Subject:

Vineyards and Winemakers

  • Blogs

    May 21, 2012

    Red, White and Orange: More and More Orange Wines in Houston

    "Old man piss." I hate to say it, but it's the best descriptor to use to describe the color of many of the "orange" wines that are finding their way to our market these days. As you can see from the color of the wine in the glass above, orange wines aren't really orange: They tend to have a deep ... More >>

  • Blogs

    April 30, 2012

    Texas Wine Makes the Big Time at Austin Food & Wine Mag Fest

    "The Wines Of Texas Are Upon You" may have seemed like a bland seminar title when compared with spicier ones like "Everything You Need To Know About Wine But Were Afraid to Ask" and "Super Star Wines." But the fact that the Austin Food & Wine Festival (which made its debut over the weekend) includ ... More >>

  • Blogs

    April 5, 2012

    Tasting Notes: This Week in Wine Blogs

    Vintage Texas: Top Texas wine authority Russ Kane chronicles the bankruptcy filing and botched sale of one of the state's leading wineries, CapRock, in Lubbock. According to his report, New Mexico winery Gruet has been ordered to pay $4 million for a breach of contract after bidding in a bankruptcy ... More >>

  • Blogs

    February 27, 2012

    From Defender of Wily Politicians, Serial Killers and Drug Dealers to Texas Winemaker

    "I don't read anymore," said Dickson when I asked him to share his thoughts about the recent uproar in the world of Natural wine. "I did enough reading when I was an attorney." On Friday, I drove out to Houston native Lewis Dickson's Hill Country estate and winery, La Cruz de Comal, on the southern ... More >>

  • Blogs

    February 22, 2012

    Tasting Notes: This Week in Wine Blogs

    Wine Thoughts: There's so much groovy stuff happening this week in the Texas enoblogosphere. But we just have to open today's post with a nod to one of our favorite and most balanced wine bloggers here in our state, Sandra Crittenden, author of Wine Thoughts, who writes about one of our pet peeves: ... More >>

  • Blogs

    January 30, 2012

    Wine of the Week: Natural Wine in Texas

    As we noted in last week's post on a new era of Nastiness and a call for civility in the Natural wine debate, it's not easy to define exactly what Natural wine is. As Eric Asimov wrote in his weekly New York Times column, there is no official definition or doctrine for Natural wine or Natural winem ... More >>

  • Blogs

    January 27, 2012

    The Natural Wine Debate Gets Ugly

    "Natural wine is wine to which nothing has been added," said the leading advocate of Natural wine in the U.S., Alice Feiring, when she visited Texas in October 2011 to promote her new book Naked Wine: Letting Grapes Do What Comes Naturally (Da Capo 2011). She was speaking at an event in a wine bar, ... More >>

  • Blogs

    January 23, 2012

    Must Like Texas Wine: The Wine Slinger Chronicles, a New Guide to Texas Wines

    Photo by Jeremy ParzenLeading Texas wine authority Russ Kane (left) and his wife Delia love meatballs. That's Russ with Coppa executive chef Brandi Key. Russ has called Brandi's meatballs "the best in town."​It seems inevitable that the authors of the two guides to the wines of Texas have name ... More >>

  • Blogs

    January 17, 2012

    Wine of the Week: 2000 Valpolicella by Giuseppe Quintarelli

    Photo by Jeremy Parzen.Giuseppe Quintarelli, one of the greatest winemakers of our lifetime, passed away on Sunday in the Valpolicella, Italy. He was 84.​From the tiny village of Negrar in the picturesque Valpolicella (Veneto, Italy) to the upper reaches of the One-Percenter wine collectors in ... More >>

  • Blogs

    December 6, 2011

    Me and the TABC (Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission)

    Image via the Texas Restaurant Association.TABC To Go is an excellent online TABC certification program for Texas restaurant and bar workers. Although not required by the state, many Texas employers require certification to ensure proper service of alcohol.​The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commiss ... More >>

  • Blogs

    December 5, 2011

    Absurdity of Texas Wine Shipping Law Reaches New Heights

    Photo by Jeremy Parzen.Castell'in Villa Chianti Classico is one of the greatest values in Italian wine today, but out-of-state retailers can't ship it to me in Texas... at least not legally.​On Friday, one of the most bizarre press releases I've ever read found its way to my inbox. "The Texas ... More >>

  • Blogs

    November 14, 2011

    Wine of the Week: An "Old Vine" Zinfandel from California (Where Else?)

