Hye Meadow Winery (Hill Country)

[00:00:06] [SPEAKER_01]: Howdy Vine Trippers, I wanted to take just a moment to talk to you about the Texas Wine

[00:00:10] [SPEAKER_01]: Lover website and their phone app for both iPhones as well as Google devices.

[00:00:16] [SPEAKER_01]: You can actually download this app, put it on your phone or just go to the website if

[00:00:20] [SPEAKER_01]: you're not an app person.

[00:00:22] [SPEAKER_01]: And if you ever want to go visit some of these great locations that we've been talking

[00:00:26] [SPEAKER_01]: about in the podcast, this will give you great information about the place before you

[00:00:30] [SPEAKER_01]: go and you'll be able to find other wineries in the area.

[00:00:33] [SPEAKER_01]: So if you want to make a day of it, go see several other places as well.

[00:00:37] [SPEAKER_01]: You can search by region, you can sort the listings, find ones that are kid friendly,

[00:00:42] [SPEAKER_01]: family friendly, even ones that host RVs, all kinds of different sortable listings you

[00:00:46] [SPEAKER_01]: can find there in that app and on the website.

[00:00:49] [SPEAKER_01]: You can find other things as well in the area like restaurants, accommodations,

[00:00:54] [SPEAKER_01]: maybe events that are going on at the different wineries.

[00:00:56] [SPEAKER_01]: So it's your one stop resource that goes hand in hand with this podcast to be able

[00:01:01] [SPEAKER_01]: to find those great places to go visit.

[00:01:04] [SPEAKER_01]: So check out the Texas Wine Lover website.

[00:01:07] [SPEAKER_01]: It's TXwineLover.com or go to their app.

[00:01:11] [SPEAKER_01]: You can find it on the Google Play Store or the Apple Store as well.

[00:01:15] [SPEAKER_01]: Enjoy your trips among the vines and use that app.

[00:01:42] [SPEAKER_01]: The Texas Under Vine, an exploratory podcast to scout out the best Texas wine country

[00:01:46] [SPEAKER_01]: has to offer.

[00:01:48] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm your wine guide, Scott, and I'm here to lead you on an auditory expedition to

[00:01:52] [SPEAKER_01]: vineyards and wineries across the great Lone Star State.

[00:01:56] [SPEAKER_01]: Each episode will cover a different vineyard, winery or wine related business

[00:02:00] [SPEAKER_01]: operating in Texas.

[00:02:01] [SPEAKER_01]: You'll hear interviews, descriptions and details about each location that will excite

[00:02:06] [SPEAKER_01]: you to visit and experience them for yourself.

[00:02:09] [SPEAKER_01]: Ready to plan a wine tour?

[00:02:11] [SPEAKER_01]: Use these episodes to choose the most interesting spots for you and your friends

[00:02:14] [SPEAKER_01]: to check out.

[00:02:15] [SPEAKER_01]: Most of all, enjoy hearing about the rapidly growing wine industry in the state

[00:02:19] [SPEAKER_01]: and what makes our wines and wineries the best.

[00:02:36] [SPEAKER_01]: Howdy fellow vine tripper.

[00:02:37] [SPEAKER_01]: Welcome to episode 46 of the Texas Under Vine podcast.

[00:02:41] [SPEAKER_01]: So I'm going to invite you today to travel with me to the beautiful Texas

[00:02:46] [SPEAKER_01]: Hill country, and we're going to settle down in a gorgeous meadow with the

[00:02:51] [SPEAKER_01]: butterflies and the gentle breeze through the trees.

[00:02:55] [SPEAKER_01]: And we're going to enjoy a little bit of wine together.

[00:02:57] [SPEAKER_01]: Picture the green grass all around us.

[00:03:01] [SPEAKER_01]: Listen to the sound of nature in our ears and feel that nice breeze blowing

[00:03:06] [SPEAKER_01]: across your skin as you taste and sip this amazing wine.

[00:03:10] [SPEAKER_01]: And guess what?

[00:03:11] [SPEAKER_01]: We must be at High Meadow Winery in high Texas.

[00:03:15] [SPEAKER_01]: This winery was actually started in 2012 by a fellow named Mike

[00:03:21] [SPEAKER_01]: Batek and his wife, Denise, when they were actually out looking for

[00:03:26] [SPEAKER_01]: properties where they wanted to build this winery.

[00:03:30] [SPEAKER_01]: They looked at a lot of different places through high, but they were

[00:03:33] [SPEAKER_01]: transfixed by the side of this beautiful meadow.

[00:03:37] [SPEAKER_01]: It had butterflies flying all around.

[00:03:39] [SPEAKER_01]: It was just this idyllic location and they fell in love with it.

[00:03:43] [SPEAKER_01]: And so they decided this is where they want to put down their roots.

[00:03:47] [SPEAKER_01]: Pun intended.

[00:03:48] [SPEAKER_01]: Now, as they began the winery, they started off small, as many do,

[00:03:52] [SPEAKER_01]: and kind of inconspicuous.

[00:03:54] [SPEAKER_01]: They decided to start hosting tastings in the winery building itself.

[00:03:59] [SPEAKER_01]: And they developed this relaxed ethos over that time that has since

[00:04:04] [SPEAKER_01]: evolved into their winery mantra for High Meadow Winery, which is

[00:04:08] [SPEAKER_01]: get this serious wine, fun people.

[00:04:12] [SPEAKER_01]: And at High Meadow Winery, they are serious about their wines.

[00:04:15] [SPEAKER_01]: When I showed up at the winery for a scheduled interview with Mike

[00:04:19] [SPEAKER_01]: Maytek, the owner, and he's also the winemaker, I actually had to

[00:04:24] [SPEAKER_01]: pry him out of the vineyard.

[00:04:26] [SPEAKER_01]: He was out in the vines on their estate vineyard tending to the

[00:04:29] [SPEAKER_01]: vines, and I was able to get him out to bring him in to do the

[00:04:33] [SPEAKER_01]: interview for the episode today.

[00:04:35] [SPEAKER_01]: They have an estate vineyard of about five acres, which he's

[00:04:38] [SPEAKER_01]: currently expanding just a little bit, which contains Tempranillo,

[00:04:45] [SPEAKER_01]: Montepulciano, Alianico, Rufasco, and Negro Amaro.

[00:04:48] [SPEAKER_01]: And he's planning to expand it just a little bit, hoping to

[00:04:51] [SPEAKER_01]: add some Tyrol to go.

[00:04:53] [SPEAKER_01]: So one of the things you may have noticed in that listing of great

[00:04:56] [SPEAKER_01]: varietals, there's a very Italian theme going on here and a little

[00:05:00] [SPEAKER_01]: bit of Mediterranean varietals he likes to play with as well.

[00:05:03] [SPEAKER_01]: But Mike is a huge lover of Italy.

[00:05:06] [SPEAKER_01]: He's traveled there so many times and he really loves those

[00:05:10] [SPEAKER_01]: Italian varietals and how well they do in our Texas climate.

[00:05:13] [SPEAKER_01]: The winery itself is located in High Texas, which if you're not

[00:05:18] [SPEAKER_01]: familiar with the big metropolis of High Texas, it's actually on

[00:05:22] [SPEAKER_01]: the Wine Road 290 in the Hill Country between Fredericksburg

[00:05:26] [SPEAKER_01]: and Johnson City, probably a little closer leaning towards

[00:05:29] [SPEAKER_01]: the Johnson City side.

[00:05:31] [SPEAKER_01]: But it's easily found once you get out there on 290.

[00:05:34] [SPEAKER_01]: And when you go out there and you decide to do a tasting,

[00:05:37] [SPEAKER_01]: they actually offer two different flights for their tastings.

[00:05:40] [SPEAKER_01]: You could do an all red tasting or Mike actually recommends that

[00:05:44] [SPEAKER_01]: you try the blended tasting, which actually gives you two

[00:05:47] [SPEAKER_01]: whites, a rose and two reds.

[00:05:50] [SPEAKER_01]: That way you get kind of a little overview of all the

[00:05:53] [SPEAKER_01]: different types of offerings that they have there at High

[00:05:55] [SPEAKER_01]: Meadow.

[00:05:56] [SPEAKER_01]: And this winery is very kid and pet friendly.

[00:06:00] [SPEAKER_01]: And they even host some really cool fun events for the

[00:06:03] [SPEAKER_01]: kids as well as for the pets.

[00:06:05] [SPEAKER_01]: They have one that's a dog show we talked about in the

[00:06:07] [SPEAKER_01]: interview where they have all these contests and ugliest dog

[00:06:11] [SPEAKER_01]: and funniest dog and all these fun things that they do for

[00:06:14] [SPEAKER_01]: their pets and for the kids.

[00:06:16] [SPEAKER_01]: But if you do decide to come and bring your little ones,

[00:06:19] [SPEAKER_01]: make sure you bring some extra special libations for your

[00:06:22] [SPEAKER_01]: children as they're only pouring wine in the tasting

[00:06:25] [SPEAKER_01]: room.

[00:06:25] [SPEAKER_01]: So you don't want them to get thirsty.

[00:06:27] [SPEAKER_01]: Bring something along for the kids as well.

[00:06:30] [SPEAKER_01]: When I went to visit for the interview, I was again able

[00:06:33] [SPEAKER_01]: to sit down with Mike Beatek to hear a little bit about

[00:06:36] [SPEAKER_01]: his background, his love for Italy and the places that

[00:06:40] [SPEAKER_01]: they've traveled as well as the winery itself.

[00:06:43] [SPEAKER_01]: Kind of how it got started and what you can expect when

[00:06:47] [SPEAKER_01]: you come and you do your tasting and you check out

[00:06:49] [SPEAKER_01]: High Meadow Winery for yourself.

[00:06:51] [SPEAKER_01]: So without further ado, let's get to that interview

[00:06:53] [SPEAKER_01]: and hear from him.

[00:07:01] [SPEAKER_01]: All right.

[00:07:01] [SPEAKER_01]: So I'm here with Mike Beatek, the winemaker here at

[00:07:05] [SPEAKER_01]: High Meadow Winery.

[00:07:06] [SPEAKER_01]: So tell me a little about yourself.

[00:07:07] [SPEAKER_01]: What got you into the wine industry?

[00:07:09] [SPEAKER_03]: So I grew up down in South Texas outside Corpus Christi.

[00:07:14] [SPEAKER_03]: And for whatever reason, I had an infatuation with trying

[00:07:21] [SPEAKER_03]: wine and found a restaurant that actually sold me wine

[00:07:28] [SPEAKER_03]: while I was in high school underage.

[00:07:32] [SPEAKER_03]: We won't name them.

[00:07:34] [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, there are no...

[00:07:35] [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, OK.

[00:07:36] [SPEAKER_02]: Well, that may be why.

[00:07:38] [SPEAKER_03]: But it was Italian place.

[00:07:42] [SPEAKER_03]: And so Sangiovese, Montefalcano, all the Italians

[00:07:46] [SPEAKER_03]: they sold there, I would stay after on like a Friday night,

[00:07:51] [SPEAKER_03]: help them close.

[00:07:53] [SPEAKER_03]: And then anything that was open was fair game.

[00:07:56] [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, cool.

[00:07:56] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I got to close out those bottles.

[00:07:58] [SPEAKER_03]: So yeah.

[00:07:59] [SPEAKER_03]: So kind of cut my teeth there.

[00:08:02] [SPEAKER_03]: Went to A&M.

[00:08:03] [SPEAKER_03]: There was a guy doing wine courses there.

[00:08:05] [SPEAKER_03]: Did that for a couple of years and then left it.

[00:08:09] [SPEAKER_03]: Left wine behind.

[00:08:12] [SPEAKER_03]: Still enjoyed it, still was enamored with it.

[00:08:15] [SPEAKER_03]: But I never knew you could actually do anything with wine.

[00:08:19] [SPEAKER_03]: Make your career out of it, right?

[00:08:21] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, not part of my upbringing.

[00:08:24] [SPEAKER_03]: And then later in life, my wife

[00:08:27] [SPEAKER_03]: were just at kind of a pivot point.

[00:08:30] [SPEAKER_03]: It was like, why not?

[00:08:33] [SPEAKER_03]: Why not?

[00:08:34] [SPEAKER_03]: I see what you did there.

[00:08:35] Yeah.

[00:08:36] [SPEAKER_01]: All right.

[00:08:37] [SPEAKER_01]: And then is that what got you started?

[00:08:38] [SPEAKER_01]: So tell me about the history of High Meadow.

