Wine Country Texas: Eden Hill Vineyards

Eden Hill Vineyards is located in Celina, Texas, a half hour north of Dallas - heck, that's almost Oklahoma.  Their estate grapes are grown on two acres of north Texas land - planted in 2008 - but there's more.  Eden Hill is also a farm, sprouting fruits, vegetables and herbs.

They try to be as green as the North Texas State University football jerseys.  Their website states, "We do not use pesticides in the garden, and we try to be good stewards of the land by practicing sustainable farming methods.  Our winery is run on 100% rainwater that is collected at our farm.  Water is a precious resource in Texas."

Grape varieties grown at Eden Hill include Tempranillo, Cynthiana, Blanc du Bois, and Orange Muscat.
The Eden Hill Vineyards Albariño-Viognier 2012 has collected a couple of medals so far, and the label sports art by Wendy Dooldeniya.  She may have had an inside track, since her brother is winemaker Chris Hornbaker.  The grapes come from Smith Estate Vineyard in Fort Worth.

A 50/50 blend of Albariño and Viognier, this wine has a reasonable 13.9% abv number and is aged for four months in stainless steel - not a stick of oak.

Eden Hill's Albariño-Viognier has a pale yellow-green tint in the glass.  A bouquet of pineapple, apricot, mango, apples and peaches is colored with the spicy aromas.  Flavors of peaches and herbs - I couldn't resist - also show a little spice.  A racy acidity really rips it up, and the wine finishes on a zing of citrus.


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Wine Country Texas: Brennan Vineyards

Brennan Vineyards is located between the Central Texas Hill Country and the high plains of West Texas, the two most acclaimed winegrowing regions in the Lone Star State.  The town of Comanche is home to the winery, on Texas Highway 16, southwest of Fort Worth.  The Brennan tasting room is situated in the historic McCrary House, one of the oldest remaining homesteads in Texas.  It’s an official landmark and is so designated by the Texas Historical Commission.

Their two main vineyards produce a diverse selection of grape varieties: Cabernet and Syrah in Comanche Vineyard and Viognier and Nero d'Avola on the Newburg vines.

Brennan’s Lily 2011 is a white blend of 53% Roussanne, 25% Viognier and 22% Grenache.  That’s Grenache, not Grenache Blanc.  More on that in a bit.  The grapes come from the Bingham and  Reddy Vineyards in Texas’ High Plains AVA.  Alcohol is a very restrained 13.2% and the bottle retails for a similarly restrained $17.50.  I received a sample for the purpose of this article.  619 cases were produced.  The unoaked white has won gold and silver medals in a handful of wine competitions.

Winemaker Todd Webster puts his signature on the bottle and he also advises on the label that we all "Enjoy With Care."

Webster also commented by email on the Grenache issue.  “We planned on using it in our red Rhone blend,” he says, “but the color was so weak we decided to press it right away and use it in our white Rhone. It worked out great.”

Talk about unusual vineyard practices.  Webster continues, “We contemplated harvesting [the Grenache] twice this year.  Early for the white Rhone and late for the red Rhone.  But a freeze on May 4th took that possibility away.  No 2013 Grenache grapes.”

Color is something that is often lacking in a white wine, but not this one.  It's a beautiful yellow-gold in the glass.  The nose reveals honey, apricots, flowers and spice.  That spiciness - and the rich color - led me to expect some oak treatment, but Webster says there is none.  Also, since the wine is over half Roussanne, I expected a more savory or nutty aspect to the palate.  It's there, but it sits in the row behind the gorgeous apricot fruit flavor and a floral note.  Lemon peel and green apples come in late and stay for the finish, which is lengthy.  The acidity won't rip your teeth out, but there is certainly plenty of freshness there.  I'd like Lily with lobster.


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Missouri Wine From Stone Hill Winery

My recent visit to Texas afforded me an unexpected meeting with a wine from Missouri.  Stone Hill Winery's Hermannsberg Brand is labeled as a Missouri Dry Red Wine.