    Photo by Jeremy Parzen.The "Old Vine" Zinfandel by Bogle showed judicious restraint in its alcohol content and concentration.​What does the designation "old vine" mean, anyway? And how did it come to be a "brand name" for California wines in the 2000s? Vine age is a key element in the qualit ... More >>

  • Blogs

    November 14, 2011

    What Do Wine and Saddles Have In Common? The Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo

    ​Over the course of a weekend, volunteers with the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo wash 20,000 wine glasses in two days. It's just one of the staggering statistics behind the annual International Wine Competition, the contest that leads to the Rodeo Uncorked! Wine Show and to a few lucky wineri ... More >>

  • Blogs

    November 4, 2011

    Wine Time: Wine and Sulfur Dioxide

    Image via HomeBrewers.com.No, that's not cocaine. It's potassium metabisulfite, one of the many forms of sulfites employed by winemakers for a variety of purposes.​A post earlier this week ("Wine of the Week: A Wine with No Detectable Sulfites") inspired a lot of acidic (pun intended) discussi ... More >>

  • Blogs

    November 1, 2011

    Wine of the Week: A Wine with "No Detectable Sulfites"

    Photos by Jeremy Parzen.The Madoff segment on last night's 60 Minutes was made more palatable by a tasting of the utterly transparent Frey Vineyard's "Natural Red."​One of the chief complaints often expressed by advocates, champions, and militants of Natural wine (with a capital N) is that ove ... More >>

  • Blogs

    October 27, 2011

    Natalie MacLean's Unquenchable Search for the Best Cheap Wines

    ​To research her new book Unquenchable: A Tipsy Quest for the World's Best Bargain Wines, Natalie MacLean traveled to wineries in eight countries including Australia and Italy over a five-year period. Each chapter in Unquenchable pairs a wine with a day of the week and a meal. While the book ... More >>

  • Blogs

    October 21, 2011

    Odd Pair: Wine and Legs (or Tears That Rhyme with Ears)

    Photos by Jeremy Parzen.The legs of 2005 Langhe Nebbiolo Sperss by Gaja (Piedmont, Italy), tasted this week in Houston.​How many times have you been at a dinner party and heard some blowhard say something like the following (uttered with a fake British accent): Observe carefully: After swirli ... More >>

  • Blogs

    October 18, 2011

    Wine of the Week: Another Oaky Buttery Chardonnay

    Photo by Jeremy Parzen.The marketing campaign by Educated Guess wines is one of the most successful in recent history.​Yesterday, after arriving at the Newark, NJ airport from Milan, Italy (where I admired a statue of Leonardo da Vinci across from the famous Scala opera house), I headed straig ... More >>

  • Blogs

    September 26, 2011

    Wine of the Week: An Under-$25 Fresh, Clean Sparkler

    ​Whenever it comes to sparkling wine, the comparison to Champagne is inevitable. Together with Bordeaux and Burgundy, wine regions that the British embraced as benchmarks for fine wine in the 19th century, the Champagne "brand" is so powerful that it pervades nearly every discussion of spar ... More >>

  • Blogs

    September 12, 2011

    Wine of the Week: A Rosé from the Texas Hill Country

    ​The more I read about Texas Hill Country winemaker and San Antonio endocrinologist Richard Becker, the more I am intrigued. Any doctor-cum-vintner who quotes readily from one of my favorite 20th-century American poets, Wallace Stevens, sounds like someone who puts more thought into the art an ... More >>

  • Blogs

    September 7, 2011

    Tasting Notes: This Week in Wine Blogs

    Know a Houston-based blog we should be paying particular attention to? Leave the address in the comments section below. ​TweetChat #TXWine: If you've been following along here at Wine Time, you know that Texas wines have been on our minds. We found out about the TweetChat #TXWines thanks to t ... More >>

  • Blogs

    September 6, 2011

    Wine of the Week: Texas Blanc du Bois

    ​Above: Blanc du Bois grapes from the 2010 harvest at the Cruz de Comal Winery in the Texas Hill Country. To tell the story of winemaking in Texas today, we need to start with what happened in California back in the 1970s and the way wine has been marketed historically in the U.S. When I was ... More >>

  • Blogs

    August 12, 2011

    Odd Pair: What Wine Do You Serve with Doritos?