[00:08:41] [SPEAKER_03]: So I went to school at Tech for the Viticulture

[00:08:45] [SPEAKER_03]: program.

[00:08:46] [SPEAKER_03]: And during that time, I was also

[00:08:48] [SPEAKER_03]: doing slave labor at a couple of places,

[00:08:51] [SPEAKER_03]: working some vineyard blocks, helping with bottling,

[00:08:55] [SPEAKER_03]: anything to learn.

[00:08:57] [SPEAKER_03]: And my wife had one incredible year of sales.

[00:09:04] [SPEAKER_03]: And we had seed money.

[00:09:07] [SPEAKER_03]: So three years of looking, Chris Brun-Dret

[00:09:12] [SPEAKER_03]: was bugging me like every two, three months.

[00:09:15] [SPEAKER_03]: Come out to high.

[00:09:16] [SPEAKER_03]: Come out to high.

[00:09:18] [SPEAKER_03]: We got a realtor who will show you several properties.

[00:09:22] [SPEAKER_03]: So I came out, visited the ranch next to us,

[00:09:27] [SPEAKER_03]: which is huge.

[00:09:28] [SPEAKER_03]: It was way too big.

[00:09:30] [SPEAKER_03]: Came here.

[00:09:31] [SPEAKER_03]: Loved it.

[00:09:34] [SPEAKER_03]: Couple of other properties.

[00:09:35] [SPEAKER_03]: And then that was a Monday.

[00:09:37] [SPEAKER_03]: Tuesday, I brought my wife out.

[00:09:40] [SPEAKER_03]: And we drove in and the gate was right across

[00:09:43] [SPEAKER_03]: from the Dikey garage.

[00:09:45] [SPEAKER_03]: And you go through this meadow and there's butterflies.

[00:09:49] [SPEAKER_03]: There's lambs.

[00:09:51] [SPEAKER_03]: The dragonflies are skimming.

[00:09:54] [SPEAKER_03]: It was just idyllic.

[00:09:55] [SPEAKER_03]: You park under an oak.

[00:09:57] [SPEAKER_03]: And she's like, yeah, this is it.

[00:10:00] [SPEAKER_03]: I was like, yeah, this is it.

[00:10:02] [SPEAKER_03]: And then put an offer on Wednesday.

[00:10:06] [SPEAKER_01]: Wow.

[00:10:06] [SPEAKER_01]: It's like this perfect idyllic Hill Country meadow scene.

[00:10:10] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it was absolutely beautiful.

[00:10:12] [SPEAKER_01]: All right.

[00:10:12] [SPEAKER_01]: And you can envision putting up your rows

[00:10:15] [SPEAKER_01]: and getting the tasting room set up there.

[00:10:18] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:10:19] [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, you kind of get enamored.

[00:10:21] [SPEAKER_03]: And it was like, oh, we've got to plan this out now.

[00:10:24] [SPEAKER_03]: Now the rubber hits the road.

[00:10:25] [SPEAKER_03]: Well, and then so as soon as we put that on,

[00:10:31] [SPEAKER_03]: then we start doing some clearing and whatnot.

[00:10:35] [SPEAKER_03]: All the cedar trees, I'm sure?

[00:10:36] [SPEAKER_03]: There wasn't any cedar.

[00:10:37] [SPEAKER_03]: All the cedars are in the back.

[00:10:39] [SPEAKER_03]: OK.

[00:10:41] [SPEAKER_03]: But planning the actual winery.

[00:10:45] [SPEAKER_03]: So gosh, I spent a lot of time with the rig neighbors

[00:10:48] [SPEAKER_03]: over who had Flat Creek back in the day.

[00:10:53] [SPEAKER_03]: Anybody who, and just about everybody, to talk to them,

[00:10:58] [SPEAKER_03]: what do you like what you built about what

[00:11:01] [SPEAKER_03]: you built, what you don't like?

[00:11:02] [SPEAKER_03]: What would you do differently?

[00:11:04] [SPEAKER_03]: And there was one in common thread amongst everybody.

[00:11:08] [SPEAKER_03]: I wish I would have built a bigger building starting out.

[00:11:13] [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, OK.

[00:11:14] [SPEAKER_03]: Because everybody had two buildings.

[00:11:15] [SPEAKER_03]: OK.

[00:11:16] [SPEAKER_03]: At least.

[00:11:18] [SPEAKER_03]: Because they started small and then grew out, grew that.

[00:11:21] [SPEAKER_03]: Well, we better build another building.

[00:11:22] [SPEAKER_03]: And then you have another building and then another

[00:11:24] [SPEAKER_03]: building.

[00:11:25] [SPEAKER_03]: And I was like, OK, well, we're

[00:11:27] [SPEAKER_03]: just going to bite the bullet and make

[00:11:29] [SPEAKER_03]: a big building starting out.

[00:11:30] [SPEAKER_03]: Go from the start?

[00:11:31] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:11:32] [SPEAKER_01]: All right.

[00:11:33] [SPEAKER_01]: And when was that?

[00:11:34] [SPEAKER_01]: That was 2012.

[00:11:36] [SPEAKER_01]: OK, so about 12 years now that you've been.

[00:11:39] [SPEAKER_01]: And when did you open the door?

[00:11:42] [SPEAKER_03]: 13.

[00:11:42] [SPEAKER_03]: So the first building we did was the winery.

[00:11:46] [SPEAKER_03]: And we did tastings inside the winery.

[00:11:48] [SPEAKER_03]: OK, yeah.

[00:11:49] [SPEAKER_03]: Just on production floor.

[00:11:50] [SPEAKER_03]: OK.

[00:11:50] [SPEAKER_03]: We had picnic tables.

[00:11:52] [SPEAKER_03]: We had our dump buckets were the little kits

[00:11:58] [SPEAKER_03]: that you give kids to go to the beach.

[00:12:00] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah, the little pails.

[00:12:01] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[00:12:02] [SPEAKER_02]: Sandpiles, everything.

[00:12:02] [SPEAKER_01]: Those were our dump buckets.

[00:12:04] [SPEAKER_01]: It's like having a Kentucky Fried Chicken box there

[00:12:06] [SPEAKER_01]: or something like that.

[00:12:07] [SPEAKER_03]: Whatever you got.

[00:12:08] [SPEAKER_03]: Well, I mean, it was just it's cheap.

[00:12:10] [SPEAKER_03]: It's convenient.

[00:12:11] [SPEAKER_03]: And you can't break it because we're on concrete floor.

[00:12:14] [SPEAKER_03]: OK, there you go.

[00:12:15] [SPEAKER_03]: So it's like, oh, yeah, this is great.

[00:12:17] [SPEAKER_03]: So very informal starting out.

[00:12:20] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:12:20] [SPEAKER_03]: And I think that kind of also set the tone going forward.

[00:12:26] [SPEAKER_03]: So our motto that we eventually came to was serious wine, fun people.

[00:12:34] [SPEAKER_03]: OK, there you go.

[00:12:35] [SPEAKER_03]: I like that.

[00:12:36] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, because people come in and they're so tense at times.

[00:12:41] [SPEAKER_03]: And it's like there's no reason to be tense.

[00:12:44] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:12:45] [SPEAKER_03]: You go anywhere else.

[00:12:46] [SPEAKER_03]: Like you go to Italy and it's like, oh, do the house wine.

[00:12:51] [SPEAKER_03]: And they bring it to you in a jug.

[00:12:53] [SPEAKER_03]: It's just easy.

[00:12:54] [SPEAKER_03]: There's no pretense or anything.

[00:12:58] [SPEAKER_03]: And then you go to a restaurant here and you got all these choices.

[00:13:03] [SPEAKER_03]: And then somebody is looking down at you.

[00:13:06] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, like I told you earlier from based on my past experience,

[00:13:10] [SPEAKER_01]: that was my first thought was I don't know much about wine.

[00:13:12] [SPEAKER_01]: I always perceive wine as being this big thing and this big quality of note.

[00:13:17] [SPEAKER_01]: And you have to have this master sommelier to tell you what.

[00:13:20] [SPEAKER_01]: But it is easy.

[00:13:22] [SPEAKER_01]: It should be relaxed for the people, a very simple thing.

[00:13:25] [SPEAKER_01]: So I like that concept that you have there.

[00:13:28] [SPEAKER_01]: And then you've got some vineyard here on site.

[00:13:31] [SPEAKER_01]: So tell me a little bit about what you've got here on site.

[00:13:33] [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, where I was working.

[00:13:34] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I just pulled you out of the vineyard to come do this interview.

[00:13:38] [SPEAKER_03]: So we've got Tempranillo.

[00:13:40] [SPEAKER_03]: OK.

[00:13:42] [SPEAKER_03]: Montolcana, Negro Amaro, Rufasco, Alianico.

[00:13:48] [SPEAKER_03]: And in a little over a week we'll be planning a block of Tirol to go.

[00:13:53] [SPEAKER_01]: OK.

[00:13:54] [SPEAKER_01]: I love that you've got some of that, still that Italian kind of influence

[00:13:58] [SPEAKER_01]: from your early days with Italian wine.

[00:14:01] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, we do.

[00:14:02] [SPEAKER_01]: Basically, we're an Italian.

[00:14:03] [SPEAKER_03]: You like those Italian varieties a lot.

[00:14:05] [SPEAKER_03]: We do a little bit of Mediterranean.

[00:14:07] [SPEAKER_03]: So Tempranillo, just because everybody enjoys Tempranillo and you grow it.

[00:14:13] [SPEAKER_03]: And then we do a little bit of Morvedra and Carignan.

[00:14:18] [SPEAKER_03]: So we do an off-dry red with Carignan, Morvedra, flat.

[00:14:22] [SPEAKER_01]: OK.

[00:14:23] [SPEAKER_01]: And then how many acres do you have here?

[00:14:27] [SPEAKER_01]: We have five, and we're getting ready to put in another.

[00:14:29] [SPEAKER_01]: OK.

[00:14:30] [SPEAKER_01]: And then how long have you had that vineyard on site?

[00:14:33] [SPEAKER_01]: 2015.

[00:14:34] [SPEAKER_01]: OK, so pretty quickly after you open.

[00:14:36] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:14:36] [SPEAKER_01]: All right.

[00:14:37] [SPEAKER_01]: So before that, you were, I'm sure, sourcing,

[00:14:40] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure you sourced some fruit still from high plates and other growers,

[00:14:44] [SPEAKER_01]: maybe the hill country?

[00:14:45] [SPEAKER_03]: So back then, there was only the high points.

[00:14:48] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:14:49] [SPEAKER_03]: There was no hill country growers, per se.

[00:14:52] [SPEAKER_03]: Grape Creek had some on site.

[00:14:57] [SPEAKER_03]: Not Ron Yates.

[00:14:59] [SPEAKER_03]: Spice Yates, but Spicewood.

[00:15:00] [SPEAKER_03]: OK, gotcha.

[00:15:01] [SPEAKER_03]: Because I used to watch over a block of fruit over there.

[00:15:05] [SPEAKER_03]: And then just not a lot of fruit was there.

[00:15:09] [SPEAKER_03]: And then I started at the absolute worst time

[00:15:13] [SPEAKER_03]: because there was the super drought going on.

[00:15:18] [SPEAKER_03]: And then right after that, there were two freezes.

[00:15:22] [SPEAKER_03]: And the last freeze being in April.

[00:15:25] [SPEAKER_03]: So there was no fruit.

[00:15:27] [SPEAKER_03]: So our Texas harvest was, I think, 40 cases of Treviano

[00:15:34] [SPEAKER_03]: that we had gotten.

[00:15:36] [SPEAKER_03]: And we're not even sure if it was Treviano,

[00:15:39] [SPEAKER_03]: because they just basically went through all their white blocks.

[00:15:44] [SPEAKER_03]: And they had enough grapes to just eke out.

[00:15:49] [SPEAKER_03]: Fill in some vins.

[00:15:51] [SPEAKER_03]: So it's more of a field blend probably of some kind.

[00:15:54] [SPEAKER_03]: Pretty much.

[00:15:55] [SPEAKER_03]: But it was Treviano.

[00:15:56] [SPEAKER_03]: There you go.

[00:15:57] [SPEAKER_03]: And then so we got some stuff out of Washington State.

[00:16:01] [SPEAKER_03]: God, we had some fruit from Worse Heaven Hills,

[00:16:04] [SPEAKER_03]: some St. George Bay seat.

[00:16:05] [SPEAKER_03]: That was absolutely gorgeous.

[00:16:07] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah?