On my brother and sister-in-law's porch with uncharacteristically great weather in southeast Texas that day - dry and sunny with a cool breeze blowing - I took a bit of relaxation.  Their insanely quiet neighborhood provided a welcome respite from life in Los Angeles.

This blend of Norton, Vincent and Chambourcin grapes hits 13% abv and shows a lovely medium-ruby color.  On the nose, black cherry and roses move aside for a savory note.  A little chocolate mocha comes through after it opened up a bit.  The palate is fruity, with dusty cherries and a cranberry edge.  It hit me rather like a Gamay, but with a little more muscle.  Good tannins make for easy food pairing: bring on the brisket.


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Texas Wine At IAH

Waiting at Houston Bush International Airport for my return flight from Texas to Los Angeles, there was one more Texas wine for me to try.  CapRock Moscato was $10 by the glass at Bubba's Bar and Grill in Terminal C.

Founded in Lubbock in 1988, CapRock Winery is in the Texas High Plains AVA.  Sold earlier this year - for the second time in three years - CapRock is one of Texas' biggest wineries.  Like many Central and West Texas wineries, CapRock specializes in Spanish, Italian and Rhône grape varieties.

This Moscato has a yellow-green tint and an aromatic nose of flowers, pears and peaches with a slightly herbal note underneath.  I was surprised by the little hint of petrol in the background, very much like a Riesling.  It's on the sweet side and the fruit is the star of the palate.  Sweet peach, nectarine and pineapple juice flavors reside in a nectar-like setting.  It's rather viscous, and completely delicious.


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Wine Country Texas - Bruno And George Winery

On my recent trip to Southeast Texas, I had the good fortune to meet winemaker Shawn Bruno at his winery and tasting room in Sour Lake, Texas - just 13 miles west of Beaumont.  Bruno is a very outgoing former actor and former football star at the high school I attended a few years before him.  The school is now just a memory, a victim of consolidation, but it was named after a well-known wine lover, Thomas Jefferson.

When the keeper of the old school mascot passed away, Big Buzz the yellow jacket was entrusted to Bruno.  Alumni will be happy to note that he had it completely restored and is ready to loan it to all class reunions.  You have to pick it up and return it yourself, but that's not a problem in Texas, where everybody seems to have at least one pickup truck.  If you are without one, it's your good fortune that in Texas, everybody wants to help.

Bruno decided to follow his heart and continue his family tradition of making raisin wine.  His great-great-great grandfather, an immigrant from Sicily, made it and Bruno's father and uncles passed the tradition to him.  It was not an easy path for Bruno, though.  He quickly found that it was against some Prohibition-era law to make wine from dried fruit in Texas.  Not one to be defeated easily, Bruno worked for two years to have the law changed to allow raisin wine.  Then-Governor George W. Bush signed the bill in 1999 and Bruno has a declaration of it hanging in his tasting room, along with a treasure trove of family memorabilia.

Bruno and George Winery opened in 2000 and is distributed well in Texas.  Bruno bought out his partner and the wine labels now show "Bruno Collection," although the winery's name still has George in it.  The big liquor/beer/wine chain Spec's carries his product, as do other locations.  The tasting room is not open all the time, but Bruno is more than happy to schedule a tasting by appointment.  Call 409-287-1212 or 409-963-8235 to schedule your trip today.  Don't go in thinking that the tasting will be over in a half-hour or so.  That was my mistake.  Our tasting was a three-hour affair.  One of Bruno's favorite expressions is, "I've got a story about that, too!"

I had a medium-sized group of family members in tow, and we had a great time tasting the wines - so great a time that a big lasagna dinner for the whole family had to be postponed until the following night.  The text that went out to other family members on the way home read, "No lasagna tonight.  Mama's drunk."  It was probably not the first time that a message like that was conveyed in the great state of Texas.

