Fly Gap Winery (Hill Country)

[00:00:06] Howdy Vine Trippers. I wanted to take just a moment to talk to you about the Texas wine

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[00:00:34] want to make a day of it, go see several other places as well. You can search by

[00:00:38] region. You can sort the listings, find one that are kid friendly, family friendly,

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[00:00:51] area like restaurants, accommodations, maybe events that are going on at the

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[00:01:53] Across the Great Lone Star State. Each episode will cover a different vineyard,

[00:01:58] winery or wine related business operating in Texas. You'll hear interviews,

[00:02:02] descriptions and details about each location that will excite you to visit

[00:02:07] and experience them for yourself. Ready to plan a wine tour? Use these episodes

[00:02:11] 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

[00:02:19] state and what makes our wines and wineries the best.

[00:02:24] Howdy fellow Vine Tripper. Welcome to episode 39 for Texas Undervining. I'm headed

[00:02:41] back to Mason today, north in the Texas Hill Country, to explore in that hot

[00:02:46] spot region right now for new wineries, a place called FlyGap Winery. Now this

[00:02:53] winery was started by Brock Estis and is owned by him and he's the

[00:02:57] winemaker and he actually started out as a student at Texas Tech University

[00:03:03] in their hospitality program. He had to do a summer internship and fell in love

[00:03:08] with wine, especially he made connections with Don Poulm at Sandstone

[00:03:12] Sellers there in Mason. So he went back to school, convinced his professors

[00:03:16] there to let him do his hospitality internship working at a winery at

[00:03:20] Sandstone Sellers and that's where he got his start. Now after he

[00:03:25] finished that, he actually finished school and actually worked in the

[00:03:28] Dallas area with a restaurant chain but after a stint there in the

[00:03:32] restaurant industry, he actually joined Great Creek Vineyards as an assistant

[00:03:37] winemaker and got a little bit of experience through his winemaking

[00:03:41] skills there under the great Jason Englert there at Great Creek Vineyards

[00:03:45] but after that he moved on to Houston and got involved in wine sales for a

[00:03:49] while, spent his time really investing his time into selling wines from all

[00:03:53] over the world and really understanding the world of wine through

[00:03:57] those sales. He actually started experimenting with making his own

[00:04:00] wine and started his winemaking operation by wholesaling his own wines

[00:04:05] in Texas before he even had a winery. And then comes 2021, he decides to buy

[00:04:11] this old feed store in downtown Mason right on the square area and

[00:04:17] started Fly Gap winery. Now they also sublet some of their space to

[00:04:23] a brewery retinic store called THC Brewery so if you have friends or

[00:04:27] people in your group that are more inclined to hop style beverages,

[00:04:31] they can hop next door literally and grab some beer there. They share the

[00:04:35] space and also he shares some space with a fishmonger called the real

[00:04:40] deal who comes in ever so often. So he has really become an entrepreneur

