Becker Vineyards (Hill Country)

[00:00:06] Howdy Vine Trippers, I wanted to take just a moment to talk to you about the Texas Wine Lover website and their phone app for both iPhones as well as Google devices. You can actually download this app, put it on your phone or just go to the website if you're not an app person. And if you ever want to go visit some of these great locations that we've been talking about in the podcast, this will give you a great information about the place before you go. And you'll be able to find other wineries in the area.

[00:00:33] So if you want to make a day of it, go see several other places as well. You can search by region. You can sort the listings, find ones that are kid friendly, family friendly, even ones that host RVs. All kinds of different sortable listings you can find there in that app and on the website. You can find other things as well in the area like restaurants, accommodations, maybe events that are going on at the different wineries.

[00:00:56] So it's your one-stop resource that goes hand in hand with this podcast to be able to find those great places to go visit. So check out the Texas Wine Lover website. It's txwinelover.com or go to their app. You can find it on the Google Play Store or the Apple Store as well. Enjoy your trips among the vines and use that app.

[00:01:17] Welcome to Texas Under Vine, an exploratory podcast to scout out the best Texas wine country has to offer.

[00:01:47] I'm your wine guide, Scott, and I'm here to lead you on an auditory expedition to the vineyards and wineries across the great Lone Star State. Each episode will cover a different vineyard, winery, or wine-related business operating in Texas. You'll hear interviews, descriptions, and details about each location that will excite you to visit and experience them for yourself. Ready to plan a wine tour? Use these episodes to choose the most interesting spots for you and your friends to check out.

[00:02:15] Most of all, enjoy hearing about the rapidly growing wine industry in the state and what makes our wines and wineries the best. Howdy, fellow Vine Trippers, and welcome to episode 54 of the Texas Under Vine podcast.

[00:02:42] For this episode, I was actually able to travel to Fredericksburg, Texas, and I was lucky enough to be able to visit one of what is probably one of the most keystone wineries of the Texas Hill Country and the Texas wine industry, Becker Vineyards. So, I was able to travel to this winery and had the pleasure of sitting down with Dr. Becker, the founder and namesake of the winery itself,

[00:03:09] and kind of pick his brain a little bit about his story, how he got it started, the wines that they're serving, and what it might look like if you go to visit. And it's really incredible, the job that this particular winery has done over the last 30 years. The story actually goes back 30 years, but even a little bit before that, the location actually was founded by Dr. Richard Becker and his wife at the time, Bunny,

[00:03:36] they wanted a kind of quiet retreat to go to, to get away from the hustle and bustle. Dr. Becker was a medical doctor, actually, in endocrinology, and he had grown up in Texas. He was a native Texan, but he grew up in Abilene. His family goes even further back in Texas, as he'll share about in the interview. But he grew up in Abilene, Texas, went to the University of Texas, as well as several other prestigious universities studying medicine

[00:04:05] and had returned to Texas in the San Antonio area to practice medicine. And so he and Bunny wanted a place, kind of a quiet retreat to go to, to spend some time. And they found this place out there, outside of Fredericksburg, that they were able to purchase. And Dr. Becker had always had a strong interest in growing things. So he had visited a couple of, there was only two wineries out there at the time. And he wanted to,

[00:04:33] he got to visit their wineries and tasted their wines. He wanted to plant some vines of his own. And he planted a vineyard. And they ended up having their first batch of wine. They decided to make some of their own and created their first batch of wine in 1995. So that's when they really started the operations of Becker Vineyards, even though they had been growing before that and had owned the property a little bit before that. They opened up a little tin building for a tasting room and got their start right around,

[00:05:03] I think he said 1995 was their first vintage. So this 2025 is going to be their 30th anniversary. His wife, Bunny, was actually kind of a fan of French culinary arts and French cooking. And both of them shared this passion for pairing food and wine together. And that was one of their goals when they started making wine, was how can we make a full culinary experience with both food and wine together.

[00:05:31] And that's kind of what started their dream here. He planted several of the more well-known wine varieties at the time, but has since changed some things a little bit and planted some other things. One of the things that Dr. Becker and Becker Vineyards is widely known for is basically for founding in Texas, the planting of Viognier. Now, Viognier was a grape that was fading from existence. Dr. Becker said that around the time,

[00:05:59] it got down to maybe 50 or 60 acres left in the world. And this was in the Northern Rhone Valley in a little area called Condriu. And Dr. Becker had actually been able to visit there. He noticed some similarities of that region to the Hill Country, fell in love with Viognier as a varietal, felt like it might do well in our climate here. So he came back and planted it and is widely credited as the first plantings of Viognier in Texas. And over the years,

[00:06:27] that particular wine varietal can easily be said to be the signature white wine of Texas. It's planted in great variety now. All over the world, it's actually been picking up. More plantings where it almost got down to non-existence now is being spread throughout the world. And Texas is at the heart of a lot of that. Many wineries throughout Texas now planting and making Viognier. And it is definitely a cornerstone of the wine here in Texas.

