Thursday, July 26, 2007
Life, Travel
07/29/07 LIFE, TRAVEL: Everything’s Bigger in Texas
Everything’s Bigger in Texas
The Sunday Paper pays a visit to Western wine country
By Suzanne Wright
Around these parts, wine aficionados
sport faded jeans, dusty boots and big belt buckles....
San Antonio’s River Walk is a thriving destination for dining and shopping.
CREDIT: Courtesy of SACVB |
If You Go
San Antonio is a popular year-round destination, so plan ahead. Visit these informative Web sites for essentials on touring Texas: |
Everything’s Bigger in Texas
The Sunday Paper pays a visit to Western wine country
By Suzanne Wright
Around these parts, wine aficionados sport faded jeans, dusty boots and big belt buckles. I’ve traveled 988 miles to attend the 27th annual San Antonio Express-News Wine Festival, a monumental three-day affair featuring an abundance of regional vintners and 450 wines from Australia, Italy, Bulgaria, Chile and California. However worldly the offerings are, I’ve set my sights on uncorking the local flavors and roping in some of the region’s best sights.
The Texas wine industry traces its roots back to the 1600s, when the Spanish explorers planted vineyards. European immigrants followed suit in the 1880s; the modern industry got its start in the mid 1970s. Today, 133 boutique wineries operate across the Lone Star state, up from just 77 two years ago, which ranks Texas fifth among wine-producing states. So great is the demand for Texas wine—96 percent of what is made here is consumed here—that vintners are forced to import grapes.
The largest concentration of wineries is in the Texas Hill Country, about an hour from San Antonio. Texas winemakers enjoy opportune conditions for growing a range of Mediterranean varietals, dubbed “Tex-Med:” sandy soil and microclimates that feature cool winters and hot, dry summers. As a result, in a relatively short time they have chalked up a number of successes. To build on the momentum, the state has earmarked a significant sum to further wine research, education and marketing.
Rolling On the River
Although it’s the nation’s seventh largest city, San Antonio has a small-town feel, and the pulsing life of San Antonio is the famed River Walk lined with shops, restaurants and hotels. Tourists can see some of the city’s best sights with a guided boat tour, drifting along the canals while learning the history of the Paseo del Rio. Under clear, cobalt winter skies, I board a private boat offering a guided tour along the river surrounding the first modularly constructed building in the United States, complete with a catered feast of traditional Southwestern fare: margaritas, guacamole, salsa and chips, steak, and beans and rice.
The guide points out landmarks along the water’s edge, including the first modularly constructed building in the United States, the Tower of the Americas (taller than Seattle’s Space Needle) and the impressive Bexar County Courthouse made of red limestone. As we pass under bridges, tourists look like ants on the narrow sidewalks flanking the river.
La Villita, the city’s first neighborhood and now a historic arts village, is worth strolling. The world-famous Alamo appears much smaller in person, but looms large in Texas consciousness: No building is allowed to cast a shadow over it at sunset. I have a remarkable dinner of mussels and frites, steak tartare and poached pear at the unpretentious La Frite, a celebrated new Belgium bistro.
In Good Spirits
The following morning, I load up on made-to-order omelets, Texas-cured ham with sundried cherry sauce, buttermilk biscuits and lots of wine at the festival’s decadent champagne brunch. Doctors Buddy and Bunny Becker of Becker Vineyards have a fine 2005 Prairie Rotie, and Ed Auler (the only winemaker in a sport coat and loafers) who, along with his wife Susan, owns Fall Creek Vineyards, the oldest, largest Hill Country winery on land, which Ed describes as “where sky fell in love with earth and gave birth to wine.” Both his Meritus and his Cache, a blend of six white varietals inspired by the lauded Conundrum, are further proof of the growing stature of Texas wines. “We have unbelievable potential,” he says. “The beauty of Texas is we are bigger than France and we can grow grapes.”
Joshua Coffee of Llano Estacado Winery in Lubbock in the High Plains region says Texas wines reflect “wide open places, a love of tradition, independence and the joy that comes from being larger than life.” His superlative 2002 Viviano Super Tuscan is an award-winning, Old World wine that pairs with both barbecue brisket and haute cuisine.
Driftwood Vineyards owner Gary Elliott pours me a glass of 2006 Viogonier, which has unexpected green notes. He dubs his generation of winemakers “pioneers who have learned by trial and error” and hopes that Wine Spectator will stop lumping Texas wines in the “other” category and give them the respect they deserve. Cherry-cheeked, gray-bearded Don Pullum of Sandstone Cellars pours his 2004 Syrah alongside a French Cote Rotie; the Sandstone has similar bouquet and mouth feel and greater complexity. “We are quite pleased with ourselves,” he says with typical Texas swagger, boasting that “in 50 years, Napa Valley will be known as the Mason County of California.” Gary Gilstrap, a former pharmacist, is justifiably proud of his Kick Butt Cab 2004 and his full-bodied pinot grigio. “In the same state, even the same vineyard, we have the incredible ability to grow different varietals. And that’s not just Texas bragging,” he says. SP