[00:04:45] there and is really expanding the use of his space there in that feed

[00:04:49] store used to be a feed store this downfly gap winery. Now as you

[00:04:53] might imagine, I was really curious about the name of the winery

[00:04:57] where it came from and Bronco is going to tell you the story of

[00:05:00] that in the interview. So I don't want to spoil it yet but it

[00:05:03] actually does come from a historical event that occurred

[00:05:07] back in this Mason area years ago. And so it does have some

[00:05:11] historical significance for that region and for the reason he

[00:05:15] named his winery that particular name Fly Gap winery. Now they

[00:05:20] mostly specialize in red wines at Fly Gap but you're going to get

[00:05:24] a taste of a lot of different things when you go. And when I

[00:05:27] was there, I actually got to sit down with Brock Estes now it

[00:05:30] was a crazy day. They were in the middle literally of a

[00:05:33] crab and shrimp boil the place was packed full to the gills

[00:05:36] they had live music going on. It was kind of a difficult

[00:05:40] time to set up for video. So in this particular episode we

[00:05:45] nixed the video and just went with the audio version. So if

[00:05:49] you're watching this on YouTube, you're just going to get the

[00:05:51] audio part for the interview but I will be back after the

[00:05:54] interview and we get to hear a little bit from Brock. He is

[00:05:57] again not only the owner but the winemaker here and great

[00:06:01] person in so many times throughout the interview,

[00:06:04] people were just wandering up and talking to him and he was

[00:06:07] taking a break to talk to all the customers and all the

[00:06:09] people around him. You could tell he runs that place but

[00:06:13] everybody loves him and knows him. He's everybody's best

[00:06:16] friend there. Now you're going to hear that come out in his

[00:06:18] voice in the interview. You can tell he's definitely a very

[00:06:22] affable guy and fun to be around but he's going to tell us

[00:06:25] a little bit about his own history as well as the

[00:06:27] history of starting up Fly Gap and what to expect when you

[00:06:30] come for a tasting so without further ado, let's get to

[00:06:33] that interview. So I'm here with Brock Estes the owner

[00:06:44] and winemaker at Fly Gap Winery and beautiful Mason

[00:06:47] Texas and we got a great event going on right now

[00:06:51] today with the crab and crawfish boil and lots of fun

[00:06:55] wine drinking. It's a great day. The weather is great. I love

[00:06:58] it. Well, Brock tell me a little bit about yourself. What got

[00:07:01] you into the wine industry? Sure. So honestly, I got

[00:07:06] invited to pick fruit back in 2006 from Scott and Manny of

[00:07:11] Sanstow Sellers and their winemaker at the time was

[00:07:15] Don Pullham and I didn't have anything going on. I was

[00:07:20] like, yeah, sure. I'll go help you out pick fruit. And what

[00:07:24] happened was I just started asking Don a ton just a ton of

[00:07:28] questions, you know, like, I was just asking way too many

[00:07:32] questions and I kind of got bit by the bug. I got a new right

[00:07:36] there and I had this like, aha moment, like, I think this is

[00:07:39] something that I could dive into. So that's kind of how

[00:07:42] it started. Yeah. And it just developed from there.

[00:07:46] Uh, ultimately, I was so I was up in Texas Tech. And I was in

[00:07:53] the restaurant hotel management program. hospitality was

[00:07:56] nothing to you hospitality was my thing. I really I didn't

[00:08:02] know what I was going to do. I had I had to have an

[00:08:05] internship to graduate. And I'd kind of procrastinated. And

[00:08:10] I was in a situation where I needed an internship really

[00:08:13] quick. So right after the weekend where I picked fruit, I went

[00:08:20] back to love it. And I asked one of my professors, Hey, you

[00:08:23] think I could do my internship in wine like, you know, working

[00:08:29] for sandstone winery and making wine. And they allowed me to

[00:08:33] do that. So I got credit to, you know, I made wine. Of

[00:08:38] course, I had to kind of structure the program, you

[00:08:42] know, I made a lot of wine. But at the same time, like, I needed

[00:08:47] to have some hospitality aspects. And so it was it was a good

[00:08:52] time and I got my feet wet. Yeah. Yeah. I really got to learn

[00:08:57] under dawn at that time to learn under dawn. And then went back

[00:09:02] to school, graduated. I started managing a Jason's

[00:09:07] deli up in Dallas. Okay. And that worked out that that for a

[00:09:14] while. And then I ended up taking an assistant wine maker

[00:09:18] great creek. Yeah, back in 2008. And I worked with Jason

[00:09:25] England for a year and a half. And then I ended up moving to

[00:09:30] Houston. I got into wine cells. Okay, yeah. So I sold for a

[00:09:36] distributor for quite a while. And then I got back into the wine

[00:09:41] game. And that's when I started my own thing. Yeah, yeah. Well,

[00:09:45] let's talk about this place. So tell me a little bit about this

[00:09:47] location history. I got started to be back. So yeah. So

[00:09:50] originally, this was a feed store. And you know, we really

[00:09:56] wanted to keep the I don't know the feed store alive in a

[00:10:01] sense. One thing we did do is I brought out another vendors and

[00:10:08] we released space to like the brewery. Okay, there's a brewery

[00:10:13] right next door. There's a brewery right through the doors.

[00:10:16] You know, we looked at some business models where they have a

[00:10:20] brewery and a winery. And like, in certain instances, when a

[00:10:25] winery added a brewery, their wine cells actually increased.