    ​When asked what factors had shaped his palate and his wine collection when he first began collecting fine wine, rockstar (literally, not just figuratively) and winemaker Maynard James Keenan answered: "Mountain Dew and Doritos. Like most American kids, that's what I grew up on." This was a fe ... More >>

  • Blogs

    August 2, 2011

    Wine of the Week, Part 2: Orange Wine by Nicolas Joly, on a Mission from Nature

    ​Yesterday, after we posted our Orange Wines 101 primer, Elgreco54 noted that "Joly does knockout stuff." As it just so happens, I tasted the new vintage, 2008, of Joly's entry-level wine, Les Clos Sacrés (the holy cloisters), over the weekend. (In France the wine is called "Les Vieux Clos," ... More >>

  • Blogs

    August 1, 2011

    Wine of the Week: Orange Wine (Yes, Orange)

    ​White wine, rosé wine, red wine, orange wine... Orange wine? Qu'est-ce que c'est? No, it's not a wine concocted by Longhorn fans. (They call UT the orange tide? Call me Deacon Blue Nun). Orange wine is a loosely codified category of winemaking and winemakers who macerate the juice obtained ... More >>

  • Blogs

    July 15, 2011

    Zelko Bistro Puts Female Winemakers and Craft Beer Front and Center

    Photo by Tam VoChef Jamie Zelko.​Zelko Bistro, although it's only been open for less than two years, has already garnered a reputation for its wine list: Aggressively priced, the list offers an excellent selection of wines between $28 and $46 a bottle. Chef and owner Jamie Zelko wanted it that ... More >>

  • Blogs

    June 20, 2011

    Wine of the Week: "Oaky May Be Bad, but Oak Is Good."

    ​If you're anywhere between 21 and 51 years of age (I'll be 44 next month), you were brought up with the notion that oak flavors were a sign of a fine wine. Back in the 1970s, when huge investment in the Californian wine industry began to take shape, the dudes in charge -- think Gallo and Mo ... More >>

  • Blogs

    June 7, 2011

    Wine of the Week: A Cool-Weather Cabernet Sauvignon from California

    ​When we think of "California Cabernet," the next two words that come to mind are invariably "Napa Valley" -- the AVA (American Viticultural Area) that changed the way the world perceived American winemaking back in the 1970s. Since that time, "Napa Valley Cab" (oh, how I wish people would st ... More >>

  • Blogs

    May 13, 2011

    Odd Pair: Carne Asada Tampiqueña and Nebbiolo

    ​On paper, this pairing breaks every rule of Wine 101. The heat of this dish -- the spiciness of both the marinade for the beef and the mole -- would overwhelm nearly any fine wine. The classic match would be ice-cold, dry beer served in an iced pony glass (perhaps even with a twist of lemon) ... More >>

  • Blogs

    May 9, 2011

    Wine of the Week: Righting the Wrong of Rosé

    ​Remember the "pink" and "blush" wines from the 1970s, like the one pictured right? They were mass-produced and mass-marketed blends of white and red grapes with high alcohol content (and often with added sugar) intended for the swinging cocktail set of the era. And while we all had a grand t ... More >>

  • Blogs

    April 25, 2011

    Wine of the Week: Truchard 2007 Carneros Pinot Noir

    At $11 by the glass, the Truchard 2007 Carneros Pinot Noir is a great value from one of California's most famous winemakers.

  • Blogs

    March 25, 2011

    Upcoming Events

    Italian winemaker Ezio Trinchero​Starting this Saturday, there are plenty of inexpensive ways to get your gourmet on in Houston this week, and it all kicks off at Block 7 Wine Company. Fresh off last night's wine dinner featuring acclaimed Italian winemaker Ezio Trinchero, Block 7 Wine Compan ... More >>

  • Blogs

    February 28, 2011

    Get Your Passport Stamped Along the Texas Wine Trails

    ​While the trail riders rode into town last Friday, you could be riding out one weekend soon to hit one of Texas's 11 wine trails just as the bluebonnets are beginning to bloom this spring. The fifth most productive wine-producing state in the nation, Texas features more than 200 vineyards wi ... More >>

  • Blogs

    February 24, 2011

    An Afternoon of Free Wine at Archway

    Photo by CrosslersAn example of home winemaking supplies.​Take a late lunch tomorrow, if you can. And maybe bring along a designated driver. Archway Gallery (2305 Dunlavy, 713-522-2409) is hosting an afternoon of free wine in its Montrose space, and this isn't your typical gallery showing. Fr ... More >>

  • Blogs

    February 21, 2011

    The 2011 Best Bites and Rodeo Uncorked! Roundup at the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo

