Friday, October 10 

7:30 pm - 10:30 pm at Salado Wine Seller

Purchase tickets for $35/each at www.saladochocolatefestival.com/tickets.htm  or at Salado Wine Seller, 881-B N. Main St., Salado

Taste the following 5 Texas wines matched with 5 chocolate desserts. 

1)Chisholm Trail Belle Star $17/bottle:

Fruity and tart wine paired with Tuxedo Dipped Strawberries 

2)Texas Hills Kick Butt Cabernet Sauvignon $20/bottle:

Medium-bodied cab paired with Mini Chocolate Espresso Cheesecake bites 

3)Brushy Creek Texas Rose $17.50/bottle:

Semi-sweet blush wine paired with Chocolate Mousse Filled Profiteroles 

4)Texas Hills Orange Muscato $17.50/bottle:  

Light essence of orange occurs naturally in this wine paired with Chocolate “Pecan” Biscotti 

5)Pleasant Hill Tawny Port $23/bottle:

Fortified dessert wine paired with Double Chocolate Truffles

The sumptuous desserts will be prepared by Dave Hermann from The Range Restaurant, 101 N. Main St., Salado, TX, 76571

We had to do all the hard work and sample the desserts and wine for you to make sure it will be good, and we can assure you, it will be FANASTIC!

Carriage rides and Belguim horses will provide transportation from both Stagecoach Inn and the Holiday Inn Express.

Tickets are selling fast, see you soon!

June Ritterbusch

Salado Wine Seller

   (254) 947-8011      

www.saladowine.com

For other events that might interest you this weekend, check www.salado.com:

Friday, October 10

9 am - 8 pm, Christmas in October, free admission

Start your holiday shopping now and visit the Giant Ladies’ Auxiliary Bake Sale

Saturday, October 11

9 am - 5 pm, Christmas in October, free admission

5 pm - 9 pm, Fine Art Gallery Tour, free admission

Visit the Salado art galleries, view chocolate sculptures and visit with Susan Eminger & sample her famous cheesecake-stuffed strawberries dipped in chocolate

Sunday, October 12

11 am -2 pm Chocolate & Art Brunch

Purchase your tickets at www.saladochocolatefestival.com/tickets.htm for brunch at Adelea’s, Stagecoach Inn, or Inn on the Creek.

We sell plenty of McPherson wine, so we were thrilled to find this article. Come on in to Salado Wine Seller for McPherson wine!

McPherson winery will add new dimension to downtown Lubbock
By Chris Van Wagenen | A-J BUSINESS EDITOR | http://www.lubbockonline.com/stories/080308/bus_312968032.shtml
Sunday, August 03, 2008
Story last updated at 8/3/2008 - 2:36 am

When the electric saws aren’t grinding and cement isn’t being poured, you’ll find Kim McPherson taking delivery of another piece of used equipment from California’s Napa Valley or just fretting over the amount of dust that’s covered his stainless steel bottling line.

It’s here in the former Coca Cola bottling facility where grapes will be crushed, fermented, bottled and yes, tasted. It’s tough work for a winemaker, whose family legacy still influences a statewide industry today.

For nearly a year now, McPherson, his staff and contractors have been tearing apart the former bottling plant and replacing it with a full-scale winery on a half-block area off Texas Avenue between 16th and 17th streets in the Depot Entertainment District.

Late this summer or early this fall, McPherson will uncork his downtown winery, which some believe could lead to further redevelopment of the area.

Beyond the crushing, winemaking, bottling and sales, McPherson Cellars will offer its visitors a tasting room, waterfall-filled courtyard, an events center and a chapel that will wed his wines to the perfect couple.

It’s a grand vision, but one that has made it from blueprint to the proving ground.

“It’s not like I’ve never built something like this,” said the former Caprock Winery winemaker, whose talent was on loan for 16 years. “This is something I’m doing on my own and I think it will be incredible.”

McPherson said he knew four or five years ago Caprock was getting a little too big for what he wanted to do.

“I wanted a place where I could produce about 7,000 to 8,000 cases. I also knew I didn’t want to do it far from Lubbock and out in the county.”

While McPherson fancies his days at Caprock, he said he wants to make wines that capture the imagination of the connoisseur.

“I wanted to be in the city and I wanted to be downtown. When the laws changed to allow that, I knew where I wanted to be, and when this building came up, I knew it was it. It was an incredible location,” he said.

The winery will open directly across the street from LaDiosa Cellars, a smaller wine venue opened by McPherson’s wife, Sylvia.

“That was just a coincidence,” he said.

Rob Allison, assistant city manager for development services, said McPherson’s vision plays right into what the Downtown Redevelopment Commission is attempting to accomplish.

“For this (redevelopment) to be a success, you need private enterprise. This is an example of that. I think what Kim is doing is creating an ambiance that fits the downtown culture and especially the Depot Entertainment District,” he said.