[00:06:56] And that's all thanks to Dr. Becker's incredible vision, incredible palate for tasting this amazing wine and how well it goes great with a lot of different foods as well. Now, their winemaking team there at Becker Vineyards is headed up by John Leahy. And they have an incredible team making those great wines there at Becker Vineyards. It's seen by many awards. They've won a lot of awards throughout multiple wine competitions, including getting the top Texas wine, earning the saddle there at the Houston Rodeo

[00:07:25] for several of their wines over the course of their time there at Becker Vineyards. Now, in addition to wine, Dr. Becker also, again, loves growing things. So he partners with Wild Seed Farms. And they plant some of their fields to several beautiful varieties. They plant poppies. They plant zinnias. They plant lavender. So if you go out in the spring to Becker Vineyards, you're not only going to see this beautiful winery, but the fields just covered in gorgeous flowers there as well.

[00:07:55] It's truly a sight to see there in the Texas Hill Country. And while Dr. Becker has been building this amazing winery, it was the third one in Central Texas in the Texas Hill Country for the last 30 years, he's also been working full time through his medical practice. He retired just a year ago after 52 years of medical practice. So the testament of this amazing winery and everything is done,

[00:08:22] he gives, and I agree, to the amazing team that he gathered around him. He says in the interview that he was only able to visit sometimes one day a week out of what's going on. So a lot of the amazing things that Becker Vineyards has done, becoming this keystone winery in the Hill Country, is a testament to that amazing team that he has compiled to work there at the winery. And they are operating like a well-oiled machine, just putting out amazing and better wines year after year after year.

[00:08:50] Also, in addition to that tasting room they have there at the main vineyard, they also have a secondary tasting room and a really cool old Buick building there on Main Street in downtown Fredericksburg. So it's a great little respite if you're out shopping and you're walking along that Main Street drag, going from place to place, to stop in and hop on into that little tasting room and get a great glass of wine, enjoy your time there while you're shopping. And because Fredericksburg is an open container area,

[00:09:19] you can actually take your wine and shop with it. But it's a great little tasting room there on the Main Street as well. If you don't get all the way out to the vineyard, but you're just in downtown Fredericksburg, you've got to make sure and go to that tasting room too. And when I went to visit, I actually was invited to join in on one of their famous monthly chef's table events, where we met in the Lavender Room, which you'll hear Dr. Becker talk about in the interview. And it's this great little banquet facility kind of event area that they have.

[00:09:49] And we had this really long table. And I got to sit down with Dr. Becker. And as they brought out these amazing chef-created dishes, several rounds with wines paired to each one, it was really a tasty as well as fun experience. And to hear Dr. Becker share about all of these different wines, to hear the stories behind them, he would get up and talk between each course about the different wines that were coming. And it was really fun to hear all those stories and be surrounded by these great people

[00:10:17] as we tasted these great wines and enjoyed some great food together. And I was also privileged while I was there to actually sit down and interview Dr. Becker. We went down into their wine cellar and surrounded by the barrels and the bottles. We got down to the nitty gritty and really talked about the history there at Becker Vineyards and what to expect when you go to visit. So without further ado, let's hear directly from him.

[00:10:48] Howdy, Bind Trippers. Welcome to our episode on Becker Vineyards. So I am lucky to be here today with Dr. Becker, the proprietor of Becker Vineyards here and the namesake. His name's on the gate out front. And so he's got a long, storied history here. This winery itself and the things that he's done here, you'll get to hear more about that here in the interview in a few minutes. But without any further ado, let's go ahead and turn our attention here to Dr. Becker.

[00:11:16] So, Dr. Becker, tell me a little bit about yourself. How did you get started in this crazy wine world? It's not, I don't have an easy answer. Let's say part of it is half my family has been in the hill country since before the Civil War. Really? So my great-great-grandfather was married in Brady in 1859. They were all Scots. They were all red-headed and green-eyed Scots named Crouch. Okay.

[00:11:42] And I'm sure I'm remotely related to Hondo, but I don't know for sure. I've never tracked it down, but I know they were all Crouches. And my great-great-grandfather then was in John Bill Hood's army in the Civil War, died in probably Gettysburg in 63. But my great-grandfather, my grandfather, and my mother were all born at Brady. And I grew up at Abilene. Oh, Abilene. Okay. Yes.

[00:12:11] And so I went to high school there. I graduated from the University of Texas with a B.A. and M.A. in English Literature. And then I went to medical school in San Antonio. And then I trained in Boston and Yale and Bethesda, Maryland. And I came back to teach at the medical school and to do research and came back to this part of the world.

[00:12:43] And then with my history, half my family history in the Hill Country, we thought we'd try to find a little place that my wife specified no yard work. So, you know, like just to come, like every other weekend or every third weekend, just kind of an escape. And it's before all the prices had become insane at this part of the world. And we were looking around. We found a little place, this place.

[00:13:11] Only half of it was for sale. And after some lucky things happening, I was able to buy it. And then the other half was also available. So then we put it together with a loan from Frost Bank. Okay. You're supposed to go into the wine business with a disposable $2 or $3 or $4 or $10 million. I had none of that. But I had a loan from Frost Bank. Okay.

[00:13:41] So I bought the land and we began planting grapes. And part of this began because my wife was a very good French cook. And I'd heard there was something called food and wine pairing. And I was trying to learn about that. And I like to grow things and always have. So then there are only two wineries around us, anywhere near.