    Photos by GroovehouseFor more photos from Best Bites, visit our slideshow.​The 2011 Rodeo season has officially kicked off -- at least as far as food and wine lovers are concerned -- with the announcement of this year's top winners of the annual International Wine Competition. Last night at t ... More >>

  • Blogs

    January 27, 2011

    Vintners Own Winery: Wine (in a Freaking Keg!) in the Heights

    Happiness is eight different wines on tap.​I called my most wine-savvy friend upon receiving the invitation to the event. "Did you know there's a freaking winery in the Heights, just a few blocks from your house?" This was followed by a string of expletives (apparently she was not aware). I co ... More >>

  • Blogs

    October 25, 2010

    Raise Your Glass to Texas Wine History

    ​The last few years I had the opportunity to live in both San Francisco and Napa Valley and work in the thriving California wine industry. Overall it was a very enriching experience; I learned a lot about the micro-climates that dictate Northern California's growing seasons, met some notable w ... More >>

  • Blogs

    August 25, 2010

    $50-Plus Wine for $10 (And How the Hell This Is Possible)

    ​A friend called about a week ago.  She excitedly relayed the details of a Cameron Hughes Wine presentation she had seen at Costco that afternoon. My reply: "That sounds great, but I think you're leaving something out. There is just no way this guy is buying up someone else's high-priced fin ... More >>

  • Blogs

    February 17, 2010

    Wine of the Week: Israeli Wine

    ​The other Saturday, we went to a wine tasting at Block 7 devoted to Israeli wines. We hadn't really heard of Israeli wines but were assured that we would love them. A few glasses later, we were hooked. We even took a few bottles home, and it wasn't in an alcohol-induced shopping frenzy. In ... More >>

  • Calendar

    February 11, 2010

    It’s Not You; It’s Me

    Who gave Hugh Grant an acting career anyway?

  • Blogs

    July 31, 2009

    Joe Lopez Is Ready for White Linen Night

    ​Joe Lopez says he used to have an inferiority complex. That's hard to believe when you consider that the now outspoken San Antonio-based artist took on the Gallo wine company -- and won! Gallo in English is a family surname. Gallo is Spanish means rooster. Lopez found the rooster image a strong c ... More >>

  • Blogs

    July 7, 2009

    Japanese Chardonnay: The New Frontier?

    Photo by Katharine ShilcuttWhile in Chinatown browsing the aisles at Hong Kong City Mall's grocery store, Hong Kong Market, last weekend, I ran across something interesting among the hundreds of bottles of sake: Japanese Chardonnay and Merlot, made by Chateau Mercian. It's highly possible tha ... More >>

  • Blogs

    May 25, 2009

    Texas Traveler: Bluebonnet Wine Trail

    While in Navasota lovin' on some alpacas, Texas Traveler had a hankerin' thirst. So we got on our trusty iPhone and found the closest winery, a funky l'il shack called the Purple Possum Winery. While in the air-conditioned comfort of the Purple Possum's tasting room, we met a lovely couple we'd se ... More >>

  • Blogs

    January 30, 2009

    Alcohol-Free Wine: Poorly Conceived Dreck

    Sutter Home Winery is a reasonably credible wine maker. Sure, to some people they may be one step up from Two Buck Chuck, but you have to think the wine makers at Sutter Home retain some shred of pride and dignity.Or not.

  • Blogs

    January 8, 2009

    Food & Foreign Policy

    The World Affairs Council of Houston is best known for holding public events featuring foreign policy heavyweights such as former Secretaries of State Colin Powell and James Baker III. However two upcoming programs will extend the Council's reach into food-related subjects.

  • Dining

    June 28, 2007

    5 Wines That'll Blow Your Mind

    The World Affairs Council of Houston is best known for holding public events featuring foreign policy heavyweights such as former Secretaries of State Colin Powell and James Baker III. However two upcoming programs will extend the Council's reach into food-related subjects.

  • Dining

    April 12, 2007

    Wines

    Five That'll Blow Your Mind

  • News

    April 7, 2005

    Poured Out

    With archaic and self-serving laws, reforms don't come easy for the Texas booze industry

  • Dining

    August 30, 2001

    Getting Stomped

    Texas boasts the soil, the climate and the grapes for a strong wine industry. So what stands in its way? Bad taste and politicians.

  • Dining

    December 28, 2000

    Uncorking a Bargain

    A champagne buyer's guide

  • More >>
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