Here's the tasting menu for Bruno and George Winery:

Candlelight Strawberry - Fruit wine made from California strawberries, it shows real strawberry flavor with great earthy and herbal notes.  $12

Big Buzz

White Orchard Pear - Florida pears go into this one.  Floral aromas and the taste of full-bodied pear juice.  Refreshing.  $12

Signature Peach - The peaches come from California, and the wine hits 12-13% abv.  Schnapps on the nose with a big peach flavor on the finish.  $12

Holiday Blueberry - This is Bruno's only fruit wine currently made with Texas fruit.  A very deep blueberry flavor is impressive.  It's not like a juice at all.  Bruno pours this with the sidebar that it's "always a holiday at Bruno and George."  $12

Arapaho Blackberry - Huge blackberry flavor all the way through in this one.  $12

Yellowjacket Raspberry - Named after our high school mascot, the Yellow Jacket has a big fruit expression, and is a hit with dark chocolate.  $15

Shawn Bruno

Cardinal Cranberry - Maine fruit makes up this great holiday wine.  Big cranberry taste is just slightly tart.  A sucker for mascots, Bruno named it for the mascot at the Beaumont university, Lamar.  $12, a top seller.

Salvatore's Red Plum - Made with Italian red plums, Bruno was not allowed to state that on the label.  Alcohol regulators thought it would make people think it was an Italian wine.  Bearing an ancestor's name instead, the wine shows an excellent rosé quality.  It's reminiscent of Provence, with very nice, earthy finish.  $12

Other Than Standard Raisin - Other Than Standard is the category this wine fell into before Bruno lobbied for a change that made his raisin wine of higher than 14% legal.  It reaches 16.3% abv.  He can now claim it's a dessert raisin wine on the label.  The wine has actually won awards in the Port category. Vinified in a single fermentation, the wine is not overly sweet - it's nothing like Vin Santo.  It has a nice viscosity and is aged in a steel tank for three to four years.  Made from California raisins, it has a beautiful, rich color while the nose shows raisin, brown sugar and caramel. $12

The Bruno Collection fruit wine is non vintage, as prescribed by alcoholic beverage regulations.

One of the many stories Bruno told us during the tasting concerned an old vase.  It seems that during the construction of the tasting room, the old, green vase - adorned with grapes - was unearthed.  "They didn't hit anything else during all the digging, just that vase," says Bruno.  "I like to think it was divine intervention.  The way the raisin wine happened, there must have been somebody on my shoulder."  The vase still has a place of honor on the tasting bar, even if it is as a dump bucket.  I think his grandfather would be proud.


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Wine Country Texas - Piney Woods Country Winery And Vineyard

A recent visit to my family in Texas gave me the opportunity to try some wine made in my home state.  Had I visited the Hill Country in Central Texas or the High Plains in the north, the pickings would have been more luxurious, but I was in Southeast Texas, where humidity is made and exported to the rest of the world.   That's not a good climate for vinifera wine grapes, but it's perfect for Muscadine grapes.  Muscadine and fruit wines are what they do at the Piney Woods Country Winery and Vineyard.

Alfred Flies (pronounced like "fleece") has been making his wines in Orange, Texas for 27 years.  He retired and got into the wine business, which may not have seemed like much of a retirement to him.  He recently had a stroke, but he is said to be recovering well at 90 years old.  Our pourer, Jennifer Wood, told me Flies doesn’t make it into the tasting room often, and his son-in-law handles much of the heavy lifting for him now.
Red and white Muscadine grapes grow in his vineyard in back of the tasting room, and for the fruit wines he uses only Texas fruit sourced from various parts of the Lone Star State.

Flies, according to the winery's website, "has been honored four times for his contributions to the Texas wine industry, by the Texas Wine and Grape Growers Association and has received over 70 wine competition medals. Most recently one gold, two silver and two bronze medals from the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo International Competition. Including 6 belt buckles, representing 3 International Best of Class awards and 3 Texas Best of Class awards."