[00:14:05] One was Bell Mountain, Bob Oberhellman, and the other was Grape Creek, which was started by Ned Sims, an oil man from Louisiana. Yeah. A very direct speaker. And they both became friends. And then one of my sons, either Will or Joe, would come up on the weekend.

[00:14:25] We'd go over and taste a bottled wine with them on a Saturday morning and sit with one or the other of those gentlemen for three or four hours and hear about how you make a vineyard to winery work, which nobody really knew what to do. And then we began planting a few grapes. And I think what really has happened here is the wine was always better than I thought it would be, you know, or thought it could be. But, you know, I had no palate, you know.

[00:14:52] And so I'd begun, because of my wife's French cooking, I'd heard this good wine pairing thing. I thought I'd try to learn about that. But this was before, you know, this was in the 80s. So there was really no place to buy wine in San Antonio much. And so I began to experiment and just trying to develop a food and wine pairing, a sense of food and wine pairing. It's hard to do on your own. You really need a teacher. But that evolved.

[00:15:22] And, you know, you never know if you're going to have much of a palate or not. It's, you know, it's like any other thing. It's kind of just part of your DNA. Yeah. And so, but it turns out I have a good memory for wine. So if you, if I taste a glass of wine that I tasted five years ago, that light bulb goes on. I can remember it. I claim. This has not been tested.

[00:15:49] But it's, there is, something does happen when I taste wine I've tasted before. So that's useful. And so we began planting grapes. We planted all five of the Bordeaux red varieties and then some Chardonnay. And then we began to plant Viognier because I tasted some Viognier from Condru in the northern Rhône Valley, Chateau Gruet. And I really liked it.

[00:16:17] So I, and then we made a trip there and I met Madame Gruet. And we were impressed how much that part of the Rhône looks like the hill country in terms of fruit trees and just the general appearance. And so, and our Viognier has always been kind of a star. So that's how that began. Yeah. And were you just planting the grapes just as a fun little project?

[00:16:42] Well, when I looked at it, this, this is too costly to be an experiment. Yeah. So I thought if we were going to do it, we should, we should plant enough so that if they, if they produced and the other two vineyards around us were working, both Bell Mountain and Great Creek, that we would be able to sell the wine. I don't think you could ever make any money in the wine business or, or repay the debts that I had for the land and for the little tin building we built for a winery.

[00:17:10] And so we planted about five, five acres. Okay. And then 10 acres. And that's a lot of work. That is a lot of work. If you were to the vineyard. So, but it, but the grapes did well. And we planted Chardonnay, which I thought was probably wouldn't work. And our Chardonnay won a gold medal in the Dallas Morning News wine competition.

[00:17:33] And, and so it was sort of, it was starting to work and I was following sort of basic French winemaking principles from what I could read in books. I'm a, I'm a reader. Okay. And so we did all the fermentation in French barrels and, and so our American oak barrels and for both red and white and tried to, tried to manipulate the wine as little as possible. Right. And, and then bottled it with a machine that we bottled one, we could do one bottle at a time.

[00:18:02] A hand bottler. A hand bottler. And that's right. That's what, that's everything I bought was a secondhand used. My children called it Chateau Shoestring. And, but that's how we began. You really bootstrapped it from the ground up. That's what, no doubt about it. And I'm working full time as a doctor. And so, you know, I does, I, we could come out here on the weekends. Yeah. We had one wonderful employee, Jim, Jim Brown, who was with us for at least 10 years.

[00:18:31] And, and it's a good, a good friend. His daughter got married out here after he'd left. And, but he was fabulous. And then we had maybe one, one assistant with him. And then Nicole knocked on the door 25 or 30 years ago. And that's, that was a lucky knock for us. She's still here. So it's just been, it's been slow.

[00:18:54] And, and I, I, after the initial loans that I got to start this, I paid all my loans off after about six years. Okay. So everything we've done since here has been on a cash basis. So, so any enlargement had reflected that the market was pulling. And so one of the things that's surprising about the wine business is you cannot push. People will say, oh, really? Somebody has to say, I've got to have some of your wine.

[00:19:24] I've heard about it. I've read about it. I've tasted it. And so that, that was our, the way we've developed this. Okay. And around what time was that? What year was that that you planned? So we bought the property in 89 and 90. Okay. We did several years of research and then we started planting in 92. First harvest was 95, first finish. And this is 2025 coming. And that's our 30th anniversary year.

[00:19:48] So it's been fun to watch it develop, but it's, it's very much a team effort. We have a lot of very talented people here. We have one of, one of the best winemakers in the United States, just by chance. John Leahy is here. Yeah. And that explains why we win all the medals in all the competitions. We, you've seen all the saddles we've won, all the double gold medals we've won in San Francisco. So, but it's, when I say we, that's John Leahy. Okay.

[00:20:17] We have a wonderful team that he oversees, but he is, he's a brilliant winemaker. And then when did you open? So 95 was your first vintage. When did you open the doors to the tasting room? So we had to have a little tin building to, to, and it had to be bonded. There are, there are lots of raw, lots of, uh, lots of laws about how to operate as a winery. So that we, that I got that construction and, uh, and then we had a little tasting room. We opened in the spring of 96. Okay. Okay.

