The Texas Wine Club (more) introduced me to Texas Heritage Vineyards (more) and I couldn’t be happier. Located in the Texas Hill Country, this vineyard prides itself on using 100% Texas grapes.
The Notes from Texas Wine Club Card:
The grapes used come from Wild Seed Farms, only 7 miles away from Texas Heritage Vineyard, allowing for an immediate press after harvest. This enables truly capturing the essence of the grape, delivering an award-winning taste with no bitterness and no bite.
My Notes:
This light yellow wine smells like French Champagne. It has a sweet sugary grape scent with an underlying floral that I eventually described as honeysuckle – that scent that wafted into the bedroom at night at my grandmothers (her entire 6 ft fence around her 1 acre lot was covered from top to bottom in it). My husband called it Orange Blossom. We agreed to disagree on the floral, but both agreed it had the scent of a green pear.
Surprisingly, the wine was more savory than it smells. You can definitely get a bit of butter from the oak. It does have a peach and citrus taste also.
We spent a fair amount of time discussing the “wood” scent in this one. Given my husband runs Knotty Pleasures (more) and had recently been playing with oak and pine he ascribed those scents/tastes (apparently you inhale a lot of sawdust sometimes). I, on the other hand, called in “forest.” Which then led to a debate about how that could mean different things to different people. But basically it was wet earth and woody for me – so hackberry, oak and pine. We both agreed that applewood would be a good description for those that like to grill since its sweeter than the harsh mesquite.
Final Thoughts
It should come as no surprise that this wine won Bronze at the 2021 Texas International Competition and the 2021 Lone Star International Wine Competition.
How did it go with dinner?
It was amazing with the butternut squash risotto – and not just because the pan was deglazed with a half cup (or maybe more like a cup) of the wine. The squash was sweet and that really balanced the savory wine.
As it warmed up to room temperature (we were talking a lot) it tasted even more like a super expensive French champagne without the bubbles. And given I’m a bubble loving girl – I can see this being a go-to white for me. Especially since I took a risk and paired it with a vegetarian dish. Definitely a pantry wine for me. I could drink it any night of the week. I just might not share it with the unsophisticated side of my family.