Jennifer Wood

Wood, observing from several trips to Texas wine events, says that Muscadine wines are catching on with millennials, at least in the South.  Millennials are thought to be more adventurous wine consumers, more apt to try new things than their older counterparts.  Judging by what I've heard from wine drinkers in California, an adventurous spirit is necessary for fruit wine and, especially, Muscadine.

Muscadine and fruit wines are nearly always relegated to the back seat of the wine car, if not the trunk.  They are not exactly my cup of, well... wine, so it was nice to taste a few that were worthy of consideration.
Here is what the tasting lineup looked like on the day I sampled them.

Heart of Texas Noble - One of two dry wines the Piney Woods Country Winery produces - the rest are on the sweet side.  This red Noble Muscadine wine has a savory, sour nose and a savory taste with a bitter note.  Oak aged, it has been selected as a wine of the month by the Houston Post.

Texas Moon Magnolia - A semi-dry, white Magnolia Muscadine, this one has a nutty flavor which I am told goes well with turkey.  They say it's a favorite at Thanksgiving.  Flies won the award of Top Texas Wine in 2009 at the Houston International Wine Competition.  In true Lone Star style, the prize was a hand-tooled, silver-trimmed saddle.  Has has also won an armload of belt buckles and a boxful of more traditional medals.

Noble Muscadine Rosé - Semi sweet and refreshing.  I didn't have it with food, but I have found in the past that well-made Muscadine wines are greatly improved in a food pairing.

Pecan Mocca - Made from white Muscadine grown in Flies' vineyard, this is a pretty incredible effort.  With a nose of ground coffee that jumps from the glass, this intense wine tastes like coffee and caramel, with a bit of tiramisu on the finish.  Flavored, and one of their three best sellers.

Peach - This fruit wine is sweet and made with northeast Texas peaches, but it smells like Muscadine.  the palate is tart and very peachy.

Baked Peach - Another peach of a fruit wine, this one is actually baked at 90 degrees for 90 days - Flies' effort at simulating Madeira.  Spicy cobbler on the nose and palate.

Blackberry - The most straightforward of the bunch, it's tart and fruity.  Not too complex, but very tasty.

Sweetheart Magnolia - White Muscadine again, with a sweet and fruity pear-like palate.

Ports of Texas - A Port-style wine made from red Muscadine and fortified with brandy.   Oak aged with a hint of chocolate.  Only 14% abv.

Texas Sweet-Tooth Cherry Chocolate - If you like your sweet wine completely unbridled, this is for you. It's so sweet it will make your teeth hurt.  Chocolate is infused in this dessert wine which tastes like a cherry tootsie roll pop.  The nose is straight out of Russell Stover.  Billed by the winery as a "compete dessert," hat's how it strikes me.

Light Ruby Port - Not as sweet as Port usually is, but it does hit 16% abv.  The savory note works in its favor.  Aged in oak and brandy-fortified, it gives a hint of whiskey.

Amber Port - Vermouth-like and getting closer to Port-style alcohol at 18% abv, I like the citrus streak.
Texas Tawny Port - This is a fairly amazing Muscadine effort at 19% abv, blended with brandy.  Spending six to eight months in oak, the wine actually looks older.  A ring of brown shows at the edge of the glass.  The oak and higher alcohol really masks the Muscadine flavor. Caramel and brown sugar flavors are a real treat.  (Texas has tightened the restrictions on the use of "Port," I'm told, so the labeling will have to be changed this year.)

Orange Wine - A natch for a winery in a town named Orange, it's actually made from Texas Satsumas.  A tart edge and finish and nectar-like.  Surprisingly, there is not a great citrus play here.


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Wine Country Texas - Llano Estacado Winery

The Texas wine industry got an early start.  Missionaries in the 1600s planted grapes for sacramental wine.  Horticulturist Thomas Munson used rootstock from wild Mustang grapes in Texas to give European grape growers a way to recover from the Phylloxera epidemic which devastated the wine industry in the 19th century.  For that, the French government honored him.