[00:20:47] And, um, and it's slowly grown from there. Okay. Yeah. And so tell me about some of the facilities that you have on site here now. It's looked like more than a little tin tasting room. What do we have? Well, uh, we've slowly developed the property. Um, the only thing that was here when we, when we began was a little, uh, cabin that was built by a man whose way was paid over from Germany by the dry goods store in Fredericksburg.

[00:21:12] And he was able to save, uh, 75 cents a week and, and buy this property. And he built a log, a log structure. Yeah. And that log structure was the only thing here. Okay. When we started, uh, and so we have re re fixed that so you can, you can spend the night and it has now has a floor that does chinking between the logs. Uh, it has air conditioning, heating, running water showers. So it all works. And it's been kind of restored with a Texas and primitive antiques.

[00:21:43] And then we built another structure called the lavender house, uh, which has a commercial kitchen and it's a, it's a copy of about an 1860 building. It's over near Johnson city. Okay. And, uh, it's a stone building with wood lean two ends. And, um, so we're able to have, um, lunches and dinners there for 110 people and we could cook for them and it has a nice patio on the back.

[00:22:09] And, uh, then we've expanded the winery to slowly to go from the 1500 cases we made the first year, which was 95, uh, to we make about 70,000 cases a year now. Wow. So that, that means more, more storage, more places where barrels could be. And we have 5,000 barrels of wine in our winery, winery, winery. And our winery is 100% Texas fruit. Okay. At this point.

[00:22:38] We had, we had a problem in, in, in 1993 in which, or two in which it's, it's snowed in May. Wow. In May. So there was no grape production. So we had to buy grapes from California. We brought them here, made the wine here. And if you put it in the bottle, we did not put Texas on the label. And, but now we're a hundred percent Texas again, but it's, um, it's, it's not easy to grow grapes and make wine in Texas. Yeah.

[00:23:07] It's got its own challenges for sure. And I will tell you that there are three parts of this business. There's viniculture. Yes. There's winemaking and there's wine sales. Yes. And they are equally difficult. They all have their own challenges. Equally difficult. Yeah. To be excellent. Okay. Yeah. You can, it's easy to be mediocre. Yeah. But if you're trying to make the best wine that you can make and sell it, uh, it's hard.

[00:23:33] Well, and I think the success of Becker over the 30 years now, uh, has shown that you've done a good, good realm in all three of those areas. I think that's true. Yeah. Yeah. Well, tell me a little bit about Viognier. So you mentioned it a moment ago, um, planting Viognier. Um, and, uh, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you were the first, what I've heard, to bring Viognier to Texas? First to plant it, first to produce it, first to sell it for sure.

[00:23:59] Uh, and it's, uh, well, I, you know, I was trying to learn about wine, like you were saying you have. And, uh, Robert Mondavi, who kind of adopted us for, for unclear reasons, uh, said, uh, you have to grow the grapes and make the wine. You can look, you can learn a lot from a book, but not enough. And so to know how that grape is going to perform and what kind of wine you're going to make from that grape, you have to grow it and harvest it and take care of it.

[00:24:24] And so, um, and, and exploring wines, uh, Viognier was, gosh, so this was like in the late eighties. Uh, we had tasted some Viognier. There wasn't much in the, anywhere in the world. At one point it was down to maybe 50 or 60 acres planted mainly in the top of the row. And then somebody, a little bit began to be planted in California, a little bit in South America. And, uh, but not much.

[00:24:49] So, uh, we, I began tasting the Chateau Gruet from, uh, from Condru. And, uh, but we loved it. And so I thought this might be a wine to try. Okay. And, uh, I, I thought that, uh, maybe a way to start would be instead of making Cabernet Sauvignon and because there are great Cabernets made in United States and all over the world,

[00:25:13] maybe if we had a grape, uh, that we can make as a wonderful wine, uh, and people said, ah, then there might, they might begin to find a place for it. To signature. That's what I was thinking. So that's what we did. Okay. That was the thought. What, what attracted you most to the flavors in Viognier? Well, they're very, it's very rich, very complex. You know, it's said to be the red wine drinkers, white wine. I think there's some truth in that. Uh, and, uh, it's just, uh, you have to have you tasted it? Oh yeah. Okay.

[00:25:43] So it's, uh, it's, it's a treat. It's kind of been, I think it's been now become kind of the signature white wine in Texas. Yeah. It does so well in this climate as you found from time in Condrio. Um, so did, did you, do you feel like that, um, now Viognier has increased its plantings worldwide? Is it growing worldwide? It is without a doubt. Uh, certainly in California and other places in nine states and, um, and, uh, vineyards

[00:26:11] around in Virginia, places like that. It's, it's planted a lot. Lots and lots in South America. Yeah. Well, with your vineyards here, do you still have, you, you said you started with about five acres, went to 10 acres. Is that still about what you have here on site? No. And we're currently, we, in the last, we've been in a program the last three years to increase the planting here. So we, we've taken some of the older vines out that needed to be replaced and we're, we're going to be at about 80 acres of vineyard here.

