Sommeliers’ take on Texas wine

If you have been hearing a lot of buzz about Texas wines but haven’t tried any, local sommeliers have a message for you: Get out and start tasting.

“It’s an exciting time for wine drinkers of Texas, because there are lots of things to discover,” said sommelier Steven Krueger, a longtime advocate of Texas wines. “The wine-growing and wine-making expertise (in Texas) is getting to the point where these wines are ready for prime time.”

But while the quality of Texas wines has never been better, wine lovers now have a new conundrum: With some 300 wineries across the state producing thousands of different wines, where should both newbies and oenophiles start?

After all, life is too short to drink bad wine.

First, remember that the hot, often dry climate of Texas proves a great match for warm-weather grapes. Sommelier and Gusto Tastings founder Daniel Kelada calls the Texas climate, especially around the Hill Country, the ‘Mediterranean of the New World.’

“The difference between Texas and those other world regions with Mediterranean climates is the window of opportunity to harvest grapes at their peak maturity, which is much shorter in Texas,” Kelada said. “Producing world class wine in Texas is not an impossibility, it’s timing and attention to detail.”

So while it’s possible to produce very good wine from Texas-grown cabernet or chardonnay grapes, the best local bets are generally wines coming from grapes that are originally from Spain, Italy and the southern Rhône region in France. That means most of the best Texas wines come from grapes that few people can pronounce, much less recall.

We’re talking about white grapes such as viognier, vermentino, trebbiano and albariño, and red grapes such as mourvèdre, tempranillo, sangiovese, nero d’Avola, lenoir, tannat, carignan, cinsault and syrah.

With these grapes, local wines are succeeding in competitions, and not just against other Texas wines. For example, Pedernales Cellars won a grand gold for its 2012 Viognier Reserve at the Lyon International Wine Competition in France, beating out viogniers from around the world (France included).

Other viogniers from Texas also fare well.

“If you’re a chardonnay drinker, you should definitely try a viognier. It’s right in your wheel house,” said Darrin Baumunk, sommelier, wine specialist and buyer for Max’s Wine Dive. “We have people who try it and say, how come I haven’t tried this sooner?’”

Don’t limit your shopping list quite yet. There are notable exceptions to the rule of Mediterranean grapes growing well in Texas, such as Bending Branch Winery’s 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon from Newsom Vineyards winning a double gold medal at the 2013 San Francisco International Wine Competition. Even so, Bending Branch is becoming best known for its wines made from tannat.

Next time you’re shopping, and you forget which obscure grapes are supposed to do best in Texas, try to remember names of producers.

“If you can see the name Becker, McPherson and Pedernales — those are my three go-to wineries,” said Scott Siebert, resort manager at JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort & Spa and a sommelier. “The quality is incredible.”

“With our rocky minerality of the soil, the wines are going to have some structure. They’re not going to be one-note fruit bomb kind of wines. They’re going to be wines with complexity and backbone,” Krueger said. “Once wine drinkers get turned on to that minerality, they’re not going to be happy with other types of wine.”

Of course, the best stuff never makes it to stores or even restaurants.

“The thing to know about all wineries, around the world, is that the best wines never leave the winery or its wine club,” Kelada said. “If you want the best wines of Texas, you need to go visit the wineries and taste with winemakers.”

Sounds like a day trip is in order.