As is the case state by state in the US, Prohibition killed off the wine business in Texas.  It didn’t begin its recovery until the 1970s.  Even today, many Texas counties are still saddled with Prohibition-era laws restricting the sale of alcohol.

Llano Estacado Winery is one of the first modern day Texas wineries.  It’s located in the Texas High Plains AVA, one of eight American Viticultural Areas under the Lone Star.

Texas has already made a few appearances in this small section of the Internet - here, and here, f'rinstance - but it's a big state and deserves another.  Anyway, since I made a trip to the Lone Star state recently, you'll get a eyeful of Texas wines in the coming weeks.

My trip was to southeast Texas, but this wine - Viviano Superiore Rosso Texas - came to me from a clear across the state.  It was kindly provided for review by the aforementioned Llano Estacado Winery in Lubbock, Texas.

Llano Estacado was founded in 1976, a few years after Texas Tech University began experimenting with planting grapes under the hot, west Texas sun.  They had some good luck with that grape thing.  In the eighties, President Reagan served their wine at the White House.  In the nineties, they shipped to Europe and Russia and were served to Queen Elizabeth when she visited Texas.  In 2005, Llano Estacado was served at President Bush's Inaugural Ball.  They must be doing something right.

Viviano has sixteen vintages behind it, and quite a lengthy list of medals and awards earned along the way.  The blend is 73% Cabernet Sauvignon from Rising Star Vineyard and 20% Sangiovese from Newsom Vineyard.  Syrah, Malbec, Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc finish off the blend.  The wine retails for $35.

Medium dark ruby in the glass, Viviano's nose is powerfully aromatic, largely due to the oak treatment, two and a half years in French and American oak.  I would have guessed at least three years in oak, judging by the black cherry aromas that mingle with mocha, cedar, chocolate and tobacco.

On the palate it's absolutely delicious, with the same sort of complexity promised by the bouquet.  Blackberry and cherry lead the way in the fruit department, with anise, cola and black tea shadings getting into the action.  The tannins have a bit of bite in this wine, which could easily pass for a real Tuscan blend.

The tannic structure makes me expect an alcohol content higher than the 12.7% detailed in the winemaker notes.  Despite the restraint of the alcohol, this wine is dry as a bone and ready for a big slab of beef, anytime.



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A PLEA FROM THE TEXAS WINE INDUSTRY

Russ Kane, in his great Vintage Texas Blog, has issued a plea to the government of the Lone Star State - "Don't forget about the Texas wine industry!"

Kane recounts how Texas Governor Rick Perry made a little wager with Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell on the outcome of the NCAA women's basketball championship game.  McDonnell is a Notre Dame graduate, and Perry was backing the ladies from Texas A&M University.

Perry wagered a case of Texas wine - Viognier from Becker Vineyards - against a mixed case from Virginia's Barboursville Vineyards.

Kane points out that Governor Perry's current budget proposal calls for slashes to funding for the Texas wine industry.  An investment of just over two million dollars, says Kane, has helped turn Texas wine into a $1.7 billion cash cow for the state.  Kane - and many others - don't want to see that growth stopped in its tracks.

The article states that this funding is not a subsidy.  The funds for research, marketing and education is money that is generated by the taxes on wine sales in Texas.  Quoting Kane,

"The influx of dollars to the industry have helped to (1) identify the grape varieties best suited for the Texas soils and weather, (2) devise methods to handle vineyard diseases particular to Texas like Pierce’s Disease and Cotton Root Rot and (3) helped to investigate improved wine making techniques for the grapes that can grow in Texas.  Most importantly, these funds have also gone to developing programs that are educating the vineyard and winery personnel critical to the new agricultural jobs in Texas."