The injection of private money and the creation of an unusual venue is bound to draw masses to the area.

“This is the way you jump start downtown,” Allison said.

For McPherson, his winery isn’t about just making great wines or creating perfect celebrations - it’s moreso about his family and father, in particular, who was involved in the state’s winemaking industry for more than 40 years.

Clinton “Doc” McPherson, a chemistry professor at Texas Tech and founder of Llano Estacado Winery, gave him the dream, he said.

Both he and his father were inducted into the Who’s Who in Food and Wine Texas Hall of Fame in 1999.

Kim McPherson, a graduate of Texas Tech and University of California at Davis, has won 400 medals in state, national and international wine competitions, including two double golds at the prestigious San Francisco Wine Fair - not far from the heart of the Napa Valley.

“I’m doing this in honor of my dad and Bob Reed (another Tech professor with a vision of wine on the South Plains),” he said.

McPherson said what few people know or understand is the grape-growing ability of the South Plains, whose varietals are sought by smaller wineries across the state.

He intends to produce two types of wines - first and foremost his flagship - a red Sangiovese that can be traced to Tuscany, Italy, and whose grapes were introduced by Italian immigrants in the U.S. in the late 1800s. McPherson characterizes it as a classic grape.

The second type of wine will be blends on the inexpensive side, costing in the $9 to $12 range.

McPherson’s journey hasn’t been an easy one.

He took over a building that boasted great history, but was beaten down, including a wall full of years of pigeon droppings and a soppy roof.

Coincidentally, the former Coke bottling plant was owned by Pat McNamara, whose family operated The Coke Bottling Co. of Lubbock Inc..

Today, McNamara serves as president of Glazer Distributing Inc.’s Texas operation, which also distributes McPherson’s wines.

“(McNamara) told me he remembered watching them bottle (Coke) all of the time while he was here,” McPherson said.

The winemaker will tell you all the hard work has been well worth it.

“I look at other places, but to be here in the Depot District? Just icing on the cake. I can finally do what I’ve always wanted to do. I can bottle my own wine. Where else would I be? This is where the best grapes are grown. … I’m very excited about all this,” he said.

To comment on this story:

chris.vanwagenen@lubbockonline.com 766-8744

james.gallagher@lubbockonline.com 766-8706

The festival kickoff begins on Friday evening with an Evening of Chocolate & Wine from 7:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. at the Salado Wine Seller. Carriage rides and Belgian horses will provide transportation from both Stagecoach Inn and the Holiday Inn Express to the event location. Guests will be invited to savor the taste of premier Texas wines paired with decadent chocolates. The Evening of Chocolate & Wine will feature the finest in artisan chocolates and wine tasting from Texas vineyards. The Belgian Horses will run from 7:00 p.m. - 10:30 p.m.

Go to: http://saladochocolatefestival.com/schedule.htm

Check out the other events during the same weekend and buy tickets–they’re going fast!

Newsom Vineyards Looms Large in Texas Wines

If Texas had a Bordeaux-like list of first growth vineyards, Neal Newsom’s Texas High Plains appellation property would be listed as Superior First Growth. He sells to dozens of wineries all over the state, most of which make the grapes into uniformly superior wines (see tasting notes below).

Newsom is also active in helping the state’s farmers and winemakers create better wines and be more profitable. He is the current President of the Texas Wine and Grape Growers Association, a very active and influential trade group. He’s also the sponsor of the annual Newsom Grape Day, an opportunity for growers to learn the latest ways to improve their crops from some of the best scientific minds in the industry as well as a chance to see masses of new farm equipment in one place.

A lanky Texan, Newsom is prone to drawling and understatement. He’s also slow to make pronouncements, so when one pops out, you pay attention. More than a few popped out in my recent interview with him.

 Neal Newsom heads Newsom Vineyards and the Texas Wine and Grape Growers Association.

Appellation America: Your vineyard is here in the middle of huge parcels of cotton and soybeans. How did you choose grapes?

NN: I went to Texas Tech and had a professor, Dr. Roy Mitchell, who used to compare the Lubbock area to wine areas of the world. I came home to a cotton farm, but I was always into alternative crops like alfalfa and peanuts, so I decided to give grapes a try.

AA: When was that?

NN: My first planting was in 1986 and there were only four wineries back then. We started off with just three acres of Cabernet. At the time, I knew we’d have to hand harvest, so I wanted a low yielder. It was also worth a little more, so I thought it might work well.

AA: Did you plan on keeping it small, or did you have bigger dreams?

NN: Well, let’s just say that I designed the vineyards to be able to use machine harvesting because I was pretty sure that there would be a machine out here someday.

AA: How fast did you expand?