[00:10:30] Because now because they got couples come in like diverse

[00:10:35] palates diverse. Yeah, so

[00:10:38] cool. That's kind of our motto. And then we have a fish

[00:10:42] monger that comes every now and then. You know, it's a small

[00:10:46] business collective. Yeah, ultimately. I just right here on

[00:10:49] the square and Mason so right here on the square, perfect

[00:10:52] location. What did you open? We opened in 2021. Okay. Yeah.

[00:10:58] So since 2013, I was wholesale in fly gap ones. And then in

[00:11:04] 2021, you know, we went from 100% wholesale to pretty much 100

[00:11:09] percent of retail. Okay. Yeah. I'll tell you about the name of

[00:11:13] the location fly gap. Where did that come from? Yeah, so fly

[00:11:16] gap. My mother, my mother's family is from well, they've

[00:11:22] been in Mason since like the 1850s. No, well, they came

[00:11:25] from Tennessee. There's a lot of a lot of Tennesseans came to

[00:11:29] Texas settled. Anyways, in the northeastern part of the

[00:11:35] county. There was this band of settlers. They were you know,

[00:11:40] they were not getting along with the Comanche's at the time

[00:11:43] and everything. And so they heard they had crossed the

[00:11:46] river. And they figured they were taking this one certain

[00:11:50] bad. Well, they took their horses in this gap in the in the

[00:11:57] mountains. And they went and hid and ambush waiting to ambush

[00:12:04] the Indians. Yeah. While nothing ever happened. But when they

[00:12:08] get back to their horses, swarms of horse flies were eating on

[00:12:11] them. Oh, so they call the area fly gap and let's just

[00:12:15] just specific to that area. Yeah. Oh, cool. Yeah. So it's

[00:12:19] it's a historical kind of I gotcha. So where do you source your

[00:12:23] fruit for your likes? I try to get most of my food from locally

[00:12:27] from here in Mason. Okay, we're doing a pretty good job of

[00:12:31] that. I'm working with Drew talent a lot lately. Yeah. So right

[00:12:38] now, you know, one of our wives is from the hot planes. I'm

[00:12:44] got some fruit from par. Some fruit from Drew talent. We got some

[00:12:52] other local sources and then and then I was managing a vineyard

[00:12:57] between here in Atlanta. Okay, and then I got the

[00:12:59] tympanio off of and I'm growing a couple acres just south of

[00:13:05] Ferdownia. Oh, okay. Yeah, if you have your own little kind

[00:13:07] of mistake. Yeah, we got we got, you know, we're playing

[00:13:11] grapes. We don't do it on a large scale, but yeah, takes a lot

[00:13:16] of work takes a lot of work. What are you playing there?

[00:13:19] Sirah, San Jovacy, Sagrantino. Okay, yeah. So

[00:13:25] do you process everything here? I process everything. Yeah. Okay,

[00:13:29] your little production facility. Yeah, we got space in the

[00:13:32] back and back here. And sometimes if we run out of space,

[00:13:37] I'll just kind of honestly, I make wine everywhere. So yeah.

[00:13:42] So what's what are some of your favorite wines to make? I why I

[00:13:46] specialize in reds. Okay. So mostly I make reds. I've enjoyed

[00:13:54] some like making a rosé recently.

[00:13:59] Varietal.

