TEXAS Is In The House: A Texas Wine Tasting

TEXAS Is In The House: A Texas Wine Tasting – Episode #484

June 12, 2008

Texas is known for many things including awesome High School football but today Gary Vaynerchuk tests some of their wines and sees what he thinks.

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Comments on this episode(214) Leave a comment ›

“I know Im a little late on this one, but being a Texan I felt I should…” by burningman84
“Briana from Penoach Winery in Adel, Iowa. It’s a white blend, I’m not…” by nnothing
View all 214 ›

Wines tasted in this episode:

2006 Texas Hills Due Blanc
2006 Becker Viognier
2005 Texas Hills Sangiovese
2005 Becker Claret

214 Responses

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August 26, 2009

burningman84
I know Im a little late on this one, but being a Texan I felt I should ring in. I try to like Texas wines but usually have similar results to this episode. There are some good ones but, there sure are a lot of bad ones too. Ill recommend:
Flat Creek’s Super Texan
Mcpherson Sangiovese
Mcpherson Tre Colore
Alamosa El Guapo Tempranillo

That 94 Rockets Knicks series was awesome. And I’ll go ahead and say it before football season kicks off. The Longhorns are going to take the National Championship this year.
August 6, 2009

nnothing
Briana from Penoach Winery in Adel, Iowa. It’s a white blend, I’m not sure what’s in it, I’m sure mostly Americana varities, but it has a lot more body and more controlled sweetness than pretty much any other winery around here. Plus they run out of it every year before the end of the farmer’s market season which means other people like it too….
January 14, 2009

Dessert Wine Nerd
Im with you, Gary. HATE their sports teams, college or pro. The Cowboys are completely worthless and I celebrate everytime they fail ( Pats suck while I’m at it). Ouch for the wines… 1 – 4. Thats no HOF numbers, for sure. But once again, you have to call it like you see it. Hope in the future they can rock out a better product. QOTD: *shame* I dont think Ive had a wine outside of Washington, California, or New York. If I have it sure wasnt memorable.
October 1, 2008

Casey Lee
yay texas ! go texas ! im from HOUSTON ! i liked this one. . too bad i missed you gary when you were here. . . . man that sucks you didnt like those wines . .ive never had them. but wish that guy who sent them sent better ones. makes texas look bad. . thanks buddy
August 6, 2008

sergiomic
Too bad you couldn’t have other options from those wineries.
In my opinion from Texas Hills Vineyards you should try the “Kick butt cab” and the pinot grigio… two very good efforts.
and from Becker you should taste the 100% malbec, or the Cabernet, or a great cab-syrah blend they have.
July 26, 2008

Jessica Kirby
Great show!!! QOTD, definitely Virginia. First up, Linden’s Late Harvest Vidal. Second, the Doukenie Winery (formerly Wyndham Winery) Hopeâ€™s Legacy (formerly Hopeâ€™s Raspberry Merlot). Lastly, Gray Ghost Vineyards Adieu, late harvest vidal blanc.

Link it up Mott!
July 26, 2008

Brian Kirby
Great show Gary! I love the episodes focused on the “other” states. QOTD, the Doukenie Winery Hope’s Legacy (formery Hope’s Raspberry Merlot) in Northern Virginia. Second runner up, Georgia’s Tiger Mountain Cabernet Franc.
July 21, 2008

MattUD
I have had a few wines made in Southern Delaware, but it has been a while and they deserve to be drank and evaluated again.
July 16, 2008

thefanjestic
Texas A&m class of 2003 Baby! Aggies shout it out!
July 10, 2008

ChiroGuyDC
QOTD: Some of the wines from Newport Vineyards in RI are pretty good for a small company. Their sauvignon blanc is tasty!
July 10, 2008

kjdion
I live in Lousiana, and there’s only a few I’ve tried locally and nothing to mention.
July 1, 2008

Brandon
As a proud Texan and wine enthusiast I can say that red wine in Texas has absolutely nothing going at this point. Although, as you noticed, there are some Texas wineries doing some nice things with white wine. Viognier seems to do particularly well in the Texas heat. McPherson Cellars does a fantastic Viognier.
June 29, 2008

Dan-o
Agree with your comments on TX sports teams, none of them bring any excitement to me.
I lived in NC for a while and I used to like a couple of Bordeaux style blends from Ray-Len in the Yadkin Valley AVA (in Davie County, NC near Winston-Salem). They were Carolinius and Category 5 (named after the hurricane and the number of grapes in the blend).
June 25, 2008