[00:26:41] And, uh, and they're doing wonderfully. We have a great viticulturist and a great manager in Dylan Berg. And, uh, it's been, it's just, it's really going well. Do you still focus on those same varietals, the five Bordeaux grapes and Viognier? No. I, so we, I think we'd ask the question. We've been growing grapes and making wine here for approaching 30 years, um, which are, they all grow well. Which were the best? Which has made the best wine? Yeah.

[00:27:11] And we think in this soil and our, our soil is an unusual soil of sand and, uh, decomposed granite. And the granite is pre-Cambrian granite. Okay. So this was sludge in an ocean 500 million years ago. Yeah. Before there was even microscopic life. It sank into the earth, got transmogrified into granite. And then it's only on the surface a few places.

[00:27:36] The bottom of the Grand Canyon, the, the Lano uplift in the hill country, which also pushed all the oil bearing sands to the side. And a few, maybe a turkey that there it's, but it's rare on the surface. And I think it's responsible for if you, for, I think the really good Rhone wines that are produced here, both red and white, uh, Sauvignon Blanc, uh, our Chardonnay has been extraordinary from here. Uh, so those are the wines that we're, we're focusing on in our replanting.

[00:28:05] We still have some, some Bordeaux, uh, reds and the Sauvignon Blanc and Simeon in this soil are fab. Yeah. Yeah. So, and John won back to back double gold in San Francisco two years in a row with Sauvignon Blanc grown on our property. So I'm expanding that planning because I think it makes, uh, I mean, the wine is so good. It's amazing. Yeah. So that's what we're trying. We're trying to make that kind of selection.

[00:28:33] Unfortunately, it takes probably a hundred years or 200 years. And then there are other, our, our, our weather is not as supportive as it is say in Napa. Uh, things get ripe here, but, uh, is we have other pressures. Yeah. And we've had a real problem with Pierce's disease, which I think we now control very well. And, uh, so it's just, we just need to, as Mr. Mondavi said, you've got to grow the grapes who make the wine, but that's what we're doing. Awesome.

[00:29:02] Well, so in addition to your 80 acres here, do you source grapes from other locations? We grow, yeah. So we have probably about, um, a dozen people who grow grapes for us in Texas. Uh, and they are basically on a line to the Northwest. Northwest. So wonderful grower in Mason County, uh, uh, and then, um, around Lubbock, west of Lubbock, slightly south, southwest of Lubbock.

[00:29:28] That's where the most, so they're growing, uh, Brownville, uh, Brownfield, uh, Meadow, uh, Plains, and those little towns out near Lubbock. Okay. And then, um, let's talk about some of the wines for a little bit then. So what, what have been some of your most successful wines that you've enjoyed? Well, we've made, we've, we've made wonderful, we've made wonderful Cabernet in grapes grown

[00:29:53] by the, by the Canada family and, and Jet Wilmoth and his family, uh, west of Lubbock. And so I think the soil out there and the climate allows us to make wines that again, score double gold in San Francisco against cabs from California and everywhere. Yeah. So I think that's her real competition as I see it. Uh, and, uh, we've made, gosh, wonderful Tempranillos, uh, Merlots, um, uh, we've been,

[00:30:21] Dolce, our Dolce Channel was named the best wine made in Texas one year. Our Bione Ava's been named the best wine made in Texas. Uh, uh, wonderful. Yeah. The other side I mentioned, but all, all, all of those, a lot of, a lot of, uh, talented children. Have you had a, a couple of favorites that you've kind of seen over the years evolve? Well, our, our courage 2022 Dione Ava from, um, Six Hearts Vineyard, uh, in, in Tokyo, Texas. That's it.

[00:30:49] Uh, it was named the, I guess it got a platinum award, uh, in the, in the Sommier. Okay. Uh, uh, competition this year. That's one of my favorites. And I love, but I'm loving our older wines. So we, we have a cellar that we have developed and we're, we're letting our wines age. And we can now have a tasting, for example, of Canada Cab, which we had about a month ago,

[00:31:14] beginning with, um, 2008 and two, nine, 10, 12, 14. And it's fun to see those wines, uh, as they age, how, how rich they get. Do a vertical tasting of those different things. Yeah. So these are the ones that won great scores when we entered them when they were young, but, but they're aging beautifully, which is important to me. That's really nice. I like that. So let's talk about the location here a little bit.

[00:31:40] So, um, if people wanted to come and visit, uh, what do you do events or things like that here? You talked a little bit about that lavender house. We have lots of events. We've, we've, we've, we've, uh, had for the last, uh, two years, a French chef on staff full-time who wanted a Michelin star in a restaurant in Europe. Uh, so we can have a food and wine pairing, which, uh, you know, the, the, the, the Texas food, which is, you know, add the hottest, spiciest thing you can to something.

[00:32:09] You can see that's, this is Texas, uh, uh, destroys the wine palette. Yeah. So, you know, uh, everything tastes like battery acid with, but, uh, he, but with French food, it's a different experience. And so that's good. And so, so we do that as we, like, we're going to have a chef's table today, uh, and we'll have a food and wine pairing with, with French dishes. Uh, and then we're able to, so we, a lot of people come here, a lot of, there are a lot

[00:32:36] of companies that have retreats, the medical school faculties been out here, stuff like that. So it's, that's the way we market that. We don't have a restaurant that's open every day. Yeah. I don't want to do that, but I want to, I want this to make food that will really pair well with our wine. All right. And that again, goes back to what you said at the beginning was one of your basic desires was to the food pairing thing. And we also plant flowers. We have a, with, with John Thomas's help from Wild Seed Farms, we started at the same time.