The upshot is, according to Kane, that the Texas legislature is trying to save 2 million dollars a year by cutting the legs out from under a business that generated $78.5 million dollars in tax revenue for the state in 2009.  That doesn't sound like good business to Kane, and it shouldn't sound like good business to anyone else.

WINE AND THE ECONOMY

Do you have wineries in your area?  If you live in the United States, the answer is probably “yes,” because there are now wineries in all 50 states.  These wineries and the associated businesses that serve them are making a huge contribution to their states’ economies, and to the nation’s economic health.

The annual Vintage Virginia Festival is a good example of how tourism affects the wine industry.  The Virginia Wineries Association depends in great part on this festival for revenue.  The only other revenue stream the VWA has is dues from members, and they only have 54 members, according to Wine Business Monthly.  This wine festival is marketed heavily all along the East Coast and its success in large part determines how much good the organization can do for its member wineries.

The Texas Wine and Grape Growers Association says that the wine and grape industry now has a 1.35 billion dollar impact on the Lone Star State.

Missouri Wines.org shows that Missouri’s economy sees a boost of some $700 million dollars annually from wine. - and those are 2007 figures.

The king of wine states in the U.S., California, receives an economic infusion of around 52 billion dollars a year from the wine industry, according to the Wine Institute, and the nation as a whole gets a 162 billion dollar shot in the arm from wine.   

WashingtonWine.org reports that wine is responible for three billion dollars a year to the state of Washington’s economy.  

A recent study, cited by Wines & Vines, showed how even local economies benefit from wine.  The study claims that hotels in Walla Walla, Washington have experienced a 25% growth in room occupancy since wines from their area have been receiving high scores in Wine Spectator magazine. 

DUCHMAN DOLCETTO 2009

Texas has gotten some interesting notice lately for having some pretty good areas for the cultivation of grapes, in particular Italian varieties.  Duchman Family Winery, in Texas' High Plains AVA, has made quite a splash with several Italian varietals.  I wrote recently about their Aglianico (bottled under the previous Mandola label).  The Duchman's also provided me with a sample of their '09 Dolcetto.  This wine displays the new branding on the "painted-on" label.

The grapes for the Dolcetto come from the Bingham Family Vineyard, which also produces Trebbiano and Vermentino, in addition to Tempranillo, Viognier and Merlot.  From the sample I tasted, it appears the Bingham Family is doing a great job raising grapes and the Duchman's are doing a great job turning those grapes into wine.  If Texas isn't already on your wine radar, it should be.

The Duchman Dolcetto looks medium ruby in color when poured into the glass.  I had no trouble seeing through it.  The nose shows a strawberry-meets-raspberry characteristic - rather like a rosé at first blush.  The aromas start getting a bit darker only about half an hour after opening the bottle.  The darkening continued over a three night tasting span.

The tannins - lively at first pour - are still quite active after 45 minutes in the glass.  The wine is actually dry, despite the name of the grape, meaning "little sweet one" in Italian.  This Dolcetto has a rough-hewn nature, fitting for a wine made in Texas, even if it is from an Italian variety.

A raspberry flavor dominates the palate and those tannins never say die.  The finish is just as rustic.  It leaves you with a bitterness that is not the least bit unpleasant.  The second night the bottle is open, the wine is smoother.  The tannins, however, still let you know they are there.  On the third night, it is as smooth as silk.  The fruit flavors are still intact, but have become much darker and more brambly.

I like wines that evolve over the span of time the bottle is open, and the Duchman Dolcetto fits that description perfectly.  Decanting is recommended - the darker qualities and smoother mouthfeel are a delight - but it's a better than average wine even upon opening.

There is a fairly good streak of spice that runs through this wine, suggesting that it’s a good choice for the holidays.  It pairs with chocolate as well as it does with a steak.  With beef, the more marbled the better.  These tannins can handle anything a piece of meat can throw at it.