NN: The next year we planted two more acres and we would just keep planting a couple of acres each year. When we got up to 18 acres, we had to stop because we were running up against a wall trying
Texas Hills Winery’s Kick Butt Cabernet is just one of the many wines that are produced from Newsom Vineyards grapes. Labels from other wineries’ Newsom Vineyard wines appear below.to do hand harvesting. A few years later, one of the wineries bought a mechanical harvester and they would do custom work for their growers and once we saw how easy that was, we started planting again. We would add about 5 acres per year until we got up to where we are now, 92 acres.

AA: There weren’t a lot of other growers at the time, so the knowledge bank was pretty thin. How did you decide what to grow?

NN: I am an avid armchair researcher so I hit the books the best I could. If I got interested in a grape that was in the area, I picked the brains of the growers. If no one had it, I tried to pick grapes that would work in our climate.

AA: So did you just plant them and hope to sell them?

NN: Of course, I had to be able to sell the grapes, so I would have to have a buyer before I ever planted it. Usually, I got a request from a winery to try the varietal. If it was a grape we didn’t know about, one that hadn’t been around here, I would ask them to participate in the cost.

AA: Shrewd business move.

NN: That was one of the big problems we had on the High Plains. When everyone came out here in the beginning, they wanted to grow everything under the sun, especially the popular grapes. But we just can’t grow Chardonnay out here. It doesn’t work. Neither does Pinot Noir. We get a decent yield but the quality isn’t what it needs to be. Zinfandel can be grown here, but it gets so many diseases it’s really tough.

AA: So what have you found does work on the High Plains?

NN: My two favorite varieties are Tempranillo and Malbec. We get good yields and the fruit is really powerful. Another grape that’s growing well for us is Pinot Grigio.

AA: You’re not mentioning the grape you are best known for.

NN: Yeah. It’s true we’re known out here for our Cabernet, but it’s the hardest grape of all the ones I grow. It’s not a high producer, in fact, the yields are really low. The winemakers love it because with the low yields, we get good quality. We’re also famous for our Orange Muscat, but it’s like the Cabernet. It’s real finicky and we get low yields.

AA: Of course, that’s the constant issue between the grape grower and the winemaker. A farmer has to put in the work and he wants more grapes to sell, while the winemaker wants stressed, low yielding grapes for their intensity.

NN: We have good relationships with our winemakers and we usually get all that worked out in advance.

AA: I know a lot of winemakers have been winning awards with your grapes. Tell us some.

NN: Are you trying to get me in trouble? You know I’m gonna miss some and they’ll be on the phone saying, “Hey Neal, what about me?”

AA: I know there’s been a lot, but just mention a few.

NN: OK. Here’s a few off the top of my head. Llano Estacado won for our Cab and Merlot, plus their best wine, Viviano uses our Sangiovese. Becker’s Cab Reserve has won several. Fredericksburg Winery was the first to win for our Orange Muscat. Texas Hills has won a lot for its Kick Butt Cab. LightCatcher has won several medals with my Merlot and they’ve done well with their Dry Muscat. Sunset Winery has gotten a few medals for our Cab and Malbec. Barking Rocks won with our Sangiovese. Gosh, Wes, there’s so many.

AA: OK, that’s enough. I know you like to experiment. What other grapes have you been looking at?

NN: I think we have a great opportunity to grow good quality Albariño. I’d love to see a distillery open because we could grow really good Trebbiano for brandy. I’m also going to take a shot at Syrah. There’s been a lot of failed Syrah around here, but I’ve got a rootstock/clone combination that is working pretty well on an experimental row.

AA: You keep up with everyone in the High Plains. What grapes are producing the best wines right now?

NN: Of course everyone does well with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Cabernet Franc, Tempranillo and Malbec are doing well, too. Dolcetto is a dry wine, but the High Plains version has the sweetest fruit. In the whites, Viognier, Pinot Grigio and Vermentino are working real well. I’m also hearing that Marsanne and Roussanne are doing well, but I haven’t tried any yet.

AA: What’s the hottest varietal in the High Plains right now?

NN: Oh, that would be Viognier. Lots of folks are planting it.

AA: If you had the opportunity to predict five or ten years from now, what do you think your appellation will be best known for?

NN: Probably Cab will always be king around here. After that? Let’s see. Ten years from now? Viognier, Tempranillo, and Malbec, in that order.

AA: Anything standing in your way?

NN: Well, late frost and hail are always problems. But other than that, we have two problems. Our biggest issue is the guest worker program. If we can’t get labor, we’ll all be out of business. We have to have a friendly guest worker program. If it’s a bureaucratic nightmare, it won’t get used. We’re asking folks to do hard, monotonous work that no one in our area seems to want to do. We’ve got to have the guest workers or we’re out of business. I refuse to use illegal immigrants, but if the program isn’t friendly, that’s all that will be available, and for me, since I won’t use illegals, then me and a lot of other farmers will be in trouble.

