Behind the Vines

Special Guest Post: Texas & Wine, Via Hollywood

by Farley on May 28th, 2008

*This post is courtesy of my dear friend Doug, world traveler that he is.He lives in L.A. and works on a TV show, and it seems like every time I talk to him, he’s going somewhere new.

Finding a great weekend deal, I headed to Austin, TX.  Reading someplace that Texas had some wine country somewhere, I decided to see if it was close to where I was going to be.  With just a few minutes of googling, I found what I was looking for:  Texas Hill Country Wineries. 

  First off, Austin is a fun city if you have never been: a lot of great music and lots and lots of good Tex-Mex food.  A must see is the watching the bats leave their home, a bridge in the middle of the city, at dusk.  Another good thing if you are a wine lover is that about an hour away is Texas’ own wine country. 

We started our wine tour at Woodrose Winery.  Leaving the highway onto a gravel road, the tasting room is set back in a field.  A first for me happened at this winery, a tasting done “restaurant” style.  There was a nice deck on the back of the tasting room under a bunch of oak trees, and the tasting seemed very promising, but sad to say the oak trees were almost the best part.  The “restaurant” style meant that you had to wait for one of the two people serving to make it to your table to serve you.  And when I say wait, I mean wait.  It took a while between pours.  There were nine pours, but we had a lot planned that day and needed to get going, so I only tasted six of the wines.  The 2007 Sauvignon Blanc was nice, crisp, with a nice touch of floral nose and a light creaminess on the palate.  The 2007 Viognier had promise on the nose, with tropical fruit and honeysuckle, but the tongue was overpowered by sweaty feet after the initial citrus and melon.  After being disappointed with the first few wines, I was pleasantly surprised by the 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon.  It was subdued for a cab, but the flavors were there, just not so bold. 

The second winery we visited was Grape Creek Vineyards, set in an elaborate Tuscan style villa.  Out of the five wines I tasted, two were very promising to me.  First was their 2006 Cuvee Blanc: a nice white blend that seemed perfect on that hot Texas summer day.  The second was their 2006 Muscat Canelli.  Being a dessert wine lover, I found this to be great with lemon curd and golden raisin coming to the fore. 

The last winery that we visited was Torre di Pietra.  A little funky, and very down home, this was my favorite winery we visited.  The free tasting included any five wines from the list, and what impressed me were the different single varietals that they made:  Carignane, Mourvedre, and Touriga Nacional.  The stand out to me was the 2005 Touriga Nacional, one of the traditional grapes used to make Port.  The palate had some red fruit, strawberry and cherry, and finished with a bit of herbal notes.  It could maybe have used a bit more aging, but was nice.  The Carignane was non-vintage with a wildflower nose that carried over into a nice earthy palate. 

Don’t forget on your next vacation that there could be a great wine country side trip next door to you destination.   

*Thanks, Doug, for sharing your trip…. and for one less post I have to write :)

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