The Texas wine scene is growing by leaps and bounds, and Hill Country as a destination continues its growth at a record pace. In this episode, we change up our format to introduce you to some of the leaders of the Texas wine industry. You’ll meet the Executive Director of the Hill Country Wineries Association, Cliff Bingham of Bingham Vineyards, and Michael McClendon, a winemaker/owner at the custom crush facility, Sage’s Vintage.

Check out our guests and some other great links at:

* Texas Hill Country Wineries: https://texaswinetrail.com/

* Bingham Family Vineyards: https://binghamfamilyvineyards.com/

* Michael McClendon and Sage’s Vintage: https://www.sagesvintage.com/

* Texas Winemakers Docu-Series: https://www.youtube.com/c/TexasWinemakers

* Shelley Wilfong’s “This is Texas Wine” Podcast:

Visit our website at www.VitiCulturePodcast.com, and don’t forget to share with your friends via all major social media platforms @VitiCULTUREPod

Visit Bellangelo Winery and Missick Cellars at www.Bellangelo.com and www.MissickCellars.com.

My first taste of wine from Texas, was actually a little more than seven years ago. One of the things many people don’t know, is the Finger Lakes international wine competition is largely a fundraiser for a place called Camp Good Days and Special Times, which serves as a retreat for children that are fighting cancer. An additional fundraising stream for Camp Good Days through the competition, is a large banquet that follows the end of the competition.  A component of that banquet is a silent auction of many of the remaining wines.  In 2015, I was invited by Scott and Ruth Osborne, owners of Fox Run Winery, to be their guest for the dinner. Scott, if you recall from our first show, the subject of our very first viticulture interview nearly a year ago, has been called the Robert Mondavi of the Finger Lakes.

The Finger Lakes International Wine Competition is one of the largest in the country, and entrants come from all over the world.  Texas wines have done well in that competition, and one of the lots I had bid on was a case of Gold medal winning reds.  Fortunately for me, many of them came from Texas producers.  Within this box were several Texas producers, one of which I had heard of at the time, but many of which were still new names for me. The Pedernales Tempranillo was a wine I had some vague acquaintance within my mind, probably from reading about it in a magazine or seeing something online. 

In the weeks after winning that auction in 2015, I tasted two of the Texas wines that were in that lot. I enjoyed them, and at the time, if I recall correctly, they were of the 2013 and 2014 vintage, and I remember thinking that these wines simply needed a bit more time. Periodically, throughout the years, I would enjoy a bottle or two, to see how they had come along and each time I was impressed. It was sometime around Thanksgiving in 2021, that I discovered a YouTube series called Texas winemakers. This 11 part series of shorts was impressively produced, and followed a handful of Texas producers from throughout the state as they tended their vineyards, made their wines, and discussed their philosophy and their tasting room experiences. The docu-series, produced in 2020-21, captures what was a very difficult period for the Texas wine industry. Inclement weather including freezes, a pandemic, and a difficult business environment throughout the entire country was a headwind. Despite the challenges, the community of Texas winemakers seemed optimistic, tight-knit, and focused on making Texas one of the premier wine states in this country. Between the high quality of production of the series, and the larger than life characters that were featured, there was a sense that there is a momentum and energy to Texas wine that reminded me of what I first felt in the Finger Lakes in 2009.  It convinced me that I needed to visit. I also headed down to my own cellar after watching the series, where I pulled out a 2013 Hye Meadow Winery Malbec.  Eight years in, that wine was tasting delicious.

My trip to North Carolina, was planned sometime between Christmas and New Year’s of 2021, and before I knew it I was on a plane visiting the Yadkin Valley. I had a little bit more time when it came to planning for Texas, as I figured I would visit in the third week of January. I had contacted one of the winemakers from the Texas winemakers docu-series, Chris Brundrett of William Chris Vineyards. Within a day of telling him I was planning on visiting the region, he had responded that it was actually going to be an excellent time to visit if I wanted to meet many of the folks in the community. He told me that the Texas Hill Country Wine Symposium, an event that you’ll find in many winemaking regions around the world where local producers come together to discuss their challenges, achievements, and generally just build their local winemaking community, was scheduled to take place the first three days of my planned visit. It seemed fortuitous, and got me really energized at the opportunity to meet many of the folks behind the wines I had seen, and by this point, read so much about. For anyone who has never been to a symposium like this, it is also one of the very best opportunities to taste a wide range of wines produced. These symposiums always offer opportunities to engage in deep dive tastings, generally with between four and six wines, while the winemaker is on stage discussing everything about the vineyards, and the vinification. In addition to that, there are almost always social hours, where you have the chance to share your own wine while tasting many of the wines the members of your community have made.  Since most symposiums happen at a convention center with a hotel attached, the evening social tasting is usually a great time where people don’t have to worry about driving home. Upon hearing about the symposium, and booking my ticket that day, I decided I would need to extend my trip by a few more days if I was going to enjoy the symposium, but also have a chance to see what the Texas Hill country was all about.

Before I go too far, I have to make sure that of a big shout out to Shelly Wilfong and her podcast This Is Texas Wine. With a catalog of nearly a year of shows, Shelley is meticulously documenting the Texas wine scene as it grows and develops, and does an amazing job exploring the lines and the businesses of producers in the state of Texas. I had the chance to meet her at the conference, and she is just as pleasant in person as she is on the show. You’ll learn a lot about Texas wine with every episode.

Texas is a huge state. And winemaking in Texas is not quite as simple as picking a region and understanding that the grapes that you’ll be tasting in that region or from that region. 80% of the fruit grown for fine wine making in Texas is actually grown in the High Plains, up near Lubbock Texas. The High Plains is a vast flat area, but one whose elevation helps to promote a diurnal shift in temperatures, and to grow some exceptionally good fruit.  

The High Plains is far enough inland so that hurricanes from the Gulf are no longer a worry, and the range of temperatures means there is an enormous variety of different grape varietals that can be grown. In the early days, the focus was on Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Cabernet Sauvignon, and in more recent times the focus has shifted to varietals that are more associated with southern France, Spain, and Portugal. That is not to say there aren’t some growers that can grow Riesling - they can.  And yet others, are able to grow Rhone varietals that reach a peak of ripeness similar to the Rhone.  Here, it is about elevation, and planting varietals that match the site.  Unlike state like New York and California, where you go to taste wine where the grapes are grown, Texas wine tourism isn’t actually located around the core of its viticulture country.  The states premier wine tourism destination is within the AVA known as the Texas Hill country. For those who think of Texas, and think of vast desert planes and tumbleweeds, this is a totally different concept of what Texas geography has to offer. Gentle Rolling hills, beautiful winding roads, lined with her insert the type of trees here, offer a rugged back country feel that reminded me i’m visiting Provence. My wife is from Toulouse, but much of her family is spread out throughout southern France. From the seaside village of La Teste de Buch, near Arcachon on the Atlantic, and clear through Provence, I’ve had the opportunity to see most of this South of France through the eyes of locals. Driving through Texas Hill country, brought was an otherworldly reminiscence of Provence.

The Texas Hill country itself is a vast AVA, with nearly 9,000,000 acres. It has a major advantage in that the Hill country starts as you exit Austin to the east and San Antonio to the south. It is a beautiful region, but has a Normas population centers just outside of its smaller towns. These populations create a massive pool of potential visitors for tasting rooms. In all, Texas Hill country has a population of nearly 28,000,000 people within about a 3 Hour Dr. of wine country.  When you combine that fact, with the fiercely loyal nat