[00:16:08] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:16:08] [SPEAKER_03]: And then after that, we were all Texas from 2014 on.

[00:16:13] [SPEAKER_02]: OK.

[00:16:14] [SPEAKER_01]: Then yeah, you manage that vineyard and everything here.

[00:16:17] [SPEAKER_01]: That's a prospect in and of itself.

[00:16:19] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah.

[00:16:19] [SPEAKER_01]: My wife, she loves and hates that vineyard.

[00:16:25] [SPEAKER_01]: Do you?

[00:16:26] [SPEAKER_01]: And then, of course, I would think of maybe only five

[00:16:28] [SPEAKER_01]: to six acres.

[00:16:30] [SPEAKER_01]: Does that go in just to your estate wines?

[00:16:32] [SPEAKER_01]: Yes.

[00:16:32] [SPEAKER_01]: OK.

[00:16:33] [SPEAKER_01]: Just the estate.

[00:16:34] [SPEAKER_03]: OK.

[00:16:34] [SPEAKER_03]: Because we do an estate month, Pocchano,

[00:16:37] [SPEAKER_03]: State Alianica, Tempranillo, Rufosco.

[00:16:41] [SPEAKER_03]: We're releasing for the first time on its own.

[00:16:46] [SPEAKER_03]: Then we do a blend with what's called Neighbors.

[00:16:51] [SPEAKER_03]: So it's Gears & Brothers barrels and our grapes.

[00:16:55] [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, cool.

[00:16:56] [SPEAKER_03]: So neighbors working together.

[00:16:57] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I like that.

[00:16:58] [SPEAKER_03]: And then so that's where the Negro Marl all goes.

[00:17:02] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:17:03] [SPEAKER_01]: And I was just talking to you about that

[00:17:04] [SPEAKER_01]: before the interview.

[00:17:05] [SPEAKER_01]: Negro Marl is one of my favorites.

[00:17:07] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if they've ever had Rufosco.

[00:17:09] [SPEAKER_03]: So it's not a well-known grape.

[00:17:12] [SPEAKER_03]: They were growing it down in Southern California,

[00:17:15] [SPEAKER_03]: and it was doing really well.

[00:17:17] [SPEAKER_03]: And I was thinking it was up near a Veneto area.

[00:17:23] [SPEAKER_03]: OK.

[00:17:24] [SPEAKER_03]: And I was like, and the rep was like, yeah, it likes the heat.

[00:17:30] [SPEAKER_03]: It's doing great in Southern California.

[00:17:32] [SPEAKER_03]: And that's like a Dexys.

[00:17:34] [SPEAKER_03]: There you go.

[00:17:34] [SPEAKER_03]: It's Dexys.

[00:17:35] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:17:36] [SPEAKER_03]: And I was like, oh, I want to do a red sparkling.

[00:17:39] [SPEAKER_03]: OK.

[00:17:39] [SPEAKER_03]: Well, first time we harvested it, it was so rich, so dark.

[00:17:46] [SPEAKER_03]: I was like, you can't do a sparkling.

[00:17:49] [SPEAKER_01]: You got to make us still.

[00:17:50] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:17:52] [SPEAKER_03]: And then that block with it and Alianico,

[00:17:56] [SPEAKER_03]: we were fighting cotton rubrot.

[00:17:59] [SPEAKER_03]: So the yields for a couple of years were super low.

[00:18:03] [SPEAKER_03]: And so we got the rubrot kind of under control.

[00:18:07] [SPEAKER_01]: OK.

[00:18:09] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, tell me about the winery itself here.

[00:18:11] [SPEAKER_01]: And you may have already hinted at this

[00:18:13] [SPEAKER_01]: through your story.

[00:18:14] [SPEAKER_01]: It may be kind of a silly question,

[00:18:16] [SPEAKER_01]: but I always like to ask people,

[00:18:17] [SPEAKER_01]: how did you decide on the name High Meadow Winery?

[00:18:20] [SPEAKER_01]: You already talked about the meadow,

[00:18:21] [SPEAKER_01]: so I'm guessing that's part of it.

[00:18:23] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:18:23] [SPEAKER_03]: And then we're in high, and it's kind of like everybody

[00:18:27] [SPEAKER_03]: used to always ask, where the hell is High?

[00:18:30] [SPEAKER_03]: High, right.

[00:18:31] [SPEAKER_03]: And it was like, oh, we got to have it.

[00:18:32] [SPEAKER_03]: OK.

[00:18:34] [SPEAKER_03]: The other name, there was just one other.

[00:18:38] [SPEAKER_03]: We had gone on a vacation with our kids

[00:18:41] [SPEAKER_03]: when they were, I guess our son was in fourth grade

[00:18:45] [SPEAKER_03]: and our oldest was going into high school.

[00:18:48] [SPEAKER_03]: And we spent, we went through Italy,

[00:18:52] [SPEAKER_03]: but we stayed one, two days in Bolsena.

[00:18:58] [SPEAKER_03]: OK.

[00:18:58] [SPEAKER_03]: So it's about an hour and a half, two hours,

[00:19:00] [SPEAKER_03]: kind of north of Rome.

[00:19:02] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:19:03] [SPEAKER_03]: And it's a sunken volcanic lake.

[00:19:06] [SPEAKER_03]: Interesting.

[00:19:07] [SPEAKER_03]: And we, in Treviano, because they grow so much Treviano

[00:19:12] [SPEAKER_03]: there, but we hung out on the side of the lake.

[00:19:15] [SPEAKER_03]: They had a concession stand and this, I mean, it's a small town,

[00:19:22] [SPEAKER_03]: but everybody was there.

[00:19:23] [SPEAKER_03]: OK.

[00:19:23] [SPEAKER_03]: So there were teenagers, and then we were,

[00:19:27] [SPEAKER_03]: we'd hang out there, and we're having poor beer,

[00:19:32] [SPEAKER_03]: have Treviano in the afternoon, having paninis.

[00:19:37] [SPEAKER_03]: It was just, we just had a really, really good time

[00:19:41] [SPEAKER_03]: there.

[00:19:42] [SPEAKER_03]: Cool.

[00:19:42] [SPEAKER_03]: It was just so friendly.

[00:19:45] [SPEAKER_03]: But then it was like, I meant, I just kind of won out.

[00:19:49] [SPEAKER_01]: OK.

[00:19:50] [SPEAKER_01]: Gotcha.

[00:19:50] [SPEAKER_01]: So kind of gave that debate, but then, yeah.

[00:19:53] [SPEAKER_01]: I like that named after the area, because yeah,

[00:19:55] [SPEAKER_01]: a lot of people when I tell them,

[00:19:56] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm talking to you about the wine road here,

[00:19:58] [SPEAKER_01]: they've heard of Fredericksburg for sure.

[00:20:00] [SPEAKER_01]: Might have heard of Johnson City,

[00:20:01] [SPEAKER_01]: but when I talk about high, they're like, what?

[00:20:04] [SPEAKER_01]: High?

[00:20:04] [SPEAKER_01]: Where is that?

[00:20:05] [SPEAKER_03]: Halfway between?

[00:20:07] [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, yeah.

[00:20:07] [SPEAKER_03]: And then there's so many wineries here.

[00:20:09] [SPEAKER_03]: Uh-huh.

[00:20:10] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:20:10] [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, just immediate.

[00:20:13] [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, French Connection up the road, Nero Path.

[00:20:17] [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, William Chris across this street,

[00:20:20] [SPEAKER_03]: and you've got all the guys right over there.

[00:20:23] [SPEAKER_03]: And it's like great.

[00:20:24] [SPEAKER_03]: More just down the way there.

[00:20:26] [SPEAKER_01]: So cool.

[00:20:28] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, let's talk some about your production facilities.

[00:20:31] [SPEAKER_01]: You said, yeah, you do your production here.

[00:20:34] [SPEAKER_01]: And so you crush everything here?

[00:20:36] [SPEAKER_01]: You do all the production here on site?

[00:20:38] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:20:38] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:20:39] [SPEAKER_01]: OK.

[00:20:39] [SPEAKER_03]: There's two of us, myself and Samuel.

[00:20:42] [SPEAKER_03]: And then my wife helps out during production too.

[00:20:47] [SPEAKER_03]: So she is, you always heard the term seller rat.

[00:20:51] [SPEAKER_03]: Uh-huh, yeah.

[00:20:52] [SPEAKER_03]: So her term is position as seller mouse.

[00:20:56] [SPEAKER_03]: OK.

[00:20:57] [SPEAKER_03]: So a seller rat does all the dirty work.

[00:20:59] [SPEAKER_03]: Right.

[00:21:00] [SPEAKER_03]: The seller mouse keeps her hands clean.

[00:21:02] [SPEAKER_03]: OK, gotcha.

[00:21:03] [SPEAKER_03]: So she helps out for all the processing and everything.

[00:21:08] [SPEAKER_03]: But when the cleaning comes around, she's gone.

[00:21:10] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[00:21:11] [SPEAKER_02]: She's back in the mouse hole.

[00:21:12] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[00:21:13] [SPEAKER_03]: Yes.

[00:21:14] [SPEAKER_03]: But I will say we've done two Harvest where it was just

[00:21:19] [SPEAKER_03]: my wife and I.

[00:21:20] [SPEAKER_03]: OK.

[00:21:22] [SPEAKER_03]: We had hired a guy out of Washington state

[00:21:25] [SPEAKER_03]: and he left like a week before Harvest started.

[00:21:29] [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, wow.

[00:21:32] [SPEAKER_03]: Homesick, homesick snowflake.

[00:21:34] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:21:35] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:21:36] [SPEAKER_03]: No heat.

[00:21:37] [SPEAKER_03]: Can't handle the heat, huh?

[00:21:39] [SPEAKER_03]: He can handle a lot.

[00:21:41] [SPEAKER_03]: I gotcha.

[00:21:42] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:21:43] [SPEAKER_03]: The stress of driving was big for him.

[00:21:47] [SPEAKER_03]: But yeah, so we have done, well,

[00:21:51] [SPEAKER_03]: I think that was 18 Harvest she and I did alone.

[00:21:55] [SPEAKER_03]: And then during COVID, we did Harvesting ourselves as well.

[00:22:00] [SPEAKER_03]: We just couldn't get people out.

[00:22:02] [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, it was just weird 10.

[00:22:04] [SPEAKER_03]: It was a weird situation.

[00:22:05] [SPEAKER_03]: But the funniest thing during COVID,

[00:22:09] [SPEAKER_03]: we kept everybody working when we were shut down.

[00:22:14] [SPEAKER_03]: And it's like, OK, we are going to pay you

[00:22:17] [SPEAKER_03]: like you're getting tips.

[00:22:19] [SPEAKER_03]: You're whole.

[00:22:20] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[00:22:22] [SPEAKER_03]: Pay your bills.

[00:22:24] [SPEAKER_03]: Don't get off stuff just because somebody says,

[00:22:27] [SPEAKER_03]: oh, don't worry.

[00:22:28] [SPEAKER_03]: You can, you know, that's like pay your bills.

[00:22:31] [SPEAKER_03]: Be good citizens.

[00:22:33] [SPEAKER_03]: And then we delivered Wine Club that April ourselves.

[00:22:40] [SPEAKER_03]: Because of the state.

[00:22:41] [SPEAKER_03]: Just took them hand delivered.

[00:22:43] [SPEAKER_03]: You were the doordash from Wine Club, huh?

[00:22:45] [SPEAKER_03]: We did.

[00:22:47] [SPEAKER_03]: We put 20,000 miles on our goal in one month.

[00:22:52] [SPEAKER_03]: How just circulating throughout the state.

[00:22:54] [SPEAKER_03]: Oh yeah.

[00:22:56] [SPEAKER_03]: So I mean, Justin kind of did San Antonio

[00:22:59] [SPEAKER_03]: over there.

[00:23:02] [SPEAKER_03]: And then Kirk, who used to live in Houston,

[00:23:05] [SPEAKER_03]: did part of Houston.

[00:23:06] [SPEAKER_03]: We did the far side out to Galveston.

[00:23:09] [SPEAKER_03]: We were living over in Austin at the time.

[00:23:11] [SPEAKER_03]: So we all kind of split Austin up.

[00:23:14] [SPEAKER_03]: And then we did everything above Austin.

[00:23:19] [SPEAKER_03]: I would never want to do that again.

[00:23:22] [SPEAKER_03]: It was fantastic.

[00:23:24] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:23:24] [SPEAKER_03]: While we did it, because people would just light up.