We’ve got another giant issue coming down the road in a few years. The big seed companies are getting ready to release these genetically modified row crop seeds (like cotton and soybean) that are immune to 2-4-D herbicide. That means these huge commercial farms will be using 2-4-D to clean their fields and any that drifts on us will kill our vines immediately. And that’s not the worst. 2-4-D can volatilize for up to three days and move in the wind, so even if they spray it on a quiet day, it can still spread and kill our vines.

Most of the farmers care, but if everyone starts using these seeds and 2-4-D, then pretty soon you are in a mono-culture where everyone is using the herbicides and then all our vines will be killed.

AA: What’s the solution?

NN: We don’t know yet. But we are trying to get a head start on the problem.

AA: That’s potentially devastating. I wish you luck. Hopefully someone in the government will do something to protect our grape business. On a lighter note, what do you drink at home?

NN: You’re trying to get me in trouble again. I drink mostly reds, Cabernets. I try all the Texas wines I can. It always amazes me how you can take the same grape grown by the same person and send it to several different wineries and they all come out different. And the best wines aren’t always from the big guys. You know, there’s only one best way to make wines, but that changes with every vintage and anyone might hit the jackpot.

AA: Any wisdom to pass along to youngsters in your business?

NN: Yeah. Start small and make sure you sell your grapes before you start. Make your mistakes while you’re small so that you’ll know what you want to do when you get big.

Tasting Notes for Wines Made From Neal Newsom’s Grapes

The Texas High Plain Wines

Bar Z Wines 2004 Sangiovese $20

Barking Rocks Winery 2004 Sangiovese $20

Becker Vineyards 2005 Cabernet Reserve $25

Inwood Estates Vineyards 2004 Tempranillo-Cabernet $40

Inwood Estates Vineyards 2005 Cornelious Tempranillo $40

Lightcatcher Winery 2004 Cabernet $30

Lightcatcher Winery Reserve Merlot $32

Llano Estacado Winery 2005 Viviano (Cabernet and Sangiovese) $40

Los Pinos Ranch Vineyards 2004 Sangiovese $20

Sunset Winery 2004 “Sun Ray” Cabernet $20

Sunset Winery 2004 Vintner’s Reserve Barrel Select Blend (Malbec, Cab, Merlot) $35

Sunset Winery 2004 Twilight Tango Malbec $25

Texas Hills Vineyard 2005 “Kick Butt” Cabernet $25

Texas Hills Vineyard Orange Moscato $18

 I’ve had so many great bottles of wine made from Neal Newsom’s grapes that I started to wonder if anyone was making middling to bad wines from his grapes.

Three Takes on Newsom Vineyards’ Sangiovese

I tasted three Sangiovese wines, two from the 2004 vintage and one for 2005. A few traits went across the wines: First, the color is the proper deep red. No Alicante wannabes here. Second, these are very limited release wines. Finally, all had a slight amaro kick at the finish. Monty Dixon’s Bar Z winery makes such a small amount of wine, it’s almost as if he wants to make sure he could drink all of it himself if he couldn’t sell it. Which is probably a concern since he lives in an area of the Panhandle bereft of wineries or wine drinkers. His Sangiovese is rich, chocolaty and dense, with lots of tobacco and a very long finish. Taking a tip from Sting and Seal and The Artist Formerly Known as Prince, the owner of Barking Rocks Winery goes by a single name: Tiberia. He makes about 600 cases of wine a year, including a wine made from Newsom’s Sangiovese. His Italian family has always made wine and that knowledge bank speaks loud and clear in this wine, which is lighter looking but very fruity with plum aromas dominating. Jeff Sneed is a recent transplant to Texas. He was an architect working in Los Angeles and sort of randomly picked the little east Texas town of Pittsburgh to open his Los Pinos Ranch Vineyards. His version of the Newsom Sangiovese has vivid raspberry and cinnamon aromas with a silky mouthfeel.

Five Cabernet Sauvignon made from Newsom Vineyards’ Grapes

This is the money grape for the High Plains appellation and it’s also where Neal Newsom made his reputation. Along with his Muscat, Neal’s Cabernet seems immune to winemaking mistakes. Still, all these wines taste completely different. Two wines from the 2004 vintage are current releases. Caris Palm Turpin makes Lightcatcher’s wines and, despite not having decades of experience, most winemakers around the state would rank her as one of our best. Her Newsom Vineyards Cabernet has big tannins, dark color, a hint of cinnamon and a very long finish. This wine is still a baby and should get better for several years. Sunset Winery’s “Sun Ray” Cabernet has much softer tannins in a friendly, ready to drink style. The wine is smooth and made for casual drinking. Gary Gilstrap was a pharmacist and he is an activist winemaker, comfortable with micro-oxygenation, barrel alternatives and anything else he needs to use to make the best wine he can. His 2005 Texas Hills Kick Butt Cab has tongue tickling acidity with sarsaparilla and cola on the nose. His version has very soft tannins and is ready to drink right now. Many consumers would pick Becker Vineyards as the best winery in the state, and while there are several other wineries that could just as easily take that title, there’s no arguing with the consistent excellence of winemaker Russell Smith’s skill. The Becker Cab Reserve has gorgeous color, big fruit that’s perfect balanced with the acids and a long finish of sweet fruit and leather. The wine has the elegance of Bordeaux with a dollop of California fruitiness. If it said Napa on the label it would cost $125. Another winery frequently mentioned at or near the top is Llano Estacado. Winemaker Greg Bruni spent his youth in California making wine all over the state. He has been at Llano for 15 years, learning the specifics of working with Texas fruit. A few years ago, he decided to create a tête de cuvée. It’s called Viviano and it is consistently one of the best red wines in Texas. Greg’s tastes run more to the Old World than the New, and he’s aiming at a super Tuscan style, blending Newsom’s Cabernet and Sangiovese. The 2005 is a gorgeous deep color with plum and red berry aromas and plenty of grip. It’s still a baby. This ideal wine for a grilled steak.

