Acknowledgements and Admonitions

Finally, I would like to introduce you to the team of tasters which helped to evaluate each winery over the course of this project. Each of these individuals was a student at Texas A&M University and a friend of mine from a Sunday night wine group that selflessly/selfishly volunteered to travel, taste, and evaluate. To see their responses to the questionnaire, please follow the links below their names.

John Kirgis
Senior Mechanical Engineering Major and avid wine and cocktail chemist
John's Responses

Josh Lucas
Senior Chemical engineering Major and wine student
Josh's Responses

Kathleen Doeling
Senior Biomedical Science Major and wine lover
Kathleen's Responses

Jacque Cambell
Texas A&M Graduate, environmental scientist, and master taster

This project would have been impossible without their help and responses.

It is also important at this time to thank my research professor Dr. Greg Cobb for not only allowing me to explore wineries on his watch, but also for teaching me the basic principles of wine production in his first two semesters of Enology at Texas A&M. This project was extremely interesting, informative, and entertaining and I hope that with it, I have been able to educate you, the readers, on not only wine production in general, but also about its practice and growth in Texas. Don't forget to check out the second largest wine tourism location in the United States in Fredericksberg on the 290 Trail and remember that enjoying wine, much like making it, is an art and a science. 

Cheers,

Heather MacDonald

Pedernales Cellars

The third stop on our trip to the 290 Trail was Pedernales Cellars. Pedernales was located just a few miles East of Both Becker and Grape Creek on 290 and was situated slightly off the highway which allowed for a very picturesque drive up appeal comprised of stone walls and rolling hills in front of their tasting room with the vineyards located behind the tasting room overlooking more of the beautiful Texas Hill Country. Upon arrival, we were immediately offered a private tour of the cellars and wine preparation area which was extremely informative. This was a complementary service with the purchase of a tasting.

Pedernales is a family run vineyard with the son and daughter having taken over the project from their parents. The son is actually the wine maker, while the daughter is the artist for their labels and advertising. Pedernales is the largest cellar in TX with over 17 acres of vineyard in Fredericksberg, some acreage for red wine grapes right outside San Antonio, and the rest of their production in Lubbock. All their grapes are picked at dawn in order to insure the best acid to sugar ratio in the grapes before they are pressed in to wine. They also press grapes on each of their locations in order to get the best juice and avoid any complications that can come with shipping whole grapes. This means that in each of their three locations, there is a harvest and a crush with the juices all being shipped to the central site in Fredericksberg. It is here that the wine making takes place.

Crusher

De-stemmer

De-stemmer components

Pedernales is one of only two wineries in the 290 Trail which uses a basket press instead of a bladder press. This is a slightly older technology, however it gets the job done and fits in perfectly with their more traditional and hands on approach to the actual wine making. 

Basket Press

from the press the wines are fermented in damp underground vats which are cooled to the appropriate temperature for each different wine. Each wine is also allotted a different type, amount, and application of yeast which helps to create the distinctive profiles of each of Pedernales' wines. These vats are also equipped with cooling jackets in order to maintain the lower temperatures desired for white wines. These huge vats interestingly enough, have to be cleaned by hand in between batches of wines. One of the employees must enter the vat with a mop and solution and clean it out in order to prepare for the next wine to be added. Our tour guide informed us that this can be quite nerve wracking since there are usually several different procedures taking place at one time in the cellar and the noise can become quite deafening. She expressed to us her worry that someone may close the vat and not be able to hear you, though she made sure to assure us that this was her own personal fear and that no such thing had ever occurred due to the extreme caution and well orchestrated team work of the staff. Many of the actual procedures are carried out in the below ground cellar due to its design which includes an opening to a flat cement area for press and the tubing necessary to move the juice inside in addition to a large interior space in which to work, sheltered from the Texas elements. The cellar is also equipped with Geothermal cooling which is able to more efficiently and economically cool the space.

Geothermal cooling unit

 Once the wines have fermented to the satisfaction of the wine maker, the are transferred into both American and French white oak barrels depending on the type of wine. The barrels used at Pedernales are Medium Toast and top and bottom roasted which is identified on the barrel by a TH. Each barrel is used for three years and is then sold to the public. After wines have completed their requisite time in the barrel, they are mixed together to produce blended wines. After wines have undergone all of the necessary procedures, they are bottled by a bottling truck which comes when needed and saves Pedernales from having to invest in their own bottling line which can be very costly. The truck achieves a velocity of 42 bottles per minute and in 2012, Pedernales produced and bottled 10,000 cases of wine.

Barrel storage area

Pedernales tasting allows visitors to sample ten of their selections which include whites and rose`s, reds, and dessert wines. Pedernales wines achieve an excellent balance between fruit and and floral notes, mostly pear, citrus, strawberry, peach, and rose, with darker more robust notes, mostly coffee, vanilla, and dark chocolate.

Pedernales Tasting Menu

My team and I really enjoyed Pedernales and its distinct style of wine production and its delicious selection of wines showcased in their tasting. For the extremely reasonable $15.00 cost, Pedernales offered an excellent tour, tasting, and complementary stemless wineglass which has already proven its worth in the spring picnicking season.

William Chris Winery

William Chris Winery is located just on the edge of Hye, TX and is known for the sustainable practices employed in their vineyards as well as their "small batch" and "minimal handling" approach to wine making. This was the final winery my team visited on our trip to the 290 Trail.

Upon arrival at the William Chris location, you are greeted by a large hand painted "Enchante Y'all" sign which sets the scene for this lovely niche winery. Along the left side as you drive up, there are a few acres of vineyard which lead to a small cottage which serves as their store front and tasting center. The store is flanked by outdoor tasting areas as well which are comprised of rough hewn tables under wooden awnings. The feel is true Texas Rustic. This ambiance is further accomplished by their interior bars which are housed in an addition to the building that incorporates the use of rock and gives way to a large back porch on which any number of hometown bands will provide live music in the evenings. Along the side and back of this building is William Chris' barrel storage and bottling area which occupies a selection of tin buildings with an open cement floor between them to accommodate crush.

William Chris Store Front

While William Chris does not offer tours, we were able to enjoy a tasting of their wines and sample what William Chris refers to as an individualistic, Texas taste.This style of wine is achieved by using only Texas grown fruit with the winery using grape harvested from their 40+ acres in Llano Estacado as well as some contributions from other wine families using sustainable growing practices. Their wine is then produced "by hand" in small batches which use minimal sulfites and minimal handling. Naturally, I was curious to see how this sort of method affected the wine.

A tasting at William Chris is comprised of your choice of five wines from their selection of ten. there are four whites, two pinks, and four reds to choose from however, two of the wines are restricted for tasting only by members of William Chris' Hye Society Wine Club. In order to effectively cover the selection, my team collectively sampled all of the wines and recorded their observations on the wine menu, which you are allowed to mark up and keep for your reference in addition to the small wine card you are also issued.

The William Chris Tasting Menu

As the wines were sampled, we also consolidated our findings on to a single wine score card so that we could compare finding more effectively.

Before and After of complete score card

Our conclusion was that William Chris produces excellent wines with a distinctively spicy taste which is tempered in many of the wines by a pear or acidic flavor. They were easy to drink, smooth on the tongue, and distinctive to this winery. I would recommend a visit to anyone who wants to enjoy the more southern charm of the 290 Trail and enjoys a spicier yet light wine profile.