Fall Creek Vineyards Founder Leaves a Legacy
The Texas Wine Industry was restarting in the 1970’s after the end of Prohibition end in 1933 when a young Texas Couple decided to go into the wine industry. Ed and Susan Auler ran a successful cattle ranch and were looking for ways to improve their herd. They went to France in 1973 for several weeks looking for French cattle to interbreed with their herd in the Texas Hill Country. While in France, they mostly explored the wines of France. Susan was interested in seeing the major wine regions in France, as they had developed an interest in wines. They did visit a French cattle operation, but the bottom line was that they spent 19 days of that trip enjoying the French wine country from Reims to Burgundy to Rhone across the south of France to Bordeaux and Loire and only 2 days looking at cattle! They both rapidly gained an education and appreciation of French wines, foods and culture. This French tour of French Vineyards and Wineries inspired them to enter the wine-making business when they returned to Texas. Within two years of that trip in 1975, the Aulers had put in a test plot on a corner of their Fall Creek Ranch to experiment with wine growing at the encouragement of Texas A and M and Texas Tech Universities. That test plot grew from a quarter acre to 7 ½ acres in the late 1970’s. This vineyard was one of the first in the Texas Hill Country which featured vitis vinifera varietals found in France. Their vineyards thrived until Pierce’s Disease dealt them growing challenges. With these grapes, they started their winemaking operations in a renovated garage. All the while, Ed was gathering information to grow grapes better and make the best wine. This activity evolved into their construction of their current winery facilities in Tow, Texas on the south shores of Lake Burnett. This winery was constructed in the architectural style of a French Chateau on their Family Ranch. A creek flowed through their Ranch and dropped over the cliff along Lake Burnett, providing a cascading falls. The Auler’s used this water feature as the name for their cattle ranch along with the vineyards and winery, calling it Fall Creek Vineyards. The Texas Wine Industry was in its infancy with Fall Creek Vineyards, Messina Hof Winery, and Llano Estacado Winery pioneering the way for the beginnings of the Texas Wine Industry. Ed Auler’s background was in law having graduated from the University of Texas Law School in 1969. He used this background to lobby the Texas Legislature to pass the Texas Farm Winery Act in 1977 allowing wine-making in the “dry areas” of Texas where alcohol was prohibited to be sold. Two years later, Ed Auler got additional laws through the State Legislature allowing Texas Wineries to sell their wines at the wineries. Ed gave up his law practice in 1979 to focus on the winery. The Auler’s were networking with other Texas grape growers and wine-makers to assist the young Texas Wine Industry to grow.
Ed was also instrumental in petitioning the Federal Government in the 1980’s to establish the Texas Hill Country American Viticultural Area (AVA) which was approved in 1991 and is currently one of the largest AVA’s in the United States. To further promote the Texas Hill County, the Auler’s created the Hill Country Wine and Food Festival in Austin in April 1986.
Ed established a Bordeaux-style blend called Meritus which is made only when the grapes are at their BEST. This soft-spoken lawyer strived with his wife of 56 years to be one of the BEST in the Country. He was able to recruit a world-class wine-maker from Chile because of his care for his land and grapes plus supporting a family winery concept. Sergio Cuadra partnered with Ed ten years ago to bolster the Fall Creek Vineyards into a world-class winery.
Texas lost this wine industry pioneer on Saturday, October 14, 2023. The Texas Wine Industry owes Ed Auler a great deal of gratitude for paving the way for the Texas Wine Industry to grow. In 2005, there were 50 wineries in Texas. Today, there is almost 1,000 wineries in Texas. This growth would not have happened if it were not for the Texas Wine Pioneers like Ed Auler.