Jun 012012
 

Teaching wine classes is always fun. It is a rare person in attendance that doesn’t already have a sense of the wonder of wine. Occasionally someone will bring a spouse, friend or significant other in hopes of lighting their wine fire and in those cases my job is to fan the flames. All in all teaching wine classes is a blast because most everyone has an interest in the topic….and they’re drinking wine.

wine blog

Texas Tech RHIMS Students learning about wine

This week however, I had a different audience that added a new challenge to the excitement of wine education. I spent two days with a group of junior and senior Restaurant and Hotel Management majors from Texas Tech University. These millennials were more the connoisseur of “dollar PBR” nights than wine and food pairings. To make matters more interesting, my daughter was part of the class. Not only was I there to enlighten the unenlightened but I needed to do it in a way that made my daughter proud or at least not embarrass her.

The ten students were part of a May-mester program. Instead of a traditional semester class on campus in Lubbock, Texas, the group was based at a satellite campus in the tiny Hill Country town of Junction, Texas where they completed two intensive weeks of all-day class and field trips. From Junction they made excursions to San Antonio, Austin and popular tourist destinations around the Hill Country. The campus is rustic to say the least, offering a summer camp appearance complete with bunkhouses and swimming pool, rather than a collegiate environment. Continue reading »

Oct 242010
 

FREDERICKSBURG WINE & FOOD FESTWhat’s better than “A day at the fair?” Today was the 20th anniversary of the Fredericksburg Wine and Food Fest in Fredericksburg, Texas. Fredericksburg is the epicenter of the exploding and now widely recognized Texas Hill Country Wine Trail, about 70 miles from either Austin or San Antonio. A long time tourist destination, Fredericksburg was in my youth, better known for growing some of the sweetest and juiciest peaches known to mankind. They send Georgia peaches home cryin’ every time.

Over the last ten years wineries have sprouted like bluebonnets all across the Hill Country. There are close to 40 of the 200 wineries in Texas along the roads of this picturesque area. Are all the wines good? No. But as a whole they improve each year and some Voiginers and Tempranillos, in my opinion, have made it to “Damn, that’s Tasty!” status. Continue reading »

Aug 162010
 

Even though I live in Denver over half the time, I am a Texan through and through. As such, I want, I mean really want, to love Texas wines. We spent the last two weeks re-exploring the Texas Hill Country wine region to reacquaint ourselves with what is going on with Texas wines. While I may not be in love, I definitely now have a crush on Texas wines. All puns intended… Continue reading »