home of Kick Butt Cab which is one of my favorite wines EVER. But we got the Texas Hill Country Syrah. The pour is a two-tip so it’s fairly generous and by that time you don’t want to be so ferschnicket you can’t drive...to be continued.

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