You probably hear of a high school football player from Houston Yates HS who made it to play on the renowned Grambling State Tigers team to the Oakland Raiders and several other professional teams. Alfonse Dotson is that awesome athlete with a humble love of life. He told me that his Mom said to be always on your best behavior because the world is watching. His Mom called him on “Fat Tuesday” to wish him Happy Birthday, having just turned a very young 77 years old. Alfonse has learned so much from his Mom.
While on a vacation to Mexico in 1983, Alphonse found this lovely sales agent of a Mexican Development Company. Their time in a land deal provided them with even greater, long-term benefits. Alfonse has settled down with his life mate, Martha Cervantes, whom he has married and have one child together. Living the good life together, they ended up on 80+ acres near Voca, Texas in the Texas High Country, west of Lake Buchanan. Their location is dead center in the heart of Texas in McCulloch County. The community of Voca has a Post Office and around 50-60 residents, but no City Hall. They decided to plant grapes on their property. They nurtured and struggled with their grapes to eventually put together a very successful vineyard of 32 acres in size. They have lovingly named their creation Certenberg Vineyards.
Ed Euler with Fall Creek Vineyards on the west shore of Lake Buchannan noticed the extraordinary quality of Alphonse and Martha’s grapes. Ed Auler wanted to purchase them for Ed’s premium wines selling for around $40 to $50 per bottle. This relationship continued for a while, eventually leading Alphonse and Martha to start their own winery to produce their own wines from some of the grapes they grew. Hence the Wines of Dotson + Cervantes was born with their first wine released in the fall of 2009. The winery has evolved into a boutique winery of hand-crafted wines, mostly of blended wines of their own design.
Their Gotas de Oro or “Drops of Gold” was their first wine and was made from Orange Muscat grapes. They also grow Chardonnay, Petite Verdot, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes. Alphonse’s voice tears up slightly as he described his newest creation called Dilemma which is a blend of 30-40% Petite Verdot, about same amount of Merlot, and the rest Cabernet Sauvignon. I look forward to enjoying this Alphonse creation when he is ready to release it. His preciseness in bringing his finished wines to perfection is his gift. His pride is depicted in each of his hand-crafted wines. The winery is a limited production winery producing around 600 cases each year. They have purposefully limited their wine club to 222 members, shipping to their wine club members in September, February, and May.
The next time you visit wineries in the Texas Hill Country, put on your list to visit this unique Texas Boutique Winery deep in the heart of Texas. Although there are no hotels in the community of Voca, there is a bed and breakfast there, according to Alphonse.