The Duchman Dolcetto has yet to be released, but it shows the new branding on the bottle, sells for $26 retail and carries a very moderate alcohol level of 13% abv.  The '08 vintage was a double gold medal winner at the San Francisco International Wine Competition, according to the Houston Chronicle's Dale Robertson.  I expect no less from the 2009 edition.

MANDOLA AGLIANICO 2008 TEXAS

Most of the wines I drink come from California, which is by design.  California is where I live and I like to taste the terroir of my home in the wines I drink.  I'm certainly not opposed to trying wines from other places, though - especially when the place is one near to my heart.

I'm from Texas.  I've been transplanted in Southern California for some time now.  It was so long ago when I lived in the Lone Star State, the burgeoning wine industry there is a stranger to me.  I drank plenty of Texas beer in my days as a card-carryin’ Texan - plenty - but I had never tried a Texas wine, until recently.

The Duchman Family Winery - located just a bit west of Austin - was kind enough to provide me with samples of two of their wines made from Italian grape varieties - Aglianico and Dolcetto.  On today's Now And Zin Wine Blog, I'll tell you about the Aglianico.

The Aglianico grape thrives in dry places with plenty of sunshine.  Central Texas gets a check mark on both counts.  The grapes generally make a full-bodied, acidic wine with plenty of tannic structure.

The Mandola Aglianico - the winery has recently been re-branded as Duchman Family Vineyards- is labeled as "Texas wine,” and the grapes are from the Reddy Vineyards in the Texas High Plains AVA.  Bottled in June of 2009, this wine was fermented in stainless steel and aged ten months in American oak.  The alcohol level is listed as 14.5% abv in the winery’s literature, but the label shows 12.5% abv.  I believe I’d go with the lower figure.  Total production of the Mandola Aglianico was only 150 cases.

I’m happy that the first Texas wine I taste is one with a taste as big as the state itself.

Right up front, the nose gives big aromas of red fruit - red plums and raspberry seem to dominate.  There’s more red fruit on the palate with an earthy aspect that increases the longer the wine has been decanted.  By the second night after opening the bottle, it was downright dark and earthy.  The flavor of spices did not diminish, though.  If anything, the spiciness increased a bit with time.

This wine has the tannins the grape is known for, and the acidity to allow it to match with a variety of foods.  Snacking with a handful of almonds, a piece of brittle and a chunk of dark chocolate, all three seemed to fit well in the scheme of the Aglianico.  This wine is really made for something a little more substantial.  Try it with an Italian sausage or lasagna.

The thing I was really looking for with this Texas Aglianico was the feeling of the Lone Star state’s terroir, and I think I found it.  Even though Aglianico wines tend to be somewhat “rustic” anyway, this one has a deeper, darker feeling than I was expecting.  To call it “brooding” would not be an overstatement.  To call it “wonderful” just about hits the nail on the head.  I think - just this once - a “yee-haw” might even be called for.

I couldn't resist sharing this image from the Duchman website.  

PAIRING WINE WITH STEAK

If you really want a good recommendation on what kind of wine to serve with a particular cut of meat, ask a sommelier at a Texas steak house.  Wine Spectator did just that. 

That wine mag did a short interview with Drew Hendricks, left, director of beverage education and wine for Pappas Bros. in Houston.  You can read the entire article , but here is the meat of the interview:

Hendricks says the determining factor is the amount of fat in the cut of meat.  For a filet or tenderloin, he likes to pair a Chateauneuf-du-Pape or a Spanish wine for the bold flavors the lean meat needs.

For a New York strip Hendricks wants to keep the big flavor and add some tannins and acidity.  He says a Sangiovese, an old-school Zinfandel or a Washington Syrah are perfect for that.

With prime rib, his advice is Pinot Noir or Barolo.  Hendricks says those wines will offer a cleansing effect with the richness of the meat.

In the interview , he also answers some questions about wine service in restaurants, talks about how he got started and gives a bit of advice for future sommeliers.