Now is a great time to prepare to celebrate the grape harvest! The smells of the incoming sweet grapes are intense during the harvest! It’s so much fun to pick those grapes and see the grape vines before and after those grapes are plucked from the vines. Harvesting grapes are very memorable as some of you might have experienced during the recent harvest of the Texas Gulf Coast hybrid grapes at Haak Winery, Will Stallion Vineyards, and Bernhardt Winery. That harvest is over, but the grape harvests of the vitis vinifera (aka classic grapes known as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Sangiovese, Viognier, and more) will occur starting in mid-August in the Texas Hill Country and last through most of September is coming up. Make plans now to visit Fredericksburg, Comfort, and other Texas Hill Country communities by booking your reservations at one of a limited number of hotels, bed and breakfasts, or at your friends’ homes. The smells are simply amazing during the harvest with the sweet bouquet of cherries, apples, pears, peaches, and melons in the air. Those smells are part of the essences of the grapes with those subtle tasty nuances providing the finished wines with lots of substance. Those nuances are natural to the wines with no flavors added! Many of the Hill Country lodgings are available including dog friendly motels like LaQuinta in Fredericksburg. Check out the “bed and breakfast” lodgings also. For food, do what we do. We bring a cooler of sliced Deli meats, cheeses, and more so we can eat and not pay much attention to what restaurants are open. Likewise, take a corkscrew or two along with acrylic wine glasses to enjoy wines on the go!
Looking for something on a local basis? Check out Bernhardt Winery’s Anniversary Party (TENTATIVE due to the pandemic) on Sunday, August 2th, starting at 4 pm. There will be a grape stomp in their five-foot diameter grape stomp pit. Be careful since those grapes are slippery and you can fall just like LUCY did in her grape-stomping episode of I LOVE LICY! You can place your purple piggy’s on one of the Bernhardt Winery keepsake Tee which sells for $15 per shirt. Make a whole evening of it at Bernhardt Winery by bringing friends, kids, and pets on a leash with your picnic basket of goodies and enjoy a bottle of Bernhardt Wine while enjoying people and the concert featuring Ropin’ the Wind (a Garth Brooks Tribute). There will be a Lucy-Look-Alike contest with the audience being the judge with winners getting age-appropriate prizes. Afternoon costs ate $16 for those 16 and older while those under 16 are free.
Head to Pleasant Hill Winery for their tentatively scheduled grape stomps the last two weekends in July and the first two weekends in August. Enjoy their wonderful, award-winning wines at Pleasant Hill Winery just of U.S. 290 in Brenham. Also in Brenham is Windy Winery near the Brenham Airport. I had always thought it cool to fly into Brenham Airport to visit Windy Winery. I wonder if there is a correlation between the winery’s name and the airport.
Make a weekend of it at Messina Hof Winery in Bryan on Friday evening, July 24th, starting with a special Tee shirt to use while participating in the moonlit harvest and special dinner at $59.95 plus tax and gratuity. Start you Saturday off at 8 am in the vineyards and enjoy the grape picking of Black Spanish Rose aka Lenoir with grape stomping contests, wine tasting, winery tours, and more. Reservations are a MUST for Friday via www.MessinaHof.com. Enjoy the best of Texas wineries this weekend and next her locally and in the Texas Hill Country later in mid-August through September!