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The Mediocre Wines of Texas Tour

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NPHLYT said:
You, sir, are being generous.
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Yep, agreed. I didn't want to sound overly critical (like I always do about everything else :mrgreen: ), but yes, you're absolutely right.


tricepilot said:
(1) Excellent Excellent Excellent subject and photography :chug:
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Many thanks!

tricepilot said:
Trying to get on Amazon.com and get anything by Dingo Sanctuary. Perhaps I missed something.
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Officially, we won't be releasing the two original singles on the MySpace page until early 2009 when the next album drops, but here is a slew of remakes for you to enjoy in the meantime. Click links to download MP3s:

DINGO SANCTUARY MUSICEnjoy. Thank you.
 
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Tim Kreitz said:
That is a great question. As a homebrewer of almost 10 years, I love going to microbreweries and brew pubs. One of my favorite things about going to Alpine is spending time with the brewmaster at the Holland and drinking his beer. Fredericksburg could definitely capitalize on such a concept.
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Does Fredericksburg Brewing Company on Main St. not count? They've been making beer there for 15 years that I can remember. I'm not a beer snob, so won't conjecture whether it's decent stuff or swill, but there is definately a microbrewery in town.

The beer gardens serve decent stuff too, though it's not locally brewed. Altdorf has decent food and you can get bottles of Optimator. Auslander has a decent selection of German beers on tap.
 
Wine tastings are fun to go to and the people you meet can be quite intesting. Most are just regular people like any of us. Then you also have the wannabe wine snobs who really don't know what they're talking about and then the people who have no taste and just like to get drunk off of anything. All of them are entertaining to some degree and give you plenty to talk about and make fun of on the ride home. And Texas Hill Country has some beautiful property I'd enjoy retiring on myself.

Gotta say though, I have yet to taste a red Texas wine I like. My wife and I love reds and can't stand whites. Too acidic for our pallettes. They have all either been way too sweet or way too dry and all have been severely headache inducing with only 6 small tasting glasses.

You can bring all these great grape varieties to this state, plant them and make them grow but that's only part of the battle.

It's way too hot and the sun is too intense for way too many hours of the day. This makes the grape skins thick and tough which contributes to the overly dry taste during the drinking process and the pallette drying after-effect.

The soil in Texas just doesn't provide the nutrients the grapes need to achieve their rich and full bodied tastes that will make a great wine. All those flavors that can be described as blackberry, caramel, plum, etc just don't exist in grapes grown in Texas because the soil can't provide them.

To compensate, Texas vintners try and blend various combinations of grapes, and other fruits, together to get the full bodied flavors. Unfortuately, the complexity and character doesn't come through because they were never really there and adding in different fruit to make up for it doesn't really get it done either. The toungue can tell.

You just can't beat grapes grown in climates that are warm and sunny during the day and cool, foggy and moist in the morning. The skins are supple and the flavor not drained out. The best soil in the world comes from when the mountains were formed millions of years ago. They jut up out of the sea, the sea water drains back to the ocean on one side, the other side holds the water inland. The water absorbs and evaporates leaving the minerals behind for the crop to thrive in. The best wines I've ever tasted hail from those land formations...Napa/Sonoma, Andes, Douro...

The sad fact is that almost anyone can open up their own winery and try and pass themselves off as vintners. Unfortunately I've been to way too many that just don't make a good product and to be completely honest, outside of buying glasses for tasting, I've never bought a bottle of Texas wine to bring home.

As for Port...you can try and make it in TX, CA, and Australia but it isn't port unless it comes from Portugal. Once again, you can't fool the tongue.
 
X1Glider said:
Wine tastings are fun to go to and the people you meet can be quite intesting. Most are just regular people like any of us. Then you also have the wannabe wine snobs who really don't know what they're talking about and then the people who have no taste and just like to get drunk off of anything. All of them are entertaining to some degree and give you plenty to talk about and make fun of on the ride home. And Texas Hill Country has some beautiful property I'd enjoy retiring on myself.

Gotta say though, I have yet to taste a red Texas wine I like. My wife and I love reds and can't stand whites. Too acidic for our pallettes. They have all either been way too sweet or way too dry and all have been severely headache inducing with only 6 small tasting glasses.