[00:23:30] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:23:30] [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, you're the first people we've seen.

[00:23:34] [SPEAKER_03]: And you're bringing wine.

[00:23:35] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:23:36] [SPEAKER_03]: It's like we haven't left the house in weeks.

[00:23:40] [SPEAKER_03]: And then they just, so things that we're like,

[00:23:44] [SPEAKER_03]: oh, we're going to just take this stuff off.

[00:23:46] [SPEAKER_03]: No.

[00:23:47] [SPEAKER_03]: Every time you stop, you're just talking.

[00:23:50] [SPEAKER_03]: And it was like one of those things,

[00:23:53] [SPEAKER_03]: probably the only thing I like about COVID.

[00:23:56] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:23:57] [SPEAKER_01]: That's a really cool story, that trip you had.

[00:24:00] [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm sure that meant a ton to these people who

[00:24:03] [SPEAKER_01]: live miles and miles away.

[00:24:04] [SPEAKER_01]: And here's the winemaker showing up on their door

[00:24:07] [SPEAKER_01]: with the wine.

[00:24:08] [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, one of my favorites.

[00:24:11] [SPEAKER_03]: So going down to Corpus, there

[00:24:14] [SPEAKER_03]: was a little bitty town where I was going to make a drop

[00:24:18] [SPEAKER_03]: off.

[00:24:19] [SPEAKER_03]: And I mean, when I see little bitty, it was one street.

[00:24:22] [SPEAKER_03]: And for whatever reason, there was a guy sitting on the side

[00:24:26] [SPEAKER_03]: with a forklift.

[00:24:27] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:24:28] [SPEAKER_03]: And I'm going up and down looking for an address.

[00:24:30] [SPEAKER_03]: I cannot find it.

[00:24:32] [SPEAKER_03]: It was like, I'm looking on Google Maps, Apple Maps.

[00:24:36] [SPEAKER_03]: It was like, am I dumb?

[00:24:38] [SPEAKER_03]: Is that what you want?

[00:24:39] [SPEAKER_03]: One road town.

[00:24:41] [SPEAKER_03]: And then I finally found it was an oil fuel compound.

[00:24:46] [SPEAKER_03]: And it was off.

[00:24:47] [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, like set back in.

[00:24:49] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, set back in.

[00:24:50] [SPEAKER_03]: So I go in and knock on the door.

[00:24:54] [SPEAKER_03]: And this guy came out.

[00:24:56] [SPEAKER_03]: He's got shorts on.

[00:24:58] [SPEAKER_03]: But from here up, he's dressed up for a Zoom meeting.

[00:25:02] [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, I love it.

[00:25:03] [SPEAKER_03]: Coat tie and everything, shorts on.

[00:25:05] [SPEAKER_03]: And then he looks at me.

[00:25:09] [SPEAKER_03]: And I was like, hey, it's Mike.

[00:25:10] [SPEAKER_03]: I'm here for my meadow.

[00:25:11] [SPEAKER_03]: I've got your wine.

[00:25:12] [SPEAKER_03]: And he goes, damn, this is good.

[00:25:15] [SPEAKER_03]: He goes, I'm drinking during my Zoom meeting now.

[00:25:19] [SPEAKER_02]: I got my water bottle.

[00:25:20] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to put it in there.

[00:25:21] [SPEAKER_02]: Coffee cup.

[00:25:23] [SPEAKER_02]: He got the whole bottle.

[00:25:25] [SPEAKER_02]: I love it.

[00:25:26] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, but the look of surprise on his face.

[00:25:31] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's cool.

[00:25:33] [SPEAKER_01]: Were you closed?

[00:25:34] [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I don't want to dwell too much on COVID.

[00:25:36] [SPEAKER_01]: It was an interesting time.

[00:25:37] [SPEAKER_01]: But did you have to stay?

[00:25:38] [SPEAKER_01]: Your doors closed super long?

[00:25:39] [SPEAKER_01]: Because I've talked to a lot of wineries who have said

[00:25:42] [SPEAKER_01]: that during COVID, they kind of benefited a little bit.

[00:25:45] [SPEAKER_01]: And I noticed you've got some tables and things kind

[00:25:47] [SPEAKER_01]: of secluded.

[00:25:48] [SPEAKER_01]: So with that social distancing thing, wineries were a place

[00:25:50] [SPEAKER_01]: where people could go to kind of get something and be away

[00:25:53] [SPEAKER_01]: from people and still circulating.

[00:25:56] [SPEAKER_03]: At the start, the governor shut everything down.

[00:25:58] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, they shut us down for several months.

[00:26:00] [SPEAKER_03]: And then after a while, people were like,

[00:26:04] [SPEAKER_03]: this ridiculous.

[00:26:05] [SPEAKER_03]: We're going to open.

[00:26:07] [SPEAKER_03]: So we had a table over here outside and it had cups

[00:26:12] [SPEAKER_03]: and it had corkscrews and a couple of dump buckets.

[00:26:18] [SPEAKER_03]: And it was like, we cannot open your wine,

[00:26:23] [SPEAKER_03]: but here is everything you need if you would like

[00:26:27] [SPEAKER_03]: to wander the property.

[00:26:29] [SPEAKER_03]: That's awesome.

[00:26:30] [SPEAKER_03]: Social distance among the butterflies.

[00:26:32] [SPEAKER_03]: Oh yeah.

[00:26:32] [SPEAKER_03]: Well, I mean, we can have 150 people, he sure.

[00:26:37] [SPEAKER_03]: And they're so spread out.

[00:26:39] [SPEAKER_03]: A hundred people don't even know there's another.

[00:26:41] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, there are people there.

[00:26:43] [SPEAKER_01]: That's awesome.

[00:26:44] [SPEAKER_01]: I like that.

[00:26:45] [SPEAKER_01]: Okay, well let's talk about your wines for a minute.

[00:26:47] [SPEAKER_01]: So just particularly as a wine maker,

[00:26:50] [SPEAKER_01]: what are some of your favorite wines to make?

[00:26:54] [SPEAKER_03]: So the favorites, probably my best memory was,

[00:26:59] [SPEAKER_03]: I was over at Doofman.

[00:27:01] [SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[00:27:03] [SPEAKER_03]: Couple of years before we started

[00:27:05] [SPEAKER_03]: and they were fermenting Alianica.

[00:27:09] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:27:10] [SPEAKER_03]: And you just got this crushed roses in the air

[00:27:14] [SPEAKER_03]: and it was like, oh my gosh,

[00:27:17] [SPEAKER_03]: I've got to make that.

[00:27:19] [SPEAKER_01]: Doesn't matter how it tastes,

[00:27:21] [SPEAKER_01]: that phenolix is amazing, right?

[00:27:22] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:27:23] [SPEAKER_03]: And so Dave was an early hero for the stuff he was making.

[00:27:31] [SPEAKER_03]: And then Dolcetto just because that was just one

[00:27:35] [SPEAKER_03]: of those where it's just smells so good.

[00:27:39] [SPEAKER_03]: So aroma based.

[00:27:41] [SPEAKER_03]: And then, gosh, now we do.

[00:27:44] [SPEAKER_03]: So when we were 25th anniversary,

[00:27:48] [SPEAKER_03]: we were in Southern Italy and it ties in.

[00:27:51] [SPEAKER_03]: But my favorite wine on that trip was an Alianico Rosé.

[00:27:56] [SPEAKER_03]: So we do Alianico Rosé.

[00:27:58] [SPEAKER_03]: Oh nice.

[00:27:59] [SPEAKER_03]: It's a little bit more structured than a regular Rosé,

[00:28:04] [SPEAKER_03]: but it's a tan and so, and it just tastes so dang good.

[00:28:08] [SPEAKER_03]: Ours we call not quite pink.

[00:28:11] [SPEAKER_03]: I'm sure the darker color.

[00:28:12] [SPEAKER_03]: The first couple of times it was dark.

[00:28:15] [SPEAKER_03]: It was like super dark.

[00:28:16] [SPEAKER_03]: Now we've got it to where it looks

[00:28:20] [SPEAKER_03]: like a very delicate Rosé, but it still has the tan.

[00:28:23] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:28:24] [SPEAKER_01]: You got to figure out that exact amount

[00:28:26] [SPEAKER_01]: of skin contact time to get it to the right color

[00:28:28] [SPEAKER_01]: you're looking for and not a minute over.

[00:28:31] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh yeah.

[00:28:32] [SPEAKER_03]: So I love Alianico.

[00:28:34] [SPEAKER_03]: Me too.

[00:28:35] [SPEAKER_03]: The structure, I love the smells,

[00:28:37] [SPEAKER_03]: the memories that I have of it.

[00:28:40] [SPEAKER_03]: St. Gervais is another one that,

[00:28:43] [SPEAKER_03]: you know, I cut my teeth on back in the day.

[00:28:46] [SPEAKER_03]: So fond memories there.

[00:28:50] [SPEAKER_03]: For whites, I mean,

[00:28:54] [SPEAKER_03]: I love Vignette when it's sitting at about 20 bricks,

[00:29:01] [SPEAKER_03]: 2019 bricks.

[00:29:02] [SPEAKER_03]: It's busy.

[00:29:04] [SPEAKER_03]: It can smell like pineapple and apricot.

[00:29:09] [SPEAKER_03]: We're so rich and it tastes so good.

[00:29:13] [SPEAKER_03]: So that's one where I just,

[00:29:16] [SPEAKER_03]: I always get excited when it starts fermenting

[00:29:19] [SPEAKER_03]: because after a few days,

[00:29:21] [SPEAKER_03]: it's like your breakfast drink.

[00:29:23] [SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[00:29:24] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, it's like hardly any alcohol

[00:29:26] [SPEAKER_03]: but it's got the juice.

[00:29:28] [SPEAKER_03]: It's busy.

[00:29:29] [SPEAKER_01]: It's just delightful.

[00:29:31] [SPEAKER_01]: Awesome.

[00:29:32] [SPEAKER_01]: What about from a customer's perspective?

[00:29:34] [SPEAKER_01]: What are some of the most popular wines here

[00:29:36] [SPEAKER_01]: at High Meadow?

[00:29:37] [SPEAKER_01]: The ones that you just keep in stock

[00:29:38] [SPEAKER_01]: and they just keep people, keep clamoring.

[00:29:40] [SPEAKER_01]: Probably the number one would be the full Monte.

[00:29:43] [SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[00:29:43] [SPEAKER_03]: It's a multiple shot of it.

[00:29:45] [SPEAKER_02]: Ah, okay.

[00:29:46] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, that, the Boom was also Italian red blend

[00:29:51] [SPEAKER_03]: and then on the white side,

[00:29:55] [SPEAKER_03]: like it's usually our white blunt.

[00:29:59] [SPEAKER_02]: Okay.

[00:30:00] [SPEAKER_03]: And either Junquard White or Colo Bianco.

[00:30:03] [SPEAKER_03]: But it's, we're going for a scent on that

[00:30:09] [SPEAKER_03]: and we never could figure out at the early days

[00:30:13] [SPEAKER_03]: and somebody looked up and was like what?

[00:30:16] [SPEAKER_03]: Cause it was almost like juicy fruit, the yellow.

[00:30:19] [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, okay.

[00:30:19] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:30:20] [SPEAKER_03]: In the day and we looked up all the ingredients in there

[00:30:25] [SPEAKER_03]: and there's a fruit and it's not well known

[00:30:30] [SPEAKER_03]: and it grows off a vine.

[00:30:32] [SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[00:30:34] [SPEAKER_03]: Pawpaw.

[00:30:35] [SPEAKER_03]: I haven't heard of that.

[00:30:36] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, so we started back in the day

[00:30:39] [SPEAKER_03]: and it's like, oh yeah, it's pawpaw.

[00:30:41] [SPEAKER_03]: It's the pawpaw plant.

[00:30:43] [SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[00:30:44] [SPEAKER_03]: So, but that's just easy drinking.

[00:30:47] [SPEAKER_03]: It's our patio.

[00:30:48] [SPEAKER_03]: Your patio wine.

[00:30:49] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:30:49] [SPEAKER_03]: Really great during the summer, I'm sure.

[00:30:51] [SPEAKER_03]: Oh yeah, big time.

[00:30:52] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, that and Treviana.

[00:30:54] [SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[00:30:55] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:30:56] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, we talked a little bit about the location here

[00:31:00] [SPEAKER_01]: and your facility.

[00:31:01] [SPEAKER_01]: So I see you started big, like you said,

[00:31:03] [SPEAKER_01]: with intending for having groups.