Merlot

Lightcatcher has had a great run of wines with Newsom’s Merlot. The current 2004 Lightcatcher Reserve has a huge hit of alcohol (14.9%) but none of the heat you might expect. The nose has a lovely perfume with just a touch of cola, caramel and black pepper. The mouthfeel is velvety but has good grip, sweet fruits and a l-o-n-g finish. I couldn’t detect the alcohol at all.

Malbec

Bruce and Birgit Anderson got on the Newsom Malbec bandwagon early and they make two excellent wines. They describe the 2004 Sunset Winery Vintner’s Reserve Barrel Select Blend as their best wine. It’s a combination of Cabernet, Malbec and Merlot. The Malbec dominates with smoky chocolate aromas, soft tannins, a smooth mouthfeel and good balance. Their Sunset Winery Twilight Tango Malbec is fully competitive with most Argentine wines. It has soft but abundant tannins, smoked plum aromas, and a long finish with cleansing acidity. Grilled lamb chops, oh boy!! They only make 120 cases.

Tempranillo

Dan Gatlin’s Inwood Estates Vineyards makes pure magic with Newsom’s Tempranillo. He is obsessed with making great wine and over the 25 years he’s been perfecting his skills, he has poured out more than he’s sold to make sure nothing but his best efforts ever get out of the winery. After planting and pulling vineyards all over the state, he finally settled on a partnership with Neal Newsom. He cites the cool nights as the reason he favors the High Plains. Both his Tempranillo Cabernet Blend and his straight Tempranillo, “Cornelious,” rank among Texas’s finest wines. Gatlin is so secure in the quality that he travels with bottles of Clos de l’Obac Priorat or one of the Muga Riojas to let people do a taste off. He wins.

Orange Muscat

Newsom’s vineyard has suffered from hail for the last three years, especially his Muscat, so he hasn’t had much to sell. Two wineries that always do a good job with it are Flat Creek, with a Spätlese style, and Lightcatcher with a fascinating, bone-dry version. Unfortunately, neither have any Newsom fruit currently. Texas Hills managed to get enough to make a 2005 vintage. Its gorgeous floral and orange peel aromas will have you swirling your glass endlessly. The sweetness is balanced with enough acid to make the wine food friendly with Asian foods. The long lasting finish keeps the retro-nasal floral aromas swirling around your palate right to the end. Back to top

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Photos by Wes Marshall READER FEEDBACK: To post your comments on this story, click here

http://www.temple-telegram.com/story/2008/07/24/50987

http://www.temple-telegram.com/story/2008/07/24/50986

Grape Growing in Bell County is featured in Temple Daily Telegram again!

In my short time with wine, I have had the opportunity to taste some very beautiful wines from all over the world.  The amazing thing about wine is that it not only changes with time, but the friends you enjoy it with, the atmosphere or ambiance and even your mood.  In other words, it is subject to interpretation and if you say peaches and I say apricots or you say raisins and I say plum, no one is wrong.  Sure there are connoisseurs like Robert Parker whose palate is amazing almost to a fault, but the bottom line, is that if you like it, you like it and no need for further explanation.  That being said, wine enjoyers can train their palates to recognize a wider variety of aromas and flavors…ultimately enhancing the entire wine drinking experience!  Practice does make perfect!

Please note, Texas wines will absolutely awaken new taste buds for you!  I am already spoiled here, as June works very hard on her palate and tasting so that she can bring you the very best Texas has to offer.  Salado Wine Seller is the coolest one-stop-shop to get a good palate workout! Drink up and enjoy!  Here are some tips to developing and keeping your palate sharp:

How to Develop a Wine Palate

Training your wine palate is not just for professional wine tasters and connoisseurs. In fact, all wine drinkers are training their palates everyday just by experiencing different tastes. A trained wine palate simply means that you can recognize the various flavors that you taste in the wines you consume. The more flavors you can successfully identify, the more trained your palate has become. Ultimately your experience with taste is your wine tasting guide.

