Lost Draw Vineyards Tasting

Nothing’s better than watching the sunset at Lost Draw (website). A “sister” winery to William Chris, the grounds of the winery were quiet on a Thursday evening, and the tasting room is set in a grove of trees. Candace was happy to let us sit outside for the tasting and she did a great job explaining all the wines. Pictures at the end.

Gewürztraminer

We started off with this lemon scented wine which was ice cold and refreshing. It had flavors of grape and spice, with some yuzu. The lemon was soft and bitter at the same time. I know that sounds weird – but think of homemade lemonade – the top is bitter but the bottom is sweet since that’s where the sugar settles.

2022 Picpoul Blanc

This was like drinking a lemon sorbetto or lemon ice. The scent was of meringue. But it wasn’t pie… It was really refreshing too, even though the evening wasn’t warm. Perfect for after a long day. Just sit on the porch and enjoy it, and the sunset. My partner in wine described it as perfect for people who ‘like Jimmy Buffett but hate Margaritas.” Personally, I wonder how can you call yourself a Texan if you don’t like ‘ritas. The one downside to the Picpoul Blanc (pronounced – Pick-Pool – not Peek-a-Pool like my southern drawl), is that it doesn’t smell as good warm. But I doubt this wine will have a chance to get warm on my porch.

2022 Counoise Rosé 

This Crookhouse Vineyard Rosé spent 12 hours in contact with the skin and was direct press. It had a scent I couldn’t place and my best guess was baby powder. As it warmed it gave off notes of strawberry. It’s a rosé for bookclub, for non-rosé drinkers.

2020 GSM

This is a blend of 44% Grenache, 33% Syrah and 23% Mourvèdre. It’s very fragrant and I noted “holiday wine.” Which means it had the spicy orange flavor of the holidays with baking spices thrown in. Oddly, it doesn’t smell as good as it tastes. My tasting partner said “spice cranberry.” Still a great Wednesday night wine.

2021 Cinsault

This had an orange and light clove scent. It tasted even better than it smelled. This wine put the Cin in Cinsault. It was like cinnamon red hots (or jelly beans) dissolved in sugar water. As it warms you get more of an apple cinnamon. A bottle came home with me.

2022 Petite Verdot

Not officially on the tasting menu, but Candace thought we’d enjoy it. She was right. A bottle came home. Not just because it was estate grown, the first harvest and underwent carbolic maceration. It came home because it tasted like a combination of a cherry and banana runt. The sent was cherry and plum but the flavor was sweet fruit with a bit of a tart finish (like an old-school fruit roll-up…. not the healthy all fruit ones today). Mixed berry was the best fruit description we could come up with. I didn’t mention it – but the color is burnt orange. [There’s a note next to the color that says Isoamyl Acetate. No clue what I meant by that – so if you do – please tell me.]

2020 Tempranillo

The grapes for this Tempranillo were grown in the Hill Country. It didn’t have the usual petroleum taste I get. But it’s also 81% Tempranillo and 19% Tannat. The tannat lends enough kick to the wine to make it very plummy, but not jammy. I want to try this wine with a mushroom swiss burger on a Thursday night.

Final Thoughts

Another great tasting during my celebration of California wine month. And for those of you who haven’t caught on – yes, I’m being facetious. Mostly because Texas wines are as good as, or better than California. Lost Draw is definitely in the “better than” category. So #sipthiscali