[00:31:05] [SPEAKER_01]: Do you do a lot of events

[00:31:06] [SPEAKER_01]: and things like that out here on the property?

[00:31:08] [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, Mac.

[00:31:09] [SPEAKER_03]: Early we used to do weddings.

[00:31:12] [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, okay.

[00:31:12] [SPEAKER_03]: For a couple of years

[00:31:14] [SPEAKER_03]: and then I think we cut that out.

[00:31:17] [SPEAKER_03]: Too many bridesillas.

[00:31:19] [SPEAKER_03]: Oh no, it's just a delusion

[00:31:22] [SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[00:31:24] [SPEAKER_03]: of what you wanted to.

[00:31:27] [SPEAKER_03]: So that, I mean, we didn't want to be

[00:31:29] [SPEAKER_03]: in the wedding business.

[00:31:30] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:31:30] [SPEAKER_03]: It was one of my best buddies, his wife,

[00:31:33] [SPEAKER_03]: who was doing the coordinating.

[00:31:35] [SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[00:31:36] [SPEAKER_03]: And it was her business.

[00:31:37] [SPEAKER_03]: Sure.

[00:31:37] [SPEAKER_03]: So we basically just got a portion

[00:31:41] [SPEAKER_03]: of whatever she brought in.

[00:31:42] [SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[00:31:43] [SPEAKER_03]: Cause it was her baby.

[00:31:44] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[00:31:46] [SPEAKER_03]: And she was having her third child

[00:31:50] [SPEAKER_03]: and we're like, Dawn, do you want to keep doing this?

[00:31:55] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:31:55] [SPEAKER_03]: You've got three kids.

[00:31:56] [SPEAKER_03]: We have three kids.

[00:31:58] [SPEAKER_03]: We know what that means time commitment wise.

[00:32:00] [SPEAKER_03]: And she's like, I didn't know how to bring it up.

[00:32:03] [SPEAKER_03]: I've just been, but yeah.

[00:32:05] [SPEAKER_03]: She goes, I can't do this with three kids.

[00:32:08] [SPEAKER_03]: And we're like, we not.

[00:32:09] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:32:10] [SPEAKER_03]: And then when she was saying it was done,

[00:32:13] [SPEAKER_03]: it was done.

[00:32:14] [SPEAKER_03]: Go ahead.

[00:32:14] [SPEAKER_03]: Weed that out.

[00:32:15] [SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[00:32:16] [SPEAKER_03]: So well, when you have somebody you trust

[00:32:19] [SPEAKER_03]: and you don't have to worry about anything.

[00:32:22] [SPEAKER_03]: And then her assistant was a young man named Jordan.

[00:32:26] [SPEAKER_03]: Well, Jordan grew up with my kids.

[00:32:30] [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, okay.

[00:32:32] [SPEAKER_03]: And he was an orphan.

[00:32:34] [SPEAKER_03]: A lady in our church had adopted them.

[00:32:37] [SPEAKER_03]: Very nice.

[00:32:37] [SPEAKER_03]: And, but he used to hang around our house.

[00:32:40] [SPEAKER_03]: He went to vacations with us.

[00:32:43] [SPEAKER_03]: He's like the fourth kid.

[00:32:44] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:32:45] [SPEAKER_03]: And so it was one of those things.

[00:32:48] [SPEAKER_03]: I don't, we don't have to worry about anything.

[00:32:49] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:32:49] [SPEAKER_03]: So, and then weddings are stressful.

[00:32:53] [SPEAKER_03]: I bet.

[00:32:53] [SPEAKER_03]: Very, very stressful.

[00:32:55] [SPEAKER_03]: I'll be officiating one next Saturday.

[00:32:58] [SPEAKER_03]: The fact.

[00:32:59] [SPEAKER_03]: All right.

[00:33:00] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, I saw that out front

[00:33:02] [SPEAKER_01]: there was a sign about a dog event.

[00:33:05] [SPEAKER_03]: Oh yeah.

[00:33:06] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:33:06] [SPEAKER_01]: So some of those types of things y'all still have here.

[00:33:08] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:33:09] [SPEAKER_01]: Tell me about that.

[00:33:10] [SPEAKER_03]: So those are, I mean,

[00:33:13] [SPEAKER_03]: so our dog passed away about two years ago.

[00:33:16] [SPEAKER_03]: I'm sorry.

[00:33:17] [SPEAKER_03]: But we've always been dog friendly.

[00:33:19] [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, we've got, you know, plenty.

[00:33:21] [SPEAKER_03]: Lots of land.

[00:33:22] [SPEAKER_03]: Plenty of throwing area.

[00:33:25] [SPEAKER_03]: And it's about a year last year,

[00:33:28] [SPEAKER_03]: Niki was like, hey, we gotta do a dog thing.

[00:33:30] [SPEAKER_03]: Everybody brings their dogs over here.

[00:33:32] [SPEAKER_03]: So it was like, okay,

[00:33:33] [SPEAKER_03]: we're gonna have the prettiest dog,

[00:33:35] [SPEAKER_03]: the ugliest dog, you know?

[00:33:38] [SPEAKER_03]: And we had like 30 or 40 dogs show up.

[00:33:41] [SPEAKER_03]: Really?

[00:33:42] [SPEAKER_03]: We're like, this is nuts.

[00:33:44] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:33:44] [SPEAKER_03]: And they brought their owners here

[00:33:45] [SPEAKER_03]: to drink some wine.

[00:33:46] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:33:46] [SPEAKER_03]: That's nice.

[00:33:48] [SPEAKER_03]: And at the spa,

[00:33:49] [SPEAKER_03]: because people are praying your dog, you know?

[00:33:52] [SPEAKER_03]: And it's funny when somebody is praying their dog

[00:33:54] [SPEAKER_03]: and it's the ugly dog.

[00:33:56] [SPEAKER_03]: So, but yeah,

[00:33:58] [SPEAKER_03]: that's just a fun thing to do.

[00:34:00] [SPEAKER_03]: Cool.

[00:34:01] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:34:01] [SPEAKER_03]: We're gonna do in the fall,

[00:34:03] [SPEAKER_03]: we talk, we've been talking about it

[00:34:05] [SPEAKER_03]: for a couple of years,

[00:34:06] [SPEAKER_03]: but basically medieval times and high

[00:34:12] [SPEAKER_03]: and we're inviting other wineries over.

[00:34:15] [SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[00:34:16] [SPEAKER_03]: So we're gonna have jousting,

[00:34:18] [SPEAKER_03]: hopefully between the wineries.

[00:34:21] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:34:21] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:34:22] [SPEAKER_03]: So we'll have the King's Court up here,

[00:34:24] [SPEAKER_03]: the jousting out there.

[00:34:26] [SPEAKER_03]: That's cool.

[00:34:27] [SPEAKER_03]: With little, you know.

[00:34:28] [SPEAKER_03]: Give you a little Renaissance fair here at High Meadow.

[00:34:31] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:34:32] [SPEAKER_03]: And we just thought it would be fun to have,

[00:34:34] [SPEAKER_03]: you know, neighbor wineries and stuff here.

[00:34:37] [SPEAKER_03]: And then, you know, everybody has their baiter.

[00:34:41] [SPEAKER_03]: It's cool.

[00:34:42] [SPEAKER_03]: So we signed up to come to that one.

[00:34:43] [SPEAKER_03]: So we're planning that out right now.

[00:34:46] [SPEAKER_01]: So.

[00:34:47] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, let's say that Alistair is starting to get excited

[00:34:49] [SPEAKER_01]: to come check you guys out.

[00:34:50] [SPEAKER_01]: Let's talk a little bit about what they can expect

[00:34:52] [SPEAKER_01]: when they come in.

[00:34:53] [SPEAKER_01]: So what does a tasting typically look like?

[00:34:56] [SPEAKER_01]: Do you have a set flight of wines that they taste

[00:34:58] [SPEAKER_01]: or do they pick their wines or what is that?

[00:35:01] [SPEAKER_01]: Two different sets.

[00:35:01] [SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[00:35:02] [SPEAKER_03]: Some people who want just reds,

[00:35:04] [SPEAKER_03]: we have all red flight,

[00:35:06] [SPEAKER_03]: but typically we like people who do the blended.

[00:35:08] [SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[00:35:09] [SPEAKER_03]: So it's going to be two whites,

[00:35:11] [SPEAKER_03]: rose and two reds.

[00:35:13] [SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[00:35:14] [SPEAKER_03]: That way you get a little spattering of everything.

[00:35:17] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:35:17] [SPEAKER_03]: And then if they want another red or something,

[00:35:22] [SPEAKER_03]: Kirsten who you met here earlier,

[00:35:23] [SPEAKER_03]: well, it's like, oh, if you really like that,

[00:35:26] [SPEAKER_03]: let me let you try this.

[00:35:28] [SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[00:35:29] [SPEAKER_03]: So, and that way they kind of get a brawled idea.

[00:35:32] [SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[00:35:33] [SPEAKER_01]: And then how much does a tasting typically cost?

[00:35:36] [SPEAKER_01]: 25.

[00:35:37] [SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[00:35:37] [SPEAKER_01]: And when they come to do a tasting,

[00:35:39] [SPEAKER_01]: the next question is usually,

[00:35:41] [SPEAKER_01]: what are your operating hours?

[00:35:43] [SPEAKER_03]: So during the week we're closed on Tuesday.

[00:35:46] [SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[00:35:47] [SPEAKER_03]: And other than that, Wednesday, Thursday,

[00:35:50] [SPEAKER_03]: we're in Monday 11 to five.

[00:35:54] [SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[00:35:54] [SPEAKER_03]: Friday, Saturday 11 to six

[00:35:58] [SPEAKER_03]: and then Sunday 12 to five.

[00:36:00] [SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[00:36:01] [SPEAKER_01]: And that's of course on your website I'm sure

[00:36:02] [SPEAKER_01]: so people can verify all that as needed.

[00:36:05] [SPEAKER_01]: And then are there food options when people come

[00:36:09] [SPEAKER_01]: or can they bring their own food

[00:36:10] [SPEAKER_01]: or what does that look like?

[00:36:12] [SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[00:36:12] [SPEAKER_03]: So you can bring your own stuff if you like

[00:36:14] [SPEAKER_03]: and we also have a small kitchen

[00:36:16] [SPEAKER_03]: so everything's scratch made.

[00:36:19] [SPEAKER_03]: We do a couple of dips.

[00:36:22] [SPEAKER_03]: The spinach artichoke is really, really good.

[00:36:24] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:36:26] [SPEAKER_03]: Then we have, oh it's,

[00:36:30] [SPEAKER_03]: so like a corrine,

[00:36:33] [SPEAKER_03]: they call it cool dip.

[00:36:35] [SPEAKER_03]: Light green, avocado based

[00:36:38] [SPEAKER_03]: and it's just good.

[00:36:40] [SPEAKER_03]: We do that during the summer.

[00:36:42] [SPEAKER_03]: We just brought that out.

[00:36:44] [SPEAKER_03]: We took away our risotto.

[00:36:47] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, that's more of a warm,

[00:36:48] [SPEAKER_03]: I mean a cold weather kind of thing I would think.

[00:36:50] [SPEAKER_03]: And so I really miss not having.

[00:36:53] [SPEAKER_03]: You're ready for fall to come back around.

[00:36:55] [SPEAKER_03]: Oh my gosh, yeah.

[00:36:56] [SPEAKER_03]: And then we do a couple of different sandwiches.

[00:36:59] [SPEAKER_03]: Okay, cool.

[00:37:01] [SPEAKER_01]: And cheese boards.

[00:37:02] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, of course.

[00:37:03] [SPEAKER_01]: The obligatory charcuterie board.

[00:37:05] [SPEAKER_01]: Yes.

[00:37:06] [SPEAKER_01]: You've talked about pets and pets pet friendly

[00:37:09] [SPEAKER_01]: but what about kids or people under 21,

[00:37:12] [SPEAKER_01]: things like that?

[00:37:13] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, yeah.

[00:37:14] [SPEAKER_03]: I mean we had three kids growing up

[00:37:16] [SPEAKER_03]: so they went places with us.

[00:37:19] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:37:20] [SPEAKER_03]: Now, you know, there's,

[00:37:22] [SPEAKER_03]: you can get in trouble all over here.

[00:37:25] [SPEAKER_03]: So we always say, you know, supervised sure.

[00:37:28] [SPEAKER_03]: Supervision.

[00:37:30] [SPEAKER_03]: There's no such thing as a bad kid, it's bad parents.

