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I might have mentioned before that my wife and I are planning a late summer trip to Branson, Missouri. In order to get there, we must travel east through New Mexico before arriving at El Paso. Starting at El Paso, what lies before us is approximately 800 miles of travel across the great state of Texas. The primary decision factor will be whether to race through in 2 days or go more leisurely in three or more days. My wife got two votes, I got one vote, and consequently, I lost the election. If we were going to take several days, I felt that some pit stops to investigate the Texas Wine Country were in order.

Texas is huge! It is a land mass of over 262 thousand acres that is over 800 miles north to south and 733 miles from east to west. Guadalupe Peak at 8,749 feet is the highest point and the Gulf coast sea level the lowest. You can travel any where in Texas because it has a nation leading 305,951 miles of road. The state divides into four wine growing areas: Northeast Texas, East Central Texas, Southeast Texas and Western Texas. Texas has a long history of wine production starting near El Paso in the 1650′s. If you drew a line from Corpus Christi west to San Antonio, north to Wichita Falls, and follow the Texas state boundary east and south back to Corpus Christi, you would have a polygon containing most of the wine production. There are important but scattered wine growing areas in west Texas near the key cities of El Paso, Fredericksburg and Lubbock.

Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay are by far the key wines grown in Texas. Syrah, Tempranillo, Sangiovese, Viognier and Pinot Gris are also leading grape varieties. A total of 3,200 acres is currently under production. Nearly 2 million gallons of wine were produced in Texas in 2005, making this state the fifth largest producer in the United States. The University of Texas System is the largest wine producer with nearly 1/3 of all acres currently under cultivation in the entire state. The advent of Prohibition (1920-1933) in the U. S. virtually eliminated the Texas wine industry until a modern time revival in the 1970′s. The wine industry in the state still feels the effects of Prohibition with a quarter of the counties still having “dry laws” on the books.

The Texas Hill Country has become a major wine tour destination that is only rivaled by California’s Napa Valley. The area is characterized by rolling hills, small quaint towns, rambling old farmhouses, and scattered vineyards with up-and-coming tasting rooms. A great location to start an adventure in this area is Fredericksburg. You could do a drive-yourself tour or gather a group and take a luxury bus tour. Letting someone else drive, which allows you to have fun and try mostly all wine you come across, makes a lot of sense. Many communities have their own wine festivals and people are attending them in ever-increasing numbers.

Many of us have danced the Texas Two-step. I found another Texas tradition, the Texas Two-sip. The Texas Two-sip is a challenging, blind taste test of a collection of in state and out of state wines. The goal is to use your taste buds to find the best. There are special rules and forms to fill out, but no specific rules on what food you can eat. Sounds like a party to me. The only caution I have is I did not find out the rule when you get to take your blindfold off. Be careful where you step.

When I was in the military traveling home on leave, I had car trouble in Fredericksburg. The people took me in, fed me and housed me, while the resident mechanic repaired my heap. When I was getting ready to leave, they gave me the gift of a thank you for my service and covered all my bills. Because of the wine growing there, I now have another reason to take a pause there. Look out Highway 290 here we come.

Author: Ronald Senn, Vice-president, Ideal Wine Coolers, June 2010

Go Texan wine. Texas Two-Sip Tele-tasting part 1 of 5. Award-winning sommeliers Devon Broglie and Craig Collins guide you through a Texas Two-Sip blind tasting. Theyve paired one Texas wine with a comparable non-Texas wine from regions around the world. Www. Gotexanwine. Org

If a trip to visit the famous vineyards of Napa Valley, California is not in the budget this summer, try a scenic drive through any local wine country. Central Texas offers a number of locally produced wines, from the nationally recognized to smaller family owned operations.

A trip down Highway 290 West not only offers rustic Texas landscapes with it’s own kind of beauty, but also several vineyards along the way. Johnson City has the Texas Hills Vineyard, with soil considered to be like the coveted Tuscan countryside in Italy. Becker Vineyards in Stonewall boasts 46 acres of grapevines and three acres of lavender, which blooms in May and June. Also in Stonewall is the Grape Creek Vineyard with the only completely underground wine cellar in Texas. Continuing west on Highway 290, Fredericksburg has a number of vineyards, including Bell Mountain Wine Cellars in business for 33 years and Chisholm Trail Winery.

If taking in lake views while tasting Texas wines sounds nice, head north on Highway 281 to the family owned Spicewoods Vineyard in Marble Falls. Fall Creek Vineyards on the shores of Lake Buchanan is composed of 65 acres of vineyards making award wining wines in the “French tradition and California technology. ” Take in any Lake Travis views at Lago Vista’s Flat Creek Estate Vineyard and Winery.

Heading south a wine lover can find the Sister Creek Vineyards in Boerne, which is housed in a historic cotton gin. Or, in New Braunfels try the Dry Comal Creek Vineyards and one might as well stop in Gruene Hall while in that area.

