As the grape became commercially available, Haak Vineyards and Winery began to experiment with it.  Locaed in Santa Fe, Texas in the Gulf Coast near Galveston, the climate in that region is hot and dry.  Today, Raymond Haak crushes more than 40 tons of Blanc du Bois and it is his best-selling wine.  In addition to the grapes that he grows, Haak purchases fruit from other growers around Texas.  He makes two distinct styles  (as well as a Reserve): semi-sweet that typically has 2-3% residual sugar and a dry wine.  He really has paved the way for other wineries to work with the grape and his wines are often considered the benchmark having won numerous awards.

I’ll admit this was the first time I had ever tasted Blanc du Bois and I had high expectations having read up on the history of the grape, Haak Winery, and the many awards that this wine has won over the years.  Well, let me tell you I was not disappointed.  The 2007 Haak Vineyards Blanc du Bois Semi-Sweet is a masterpiece.  It is filled with tropical fruit aromas and at first sip had a Fino sherry-like quality about it.  It was complex with great acidity and just a touch of honeyed sweetness to remind you that it is a semi-sweet wine.  While I enjoyed this as dessert on its own it is not overly sweet and would pair well with Asian dishes or other spicy foods and a variety of cheeses.

The wine is predominantly available at the winery but I purchased a bottle at Whole Foods in Austin.  Well Raymond, you’ve got a new supporter of your wines and I intend to spread the word.

I don’t need to tell you that in recent years Malbec has catapulted from playing a cameo to a full-blown leading role.  The grape’s history as primarily a blending grape is long overshadowed by the excellent wines coming from Argentina, particularly in the Mendoza region.  In fact, Malbec has sort of become synonymous with Argentina; think Malbec and one immediately associates the grape with the South American country – and that is great for the local industry and for marketing those wines.

The Becker Vineyards 2007 Malbec is a really well-made wine at an affordable price.  It tastes like many Argentine Malbecs (more on that later) with flavors reminiscent of coffee, chocolate, and peppery spice.  This is definitely a go-to wine as the weather gets cooler and pairs exceptionally well with grilled meats, stews, game, or hearty sauces.

What is interesting about this wine aside from the complexity and the beautiful label is that on the back label are the words, “For Sale in Texas Only.”  Now what on earth does that mean you ask?  Well, it means that this particular wine does not have enough grapes from Texas to have an appellation listed on the label.  Now I am definitely not the first person to write about this topic, but I think it is an important point to clarify for consumers.   The fact is that this wine could be made from imported grapes, juice, or even wine – or some combination thereof.  So while this wine was “made” by Becker – and aged one year in new American oak barrels at the vineyards – the provenance of the grapes is unclear.  There is a chance that it tastes reminiscent of Argentine Malbec because it is, in fact, made from grapes grown in Argentina.

One of the critical issues facing the Texas wine industry is that there simply is not enough grapes or planted acreage to meet the needs of the 200+ wineries.  The rocket-fueled growth that we’ve seen over the last decade has shifted the supply and demand scale forcing wineries to look elsewhere for grapes.  Hopefully in the future there will be new acreage planted so that quality grape-producing areas can grow commensurately along with the wineries that harvest from them.

My first course was duck Diablos – little nuggets of heaven that included smoked duck, jicama, jalapeno, and figs in balsamic all wrapped in bacon.  Slightly sweet, crisp, and luxurious they were served on skewers stuck into a halved green apple and accompanied with a sweet chili dipping sauce.

For my main course I had the pecan grilled venison and my wife had the Shiner Bock marinated ribeye.  The venison was perfectly medium rare served with green chili mashed potatoes and al denté summer vegetables.  The meat was slightly smoky from the wood and the Chipotle Beer Blanc sauce added another level of complexity.  The dish was great – don’t get me wrong – but the ribeye stole the show.  The ribeye was served with a rich Madagascar green peppercorn sauce, which you could put on a car bumper and it would still taste sensational.  The meat was so tender and flavorful that it didn’t need any sauce, but boy was that sauce perfect.

For dessert I had a berry flambe that had a hint of orange liqueur served atop homemade vanilla bean ice cream.  It was light and refreshing and the perfect ending to an amazing meal.

Restaurant week is still going on for another couple of days, so head on out to Lakeway for some killer food that is entirely affordable.

Oh…and let us not forget wine.  One of the great things about this menu and wine list is the focus on local produce, meat, and wine.  We each had a glass of McPherson Cellars Viognier.  If you’ve been reading my blog you know by now that I hold this winery in very high regard.  Well, the Viognier reinforced why I love this winery so much and how the folks at McPherson are producing top-notch wines across the board.  It was crisp and refreshing with just enough citrus flavors and sweetness to play off the crab – the perfect complement to the meal.

Francesca’s also has a Farm to Table Experience that features produce from Uncertain Farms based in Seguin, Texas not very far from the hotel.  Additionally, some of the courses are paired with Texas wines for a Texas wine and food pairing experience.  The fact that the restaurant prominently features so many Texas wines both by the glass and bottle should be a model for others to follow.  I am certainly not the first person to point this out, but it is important for restaurants to highlight local viticulture for the industry to continue to flourish.  I tip my [ten gallon] hat to Francesca’s and hope to have the opportunity to dine there again soon!

I recently reviewed McPherson’s amazing 2008 Rosé and this is another standout from the winery.  It has tons of fruit, great structure, and silkiness from the Viognier.  It smells like freshly-baked strawberry pie and with each sip I wanted more, more, more.  Clearly I need to take a trip to Lubbock so I can visit the property and see first-hand the winemaking at McPherson.

