Another Texas Woman Wine Pioneer and Texas Wine Education
Alex Lane is the Vineyard Managers for Prairie Winery and Milieu in Levelland, Texas and relayed to me a wonderful story about his Mom growing up in the Texas Wine Industry. “My mother was working in her stepfather, Frank Beard’s vineyard back in ‘86 to ‘95 in Levelland Texas. Quatrivitis Vineyard was planted in 1986 and sold fruit to Paul Bonarrigo in the late eighties. Due to many different demises, the vineyard went away in the late ’90s. Fast-forward to 2015, Diane Lane (my mother) inherited her step father’s land and decided to replant a new but smaller vineyard! Keeping the same vineyard name, “Quatrivitis” but opening a new tasting room under her own creation. Prairie Chick Winery has now been open since May 1st of ’21. A small estate vineyard growing award winning wines and a hidden gem for West Texas!! I’m proud of her!!!” These are the stories that show the hard lives the early Texas wine industry pioneers had. Texas wines were literally unknown until the last ten years. The early Texas winery pioneers have laid the foundations for people like Alex Lane as a third-generation Texas vineyard farmer to prevail and excel. Their family is involved in helping the local environment with a portion of their proceeds helping to preserve the wild Prairie Chickens.
Fast forward to the present day and you will find the wine world abuzz after the Judgment of San Francisco where California Wine Judges compared Texas wines to the best around including California wines and decided that Texas wines were good! This January judging in the San Francisco area awarded TWELVE Texas wines BEST of varietal in the competition and award 22 Double Gold Medals along with a slew of Gold Medals to Texas wines. These California Wine Judges have affirmed what I have been saying for years. Texas makes some very good wines with our Texas grapes!
Texas Wine Specialist Course
If you want to learn more, check out fellow wine journalist, Russ Kane. Starting April 12, 2023, the Specialist of Texas (STW) Wine Advanced Level 2 Certification Course continues the first of its kind program initiated in 2014 (with its Level 1 class) offered through The Texas Wine School. The highly successful Level 1 class has now amassed well over 200 certified Texas wine specialists. The classes are held live via Zoom Meeting 6:30pm – 9:30pm on Wednesdays April 12, 19, 26 and May 3; Exam May 4 7-8pm also via Zoom.
The instructor/course developer for the new Specialist of Texas Wine Level 2 (Advanced) course is Dr. Russ Kane of VintageTexas.com. He is the longest tenured Texas wine writer who has followed the evolution of the modern Texas wine industry and researched/documented its past. He is also an award-winning Texas writer, author, Vintage Texas blogger, and a knowledgeable and internationally traveled wine enthusiast. He has also served on the board of the Texas Wine and Grape Growers Association and honored with their Wine Media Award in in 2009 and 2013, served on the board and as Executive Director of The Wine Society of Texas, judged in many international wine competitions, and was a member of the Texas Department of Agriculture’s Wine Industry Development Advisory Committee.
Dr. Kane said, ”This advanced program exposes students to a ’deep dive’ on the unique landscapes of each of the eight wine American Viticultural Areas (AVAs) and non-AVA regions in Texas. The context for the advanced Course is that Texas like other well-known wine regions in Spain, France, Italy and Australia is a warm growing region. However, it also has incursions of chilling cold in the Spring, Fall, and Winter. The issues this combination of situations bring to Texas winegrowing and winemaking will be addressed and explained. The course fee includes a copy of the book Growing Grapes in Texas by Jim Kamas, and also includes tasting of six Texas wines provided by the Texas Wine school. A wine blending exercise in which students plan, taste, blend, and evaluate their wine blend creations. Certification is provided to those students that successfully complete the blending exercise and pass an examination at the conclusion of the classes.
For more information and registration contact the Texas Wine School at 713-489- 5363 or [email protected].