[00:14:00] So we have adult shadow coming out. Okay, God coming. It's

[00:14:05] really peachy about that. It's got a lot of peach, peach flavors

[00:14:10] and stuff. Honestly, like in 2020, I really changed my wine

[00:14:18] making techniques a little bit. I think that was the year where

[00:14:23] I started to really make better wine make I started making

[00:14:28] wines that that they were kind of reflected me a little bit

[00:14:34] more. So one thing that I started doing was look, I kind of

[00:14:40] took a step back and I said, you know, quit trying to do too

[00:14:44] much for for let the wine kind of be what it is speak for

[00:14:51] itself. Yeah. So so I started focusing on like how many layers

[00:14:59] can I get in a bottle because I know layers can create

[00:15:04] complexity and complexity is a good thing. So I look at a lot

[00:15:12] now is like an opportunity to blend. I've been blending my

[00:15:19] single varietals. So I'll take, you know, let's say I have four

[00:15:26] bins of the same fruit. I'll take two bins and put like my

[00:15:32] base yeast that I want to use into those two. And then I'll set

[00:15:36] separate the other things and I'm some and out of different

[00:15:40] yeast in each one. So I might have three different yeast

[00:15:44] going okay for the same kind of fruit. And then I might add

[00:15:50] some oak one in the primary fermentation but you know, I

[00:15:56] really don't do the same thing throughout the whole lot of

[00:15:59] the wine. I try to I try to blend the single varietal and then

[00:16:05] I put all that back together. Okay, so so my plan like like

[00:16:10] people asked me like why haven't you made blends in a while?

[00:16:14] Well, my answer to them is like, I'm blending the single

[00:16:19] varietal. And that's why for the first time ever, I've got

[00:16:24] all these single varietals that I release because they're

[00:16:28] they're they're standing on them alone. They're standing up

[00:16:32] really well, right? Yeah. So so it's kind of cool because like

[00:16:37] now if I do go to blend like those are incredible. You know

[00:16:42] what I mean? The situation we kind of run into is we still

[00:16:48] we deal with such low volume that you know, not blending is

[00:16:55] kind of interesting. That's the one area that you really have

[00:16:58] to let the fruit tell you what to do like you can't some some

[00:17:05] grave rattles just don't belong together. Right? So we we

[00:17:10] blend if we can if the wine will let us yeah, we will have

[00:17:15] those single varietals speak for themselves. Yeah, I know

[00:17:17] it's been great. I've been in I've been in more control in my

[00:17:22] winemaking that I've ever been this last year was pretty rough

[00:17:26] that this last year I'm more tweaking than I've ever had to

[00:17:30] do but it's been nice. Well, what are some of your most

[00:17:34] popular wines with customers? What are the ones that people

[00:17:36] just keep asking for? Sure. So you know, for a while it's

[00:17:41] been our barbara. Okay, Barbara de Mason, which you

[00:17:47] know, drew talent is the the grower that and then I kind of went

[00:17:51] out on a limb and I named it Barbera de Mason just because you

[00:17:57] know, Barbera de Osti's the reason Italy where it's

[00:17:59] correct. Anyways, I entered that into a text and we got a

[00:18:05] silver it was the highest award given to any Barbera and

[00:18:09] we tied with the Barbera de Osti so that was cool. I had

[00:18:14] a guy recently, he had spent a week over in Barbera de Osti

[00:18:19] he's like, Hey man, this stands up move. So that that one's

[00:18:24] been one of the top sellers. But now the most you know, the

[00:18:31] wires they just kind of yeah, Ed and flow. You'll have a top

[00:18:37] seller for six months and then and then all of a sudden

[00:18:41] something else. The one I'd say in the last three weeks has

[00:18:48] been the the parvade 20 the 2020 parvade, which is more of a

[00:18:54] they're Rob Parker. And we've always here at the taste room

[00:18:59] and right away I knew this wine's going to be a good wine.

[00:19:04] It's just we bottled it was so tight. And I knew it was

[00:19:09] going to take time. And we kind of you know, we kind of forgot

[00:19:14] a bottle. Because it was really kind of brash. I mean, it was

[00:19:17] really rough around the edges. And I was just like man, this

[00:19:22] is me son. And we had we haven't even really looked at it

[00:19:28] touched it for about a good year and a half. And then the

[00:19:31] other day I was like, Hey, let's see where this is at. And

[00:19:36] starting to sing. So coming into its own. Yeah, so that that's

[00:19:41] the one that we're really starting to push in the last three

[00:19:45] weeks. You know, before the barber was the San Jobe see

[00:19:54] they just you never know, you know, yeah, we don't want it

[00:19:57] comes into its own. Yeah, yeah. All right, well, so here we

[00:20:01] are. We got great event going on lots of stuff happening

[00:20:05] here. What types of events do you usually put on at the at the

[00:20:07] wine? Yeah, so I mean, we'll put on some wine dinners here and

[00:20:13] there. Okay. We are connected to other businesses. So today,

[00:20:19] the real deal C three markets thrown their crowd and

[00:20:23] shirrenboil. Man, we're always doing something. We have a in

[00:20:31] July we do a like a inflatable water park out front. Oh, yeah. So

[00:20:39] events I mean, we're always doing some kind of event. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:20:45] Okay, well, let's say that a listener is getting excited,