[00:37:33] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:37:34] [SPEAKER_01]: And is there offerings for the kids

[00:37:36] [SPEAKER_01]: for drinks and things like that?

[00:37:38] [SPEAKER_01]: Cause I mean, I'm gonna be pouring some wine

[00:37:39] [SPEAKER_01]: probably for your kids but,

[00:37:41] [SPEAKER_01]: or should they bring their own?

[00:37:42] [SPEAKER_01]: Bring their own.

[00:37:43] [SPEAKER_03]: Okay, we used to do soft drinks and stuff

[00:37:45] [SPEAKER_03]: and yeah, like we're, that's not our thing.

[00:37:49] [SPEAKER_03]: Perfect.

[00:37:51] [SPEAKER_03]: But one time a year we do where it's also for kids.

[00:37:56] [SPEAKER_03]: So we do a kite festival.

[00:37:58] [SPEAKER_03]: Oh nice.

[00:37:59] [SPEAKER_03]: And we also have another event

[00:38:02] [SPEAKER_03]: and it'll actually, we'll do a Gatorade testing.

[00:38:07] [SPEAKER_03]: That's awesome.

[00:38:08] [SPEAKER_03]: So, you know, different Gatorade.

[00:38:10] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:38:10] [SPEAKER_01]: So they get to feel like

[00:38:11] [SPEAKER_01]: they're getting the whole experience.

[00:38:13] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's cool.

[00:38:14] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm getting flavors of orange in this orange Gatorade.

[00:38:19] [SPEAKER_01]: I love it.

[00:38:21] [SPEAKER_01]: So what are your kind of busy and slower times?

[00:38:24] [SPEAKER_01]: What is the best time for somebody

[00:38:25] [SPEAKER_01]: to come visit would you say?

[00:38:27] [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, it's really weird after COVID.

[00:38:32] [SPEAKER_03]: Before COVID it was like, oh my gosh,

[00:38:35] [SPEAKER_03]: Saturdays are nuts.

[00:38:37] [SPEAKER_03]: Now, Saturdays are just a little busy but not bad.

[00:38:42] [SPEAKER_03]: Fridays, I always like Friday afternoons.

[00:38:45] [SPEAKER_03]: It's the end of the week.

[00:38:46] [SPEAKER_03]: If you come out, it's just like,

[00:38:49] [SPEAKER_03]: it just sets the tone.

[00:38:50] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, wind down the week a little bit.

[00:38:54] [SPEAKER_03]: And then Sundays always chill.

[00:38:56] [SPEAKER_03]: We've got, well, with their friends now,

[00:38:59] [SPEAKER_03]: they've been coming out so long.

[00:39:00] [SPEAKER_03]: One guy works over at William and Chris,

[00:39:04] [SPEAKER_03]: and they'll come over and have cigars

[00:39:06] [SPEAKER_03]: on a Sunday afternoon once a month.

[00:39:08] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:39:09] [SPEAKER_01]: And what about wine club?

[00:39:11] [SPEAKER_01]: Do you have a wine club?

[00:39:12] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, I know you have a wine club

[00:39:13] [SPEAKER_01]: because you told the story delivering it to everybody.

[00:39:15] [SPEAKER_01]: So tell me the details on your wine club.

[00:39:17] [SPEAKER_03]: So we're a little different on the wine club.

[00:39:20] [SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[00:39:22] [SPEAKER_03]: We limit how many people are in our wine club

[00:39:26] [SPEAKER_03]: because we're small and we don't wanna be big.

[00:39:30] [SPEAKER_03]: So my wife and I do the vineyards,

[00:39:35] [SPEAKER_03]: we make the wine, we mow,

[00:39:39] [SPEAKER_03]: we take care of everything.

[00:39:41] [SPEAKER_03]: And then so our wine club is small.

[00:39:47] Okay.

[00:39:47] [SPEAKER_01]: And then what are the details of the wine club?

[00:39:49] [SPEAKER_01]: What, is there three, six, 12, that kind of thing?

[00:39:52] [SPEAKER_01]: Three, six months, yeah.

[00:39:53] [SPEAKER_01]: And how many times usually do you ship per year?

[00:39:55] [SPEAKER_03]: So four times a year.

[00:39:56] [SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[00:39:57] [SPEAKER_03]: And then for case clubbers,

[00:40:00] [SPEAKER_03]: choice of three out of four.

[00:40:02] [SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[00:40:03] [SPEAKER_03]: And do they get a mix of wines?

[00:40:04] [SPEAKER_03]: Is it winemaker's choice?

[00:40:05] [SPEAKER_03]: How does that work?

[00:40:06] [SPEAKER_03]: So for three and six, I choose.

[00:40:09] [SPEAKER_03]: So it's a red, a mix or white.

[00:40:14] [SPEAKER_03]: For both the red or the three and the six in case club,

[00:40:17] [SPEAKER_03]: they can do whatever they want.

[00:40:19] [SPEAKER_03]: You get to set it up.

[00:40:20] [SPEAKER_03]: You're gonna buy a case, you get to pick.

[00:40:22] [SPEAKER_03]: Yes.

[00:40:22] [SPEAKER_01]: Gotcha.

[00:40:23] [SPEAKER_03]: And then, but a lot of people will go,

[00:40:25] [SPEAKER_03]: oh, let Mike pick it.

[00:40:26] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:40:27] [SPEAKER_01]: So.

[00:40:28] [SPEAKER_01]: They trust you as the winemaker to

[00:40:30] [SPEAKER_01]: well and know what's in its season right now.

[00:40:32] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, like for the one we just had,

[00:40:35] [SPEAKER_03]: we had a white, a rosé and a light red.

[00:40:40] [SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[00:40:40] [SPEAKER_03]: And the red is a dolcetto and it's novello style.

[00:40:45] [SPEAKER_03]: So it was from 23 Harvest, neutral barrel,

[00:40:49] [SPEAKER_03]: modeled with the white.

[00:40:51] [SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[00:40:51] [SPEAKER_03]: So super young.

[00:40:53] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:40:53] [SPEAKER_03]: And it's spring wine.

[00:40:55] [SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[00:40:56] [SPEAKER_03]: So and then during, and then that is such,

[00:41:01] [SPEAKER_03]: probably my favorite pickup party

[00:41:02] [SPEAKER_03]: because it's a casino party.

[00:41:04] [SPEAKER_03]: Oh nice.

[00:41:05] [SPEAKER_03]: So we have the gambling tables and all

[00:41:07] [SPEAKER_03]: and that's kind of like where the wine

[00:41:11] [SPEAKER_03]: we talk about a little bit,

[00:41:13] [SPEAKER_03]: but everybody's just having a good time.

[00:41:15] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:41:16] [SPEAKER_03]: I like having a really fun time.

[00:41:18] [SPEAKER_01]: Cool.

[00:41:19] [SPEAKER_01]: If people want to try your wines,

[00:41:22] [SPEAKER_01]: but for whatever reason they can't get here,

[00:41:24] [SPEAKER_01]: do you do any kind of distribution

[00:41:26] [SPEAKER_01]: or do you sell on your website

[00:41:27] [SPEAKER_01]: or how can people taste it

[00:41:28] [SPEAKER_01]: before they can't get here?

[00:41:29] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, we do the website,

[00:41:31] [SPEAKER_03]: but we have one wine in HEB.

[00:41:34] [SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[00:41:34] [SPEAKER_03]: Junquered red.

[00:41:35] [SPEAKER_02]: Okay.

[00:41:37] [SPEAKER_03]: So it's just a simple red blend.

[00:41:40] [SPEAKER_03]: It typically was our best seller.

[00:41:42] [SPEAKER_03]: Here in the Teasaguar.

[00:41:45] [SPEAKER_03]: And we call it the marketing wine.

[00:41:48] [SPEAKER_03]: Basically we're putting it out there for wine club.

[00:41:51] [SPEAKER_03]: If you can't come, it's your mid week,

[00:41:54] [SPEAKER_03]: you go to the grocery store, HEB,

[00:41:57] [SPEAKER_03]: it's on the shelf, 1997.

[00:41:59] [SPEAKER_03]: Oh perfect.

[00:42:01] [SPEAKER_03]: So you can have it,

[00:42:03] [SPEAKER_03]: however you like, no matter what.

[00:42:06] [SPEAKER_03]: And we're in all the HEBs that are wine century.

[00:42:10] [SPEAKER_03]: Nice HEB.

[00:42:11] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:42:12] [SPEAKER_01]: And so people could get a taste of that

[00:42:14] [SPEAKER_01]: and say, well, this is really good.

[00:42:15] [SPEAKER_01]: I gotta get out to high meadow now

[00:42:16] [SPEAKER_01]: and try some of these other amazing wines.

[00:42:19] [SPEAKER_01]: I was at Texas wine auction in May

[00:42:22] [SPEAKER_01]: and I was pouring.

[00:42:23] [SPEAKER_01]: So I was volunteering,

[00:42:24] [SPEAKER_01]: I was helping to pour wines

[00:42:26] [SPEAKER_01]: and I'm pretty sure Junquered red,

[00:42:28] [SPEAKER_01]: we were pouring that.

[00:42:30] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:42:30] [SPEAKER_01]: And I had so many people come up

[00:42:32] [SPEAKER_01]: and that was one of their favorite wines.

[00:42:34] [SPEAKER_01]: They kept asking me to pour that

[00:42:35] [SPEAKER_01]: and get them itself.

[00:42:36] [SPEAKER_01]: I was like,

[00:42:37] [SPEAKER_01]: cause I haven't tasted it yet.

[00:42:38] [SPEAKER_01]: I've seen it, but I haven't tasted it yet.

[00:42:40] [SPEAKER_01]: And I was like,

[00:42:41] [SPEAKER_01]: everybody's going for this one.

[00:42:42] [SPEAKER_01]: That's great.

[00:42:42] [SPEAKER_01]: So just thought I'd pass that on to you.

[00:42:44] [SPEAKER_01]: A little tidbit there.

[00:42:46] [SPEAKER_01]: So you got this great operation going on.

[00:42:48] [SPEAKER_01]: Do you have any plans for future growth?

[00:42:50] [SPEAKER_01]: You talked about the vineyard

[00:42:51] [SPEAKER_01]: adding onto the vineyard a little bit.

[00:42:52] [SPEAKER_03]: We're adding onto the vineyard a little bit,

[00:42:54] [SPEAKER_01]: but we want to stay small.

[00:42:56] [SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[00:42:56] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:42:57] [SPEAKER_01]: And then do you,

[00:42:58] [SPEAKER_01]: about how many production

[00:42:59] [SPEAKER_01]: or cases do you usually produce each year?

[00:43:01] [SPEAKER_01]: Between three and 4,000.

[00:43:02] [SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[00:43:03] [SPEAKER_01]: And so you're gonna try to stay about that level,

[00:43:05] [SPEAKER_01]: maybe add, are you adding new varietals

[00:43:07] [SPEAKER_01]: to the vineyard?

[00:43:08] [SPEAKER_01]: Or are you trying to just expand

[00:43:09] [SPEAKER_01]: what you already have?

[00:43:10] [SPEAKER_01]: Expand what we have.

[00:43:12] [SPEAKER_03]: And then also,

[00:43:15] [SPEAKER_03]: we're getting less high plant fruit

[00:43:18] [SPEAKER_03]: and really trying just to focus here.

[00:43:20] [SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[00:43:21] [SPEAKER_03]: Build more on your-

[00:43:22] [SPEAKER_03]: The stem.

[00:43:23] [SPEAKER_01]: Stuff.

[00:43:23] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:43:23] [SPEAKER_01]: Excellent.

[00:43:25] [SPEAKER_01]: So there's a lot of places that people can go

[00:43:27] [SPEAKER_01]: here in Texas, in central Texas,

[00:43:29] [SPEAKER_01]: to go to wineries and so forth.

[00:43:31] [SPEAKER_01]: So what really sets High Meadow apart,

[00:43:33] [SPEAKER_01]: in your opinion,

[00:43:34] [SPEAKER_01]: that makes people say,

[00:43:35] [SPEAKER_01]: I've got to go check that place out?

[00:43:36] [SPEAKER_03]: I guess the biggest thing for me

[00:43:39] [SPEAKER_03]: is gonna be the people here.

[00:43:40] [SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[00:43:41] [SPEAKER_03]: So when somebody comes to work here,

[00:43:45] [SPEAKER_03]: it's not a grueling process,

[00:43:47] [SPEAKER_03]: you know, interviewing and stuff.