[00:33:05] He started planting poppies here and we started planting grapes and, uh, he plants one of our fields in poppies every spring. And then we have, after that, two more zinnia plantings, which were glorious when they bloom. Then we have a field of lavender, uh, that we have a lavender festival in the spring. And, uh, do we have, we have, we have the great chefs of Texas come, who come here. We have a series of famous Texas chefs. They come and cook and, uh, and paired with our wine. Lots of things like that.

[00:33:35] Yeah. Well, I want to rewind for just a second, going back to a guide to thinking, uh, at what point in your career, so you're starting off the winery, you're producing these wines. Now you get this tasting room open. At what point did you say, okay, maybe I should leave the, uh, medical field and go into full time winery and wine? Well, I, I didn't, I, I, I was a physician for 52 years and I retired a year ago. And so I've, I always did that full time.

[00:34:04] So you did both of these things at the same time. Well, but I said, yes, I did it with, with, uh, with a one, a wonderful team of people, an amazing group of people. And, and they knew that I, so I wouldn't, I would not be out here until maybe one day on the weekend. Okay. For the most part, all throughout those years, I just couldn't do it. Sure. Yeah. And where were you practicing at that time? Endocrinology, internal medicine. Okay. And where, what? Well, I was in the San Antonio. San Antonio area? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Cool.

[00:34:34] So yeah, you just come in for the weekends when you could and. That's right. Yeah. A little bit. Yeah. Having that good team behind you definitely. Yes. This is really their winery. Yeah. Yeah. You got your name on the gate, but it's their winery. Yes. Yes. I love that. Well, let's say a listener's now getting excited. They're, they're wanting to come out and visit Becker. So what would it look like if a listener came out to visit? What would a typical tasting look like?

[00:34:58] Do you usually offer a sample of wines that's picked by the server or do they pick their own wines? Do you have different types of tastings? Well, we have different types of tastings and they can, so they can, they can go online and schedule a, a higher tier of tastings in which they might taste a tier of, of, of, of, fine wines that we've selected.

[00:35:24] Or they can have a general tasting where they can just come to one of the tasting areas in our, in our main winery or on our ports that looks out over the labrador and the, the flower fields. Uh, or we also have a, a room especially for our wine club. Okay. And there they, they taste at no charge. And we have food and wine pairings that vary depending on what we're doing each season. Yeah. So you can have food and wine together. Oh, okay. And is it, it's different wines based on the season? Exactly.

[00:35:53] Based on the season of what's available. Okay. And then you mentioned your wine club. Let's, let's hit on that for just a second. You tell me a little bit about your wine club. Well, the wine club, uh, we have, um, it's really a nice thing. We have four, we, we, we ship four wine four times a year. Okay. And they can select red wine or a mix of our wines. And these are, many of these are our, will be our new real small production releases. So we, we, we make a lot of wine. We do a lot of experimentation.

[00:36:22] So we might, we'll make a lot of small batch, maybe 600 cases and, or something like that, which goes mainly to the wine club. So, uh, there, we have that. Then we have a, uh, pickup party probably four times a year at the winery where we have food and music and we'd close, close the winery except to the, uh, people who are members of the wine club. And then we have a two or three, like in, in a couple of weeks, we're going to spend two

[00:36:47] weeks, uh, uh, in, uh, going up the Mosul to the Rhine and then up the Rhine to Basel, Switzerland. And so a lot of our wine club members will be on that trip. So we do think a lot of different things like that. Yeah. That would be a really exciting trip to go down. It will be. Yeah. So when, uh, can they sign up for the wine club on your website or do they need to come to the winery itself? I think they could do either one. Yes. Either place. Okay. And I'll, I'll direct them to listen to the, check the website first, of course. Please do. That'd be great.

[00:37:16] And then when a, when a listener comes in, what are your typical operating days and hours? Well, we're opening it, we're open every day from about 10 until six. Uh, and we open a little bit later on Sunday. What about, um, family or pets or things like that? If people have kids. All welcome. All the above. Anybody. They're all welcome. Sure. Yeah. So they can bring anything. Now, if they, what about you mentioned, you've got the food and the food pairings is

[00:37:44] definitely a key factor in your winery here. Um, can people bring outside food in? Sure. If they had something for their kids. They can bring a picnic. They can bring anything they want. Yes. Perfect. Do you have any maximum group sizes for people if they wanted to come? Well, uh, if they want to be, be feeded as a group, they, it would be good to contact. Okay. So get a reservation. Yes. We can accommodate probably almost any size you can think of. So we have a very big property. Okay.

