Wine Life - Houston

I recently had the opportunity to taste The Lodi Native Project wines after an old vines tour of the area. In 2012, the Lodi Wine Grape Commission asked winemakers to make a more naked style of 100% Zinfandel wine from designated vineyard areas. These vintners were asked to create low intervention wines made with native yeasts, no new oak barrels, no fining or filtering and no adding acid or water to the wines. The goal was to give a true reflection of these special terroirs . Wegat Vineyard  sits on the west side of the Mokelumne River AVA. The vines were field grafted onto St Augustine rootstock in 1958. This wine is made by Chad Joseph of Maley Brothers . The vines here produce loose clusters with an intense fruit character. This wine had a fruity blueberry/blackberry flavor with an earthy touch of mushroom. Stampede Vineyard   is on the east side in the Clements Hills AVA. The vines are on their own rootstock in sandy loam soil and range from about 80-100 years of age.

The Livermore Valley AVA is situated in northern California’s Alameda County and has 3,400 vineyard acres. Terroir features include well-drained gravel-based soils and wide diurnal swings. These temperature shifts are created from both the early morning fog and the evening breezes that come in from San Francisco Bay which is located only 35 miles away. The valley is also distinctly oriented laying from west to east instead of the more typical north to south. This unique placement enables it to fully enjoy these daily maritime climatic advantages. The AVA gets its name from Charles Livermore who planted the first grapevines for commercial production in the area in the 1840's. Recognition for the region would follow when Cresta Blanca Winery, owned by Secretary of the California Viticulture Commision, Charles Wetmore, won the grand prize at the 1889 Paris Exposition. This wine was the first from California to win in a tasting competition in France. Long before the Judgment of

As Originally Seen in the August issue of Galveston Monthly magazine

One of the most important white wine grape varieties in Spain is Albariño. It makes a light to medium body wine that is fresh, crisp and elegant. The wines are  typically a pale gold or lemon-yellow color. They are dry and aromatic and loaded with sweet fruit flavors including ripe peach, apricot, melon, pineapple and mango. They often have a floral honeysuckle element as well. They all share good natural acidity and may have a light mineral note. They are easy drinking with a light to medium body and moderate alcohol.  The most important region for Albariño is Rias Baixas (pronounced Re-ass By-shass) which is located up in the northwestern corner of Spain near Portugal. The area is known as “Green Spain” . The climate is generally cooler than much of the country with plenty of rainfall. The Albariño variety does well in this terroir. The climate and soil are heavily influenced by the Atlantic as the vineyards lie along the  long coastal plains of Galicia bordering the ocean. 

I was very excited to receive some Moldovan wine samples. Though I had never tasted any wines from the country, I had heard from numerous people "in the know" that these were going to be wines of interest. Moldova is located in southeastern Europe between Romania and Ukraine in the Black Sea Basin. It has a compelling story in the world of wine history. Ancient artifacts discovered in the area prove that wine has been made in the region for over 5,000 years. Over the many centuries, a sophisticated wine industry developed including designated micro-zones for wine production by the early 1800's. Though the region was well-known throughout Europe as a source for premium wine, its history and reputation were not respected by everyone. Moldova lost numerous vineyards during Mikhail Gorbachev's anti-alcohol crusade before declaring its independence from the USSR in 1991. For the last 25 years, Moldovan winemakers have been hard at work rebuilding and revitalizing the i