[00:43:49] [SPEAKER_03]: It's more,

[00:43:51] [SPEAKER_03]: do we like you?

[00:43:52] [SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[00:43:53] [SPEAKER_03]: Do you fit in with us?

[00:43:55] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[00:43:55] [SPEAKER_03]: Do you have the right attitude

[00:43:59] [SPEAKER_03]: to make people feel like they're at home?

[00:44:04] [SPEAKER_03]: Because here,

[00:44:05] [SPEAKER_03]: we're small,

[00:44:06] [SPEAKER_03]: we want to be small.

[00:44:08] [SPEAKER_03]: We do not want to be big.

[00:44:10] [SPEAKER_03]: And one of the things is,

[00:44:12] [SPEAKER_03]: we want people to be relaxed when they're here.

[00:44:16] [SPEAKER_03]: So now for myself,

[00:44:18] [SPEAKER_03]: for the wine,

[00:44:20] [SPEAKER_03]: I like to focus on single varietal.

[00:44:22] [SPEAKER_03]: So,

[00:44:23] [SPEAKER_03]: Allianica,

[00:44:24] [SPEAKER_03]: Montefiore,

[00:44:25] [SPEAKER_03]: St. Gervaisy,

[00:44:26] [SPEAKER_03]: all single varietal.

[00:44:29] [SPEAKER_03]: Barbera,

[00:44:30] [SPEAKER_03]: Neviolo,

[00:44:31] [SPEAKER_03]: so that you can taste what it is.

[00:44:34] [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I love red blends

[00:44:36] [SPEAKER_03]: and I like white blends and all,

[00:44:38] [SPEAKER_03]: you know, all that.

[00:44:40] [SPEAKER_03]: But at the end of the day,

[00:44:42] [SPEAKER_03]: I want to taste Timbernail.

[00:44:44] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[00:44:44] [SPEAKER_03]: I want to know what Allianica is.

[00:44:47] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:44:47] [SPEAKER_03]: Because a red blend is,

[00:44:49] [SPEAKER_03]: you don't know what you're tasting.

[00:44:51] [SPEAKER_03]: It's, you know,

[00:44:51] [SPEAKER_03]: it's cab based,

[00:44:53] [SPEAKER_03]: Merlot,

[00:44:54] [SPEAKER_03]: what, you know,

[00:44:55] [SPEAKER_03]: Petite Verdot would be.

[00:44:55] [SPEAKER_03]: Notes of this, notes of that.

[00:44:57] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:44:57] [SPEAKER_03]: But it's all over the place.

[00:44:59] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:44:59] [SPEAKER_03]: But, you know,

[00:45:00] [SPEAKER_03]: if you go to Italy,

[00:45:02] [SPEAKER_03]: you're not going to have those blends.

[00:45:04] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:45:05] [SPEAKER_03]: For the most part,

[00:45:05] [SPEAKER_03]: it's going to be,

[00:45:06] [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, this is my Allianica.

[00:45:08] [SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[00:45:09] [SPEAKER_03]: So they're more focused on that single varietal.

[00:45:11] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:45:12] [SPEAKER_03]: And,

[00:45:13] [SPEAKER_03]: and I've found,

[00:45:14] [SPEAKER_03]: you know,

[00:45:14] [SPEAKER_03]: just going places.

[00:45:17] [SPEAKER_03]: There's a,

[00:45:18] [SPEAKER_03]: down in Southern California,

[00:45:19] [SPEAKER_03]: a little Italian winery down there.

[00:45:23] [SPEAKER_03]: And we're sitting,

[00:45:25] [SPEAKER_03]: one of the brothers is singing to the crowd.

[00:45:29] [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, I love it.

[00:45:31] [SPEAKER_03]: His,

[00:45:32] [SPEAKER_03]: the eldest is at the table with us

[00:45:34] [SPEAKER_03]: and he's got his arm around me.

[00:45:37] [SPEAKER_03]: We're drinking both our Allianicos.

[00:45:40] [SPEAKER_03]: And he asked me,

[00:45:42] [SPEAKER_03]: it's like,

[00:45:42] [SPEAKER_03]: how you make this taste so good?

[00:45:45] [SPEAKER_03]: He goes,

[00:45:46] [SPEAKER_03]: this is better than mine.

[00:45:49] [SPEAKER_03]: Now that's a statement right there.

[00:45:51] [SPEAKER_03]: And so we started talking as far as,

[00:45:53] [SPEAKER_03]: I saw,

[00:45:55] [SPEAKER_03]: you know,

[00:45:55] [SPEAKER_03]: on the growing side and,

[00:45:58] [SPEAKER_03]: and,

[00:45:59] [SPEAKER_03]: you know,

[00:46:00] [SPEAKER_03]: different techniques and everything.

[00:46:03] [SPEAKER_03]: But he did,

[00:46:05] [SPEAKER_03]: he went to Italy

[00:46:06] [SPEAKER_03]: and he looked for the best Allianico producer there.

[00:46:11] [SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[00:46:12] [SPEAKER_03]: And came back and he does a two day

[00:46:14] [SPEAKER_03]: on the skin fermentation.

[00:46:15] [SPEAKER_03]: Wow.

[00:46:16] [SPEAKER_03]: Presses off

[00:46:17] [SPEAKER_03]: and then allows it to ferment.

[00:46:19] [SPEAKER_03]: So this is softer than,

[00:46:21] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:46:21] [SPEAKER_03]: But I was like,

[00:46:22] [SPEAKER_03]: well that's kind of cool.

[00:46:24] [SPEAKER_03]: So I did a San Gervasi like that.

[00:46:27] [SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[00:46:27] [SPEAKER_03]: And it was absolutely gorgeous.

[00:46:31] [SPEAKER_03]: Now we ended up blending

[00:46:32] [SPEAKER_03]: cause I did a little trial.

[00:46:34] [SPEAKER_03]: So it wasn't,

[00:46:34] [SPEAKER_03]: I mean,

[00:46:34] [SPEAKER_03]: it was like a ton of fruit,

[00:46:36] [SPEAKER_03]: but it was

[00:46:38] [SPEAKER_03]: two days San Gervasi.

[00:46:40] [SPEAKER_03]: Oh okay.

[00:46:41] [SPEAKER_03]: And it was from that two day.

[00:46:43] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:46:43] [SPEAKER_03]: But it was fruity.

[00:46:44] [SPEAKER_03]: It was a little softer,

[00:46:46] [SPEAKER_03]: but I was like,

[00:46:48] [SPEAKER_03]: I really liked that.

[00:46:49] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:46:50] [SPEAKER_01]: So.

[00:46:50] [SPEAKER_01]: It's amazing.

[00:46:51] [SPEAKER_01]: I think from a winemaker's perspective,

[00:46:53] [SPEAKER_01]: the things that you can do

[00:46:54] [SPEAKER_01]: to play quote unquote,

[00:46:56] [SPEAKER_01]: with the wines to do different things

[00:46:58] [SPEAKER_01]: and get different results

[00:46:59] [SPEAKER_01]: and see where they go.

[00:47:01] [SPEAKER_01]: It's almost like being a mad scientist, you know?

[00:47:02] [SPEAKER_01]: I want to try this and see what this does

[00:47:04] [SPEAKER_01]: and see what we get from it.

[00:47:05] [SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes it's like resounding success.

[00:47:07] [SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes it's a,

[00:47:09] [SPEAKER_01]: yeah, that didn't work.

[00:47:11] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:47:11] [SPEAKER_03]: It was kind of like

[00:47:13] [SPEAKER_03]: the first time I did the Italian Blot.

[00:47:16] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:47:17] [SPEAKER_03]: We were doing last.

[00:47:20] [SPEAKER_03]: So where you've got all these samples

[00:47:22] [SPEAKER_03]: and we're doing, you know,

[00:47:24] [SPEAKER_03]: testing for, you know,

[00:47:25] [SPEAKER_03]: VA and all these things.

[00:47:27] [SPEAKER_03]: And at the end of the day,

[00:47:29] [SPEAKER_03]: we just dumped everything together.

[00:47:30] [SPEAKER_03]: And it was like,

[00:47:31] [SPEAKER_03]: that tastes like crap.

[00:47:34] [SPEAKER_03]: So, but that night,

[00:47:36] [SPEAKER_03]: I woke up at like three

[00:47:38] [SPEAKER_03]: and I put this blend together.

[00:47:41] [SPEAKER_03]: And the next day,

[00:47:43] [SPEAKER_03]: I go up to Joe and I was like,

[00:47:45] [SPEAKER_03]: hey, can you make

[00:47:48] [SPEAKER_03]: 200 mils of this?

[00:47:50] [SPEAKER_03]: And he looks at it

[00:47:51] [SPEAKER_03]: and he's like,

[00:47:52] [SPEAKER_03]: this can taste like crap.

[00:47:53] [SPEAKER_03]: I was like, can you please make 200 mils?

[00:47:57] [SPEAKER_03]: Trust me.

[00:47:58] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:47:59] [SPEAKER_03]: And then he's like,

[00:48:01] [SPEAKER_03]: wow, this is actually good.

[00:48:03] [SPEAKER_03]: So our boom blot.

[00:48:04] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:48:05] [SPEAKER_03]: And gosh, that one like

[00:48:08] [SPEAKER_03]: double goal San Francisco international.

[00:48:10] [SPEAKER_03]: Well, that's speaking a lot right there.

[00:48:12] [SPEAKER_03]: So, and then that was also

[00:48:16] [SPEAKER_03]: the top Texas wine,

[00:48:18] [SPEAKER_03]: your Houston rodeo for 2022.

[00:48:21] [SPEAKER_03]: Congratulations.

[00:48:22] [SPEAKER_03]: That's sound.

[00:48:22] [SPEAKER_03]: But yeah, so the boom kind of is,

[00:48:25] [SPEAKER_03]: that's one of the fun ones.

[00:48:27] [SPEAKER_01]: Nice.

[00:48:27] [SPEAKER_03]: I like that.

[00:48:29] [SPEAKER_03]: Being on the board

[00:48:30] [SPEAKER_03]: of the Hill Country Winery Association,

[00:48:32] [SPEAKER_03]: I always liked to throw something in about that

[00:48:35] [SPEAKER_03]: because 25th anniversary

[00:48:40] [SPEAKER_03]: for the Hill Country Winery Association

[00:48:43] [SPEAKER_03]: which is a big deal for us here in Texas.

[00:48:47] [SPEAKER_03]: But it's one of the things that I think,

[00:48:52] [SPEAKER_03]: drives me to make really good wine

[00:48:55] [SPEAKER_03]: to be a part of this young industry.

[00:48:59] [SPEAKER_03]: And it's funny, 25 is young

[00:49:03] [SPEAKER_03]: and then everybody who works together here

[00:49:07] [SPEAKER_03]: because we all are,

[00:49:11] [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, it's very, very easy.

[00:49:14] [SPEAKER_03]: I can call somebody up if I have an issue

[00:49:17] [SPEAKER_03]: and it's like, oh, well, this is,

[00:49:20] [SPEAKER_03]: we had that problem

[00:49:22] [SPEAKER_03]: and this is what we did.

[00:49:24] [SPEAKER_03]: If somebody needs to borrow something,

[00:49:26] [SPEAKER_03]: it's like, you're on it

[00:49:29] [SPEAKER_03]: to help people out.

[00:49:32] [SPEAKER_03]: So if you come to a winery over here,

[00:49:35] [SPEAKER_03]: that is, you know, Hill Country.

[00:49:39] [SPEAKER_03]: We really, really, really want to wow people's socks off.

[00:49:45] [SPEAKER_03]: Just as a whole.

[00:49:48] [SPEAKER_03]: We play up our neighbors and enjoy their wines

[00:49:52] [SPEAKER_03]: and we just want other people to try it

[00:49:55] [SPEAKER_03]: and give it a shot and we're all different.

[00:49:59] [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, that's the crazy thing.

[00:50:00] [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I've got a French producer,

[00:50:02] [SPEAKER_03]: I've got William Christ, more Bedford Kings,

[00:50:06] [SPEAKER_03]: it's just so all these different wineries

[00:50:10] [SPEAKER_03]: and they're all very, very different

[00:50:12] [SPEAKER_03]: except for one thing.

[00:50:14] [SPEAKER_03]: We all love Texas wine.

[00:50:25] [SPEAKER_01]: Serious wine, fun people.

[00:50:27] [SPEAKER_01]: And he's serious about that.

[00:50:29] [SPEAKER_01]: That is their mantra and you will see it in effect

[00:50:32] [SPEAKER_01]: when you go to visit there for sure.