[00:20:47] they want to come check it out. Yeah, maybe they want to come

[00:20:50] visit and do a tasty What does that look like? Yeah. So so you

[00:20:54] know, we're open Thursday from four to non p.m. Friday and

[00:21:00] Saturday from two to nine p.m. Okay, so you know, the best case

[00:21:08] scenario I don't know that. So normally you'll come in. We'll

[00:21:15] tell you hey, you know, you can get wine beer. This is the food

[00:21:19] options we have for the weekend. And then honestly,

[00:21:23] you know, they just sit down my tasty if they want to do a

[00:21:27] tasting of wine blue like a flight. Yeah, I fly I'll do we do

[00:21:31] $20 for a tasting. I'll pour five different wines for you. And

[00:21:37] we'll just start from light and work up to the bolder ones, you

[00:21:41] know. And so and then the cool thing is they get to, you

[00:21:47] know, meet everybody. It's a collective of artists. It's

[00:21:53] nice to be surrounded by artists because, you know, the other

[00:21:58] one push everybody's pushing everybody to do better. Right?

[00:22:02] So it's good. Why don't I take it from this event? You're

[00:22:06] family friendly and pet friendly. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Okay.

[00:22:10] Family friendly pet friendly. And you mentioned food options.

[00:22:13] So that you have food. Do you do the kid people bring

[00:22:16] their own food in? We you know, we're just really easy

[00:22:20] going. Yes, we've had people bring in their own come with

[00:22:24] their own food before. We don't have a problem with that. You

[00:22:28] know, we got Jack's Hill Country Kitchen, who comes like

[00:22:35] quite often. They have three menu items they never do the

[00:22:39] same thing. Okay. And Jack's Hill Country Kitchen and

[00:22:42] they're actually George and Marissa are part owners of

[00:22:48] Terra Trails Wannery that they started up with a guy named

[00:22:52] Jason. So they yeah, they're good. It's good to have just

[00:22:58] family around you know,

[00:23:00] yeah, make those connections. Yeah, yeah,

[00:23:02] what are businesses? What are your busy and slow

[00:23:04] seasons? What's the best time to come visit? Yeah, yeah,

[00:23:07] the best song is in the spring or in the fall. Those are

[00:23:13] busiest seasons. Every year we kick off the spring with what

[00:23:20] we're doing today like a crab and shrimp bowl. And it really

[00:23:24] starts at the end of February, March and April and most of

[00:23:29] May will be very busy. And then we start slowing down in the

[00:23:33] summer. And then once September comes around,

[00:23:38] wow, a big fall push and until the middle of December. Okay,

[00:23:42] so I'd say, you know, fall and spring are the best times to

[00:23:47] visit. Yeah. You have all like a wine club or anything people

[00:23:51] can join? We're we're we're we just started a wine club last

[00:23:55] year. Okay. Details on that. Yeah, so we keep it pretty

[00:24:01] simple. You know, we we ask that you buy six bottles or a

[00:24:08] case. Okay. And we ship those two times a year one shipment in

[00:24:14] the spring and one shipment in the fall. Gotcha. Anything else

[00:24:18] about the Wiley Club?

[00:24:21] You know, we're starting to put wines on the wine. There's

[00:24:24] there's gonna be wines that the general public can get. Okay.

[00:24:29] So our barbers about to go wine club only. I'm releasing

[00:24:34] an Alicante Bichet that I don't have enough. I got like, you

[00:24:38] know, 22 cases. It was one barrel. Oh, we got my Semperneo this

[00:24:45] wine club only. So like, we're about to have four wines there

[00:24:49] wine club only. Okay. And I'm gonna sit down with our I got to

[00:24:55] refresh our website. And then we're going to go just really

[00:24:59] honestly, we're gonna start pushing wine club a lot. Yeah.