This is not Kim McPherson’s first rodeo, but let me tell you he is making some killer wines.  A UC Davis alum, he was the winemaker at Llano Estacado founded by his father, Dr. Clinton “Doc” McPherson.  Kim was also the winemaker at Cap Rock Winery and in 2000 started McPherson Cellars as an homage to his dad.  His wines have won numerous medals and he works with grapes that thrive in the Texas High Plains climate or as he calls it “planting to the land.”  With a focus on Rhone Valley and Italian varietals both on their own and in blends, the bottlings are elegant and wonderful examples of the world-class winemaking coming out of Texas.

Ahhh…Rosé wine – that often overlooked section in your supermarket or wine shop.  Fellow Texans: “Hear ye, hear ye”; go forth and get a bottle of 2008 McPherson Cellars Rosé while it is still 100 degrees outside.  This is the Woody Allen of wines – and I mean that as a huge compliment: dry and witty, yet lighthearted; it will keep you coming back for more.  It is complex enough to make you ponder life, relationships, and loneliness.  But when you peel back all the layers of the plot, it is simply just a love story.  Visually, it is deep red like a bowl of fresh cherries or even Hibiscus tea.  Strawberries and hints of cranberry on the palate from the Grenache (16%) with enough tannin and boldness from the Syrah (84%), this is a great food wine.  And if you’re looking for a value…come on now – this wine is the real deal!

“Why does man kill? He kills for food. And not only food: frequently there must be a beverage.”
Woody Allen, ‘Without Feathers’

Millennial Consumers

The Millennial generation (ages 14-31 in 2008) has different purchasing habits than Baby Boomers.  Wine labels need to connect with this group if a brand is to be relevant to them in the 21st century marketplace.  This generation is adventurous, understands value, socializes in large groups, and embraces technology including online shopping and social networking tools.

Basically, there will soon be 70 million potential customers who want to purchase products consistent with their lifestyle and image; they have the desire to try new wines and the power to spread the word about those that they like.  To me, it’s a no brainer – it is imperative that wineries develop a strategy to garner some of the market share that the Millennial generation represents.   A key tactic of that strategy needs to be label design.

The Millennial generation represents the single largest generation of Americans since the Baby Boomers and their purchasing power has been widely publicized.  Many wineries, particularly New World producers in Australia and South America, have caught on and a visit to a local wine shop or supermarket tells that story.  There are wine brands targeted to Millennials (there are even divisions of distributors that have been set up to focus on these particular brands) and the primary goal of the label is to create an emotional connection through the use of price/value cues that include color and imagery.  There will always be a place for the iconic Bordeaux labels featuring majestic chateaus.  I am not suggesting that the great Bordeaux houses trash all their labels and start anew.  What I am saying, though, is that it is unlikely that Chateau Haut-Brion will be the gateway wine that a Millennial purchases and that the opportunity is too large to not focus on this generation.

Increase In Low-Touch Shopping Environments

Another important development in the marketplace is the changing retail landscape.  Online shopping, club stores (they sell a few bottles of wine at Costco), and supermarkets represent huge channels but ones that are low-touch environments.  In these environments shoppers often make decisions on their own with little or no input from so-called experts.  Obviously, displaying a favorable review from a major wine publication or securing end cap or pallet placement in the store can trump a great label, but those are topics for another post.  The time it takes to make a purchase decision is very quick.  It is critical for a label to stand out and say “buy me” so that potential consumers can wade through the sea of bottles on the shelf.

Often, when pondering the future, it’s of great benefit to examine the past. Viewed in terms of its past, Texas winemaking has a long and rich heritage from which to draw. The lands that now comprise the state of Texas are among the oldest wine-producing regions in the United States, but the newest to establish an industry of winemaking. In fact, wine grapes were planted in Texas more than a hundred years before they were planted in California.

Most historians agree that the earliest vineyards—thought to grow the mission varietal grape, no longer found in Texas—were planted by Franciscan priests as early as the 1650s along the Rio Grande River near present day El Paso. Early European settlers in Texas also planted (for the most part, unsuccessfully) European Vitis vinifera grape varietals in an effort to maintain the wine culture they had enjoyed in their homelands. And German immigrants who settled in New Braunfels and Fredericksburg had great success producing wines from the native mustang grapes, although those wines would most likely not be palatable today.

The Val Verde Winery in Del Rio is the longest operating winery in the state. Founded in 1883 by Frank Qualia—a Northern Italian immigrant with an agricultural background—the winery is still operated by the Qualia family today. There were at least 20 wineries in Texas before prohibition, but only Val Verde survived by selling table grapes and making wines for church sacramental purposes.

It wasn’t until the 1970s that there was a renewed interest in winemaking in Texas. The first two new wineries were established in 1974—one by Bobby Smith in Springtown, and one west of Lubbock by a group called the Sandy Land Grape Growers Association, led by Texas Tech professors Clint McPherson, Roy Mitchell and Robert Reed. (The trio, along with investors, would later form Llano Estacado Winery in 1976.) Ed and Susan Auler founded Fall Creek Vineyards in 1975 and in 1979, William Gipson, Sr. established Pheasant Ridge Winery in Lubbock. In 1981, St. Genevieve Winery (now Cordier Estates, Inc.) was established in Fort Stockton on land owned by the University of Texas. By the mid-’80s, vineyards had been planted all over Texas, with many eventually becoming wineries.

I encourage you to read the rest of the article at: http://www.edibleaustin.com/content/editorial-content-editorial-93/summer-2009-editorial-191/406?task=view&69b07cc833e0fcb9f5e80e74070ef07f=ff0f33d9a6b99f9e12f6d514e9278707