Most these wineries offer tours and tastings and visitors are encouraged to taste the lesser known wine varieties that Texas is gaining a reputation for producing. Ever heard of a sangiovese or malbec? How about a syrah? Texas soil is better suited to any of these more obscure wine varieties. During times when one can certainly find a Texas chardonnay, a viognier made in Texas may taste better. The Austin-American Statesman recently picked any favorite local wines like the Becker Vineyards Malbec 2006 or the Tuscan-style red Flat Creek Estates Super Texan 2006.

If wine tasting without the driving sounds a little more appealing, there are a number of local wine bars that offer a unique tasting experience. From the trendy to the cozy to the ostentatious wall of wines, Austin-American Statesman’s XLent section recently highlighted any local spots for a good glass of wine. Cork & Co. on South Congress was described as cozy while Cru: A Wine Bar has a “plush ambiance. ” There is also Taste on Cesar Chavez Street and Uncorked Tasting Room and Wine Bar on East Seventh. An impressive wall of wine can be seen at Vino Vino on Guadalupe Street.

Whether hopping in the car to head downtown for the evening or driving west for the day, Austin and the surrounding Hill Country can offer something from the mildly curious wine-drinker to the passionate oenologist.

Highlights from the 2011 North Texas Wine Opener benefiting Cystic Fibrosis

My life is at a standstill and I don’t know which direction to go in. Once upon a time I was busy, happy, married and a mom of 3 children. My husband of 16 years left me for another woman a couple of years ago, which left me on my own with a teenage daughter, our youngest. I was devastated of course, but I wasted no time in finding a good job and picking up the pieces, very aware that I was now the sole provider and protector of my child. After only 6 months I met someone wonderful, or so I thought. He was from a different country and culture, also from a different religion but we connected very quickly and it seemed like we were destined to be together forever. I gave up my media job to help him with his business and things were going well for almost a year. Long story short, because of a bad business venture, he lost a lot of money at the end of ’09 and urged me to drop everything, take my daughter out of school and move immediately to upstate New York with him to start another business. He owns an old dilapidated property up there which he wanted to transform into a successful hotel, but with very little funds and very little planning or time to plan, I thought it wiser to stay here in South Texas to let my daughter finish her Freshman year in high school. He agreed to stay here with us until we could all move together, but towards the end of January he decided to move north to live with his brother and family to “get a head start” as he called it. I was very upset and asked him to reconsider, but his mind was made up and he left very abruptly. I fell into a deep depression almost immediately. I had no job and very little money, and the economy is really bad around here at the moment. After a couple of weeks I became really exhausted with going to interviews and being rejected for work, and lapsed into a fog of despair, started drinking too much wine in the evenings to help me sleep better, and worrying constantly about the future. My partner calls most days, but sometimes he is impatient and so I haven’t told him about how bad I feel. I’m barely functioning right now. I attend to my daughter’s needs, cook her food, do her laundry, and still do my best to be a good mom for her, but part of me feels very isolated and sad, it’s like I’m just going through the motions. Prior to my fiance leaving we sat down at the last minute and did a budget. He assured me he had just enough funds to pay the mortgage on the New York property for 6 months, which would (he said) give him plenty of time to figure out some additional income, but after less than three months he has no money and has taken a job as a car salesman which barely covers his expenses. I was supposed to be selling my old house here in Texas in preparation for our move up there in June, but now he’s behind on the mortgage payments in NY, and the dream we had of building our future up there is looking more and more remote. I’m very disappointed and sad because I don’t see a way out of this. I don’t see how we can possibly manage to hang on and turn everything around with the threat of foreclosure looming. He said I shouldn’t worry so much, he would renegotiate the loan with the lender to reduce the monthloy payment, but so far he hasn’t even got around to calling them because he is “so busy. ” I love this man very much, he really feels like my soul mate in so many ways, but now I don’t know whether I can trust him and don’t know what to do. If I felt stronger I’d get out there and find a new career. If I had more money I’d even like to start my own business. Part of me knows I should take control, give him an ultimatum to fix the mess he has made up there, or come back here to live with us and begin all over again. I’m fearful of doing that though because I know he will never want to come back here as he hates this town we live in, and to be honest I can’t face going through another breakup. I was so looking forward to leaving this place and giving my daughter a better environment (too many drugs and gangs around here) but now I feel like we’ve been abandoned twice in two years. I’ve changed from someone who was once strong and confident into someone with little hope and even less ambition, a complete wimp. How do I find the strength to move forward and find some kind of direction? I have no family or friends around here, it’s only my daughter and me. I feel like I’m falling apart. Not crying or anything, just experiencing a horrible numbness and inertia, like I’m in a bad dream. Well, I have your answer right here. Do it for your daughter. Dont let her see you weak and give up.