[00:25:02] Yeah. And you know, what we're really trying to do is I

[00:25:08] really want all the pickups to be like in a different place. And

[00:25:12] we really want to do some really cool pickup parties. Okay,

[00:25:16] cool. It's just something we're growing in and I need to spend

[00:25:20] more time on. But our focus for the future is more wine club.

[00:25:27] Gotcha. And yeah, okay. Well, if let's say somebody

[00:25:32] couldn't get here for whatever reason to come in, do you do any

[00:25:35] kind of distribution or do you have places where we can use

[00:25:38] sell online on your website? Since you asked like, the answer

[00:25:43] right now, like as of today is no, I don't have there's not

[00:25:47] much you can do really. But I do want to sell through the

[00:25:51] website and ship to you ever and it's like a point click,

[00:25:55] you just order whatever yeah, that way for people who

[00:25:57] couldn't get here they still order. Absolutely. Absolutely.

[00:26:01] Cool. So do you have any plans for future growth besides the

[00:26:04] wine club that things like that? Yeah. So I'd say for right now

[00:26:11] we're kind of like just just wearing a holding pattern. We're

[00:26:16] gonna let this year go through and then we'll see. Okay, I

[00:26:21] mean, there's there's there's one aspect of you know,

[00:26:26] this this property is really cool that we have. And we

[00:26:30] still got some things we need to finish and you know, we still

[00:26:33] got some areas where we can add more tenants. And so that's

[00:26:38] kind of what I am focused on in the short term. Okay, is getting

[00:26:42] one or two more tenants in here and then be having a really

[00:26:45] strong business model. After that, I am gonna want to go and

[00:26:53] kind of do some planting and on my own and just kind of

[00:26:59] honestly, like stay small. Do my own thing you know what I mean?

[00:27:06] Yeah. So what in your opinion is the number one thing that

[00:27:10] really sets fly gap apart that would make a customer say well

[00:27:13] there's a lot of wineries on go to but I have to check out fly

[00:27:16] gap. How do you find trippers? Did you know that I now have

[00:27:25] a merchandise store for Texas undervine? I only have a

[00:27:28] handful of limited items but you can go check those out

[00:27:31] and wear your Texas underbind swag if you'd like to tell

[00:27:33] your friends about the great wine locations we have here in

[00:27:37] Texas and maybe get them interested in the podcast as

[00:27:39] well. So there are things like t shirts, there's a hoodie,

[00:27:43] there's a beady, a ball cap, things like that but one of

[00:27:46] the most exciting things I have right now is my limited

[00:27:48] time offer t shirt. That's my season one t shirt. So this

[00:27:52] is your tasting through Texas, Texas undervine season one

[00:27:55] t shirt. It's only going to be available for a little

[00:27:57] short amount of time on the back. It has all the

[00:28:00] different locations like a band tour t shirt. So this

[00:28:03] is a limited time item and you can go out and get it now. And

[00:28:06] one of the great things about that t shirt is a portion of

[00:28:09] every sale goes to support the Texas Hill Country Winery

[00:28:13] Scholarship Fund. So you know that by buying that t shirt,

[00:28:16] you're also investing in the growing and flourishing of an

[00:28:20] amazing wine industry here in Texas and all of those people

[00:28:23] that are going to come and make it even better. Check out

[00:28:25] that merchandise store. It's on my website at Texas

[00:28:28] undervine.com. Just go up to the top. You'll see the

[00:28:30] link for the merchandise store.

[00:28:35] Yeah, so though I know one thing that sets us apart is you're

[00:28:40] not going to taste wines like this probably anywhere else.

[00:28:46] In the Journal of vicinity.

[00:28:50] We have my wines that have a piece of me. And it's just

[00:28:54] you know, it's just character. A little sometimes they're a

[00:28:59] little rustic. Every now and then, you know, there might

[00:29:03] be a little too much sediment. But we've got we got why is it

[00:29:10] just they've got something right? They've got character.

[00:29:17] They're complex. They're not always perfect. They're like me.