Instructions

Step One

See below for a list of flavors common to wine.  Write these flavors down in your wine journal.

Step Two

Seek out and purchase a small quantity of each item from your list. Many of the items may be purchased at your local grocery store or specialty mart; however, others may require a trip to a nursery, hardware store or other less conventional store.

Step Three

Taste and smell each of the items you have purchased. Try to recall wines you have previously tasted, which may have had hints or notes of the flavor you are tasting.

Step Four

Repeat this process, adding new items occasionally. This will allow your palate to solidify these tastes.

Step Five

Continue to drink a variety of wine types including wines from different regions and countries. This will allow you numerous opportunities to test your palate against a multitude of flavors.

Step Six

Verbalize your thoughts as you drink different wines. By verbalizing thoughts through dialogue, you may gain further understanding of what you are tasting. You may also record your thoughts in your wine journal.

Tips & Warnings

·         Training your palate is like training for anything else, the more you do it, the better you are likely to get at it.                

·         Wine tasting at wineries and wine stores is a great way to meet people who enjoy talking about wine. Such tastings are also a good way to taste a wide variety of wines without breaking the bank.  

·         Jams and jellies are good for training your palate to recognize a variety of the fruit flavors you are likely to encounter when wine tasting. When you taste jams and jellies, try to stick with organic or preservative free jams and jellies.

·         Palate sensitivity does vary from person to person, so even if you can’t identify every nuance in your favorite wine, remember that wine enjoyment does not come from the knowledge of what you are tasting, but from the pleasure of the taste.

·         Don’t wear out your tasters; be sure and keep trying new, non-wine foods and flavors to keep senses sharp.

http://www.statesman.com/life/content/life/stories/travel/06/08/0608smiles.html

Photo by Larry Kolvoord AMERICAN-STATESMAN

Salado’s popular with other wedding couples, of course, including these newlyweds cruising the streets of the historic village, which was named in 1860. Below, Roy T’s Old Salado Bakery offers blue plate specials, pizza and baked goods with a New Orleans touch: homemade beignets.

Photo by Larry Kolvoord AMERICAN-STATESMAN

TRAVEL

Jenna Bush puts sleepy Salado on the map

Known for its galleries, restaurants and shopping, now this quaint village has star appeal.

By Candace Birkelbach
SPECIAL TO THE AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Sunday, June 08, 2008

SALADO — This quaint village north of Austin, which bills itself as “artfully yours,” already was on most Central Texans’ list of places to visit. With galleries, fine shops, restaurants and a beautiful creek, it’s a natural place to escape the chaos of big city life.

But lately it’s been buzzing for a different reason thanks to Jenna Bush’s super secret bridal luncheon at Salado’s Inn on the Creek and “Texas-Sized Celebration” at Salado’s Silver Spur Theater.

Inn owner Will Lowery admitted with a laugh that the village had never seen anything this big.

I decided to check in and see how Salado is doing after the entourage rolled into, and out of, town. Fortunately, all the hubbub has died down, returning the area to the serenity for which it is known.

My first stop was Roy T’s Old Salado Bakery to get my caffeine fix. This place has a locals-only vibe, but don’t worry about looking clueless when you walk into the shop. Owner Roy “Knox” Tyson quickly pegged me as an “I-35er,” someone who just pulled in from the highway that runs directly in front of the shop, and helped me sort through the menu. If the homemade doughnuts and beignets don’t make you a lifetime patron of this New-Orleans style bakery, the coffee is sure to win you over. What’s with the New Orleans theme? Tyson went to Tulane University and fell in love with the Big Easy.

The Salado College T-shirts adorning the walls are a nod to the first co-ed college in Texas, which burned down in the 1920s. (Ask about getting an honorary degree!)

There are also daily blue plate specials and the family’s own unique recipe for Manhattan-style pizza. And you can wash it down with a classic Dublin Dr Pepper.

But time now to shop.

Horsefeathers has home décor items to suit any taste. And if you buy something, designer Diana Woolard will follow you home to help you figure out where to put it. I found some interesting candles (lemonade, fried green tomato and cashmere scents), lamps, trinkets, furniture and paintings that I would be happy to place in my home.

Mud Pies Pottery offers colorful handmade pottery. Want to make your own? There are pottery classes for adults and children. And please, try the 46 flavors of fudge, including chocolate cherry walnut, armadillo crunch and key lime.

OK, I’ve had my morning fudge; now it’s time for lunch.

The Ambrosia Tea Room is next door and serves fresh salads, chilled strawberry soup and ginger peach tea. And as 31-year Salado resident Robert Denman told me, men are allowed to eat in tea rooms.

But Browning’s Cafe across the street also offers salads and classic sandwiches such as chicken salad, tuna fish and pimento cheese. I opt for the homemade minestrone soup, and I made the right decision. The bold, rich tomato base of this soup made my mouth very happy, along with the fresh vegetables.