Luis Felipe
QOTD: Long Island wine sporting 5 grape varieties. From Martha Clara vineyards, the O-Five (looks just like 05 on the bottle). It has an interesting poop/barnyard, dark cherries and cayenne pepper smell with a nice mouth feel and a great finish.
June 23, 2008

yowens
QOTD: Sakonnet vidal blanc, RI
June 21, 2008

Ron Saikowski
G-man,

Next time you do a wine show on Texas, you need to try Fall Creek’s Meritus, Patrick Brennan’s Viogyner (Brennan Winery), Bernhardt Winery Port, Llano Estacado Cab, and the other good ones. Dr. Becker has one problem with his wines….he sells them too fast and does not have the opportunity to age them to better them. Texans want Texas wines, BUT we just can’t produce them fast enough. As a result, there are too few Texas wines outside of Texas. See you back in Texas!
June 20, 2008

Big Sig
QOTD – My favorite non CA, NY, WA, OR wine is a wine called Retriever from Silver Decoy Winery in NJ. Note that I liked last years offering much better than this years. Nice Cabernet Blend style that had a unique amber quality.
June 20, 2008

Rob C.
Giving a quick piece of love for Virginia wine….some hidden gems include Pollak, Gadino(even though they were ripped on an earlier episode)and Kluge…check them out…there is really good viognier and petit verdot being made out here.
June 20, 2008

Ed
I’d check Missouri wines. HUGe state-funded wine program. Fits into the question of the day. My favorites are Stone Hill’s Steinberg White. On red side, I love their full bodied Norton.
June 19, 2008

danseng
Southern Arizona is making some great wines. Callaghan Winery is by far the best of the bunch. They make a Petit Verdot Gary so try to track it down for the show. I’d send you some, but it’s 115 degrees today and I’m sure you don’t want to taste vinegar.
June 19, 2008

Andy
I’ve visited some out-of-the-way wineries up here in the frozen hinterlands. Right off the top I cannot recommend enough, with all my heart, a wine that totally shocked me and made me a devotee is the 2005 Late Harvest Vignoles from Fenn Valley Winery in Fenn Valley Michigan. We are growing a ridiculous amount of grapes here on the Fourth Coast, and I know that people would really like the complex and delightful 2005 LHV. You can even have some fun with it because you can also taste the regular Vignoles as well, it’s a wonderful contrast.

I’ve also had the pleasure of visiting a itty-bitty (maybe 100 acres) little burp of a winery in of all places, Minnesota. Morgan Creek Winery puts out some surprising product for what amounts to being a USDA Zone 2 to 3 growing region. Specifically their blend wine St. Winceslaus is a cherry jam fruit hydrogen bomb and their Relativity is a huge surprise. It’s a winery that exists for sheer willpower and science – there is a nasty vile little grape that grows throughout the entire region, all the way up into Manitoba – the University of Minnesota crossed this vile little monster (which can survive -40F) with it’s more cultured and tastier bretheren and they’ve got vines that for the most part can survive a Zone 2 winter. It’s no Napa Valley award-winner area, but if you like to explore and you are curious what a Zone 2 wine might taste like, you can’t beat it. Morgan Creek is a stones throw outside of New Ulm, Minnesota.
June 19, 2008

GR8wine
GV,
Tough QOTD. Because I’ve had a LOT of US wines outside of the big 4. I’ve probably had the most in VA, (although I’ve tried all the wines TX you tasted in this ep and most in MI). So here’s a puzzling one – probably not the BEST VA wine but I would probably rate it as my favorite — Seyval Blanc made by Jim Law at Linden Vineyards in Virginia.
BTW, I agree with your TX sports analysis. Used to be a Cowboys fan (as a young boy) but grew up and grew smart and now root for anyone opposing the Cowboys. The Texas exception is the Spurs, who are near and dear to my heart.
Go Spurs!
June 17, 2008

Palmer
QOTD: had my first non-Cali/Oregon/Wash/NY wines this weekend in Wisconsin. most were not memorable, but the Lautenberg’s Orchard Country Winery Audrey Grace was very good. low in tannins but a nice spice and long smooth finish. Blend of Marechal Foch & Frontenac – cold weather varietals common in Wisconsin.
June 17, 2008

Achilles Mike
Believe it or not, there is an emerging wine region and passion for the vine coming out of Elgin, an area about 40 miles southeast of Tucson, Arizona. Located above 4000 feet, the vineyards are producing some surprisingly good wines-especially those made by Callahagn. It’s still an area in its infancy,and next time you are in the area, Gary, you should check it ou. There a young wimne maker there, Keith Manning, 26 years old, who got his degree in wine making in Australia. Look for some serious wines from him at the Kief-Joshua Vineyards!
June 17, 2008

wayno da wino
Yo Gee, Fuuun Episode!!! Ya are NOT gonna make too many Vayniaks outta
da Texas “sports fans” though……

QOTD: i remember drinkin’ a Horton Viognier (Virginia, i think) looooong
time ago dat was pretty YUUUUMMY !!!