[00:29:25] And then my I'd say you really if you want to get to know

[00:29:31] like me and what I'm about and everything the best thing you can

[00:29:34] do is, you know, just ask questions. I'm not always you

[00:29:40] know, I don't like to talk about myself too much like, and I'll

[00:29:44] sell somebody the other like the other day right like, you

[00:29:48] know, back in I'd say, you know, 2016 1718 2015, like, like

[00:29:58] my wines weren't there. And so like, I really had to like sell

[00:30:03] I had to talk so much to like sell wine, you know what I mean?

[00:30:08] Yeah.

[00:30:09] And and and that really stuck with me. And I've got, you

[00:30:15] know, I've worked really, really hard to let the wines

[00:30:18] like, but like the wine is going to sell itself right. And

[00:30:22] so I, I guess sometimes I don't know what you call it. I do let

[00:30:30] them sell themselves. And then I'll have people tell me, well,

[00:30:32] you should have, we wish you would have talked a little bit

[00:30:35] more or whatever, you know, and I'll talk is just I need to

[00:30:41] you got to get asked the question is I'm not going to

[00:30:45] come out and just, you know,

[00:30:47] so the wines are a piece of you there.

[00:30:49] Wines are a piece of me. I've got a lot of passion about wine.

[00:30:57] I'd say the other thing that separates us too is just it's

[00:31:00] very different. You know, this whole model, you don't see

[00:31:04] everywhere.

[00:31:07] It's very relaxed. Yeah, it's relaxing. It's relaxing.

[00:31:12] Just come and have a good time with this. I mean, I've never

[00:31:15] met a stranger, you know. Okay, well, true words have never

[00:31:26] been spoken. Brock really does make you feel like you're part

[00:31:30] of his family. I don't think he's ever met a stranger and he

[00:31:33] loves with his heart what he's doing and what he's putting into

[00:31:36] the winery and to those wines is great creation that he is

[00:31:40] trying to put his own character in his own step into each one

[00:31:44] of those wines and let them be what they're going to to

[00:31:47] turn out to be and hospitality could easily be

[00:31:50] his middle name. I could easily tell that taking care of his

[00:31:53] customers was such an important thing to Brock and when you go

[00:31:57] there, you're going to have a great experience just because

[00:32:00] he's going to make sure that you do now. His wines are

[00:32:03] definitely unique. They're going to be some interesting

[00:32:05] blends. Some things maybe you haven't seen before and he

[00:32:10] definitely has put his stamp their representative of his

[00:32:12] character and each one has its own little story in the

[00:32:15] bottle and don't forget there's the teachy brewery next

[00:32:19] door. There's the fishmonger and as Brock said in the

[00:32:22] interview, he'd like to see even more places actually start

[00:32:25] using the space as well. So there may be even some more

[00:32:28] things down the road to come next door and as part of

[00:32:31] this whole experience there fly gap winery. Now as always

[00:32:35] before you go make sure you check out their website. It's

[00:32:38] www.flygapwinery.com so there you'll find a tab for when

[00:32:44] you come to visit. You can find out a little more

[00:32:46] information about what to expect when you come to visit.

[00:32:48] You'll see some information about some of that historical

[00:32:51] story about fly gap and the past events that caused the

[00:32:54] name of the winery. You'll see information about their

[00:32:57] wines, how to join their wine club. They even have a

[00:33:00] calendar of events there on the website that you can

[00:33:02] check out. And as always don't forget when you go to

[00:33:06] see them make sure you tell Brock and everyone there

[00:33:08] that you heard about them on this podcast Texas

[00:33:11] brotherly. Now after the interview even though there

[00:33:13] was this great party going on, Brock took some time to pour

[00:33:16] some of those great wines for me and he definitely like

[00:33:19] I said puts his own unique stamp on each one of them

[00:33:21] and he has some funny and interesting names for

[00:33:25] some of his wines. They're just as creative as he is

[00:33:27] like for instance you've got Parvedre which is a

[00:33:31] move that from Parvinyar and so he combines it.

[00:33:34] He's even got a wine called Transcendation but

[00:33:36] it's got numbers in there for different letters

[00:33:39] and things like that very unique kind of spelling of the word

[00:33:42] and he even makes one that's actually a couple of

[00:33:45] more tannic varieties of red wine, Sagrantino and

[00:33:48] Tanat as a blend and of course he calls it Sagranat.