You can bring all these great grape varieties to this state, plant them and make them grow but that's only part of the battle.

It's way too hot and the sun is too intense for way too many hours of the day. This makes the grape skins thick and tough which contributes to the overly dry taste during the drinking process and the pallette drying after-effect.

The soil in Texas just doesn't provide the nutrients the grapes need to achieve their rich and full bodied tastes that will make a great wine. All those flavors that can be described as blackberry, caramel, plum, etc just don't exist in grapes grown in Texas because the soil can't provide them.

To compensate, Texas vintners try and blend various combinations of grapes, and other fruits, together to get the full bodied flavors. Unfortuately, the complexity and character doesn't come through because they were never really there and adding in different fruit to make up for it doesn't really get it done either. The toungue can tell.

You just can't beat grapes grown in climates that are warm and sunny during the day and cool, foggy and moist in the morning. The skins are supple and the flavor not drained out. The best soil in the world comes from when the mountains were formed millions of years ago. They jut up out of the sea, the sea water drains back to the ocean on one side, the other side holds the water inland. The water absorbs and evaporates leaving the minerals behind for the crop to thrive in. The best wines I've ever tasted hail from those land formations...Napa/Sonoma, Andes, Douro...

The sad fact is that almost anyone can open up their own winery and try and pass themselves off as vintners. Unfortunately I've been to way too many that just don't make a good product and to be completely honest, outside of buying glasses for tasting, I've never bought a bottle of Texas wine to bring home.

As for Port...you can try and make it in TX, CA, and Australia but it isn't port unless it comes from Portugal. Once again, you can't fool the tongue.
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Great post, Bob. I think the only hope Texas may have for ever being a serious contender may lie in dessert wines. The one grape that can be most properly grown here in Texas is the Muscadine, which is a traditional element in many port-style creations. Still, the sugars in Texas-grown Muscadine tend to peak early on the vine because of the heat, and if not cared for and harvested correctly, the result can be cough syrup -- which I tasted a lot of this past weekend.
 
I've had some of those desert wines and find them interesting. Too sweet and thick though. Not sure what I would actually drink it with or simply by itself. Messina Hof actually has a decent one. They tried labeling it as port once upon a time but recinded a few years later. I'm a big time port fan and prefer the delicateness and smoothness more to my liking. Makes me a very happy person. :sun: The desert wine just got me enebriated but the quality of the happiness wasn't quite the same. I do however find them more to my liking than TX red wines.
 
I guess one thing that many people also don't consider is the glass itself. Surpisingly, with a good wine, you can taste the difference depending on the shape of the glass as if effects how the wine breathes and where the wine touches the tongue. As the tongue has many different types of receptors, some wines taste better in a particular shaped glass. I've experimented with proper and improper glass shapes and was actually surprised.
 
Man, I'm glad I'm more of a beer fan. Too much pressure here. :-P
 
X1Glider said:
I guess one thing that many people also don't consider is the glass itself.
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I keep trying to tell my wife this, but she heads straight for the "pretty" glasses.

kurt said:
Man, I'm glad I'm more of a beer fan. Too much pressure here. :-P
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With some beers the glass, as well as how the beer is poured, matters as much as the temperature and what kind of bar snacks are on offer. Don't even get me started on the whole CO2/nitrogen/Beergas discussion.
 
I have 3 types from Riedel and a few from others. Some shapes and sizes are so similar that it's easy to confuse which is for what. But I also see there's 2 more types I'd like to have.

I guess i need to decide what I'd rather have...more glasses or more wine?;-)
 
TWTim said:
timandcher-jpg.jpg
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Look at this YOUNG dude that showed up in the banner rotation today! :eek2: :lol2:
 
You poor stiffs drinking or trying to drink TX wines. I'd be right with you giving it a whirI, due to a propensity for wine and beer, but was blessed to live for years in Amador county in Ca, and to have been from a family of Zin growers from Lodi. A virus took our the old Tokays in the late 70's if I remember correctly and they replanete with Zins. The Zin's are now the best in the world and rock. Tx should not try making wines anymore than NY, where thy create the New Green vintage.
 
The French talk about California wines the same way.
 
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