[00:38:10] So if you come with a group, make sure that you contact beforehand, maybe get a reservation. That way you can be, get your best service. That would be good. But, but, uh, I guess her winery has been described as the most beautiful in Texas and it's pretty, it's pretty sparkly. It is a beautiful property for sure. Well, and I, I think you also have another tasting room there on main street in Fredericksburg. So tell me about that. It's a wonderful, it's a wonderful tasting room. It was a, the Buick dealership and it was, the building was built by the famous architect

[00:38:39] O'Neill Ford or designed by O'Neill Ford from San Antonio. And, uh, and we've had a tasting room there for about six, seven or eight years. And, uh, a lot of people, so two and a half million people go by and so, and only a small fraction actually turn into our winery. But this gives them another chance to taste our wine. It's a, it's a kind of a nice, pretty open place to taste wine.

[00:39:04] We have some nice tables outside under cover that you can look out on, on Fredericksburg and, uh, it's been a nice experiment. And you get all that nice foot traffic there that goes up and down shopping up and down main street of Fredericksburg. That's, that's the plan. And most of them, when they come and say, no, we've not been at the winery. Okay. And we'd like to taste the wine. It's perfectly did. You're asking about a place to taste wine. That's another one. Yeah. Another location. A good one. What are your busier and slower seasons? What's the best time for people to come visit?

[00:39:32] Uh, well, I think Saturdays are our busiest day throughout the year. And, uh, and it, I think it's pretty, it's pretty, maybe January, February might be a little bit slower, but, but not much. Yeah. So a little bit of a slowdown in the winter. I think two and a half million people now come to Fredericksburg and primarily they list their reason for wine tourism. Yeah. So there's, and there are a lot of wine. When I started, when we started, we were winery number three in this region.

[00:40:00] Now there are at least 150 wineries. So it's, um, it's nice. Yeah. You're really grown. Just talk for a second. If somebody can't come here for whatever reason, but they want to taste your wines, um, distribution. I know that you're pretty widely distributed throughout the state. So you talk about some of your distribution options and ways for people to taste wine if they can't come here. Well, to taste it, I guess you'd have to buy it. Right. And so it's an, it's in a lot of, uh, stores.

[00:40:30] It's in H-E-B is I think the number one seller of wine in Texas. And we're very well represented there. Also in Kroger, uh, and then a number of wine stores. We're in lots of restaurants and bars and things like that. But, uh, I think I'd go to one of the, one of the wine stores or grocery stores that has a big selection and just see what you think. Yeah. Try it. It might be a great place since it is widely available like that for somebody to, who's

[00:40:56] excited to come here, but they can't get here yet to at least be able to taste the wine before they come. So get wet their palate a little bit. That'd be good. All right. But we do have a lot of interesting wines that are only available here. The, the small production lots and, uh, it's, it's fun to, to, to see unusual, uh, varietals from the Rhone Valley, that sort of thing. Yeah. So you've built this great winery, um, over 30 years and you, we've slowly bootstrapped it up into this amazing, beautiful property.

[00:41:26] What about future growth plans? Do you have any plans for future growth or doing anything new or different or adding? I, I, we, I certainly don't think we need to get any bigger. I think this is a good size. Uh, our, our focus has always been, how can we make our wine better and better and better? What, what, what can we do in terms of viticulture, in terms of winemaking? In terms of, we keep all of our wines in barrel for two years, at least red on white. Yeah.

[00:41:55] Uh, and so it's, uh, and that's what I think produces the quality of our wine. Yeah. And, and, and we have this gene, we have a genius winemaker. And you have that two year, you have two year barrel aging on whites as well, you said? Yes. Yes. Wow. That's very different. Yes. The Bionier. Yeah. The Chardonnay. The Sauvignon Blanc. The Simeone. The Marsan. The Rossan. Yeah. And those neutral barrels, I presume? Uh, many of them were new. Yeah. Okay. You even used new oak. Yeah. Interesting. Wow.

[00:42:22] And so your focus in then is how can we make that winemaking process even better every day? How do we constantly innovate and improve on that? And that, that, that's, that also means experimenting with, we, so we buy, we, we, we will have 80 acres of grapes here and we buy grapes from all over West Texas and, uh, getting the ride grapes planted and get them, getting them harvested correctly, which our growers do wonderfully for us, by the way. And, uh, you know, our wines have been served many times at the White House and the governor's

[00:42:52] mansion and the Beard House. And so it's been selected by, uh, a lot of people that know about wine and, and that's, the, the growers like that, as do we, they love to say, you know, and their names are on the labels for, uh, whenever we can do it. Um, and they love to say this, this one, you know, the president, the president held this bottle of wine and poured it in. That's a nice thing for us and for them. So your reputation definitely precedes you. So that's, that's okay. You, you've built a good reputation there. All right.

[00:43:20] Well, as we get ready to wrap up then, there's a lot of different places that people could go visit here in Texas. Um, and we were here now at Becker Vineyards. Tell me a little bit about why you think Becker really stands out and makes it unique that people would say, I really need to put that on my list to come visit. Well, I, I, so the way I've tried to, to distinguish our winery is by making wine that wins major prizes and major wine competitions.

[00:43:47] And, and, uh, and there's no doubt that we were at the head of that, of that list. So that, so you can come and taste wines, not that, you know, every winery says we make award-winning wine, but we really have the medals here, the saddles from Houston. We have the double gold medals from, from, uh, uh, San Francisco Wine Competition, which is, uh, I think is the most prestigious. Um, and the wine is here. You can taste it. And so that's, that's, I want the wine to speak for itself.