[00:33:52] I love his wording and some of the fun character he

[00:33:55] puts into those wines but when I was there I tasted

[00:33:59] the Barbera de Mason that he talked about earlier which

[00:34:02] is a 100% Barbera wine from Mason County.

[00:34:06] It's actually from Talib Vineyards and that's the one

[00:34:09] that I fell in love with so I had to make this my library

[00:34:12] bottle for this episode. It was so full of flavor

[00:34:15] and just the label itself is incredible and a tribute

[00:34:19] to Barbera de Osti which is the Italian location

[00:34:22] where Barbera is famous from but this is Barbera

[00:34:25] de Mausoleum which is from Mason County

[00:34:28] in Talib Vineyard so very good job with that

[00:34:31] particular wine really enjoyed it and you

[00:34:33] ought to try that when you go.

[00:34:35] Well the party has sit wound down and it's time for me

[00:34:38] to move along from this really exciting place called

[00:34:40] Fly Gap Winery here in Mason, Texas but you know

[00:34:43] this whole area like I said is growing. There should

[00:34:46] be a great expansion of wineries in this area.

[00:34:49] There's two new aviaries or American Vitellogical

[00:34:52] areas that are in proposal stage right now

[00:34:55] that are almost finalized and with those come

[00:34:58] online you'll have the Lano Uplift and the Hickory Sands

[00:35:01] that are there in that encompass some of that Mason

[00:35:05] area especially the Hickory Sands in that area and

[00:35:08] I imagine when those really come on board we're going to see

[00:35:10] even greater expand so I expect Fly Gap to just be

[00:35:13] one of the first wave of these wineries that are

[00:35:16] going to continue to grow it's going to be a really hot spot

[00:35:18] for the Texas wine industry coming up watch for a lot of

[00:35:21] new wineries to pop up in that area. It surely

[00:35:24] has a bright spot in the Texas wine industry

[00:35:27] now if you want to keep up on that Texas wine industry

[00:35:30] in the future of that and all these great places you can go

[00:35:33] to subscribe to the podcast and if you're joining the content

[00:35:36] and all the stuff that I'm bringing to you about these great wine locations

[00:35:39] would you do me a favor and actually leave me a rating

[00:35:41] or review wherever you get this podcast. If you're watching

[00:35:44] on YouTube you can like and subscribe down there

[00:35:47] and if you've actually been to Fly Gap Winery

[00:35:50] leave a comment tell me what you thought about your experience

[00:35:53] when you were there and if you'd like to leave me

[00:35:56] any direct feedback you can always contact me on my socials

[00:35:59] it's at Texas under Vine on almost all

[00:36:02] the social platforms or you can email me directly

[00:36:05] scott at Texas under Vine.com

[00:36:08] and I would love to hear what you have to say

[00:36:10] and if you're enjoying the show or if you have any suggestions for improvement

[00:36:13] or things you'd like to see or places you'd like me to visit

[00:36:15] so send me that information if you would

[00:36:18] I really want to make sure that I'm bringing you Vine Trippers everything that you want to know

[00:36:21] in here and see and with that

[00:36:24] my time is up so remember subscribe to the podcast

[00:36:27] follow my socials to be notified

[00:36:29] anytime a new episode is released

[00:36:32] and until next time happy trails and bottoms up y'all

[00:36:37] thanks for listening to Texas under Vine

[00:36:42] we strive to provide you with the best information

[00:36:45] about wine businesses all over Texas

[00:36:48] be sure to check out our website at Texasundervine.com

[00:36:51] and follow us on our socials at Texas under Vine

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[00:37:08] above all, travel safely

[00:37:11] and most especially, drink responsibly

[00:37:23] Vine Trippers have I got a deal for you

[00:37:26] so if you haven't checked out the Texas Wine Club yet

[00:37:29] you have to go check it out

[00:37:32] you can get wine clubs at all of these different great wineries

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[00:37:47] so I've partnered with Texas Wine Club

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[00:38:41] so go drink some great wine