I’m curious to see where Jenna Bush set up camp during her wedding weekend, so I drop by the Silver Spur Theater (the only source of night life in the town, it offers over-the-top slapstick comedy with a touch of vaudeville). Owner Grainger Esch, sitting on the edge of the stage decked out in a red plaid shirt, black vest and cowboy hat, says in hindsight he is glad he didn’t know in advance because it would have been daunting to keep the secret.

Lowery says that when Bush arrived at the inn, she and her friends ran down to the creek, kicked off their shoes and walked through the water holding hot pink parasols.

He prides himself on maintaining a discreet inn where dignitaries can come for a peaceful evening. (The inn offers specialty dining for reservation only on Friday and Saturday nights, with a different four-course menu each week.)

My afternoon ended too soon, and I left town with a thought running through my head: “I wish I were older so I could retire and move here now.”

Birkelbach is an Austin freelance writer.

Worth checking out

Roy T’s Old Salado Bakery, 100 N. Church St. (254) 947-7181, www.oldsaladobakery.com.

Inn on the Creek, 602 Center Circle. (877) 947-5554, www.inncreek.com.

Salado Silver Spur Theater, Royal Street. (254) 947-3456, www.saladosilverspur.com.

Mud Pies Pottery,(254) 947-0281. www.mudpiespottery.com.

Salado Wine Seller (881-B N. Main St.) open for wine tastings Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday noon to 6 p.m., Friday and Saturday noon to 8 p.m. Five tastes for $3. Thursday is Ladies Only Night from 6 to 8 p.m. (254) 947-8011, www.saladowinery.com.

Fletchers Books and Antiques(945 N. Main St.). Eclectic items from estate sales. Civil War, religion and philosophy books. (254) 947-5414.

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Messin’ with Texas Wine Country

Posted in Reviews, Adventures | Saturday, May 31st, 2008 | Trackback

Say “Texas” in a word association test and the one thing that probably does not automatically spring to mind is “wine.” “Longhorns,” “cowboys” and “oil,” sure, but probably not wine.

And that’s a shame because Texas is now the U.S.’s number five grape producer, with 220 family-owned vineyards taking up 3,700 acres, according to GoTexanWine.org. The Texan wine industry provides more than 8,000 of the state’s jobs. Texas even boasts an important wine pioneer among its natives. Texan Viticulturist Thomas Munson developed phylloxera-resistant rootstock, which helped save the European wine industry from that dreaded bug threatened to destroy it. Munson is honored in France with his own statues.

Still, wine growing is a nascent business in the state, with most its wineries less than two decades old. That’s no doubt part of the reason that we don’t associate Texas with wine. The other is that most Texas wineries are still small farms that produce limited batches, most al of which are enjoyed within the state.

Not that Texas doesn’t have a history of wine-making. In fact, wine-making in Texas goes back to Spanish times. But, like elsewhere in the country, the 14th amendment and prohibition pretty much wiped the industry out.

I visited a number of wineries on recent trip through the Texas Hill Country, two of which I’ll talk about here. I drove from San Antonio (home of The Alamo) up State Highway 281, through Johnson City (home of the American president of the same name), Marble Falls, Lampasas, and Mineral Wells to Bridgeport and Wichita Falls, stopping here and there along the way. Lovely bit of country riddled with cowboy history, legend and lore.

Texas Hills Vineyards
stop was Texas Hills Vineyards, near Johnson City, about 100 clicks north of San Antonio. Owned by Gary and Kathy Gilstrap, along with their son, Dale Rassett, THV, as we’ll dub it, has been producing award-winning wines for a little over a decade.

The tasting room, up a little drive next to the green vineyard, is convivial and friendly. Most Texans still don’t know much about wine (though I reckon most Californians don’t really, either), so it falls upon those working the tasting room to educate, and this they do well.

When I approached the counter, the woman there asked if I should prefer to taste dry or sweet wines. This I found interesting. In California and elsewhere, sweet dessert wines are usually considered an afterthought in the tasting order. Further conversation revealed that most sweet wines grow well in the Texan climate, and are also quite popular with the locals, who are used to other sweet liquors, such and bourbon whiskey, and soft drinks, like Coca-Cola and sweet iced tea. For all it’s rootin’-tootin’ history, Texas, or many parts of it, is not all that friendly to alcohol, and many counties there are still “dry,” a fact that no doubt has not helped Texas’ wine industry.

Not having much of a sweet tooth, I chose dry wines. THV estate grapes include Pinot Grigio, Sangiovese, Moscato, Chardonnay, Merlot, and Chenin Blanc. They also buy grapes from other local vineyards to make their Cinque Vino Rosso, Kick Butt Cab and Vino Dolce dessert wine.