[00:44:24] And those wines definitely speak for themselves. You'll see when you get ready to taste them. I think the countless awards that they've won kind of speak to that already, but you can find out for yourself and the incredible tasting room they have there, the vineyard, the attentive staff that's going to take care of you when you go to visit. All of that is a testament to the incredible, wonderful experience that you'll have when you go to visit Becker Vineyards and drink some of these great wines there as well.

[00:44:52] And like we talked to the interview, and as we always know, go check out their website first. It's www.beckervineyards.com. There, you're going to be able to do things like shop for those great wines. You can purchase them directly from their website, but they also have some other merchandise and other things you can shop for there. You'll see more about their story, their history, learn about some of the events that they have coming up, what to expect when you go to visit for your tasting, as well as they also do

[00:45:21] some really cool virtual tasting events that you can find out about on their website where you can order the wine in advance. They do kind of a zoom tasting where you can learn about the wines as you get to taste them at home. It's a really neat, fun stuff that they do there at Becker. So check out that website again before you go to visit. And don't forget, when you go see them, make sure you tell them you heard about them on this podcast, Texas Under Vine. Okay. After the interview concluded, I was able to actually go sit down, as I talked about earlier,

[00:45:49] at that chef's table there with Dr. Becker. We were joined by his fiancee at the time. They are now married. Congratulations, Dr. Becker and Ms. Becker. Margaret. And they were able to sit down with us with a bunch of wine club members around and taste these great foods, hear about the great wines. It was really a great event. I encourage everybody to check that out and go do that if you get a chance. Really neat and fun event to taste the wines and to taste some great food and experience.

[00:46:17] The thing that he's most passionate about, which is that food and wine pairing that's been the heart of everything they've done at Becker Vineyard since they started. Now, while I was there, there was one wine we tasted that it just sat perfectly on my palate. I knew immediately when I tasted this wine, that's the one for me. That's the one that I had to get from my wine library for this episode. And it was a 2021 Mouvedre. So this is a really great wine.

[00:46:45] It's got deep, silky, soft, smooth flavors, deep kind of earthy notes to it, but bright fruit, dark fruit on top of that. It just was the perfect complement to the foods that we ate there. And it was perfect by itself as well if you just want to sip on it. So that, to me, really encompassed everything that I did there while I was at Becker. It was a perfect reminder of that awesome food and meal that I had. So that was the bottle that I purchased for my wine library.

[00:47:15] You got to get yourself a bottle. Make sure you try this whenever you go. It's their 2021 Mouvedre. And with that, my time is coming to a close. It's time for me to mosey on down the road to check out some other great wine destinations to bring that information to you. But before I go, I'm going to ask one favor from you. Would you be willing to leave me a rating and review for this podcast wherever you get the show? It really means a lot to me. It's free. It only takes a couple of seconds. And it does help the show get seen by even more people.

[00:47:45] So it moves that up in the algorithm so other Texas wine lovers or people who may not love Texas wine yet, but they are going to when they get a chance to try it, get to see it, find out about these great places. It elevates the whole wine industry. And so it just takes a second. So if you would do that for me, I would be grateful to you. Again, just a simple rating and review wherever you get the podcast. And if you're actually watching this video on YouTube, make sure you go down and like, follow, and subscribe.

[00:48:14] And so if you've been to Becker Vineyards, leave me a comment telling me what's your favorite thing about Becker Vineyards. Or if you haven't been yet, but you're excited to go now because of this episode, leave me a comment about what you're most looking forward to in Becker Vineyards. And with that, my time is up. So don't forget, subscribe to my socials to be notified anytime a new episode is released. And until then, happy trails and bottoms up, y'all.

[00:48:44] Thanks for listening to Texas Under Vine. We strive to provide you with the best information about wine businesses all over Texas. Be sure to check out our website at texasundervine.com and follow us on our socials at Texas Under Vine to stay up on all the upcoming episodes. Please email us with any suggestions or feedback. Also, contact us if you're interested in donating, sponsoring, or advertising on the podcast just to help us cover our expenses and bring even more great info to you in future episodes.

[00:49:13] Above all, travel safely and most especially, drink responsibly. Howdy, Vine Trippers. Did you know that I now have a merchandise store for Texas Under Vine? I only have a handful of limited items, but you can go check those out and wear your Texas Under Vine swag if you'd like to tell all your friends about the great wine locations we have

[00:49:41] here in Texas and maybe get them interested in the podcast as well. So there are things like t-shirts, there's a hoodie, there's a beanie, a ball cap, things like that. But one of the most exciting things I have right now is my limited time offer t-shirt. That's my season one t-shirt. So this is your Tasting Through Texas, Texas Under Vine season one t-shirt. It's only going to be available for a little short amount of time. On the back, it has all the different locations like a band tour t-shirt. So this is a limited time item and you can go out and get it now.

[00:50:10] And one of the great things about that t-shirt is a portion of every sale goes to support the Texas Hill Country Winery Scholarship Fund. So you know that by buying that t-shirt, you're also investing in the growing and flourishing of an amazing wine industry here in Texas and all of those people that are going to come and make it even better. Check out that merchandise store. It's on my website at texasundervine.com. Just go up to the top. You'll see the link for the merchandise store.