Red, White and Blend!
Today marks the 249th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence! It is a time of celebrations and a day of gratitude for having the freedoms we have in this great Country! We are Blessed with the ability to choose how we want to celebrate. Hopefully, your choice is to raise a glass of Texas wine to toast our nation’s heritage. We have so many choices of Texas wines to choose from those red wines, white wines, and blended wines, along with rose’ wines. With this Texas heat, we should opt for a chilled wine with white wines or rose’ wines to choose. Those wines should also be easily obtainable on a local basis such as HEB which will be open on the Fourth. Consider the following Texas white wines to purchase at your local HEB:
• William Chris Sauvignon
• Becker Vineyards Chardonnay or Viognier or Sauvignon Blanc
• McPherson Viognier
• Haak Blanc du Bois (dry or semi-sweet)
• Pedernales Albarino
• Llano Estacado Pinot Grigio, Viognier, Signature White, Chenin Blanc, or Riesling
• Messina Hof Riesling (sweet) or Chardonnay
• Fall Creek Sauvignon Blanc
Suggested Texas rose’ wines from HEB include:
• McPherson Les Copains
• C. L. Butaud Papa Cinsualt Rose
• Messina Hof Mama Rosa Rose’ or Rose’ by the can
• Becker Saigner Rose’
For red wines, consider a chilled red wine or blended red wine. As a “general rule of thumb,” those red wines in bottles with sloping shoulders are light and don’t have a big structures. These wines could be served slightly chilled such as:
• Messina Hof Beau
• McPherson Red Blend
• Becker GSM which is a blend of Grenache, Syrah, and Mouvedere
• Llano Estacado Sangria
You can slice fruit such as oranges, apples, and tangerines to add to these red wines to make them into a chilled Sangria with ice. In addition, consider a sparkling wine from Messina Hof added to your orange juice to start off the morning as a cold Mimosa. These wines are generally great wines to sip in the Summer, but the best wines to sip are generally purchased at the winery. Enjoy your Fourth with a refreshing Texas wine!
Blanc du Bois Grape Harvest
Raymond Haak planted some of the first Blanc du Bois grapes in Texas at his winery in Galveston County. This hybrid grape was established in 1968 at the University of Florida as a grape that could be grown in an area with high humidity and warm night temperatures along with being somewhat resistant to Pierce’s Disease. In the early days, Haak Winery made a dry and semi-sweet white wine out of this grape varietal, including a Madeira-style wine which earned the Haak Winery a Gold Medal in New York. As a result of Haak’s planting and vinification of this white wine, the Gulf Coast area has exploded into an area of vineyards growing Blanc du Bois from Brownsville to Beaumont. Texas is now the largest producer of Blanc du Bois in the world.
Harvest of this Gulf Coast grapes starts about six week earlier than the classic vitis vinifera grapes. The grapes at Bernhardt Winery near Plantersville are to be harvested on Sunday, July 6th. If you are interested in harvesting grapes, check in with the Bernhardt Winery via their website. You will need to dress appropriately with closed toe shoes, long pants and sun screen since the Summer sun will be hot. Bring your pruning shears to help harvest those grapes, starting at 8 am. Later that day, the grapes will be mechanically de-stemmed and crushed followed by a press to extract all of the grape juice. The smells during this harvest will be extraordinary. You should have an opportunity to not only experience the complete grape harvest through CRUSH, but to also taste the grape nectar. The sugars in these grapes are super sweet with sugar levels twice of those grapes normally found in the grocery store.