2006 Due Bianco
Rating: ♠ ♠ ½
A blend of 21 percent Pinot Grigio and 70 percent Chardonnay, this crisp, light little number offers citrus and melon notes but has a slight finish and a rather steely nose. I was surprised that with so much Chard I didn’t get a creamier feel and more oak, but I rather liked that. I hate too much oak. A good, everyday wine with oysters and such.

2004 Cinque Vino Rosso
Rating: ♠ ♠ ♠
A very interesting little blend of – no kidding – Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Ruby Cab, Sangiovese and Syrah. Usually you don’t see so much blending of Frog grapes with Eye-tie grapes, but hey, it’s the 21st century and anything goes. The result of this mutt: Pretty good. Lots of berry and black fruit notes with a little pepper on the back end. There’s also a good back-story to this wine. It was originally dubbed “Tres Pisano” and contained only three grapes. Then Gallo, which produces a wine called “Tre Paesano” threatened to sue for copyright infringement. So they added two more grapes and changed the name. Gotta love the wine business.

2005 Syrah
Rating: ♠ ♠
Being a Syrah lover I had to try this one. I can’t say I was blown away, but I wasn’t disappointed, either. Certainly better than the syrup they’re mass producing in Australia these days under the rubric Shiraz. This Syrah has a slight but distinctive fruit nose, cream flavors and a short but definite finish.

2005 Kick Butt Cab
Rating: ♠ ♠ 1/2
A good food wine, KBC here has a strong, alcoholic nose, and seems to have just the right amount of tannins and spice from being aged in American oak. It’s funny, THV’s website brags that KBC is made from 22-year-old vines. Sorry, ya’ll, but you don’t get to brag about the age of your vines unless they are older than me!

Brushy Creek Vineyards
Winegrower Les Constable is the brains behind Brushy Creek Vineyards in Alvord, a few hours Northwest of Fort Worth, just off of US 287. A jolly elder gentleman who reminded me of 19th century “Old Saint Nick” Christmas illustrations, Constable’s goal is, as he puts it, “to make the very best wines that Texas can make.” 

It’s a trial and error process. A retired technology professional, Constable has been producing wines for about a decade. He currently grows or works with no less than 36 different grape varieties and produces some 30 wines, mostly in small batches, trying to figure out which will work best in the warm, sometimes humid Texas climate. Unlike coastal California or Northern France, Texas doesn’t usually have the morning chill that gapes of French provenance like so well. And while the afternoons are often hot, they’re not as dry for much of the year. So making California and French-style wines it tricky.

That’s why Constable is experimenting with grapes native to areas of the world whose climates are closer to that of Texas than to France or California: the Black Sea area, Hungary, Romania, parts of Spain and so forth. Smart guy, Constable.

2007 Rkatsitely
Rating: ♠ ♠ ♠ 1/2
Rkat-a-what?! Right, that’s what I said. Rkatsitely is a white Black Sea grape, and in Constable’s hand makes a wine that is surprisingly like Chablis – a little metallic, a little citrusy but also a little velvety. This is a total quaffer. Just don’t try to pronounce it. I later drank a bottle with my Texan cousins over dinner: We barbequed their prize pig, Stedman.  Rkatsitely, I can tell you, is great with barbequed Stedman.

NV Mirage Table Wine
Rating: **
This highly drinkable table vino is 50/50 Shiraz and Mourvedre. Slightly tawny in color with an earthy nose, this is a good any-time-of-day wine.

NV Three Friends
Rating: ♠ ♠
A blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz and Mourvedre, this one has a dull ruby color and was a little fruitier and fuller than the Mirage. Very fruit forward, yet dry, with a short finish.

2006 Tempranillo
Rating: ♠ ♠ ♠
Another of Constable’s risk-takers, this Spanish varietal is proving to be a good choice for the Texan soil. With a dense, tawny color and a caramel nose, this wine has a hint of spice as it touches the palate. It’s velvety up front with a tannic finish that should go well with most meat dishes. I definitely got the feeling, though, that after about another year or so in the bottle it would be good for another half spade on our rating scale, maybe even a full spade.

Texas’ wine industry certainly has a ways to go (note that while I visited several wineries, I saw fit only to buy from, and write about, two). But with chaps like Constable taking chances, it’s certainly on its way.

http://www.temple-telegram.com/story/2008/06/01/49814

I’m on the front page! 

We are so excited in Salado!  Everyone is abuzz with rumors of the First Family in Salado for Jenna Bush’s wedding.  We were hoping Jenna might come by with her friends and sample some Texas wines with her girlfriends.  Instead, we were visited by Anna who brought her out-of-town wedding guests and everyone sampled the wines of the day.  Their favorite was the Austin St. Comanche Rose wine from Brennan Vineyards in Comanche, Texas.  Anna will be married at the Inn at Salado at the same time as Jenna Bush’s wedding.

Oops!  I left Sheldon at the wine shop for 30 minutes and missed the presidential motorcade pass by!  I’ll have to settle for the footage shot by KWTX of the motorcade on Main Street.