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On Texas Wine

By Jerry ⋅ March 22, 2007 ⋅  Email This Post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

Some of you probably remember me waxing poetic on the subject of Twin Springs Wineries’ Texas Sweet Red wine. Being a wine country expat, I very much enjoy tasting wines that are local to the area I find myself living. Wines from different regions have very different flavor components and characteristics, not to mention methods of vintification. The serious wine types call this terroir (/tεʀwaʀ/ in French), which I suppose is as good a term as any, though I’m not wine-snobby enough to use the term often myself.

My wife had the pleasure of visiting the Wichita Falls Vineyards and Winery this past Saturday for a wine tasting with some friends. She was kind enough not only to take notes on her tasting, but to bring home some of the fruits of the vines and labors of the vintners themselves, definitely something I was interested in sampling!

The Wichita Falls Vineyards and Winery sells wines under two labels. Wichita Falls Winery and Vineyards is their primary label and vintages labeled Gates Vineyards are usually a combination of Texas and California grapes, a very interesting combination, as Texas grapes tend to be much sweeter than California’s offerings. (Texas has less water. Less water=smaller grapes. Smaller grapes=higher sugar content.)

In her conversation with Mr. Alton Gates, the vineyard owner, my wife mentioned that I’m a food blogger, and that I’m a sucker for a good port. Not only did Mr. Gates give us a lovely 10% discount on the port, but gave a complimentary port glass to go with it, and asked to have me stop by so that I could discuss port recipes with him and his lovely wife Lana! I have not had the opportunity to do so yet, but I am very much looking forward to it, and will not touch my gorgeous $40.00 port until I’ve had the chance to discuss it’s uses with the vintners themselves.

I suppose being a food blogger has it’s perks at times!

I’ll start this entry off properly with a recap of my wife’s experiences of the tasting, and finish with my opinion of the first wine we had the opportunity to try, the Gates Vineyards Muscato.

As you can see from the scribbles in the margins of the program for the evening, Mrs. seat of her Pants is an habitual note taker. In this case, her notes were invaluable, as they had me at the store purchasing two of the wines she didn’t buy, but had marked as being exceptional.

Let me just run down the list of wines and give her impression of each in turn.

The first on the list were the 2004 and 2005 Viognier (vee-on-yay) at $12.99 and $13.99 respectively. Mrs. seat of her Pants’ notes say that she thinks the 2004 would be wonderful for cooking, and that the 2005 had “rich flavor and great charm”. So, the 2004 for cooking, the 2005 for drinking.

Next we come to the Gates Pino Grigio (Pee-no-Gree-joe) at $17.99. The notes indicate that this pinot is “a bit bitter / refreshing / dry.” The margin notes don’t include any exclamations, so we’ll just move on, I suppose.

Next up we have the Gates Muscato at $11.25 (on sale for $8.99). My wife’s notes simply read “tonight”, with 4 exclamation points in the left margin. I’m going to assume she liked it. ;)

Gates Reisling (rees-ling) $8.99 - I remember talking to her about this particular wine when she got home that evening, as the notes say “great with seafood, bad with spinach.” Not a problem for me really, as I find that spinach and seafood are just not that great a pair to begin with. It was not one of her favorites, however.

Gates Gewürztraminer (Gah-VERTZ-tra-Me-nur) $11.99 - Which she describes as “heavy spice, harsh but smooth.” I have nothing to add, since as far as I know, I’ve never tried a Gewürztraminer.

And we’re all the way to the Texas Blush at $8.99 - My wife is not a blush fan, and to be honest, I’m not either. I’m going to assume it tastes like a blush and move on.

Rachel’s Rose $11.99 - The notes on this really do say it all “okay yum!! spicy!! one glass per night”

Wichita Red $13.99 - This is a Texas Sweet Red. Unfortunately it doesn’t hold a candle to Twin Springs, though it’s apparently a gold medal winner.

My wife found the Sangiovese (san-geo-va-see) at $12.99 “way too dry” and both the Texas Cabernet ($12.99) and Gates Cabernet ($18.99) “way too bitter.” I’d probably disagree with her, as I like a good Cabernet.

She also found that the Gates Sparkling Wine at $17.99 had no flavor whatsoever, but that it was good at drawing the flavor out of berries.

She enjoyed the Zinfandel Dessert Wine $17.99 and found it “very rich.” I’m looking forward to finding a good use for this soon.

The last three wines in the tasting were the Cabernet Chocolate Wine Sauce - $18.50, the Port Chocolate Wine Sauce - $18.50 and the Zinfandel Reserve Port - $39.99. For all three, my wife simply listed “WOW” in her notes, and I’m dying to give all three a go, especially that lovely port.

As I said at the beginning of this entry, the only one of these wines that I’ve had the chance to sample so far has been the Muscato. All I really have to say about this particular wine is this:

Get to the website and buy a bottle!

There are degrees of amazing, and the Gates Vineyards Muscato has surpassed most of my benchmarks for a great sipping wine. It has hints of peaches, tangerines and something a bit ethereal lingering on the back of your palette. The only real challenge that I had with this wine was not drinking it too quickly, but for my money it’s worth every penny at its full price of $11.25 per bottle, and even better, it’s selling for $8.99 at the moment.

The Wichita Falls Vineyards and Winery can be reached through their website at www.wichitafallsvineyardsandwinery.com, they offer shipping, though it seems that to place an order you must currently call them at +1.940.855.2093 or email them at wine@wichitafallsvineyardsandwinery.com. There is a shopping cart on their site, but it does not seem to be working at the moment.

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