[00:50:34] [SPEAKER_01]: So you've got to go check it out for yourself

[00:50:36] [SPEAKER_01]: and maybe even look for that really cool

[00:50:39] [SPEAKER_01]: medieval times event that Mike was talking about.

[00:50:41] [SPEAKER_01]: I know that's one that I would love to go check out

[00:50:44] [SPEAKER_01]: when they do announce that.

[00:50:45] [SPEAKER_01]: They're going to have jousting

[00:50:46] [SPEAKER_01]: and all these other fun games like he talked about,

[00:50:49] [SPEAKER_01]: drinking some great wine.

[00:50:50] [SPEAKER_01]: That would be one to remember.

[00:50:51] [SPEAKER_01]: So keep your eye out on their social media

[00:50:53] [SPEAKER_01]: and on their website for the announcement of that one

[00:50:56] [SPEAKER_01]: if you're wanting to visit for that event.

[00:50:58] [SPEAKER_01]: And as always, make sure to check out

[00:51:00] [SPEAKER_01]: their website before you go.

[00:51:01] [SPEAKER_01]: It's www.hihiemetto.com.

[00:51:05] [SPEAKER_01]: Now that's hihiemetto.com.

[00:51:10] [SPEAKER_01]: When you go there, you'll be able to see things

[00:51:12] [SPEAKER_01]: about their history, more about the winery itself,

[00:51:15] [SPEAKER_01]: what to expect when you go in for a tasting yourself.

[00:51:18] [SPEAKER_01]: You can even get information about their wine club there

[00:51:21] [SPEAKER_01]: that Mike talked about in the interview.

[00:51:23] [SPEAKER_01]: Remember, it's limited access and I love the name of it.

[00:51:26] [SPEAKER_01]: They called their wine club friends in high places.

[00:51:29] [SPEAKER_01]: Get it?

[00:51:29] [SPEAKER_01]: High places.

[00:51:31] [SPEAKER_01]: And you can even see their events calendar there.

[00:51:34] [SPEAKER_01]: You can make a reservation if you want to do so

[00:51:36] [SPEAKER_01]: for your tasting when you go.

[00:51:38] [SPEAKER_01]: You can even shop online and get some merch

[00:51:40] [SPEAKER_01]: for hihiemetto there on their website.

[00:51:42] [SPEAKER_01]: So definitely a one-stop shop.

[00:51:43] [SPEAKER_01]: Make sure and check out www.hihiemetto.com.

[00:51:47] [SPEAKER_01]: And don't forget, when you go see them,

[00:51:50] [SPEAKER_01]: make sure to tell them you heard about them

[00:51:52] [SPEAKER_01]: on this podcast, Texas Undervine.

[00:51:54] [SPEAKER_01]: Now after we finished the interview,

[00:51:56] [SPEAKER_01]: I was invited to go to their member's tasting lounge

[00:51:59] [SPEAKER_01]: to be able to sample some of these serious wines

[00:52:02] [SPEAKER_01]: that Mike was referring to.

[00:52:04] [SPEAKER_01]: And I gotta say, Mike knows what he's doing

[00:52:07] [SPEAKER_01]: back there in the wine cellar.

[00:52:08] [SPEAKER_01]: He does an incredible job of pulling out

[00:52:11] [SPEAKER_01]: incredible flavor and great taste

[00:52:14] [SPEAKER_01]: from all of these different varieties

[00:52:15] [SPEAKER_01]: that they have.

[00:52:17] [SPEAKER_01]: They're in their state vineyard

[00:52:18] [SPEAKER_01]: and some that they're sourcing from the high plains.

[00:52:20] [SPEAKER_01]: And he really does a great job

[00:52:22] [SPEAKER_01]: of highlighting each of those different

[00:52:24] [SPEAKER_01]: single varietal wines,

[00:52:25] [SPEAKER_01]: like he talked about in the interview.

[00:52:27] [SPEAKER_01]: But when it came down to it,

[00:52:29] [SPEAKER_01]: I think my favorite one in the tasting was a blend.

[00:52:32] [SPEAKER_01]: It was the one that he mentioned

[00:52:34] [SPEAKER_01]: that won the top Texas wine at the Houston Rodeo

[00:52:37] [SPEAKER_01]: in 2022.

[00:52:38] [SPEAKER_01]: Yep, the Boom wine.

[00:52:41] [SPEAKER_01]: It is a bold blend of four different varietals.

[00:52:44] [SPEAKER_01]: You have a little bit of Negromoro in there,

[00:52:47] [SPEAKER_01]: some Montepulciano,

[00:52:49] [SPEAKER_01]: you get some San Giovese

[00:52:50] [SPEAKER_01]: and even some Allianico in that blend.

[00:52:52] [SPEAKER_01]: So like he said, he woke up in the middle of the night

[00:52:54] [SPEAKER_01]: and growed down that blend

[00:52:55] [SPEAKER_01]: and people thought he was crazy

[00:52:56] [SPEAKER_01]: and now it's such a great wine.

[00:52:58] [SPEAKER_01]: It was so good, so much flavor, so smooth.

[00:53:02] [SPEAKER_01]: Definitely make sure you try the Boom wine

[00:53:04] [SPEAKER_01]: when you go for your tasting.

[00:53:07] [SPEAKER_01]: I couldn't leave this location

[00:53:08] [SPEAKER_01]: without buying a bottle of that

[00:53:10] [SPEAKER_01]: for my wine library.

[00:53:11] [SPEAKER_01]: So Boom 2018 became my wine library bottle

[00:53:16] [SPEAKER_01]: for this episode for High Meadow Winery.

[00:53:18] [SPEAKER_01]: All right, we have sat back.

[00:53:20] [SPEAKER_01]: We've enjoyed this beautiful meadow with the butterflies.

[00:53:23] [SPEAKER_01]: We've enjoyed sipping on some great wine,

[00:53:26] [SPEAKER_01]: but the time has come for me to move on

[00:53:29] [SPEAKER_01]: because I gotta go check out

[00:53:30] [SPEAKER_01]: even more great wine destinations here in Texas

[00:53:32] [SPEAKER_01]: to bring you the information on those.

[00:53:34] [SPEAKER_01]: But before I go,

[00:53:36] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna ask if you could do me a quick favor.

[00:53:38] [SPEAKER_01]: One of the things that will really help this podcast

[00:53:40] [SPEAKER_01]: is to get some more ratings and reviews on the podcast

[00:53:43] [SPEAKER_01]: because it really helps it get seen with the algorithm

[00:53:45] [SPEAKER_01]: and all that to different people.

[00:53:47] [SPEAKER_01]: So if you wouldn't mind, it's free to you.

[00:53:50] [SPEAKER_01]: Go out to wherever you're getting this podcast,

[00:53:53] [SPEAKER_01]: whether that's Spotify or Apple Podcasts

[00:53:55] [SPEAKER_01]: or any of the other pod catchers out there

[00:53:57] [SPEAKER_01]: and would you leave me a rating and review there?

[00:54:00] [SPEAKER_01]: That just really helps me kind of get up in the ratings.

[00:54:03] [SPEAKER_01]: People see it's a real thing

[00:54:04] [SPEAKER_01]: and we can get more wine enthusiasts

[00:54:06] [SPEAKER_01]: enthused about Texas wine.

[00:54:08] [SPEAKER_01]: People who travel to our state,

[00:54:10] [SPEAKER_01]: who wanna check out the great Texas wineries

[00:54:12] [SPEAKER_01]: that we have here and gets them excited

[00:54:14] [SPEAKER_01]: about the culture that we have.

[00:54:17] [SPEAKER_01]: And if you're watching this on YouTube, thank you.

[00:54:19] [SPEAKER_01]: That's my primary location now.

[00:54:21] [SPEAKER_01]: We've got the video here.

[00:54:22] [SPEAKER_01]: And so make sure that you like, subscribe and follow

[00:54:25] [SPEAKER_01]: and leave a comment.

[00:54:27] [SPEAKER_01]: So if you're watching on YouTube,

[00:54:29] [SPEAKER_01]: tell me what you like most about High Meadow Winery

[00:54:32] [SPEAKER_01]: or what you're most excited to see

[00:54:35] [SPEAKER_01]: or to experience when you go for yourself.

[00:54:37] [SPEAKER_01]: Just put that in the comments right down below.

[00:54:39] [SPEAKER_01]: And with that, my time is up.

[00:54:41] [SPEAKER_01]: So don't forget, subscribe to my socials

[00:54:44] [SPEAKER_01]: and follow the podcast to be notified

[00:54:46] [SPEAKER_01]: anytime a new episode is released.

[00:54:48] [SPEAKER_01]: And until then, happy trails and bottoms up y'all.

[00:54:57] [SPEAKER_01]: Thanks for listening to Texas Under Vine.

[00:54:59] [SPEAKER_01]: We strive to provide you with the best information

[00:55:01] [SPEAKER_01]: about wine businesses all over Texas.

[00:55:03] [SPEAKER_01]: Be sure to check out our website at texasundervine.com

[00:55:07] [SPEAKER_01]: and follow us on our socials at Texas Under Vine

[00:55:10] [SPEAKER_01]: to stay up on all the upcoming episodes.

[00:55:13] [SPEAKER_01]: Please email us with any suggestions or feedback.

[00:55:15] [SPEAKER_01]: Also contact us if you're interested in donating,

[00:55:18] [SPEAKER_01]: sponsoring or advertising on the podcast

[00:55:20] [SPEAKER_01]: just to help us cover our expenses

[00:55:22] [SPEAKER_01]: and bring even more great info to you

[00:55:24] [SPEAKER_01]: in future episodes.

[00:55:25] [SPEAKER_01]: Above all, travel safely

[00:55:27] [SPEAKER_01]: and most especially drink responsibly.

[00:55:39] [SPEAKER_01]: Howdy Vine Trippers.

[00:55:41] [SPEAKER_01]: Did you know that I now have a merchandise store

[00:55:43] [SPEAKER_01]: for Texas Under Vine?

[00:55:45] [SPEAKER_01]: I only have a handful of limited items,

[00:55:46] [SPEAKER_01]: but you can go check those out

[00:55:48] [SPEAKER_01]: and wear your Texas Under Vine swag

[00:55:49] [SPEAKER_01]: if you'd like to tell all your friends

[00:55:51] [SPEAKER_01]: about the great wine locations we have here in Texas

[00:55:54] [SPEAKER_01]: and maybe get them interested in the podcast as well.

[00:55:56] [SPEAKER_01]: So there are things like t-shirts,

[00:55:59] [SPEAKER_01]: there's a hoodie, there's a beanie,

[00:56:01] [SPEAKER_01]: a ball cap, things like that.

[00:56:02] [SPEAKER_01]: But one of the most exciting things I have right now

[00:56:04] [SPEAKER_01]: is my limited time offer t-shirt.

[00:56:07] [SPEAKER_01]: That's my season one t-shirt.

[00:56:08] [SPEAKER_01]: So this is your Tasting Through Texas,

[00:56:10] [SPEAKER_01]: Texas Under Vine season one t-shirt.

[00:56:12] [SPEAKER_01]: It's only gonna be available

[00:56:14] [SPEAKER_01]: for a little short amount of time.

[00:56:15] [SPEAKER_01]: On the back it has all the different locations

[00:56:17] [SPEAKER_01]: like a band tour t-shirt.

[00:56:19] [SPEAKER_01]: So this is a limited time item

[00:56:21] [SPEAKER_01]: and you can go out and get it now.

[00:56:23] [SPEAKER_01]: And one of the great things about that t-shirt

[00:56:25] [SPEAKER_01]: is a portion of every sale

[00:56:27] [SPEAKER_01]: goes to support the Texas Hill Country

[00:56:29] [SPEAKER_01]: Winery Scholarship Fund.

[00:56:31] [SPEAKER_01]: So you know that by buying that t-shirt,

[00:56:33] [SPEAKER_01]: you're also investing in the growing and flourishing

[00:56:36] [SPEAKER_01]: of an amazing wine industry here in Texas

[00:56:38] [SPEAKER_01]: and all of those people that are gonna come

[00:56:40] [SPEAKER_01]: and make it even better.

[00:56:42] [SPEAKER_01]: Check out that merchandise store.

[00:56:43] [SPEAKER_01]: It's on my website at texasundervine.com.

[00:56:45] [SPEAKER_01]: Just go up to the top,

[00:56:46] [SPEAKER_01]: you'll see the link for the merchandise store.