Michael Ros Winery (Hill Country)

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

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

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

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

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

[00:02:15] Most of all, enjoy hearing about the rapidly growing wine industry in the state and what makes our wines and wineries the best. Howdy, fellow vine trippers. So welcome to episode 59 of the Texas Under Vine podcast.

[00:02:41] For this adventure, in this episode, I was able to travel in the hill country down the wine road to 90 and stop just outside of the city of Fredericksburg, just about a mile off the main road at a newish winery called Michael Ross Winery. The winery itself is owned by a husband and wife team, Michael and Rossanne Mitrioni, and they are actually coming out of the corporate world about 10 years ago.

[00:03:10] They decided to start pursuing another career path here in the lovely wine industry of Texas. And their winemaker, Tim Drake, actually comes from Washington State. So he actually started his job in the chemistry realm, began working for a large winery there doing QA and doing testing and wine testing for them and things like that.

[00:03:35] He moved his way into the cellar, decided to take a little bit of a demotion to becoming a cellar at because he wanted to learn the business of winemaking and then found that was really where his true passion lied and continued to work his way up to being a winemaker. And after becoming a winemaker for a few years, he decided in 2010 to pick up his family and move to Texas for a new challenge, a new frontier.

[00:04:01] And decided actually before he got into winemaking here, he realized there was not a lot of labs here in Texas doing work for that. So he started Texas Wine Lab to be able to do testing for other wineries, wines and things like that. That was kind of how he established his foothold here in Texas. And the owners, Mike and Roseanne, when they first started coming up and plotting out in their mind how they wanted to start their winery, they considered some more urban locations near into cities and things like that for that crowd,

[00:04:30] but eventually settled in on the more wine tourism route and establishing their winery out on the wine road in the hill country to really give it more of that immersive experience, to give the people that come there this feeling of getting away from the crowded world and the city and really getting out into the country and enjoying this full experience with wine at their winery. And when they built their tasting room, they spared no expense. It is eco-friendly. It is built into a hillside.

[00:04:59] And they really wanted to mimic the kind of Italian piazza experience. And so they made it circular. So it is almost kind of semicircular in shape. And it kind of mimics that Italian piazza as you walk in. They even have a fountain in the center with a big granite structure made from hill country granite. And when they started this venture, they decided to start with the wine in mind first. So instead of just going out and building a tasting room and then figuring out what they were going to do,

[00:05:27] they actually bought some property in the high plains back in 2018 to plant a vineyard there. And there they began harvesting those grapes and doing some custom crush. That's where they ended up meeting their winemaker, Tim Drake, at the time in their meeting of minds and philosophies as they began making the wine first so that once they established their tasting room, they would already have a great selection of wines going and a whole program already flowing, pun intended.

[00:05:56] And then in 2021, they ended up buying the land where the tasting room is now, right outside of Fredericksburg. And the first building they built was actually a production facility. They wanted to be able to move that production from the high plains with custom crush down to their own location. And again, focusing strictly on the making of the wines first before they had any kind of tasting room. And they continued to build there. They even planted about eight acres worth of vines on that property as well, in addition to their 35 acres that they have up in the high plains.

[00:06:26] And they finished their tasting room in 2023. So it's been open for almost two years now. And the location they built, like I said, it's just outside of Fredericksburg, but it's about a mile off the road, the main wine road 290. So it really gives you kind of a respite from all of the noise of the highway traffic, really helps you feel like you're getting away out into the country and giving you this full immersive experience at the winery. And that vineyard that they have up in the high plains,

[00:06:55] they have a lot of different varietals planted there. They're trying to let the land kind of tell them what's going to grow best and what's going to do the most there. But they're very specific and very focused on low yields for their vines. And for those of you that don't understand what that is or why that's important, basically they're going to kind of prune out a lot of stuff on the vines, leaving just less clusters of grapes on the vine. And when you do that and you have lower yields on the vine,

[00:07:21] what it does is it allows that vine to take in all the nutrients from the sun, from the soil, everything that's going to take to the production of those grapes and put it into smaller clusters or not necessarily smaller clusters, but less clusters so that you get a lot more flavor intensity and a lot more of the oomph of the grapes directly into those clusters you get. So you do get fewer clusters when you harvest, but usually those clusters are much higher quality, much more packed with all the flavor

[00:07:49] and all the things we're looking for, the good stuff we want in our wine. They also produce white, they have rosé and they have red wines. They're all still wines at this moment. They do not have any sweet wines. They're focused on dry wines at Michael Ross Winery. But as a little sneak peek, they do have a sparkling that they're working on that's going to be coming very soon. So be on the lookout for that. Now, when I went out there to see them, I was privileged to sit down in the tasting room with one of the owners, Rossanne, as well as their winemaker, Tim.

[00:08:18] And we got to sit down and discuss things like their kind of relatively shorter history right now in the Texas wine industry, their philosophy and the vision of not only the production of those wines, but as well as what they wanted with the tasting room. They're very focused and very specific about the goals they had for those things, which you'll find out more in the interview. We got to learn a little bit more about that tasting room and the experience that you're going to get when you go there,

[00:08:44] as well as a lot of the exciting things they have planned for the future and growth. So let's go to that interview right now and hear from both of them. Hi, I'm Trippers. Welcome to Michael Ross Winery here. And I'm really excited to be able to bring this episode to you. And I have a couple of special guests on the podcast for you today. I have Rossanne and I have Tim,

[00:09:13] who are going to tell you a little bit about their story as well as this location. So without further ado, whichever one of you wants to go first, tell me a little bit about your wine journey, your wine story. How'd you get into the wine industry? What did that look like? So we, my husband, Mike and I, gosh, about 10 years ago, started really exploring wine. We were both in corporate America and similar to a lot of people, right? You go to big meetings and restaurants and you have to pick out wine lists

[00:09:43] and, you know, you're the top of the food chain. So they hand you the wine menu. And so you have to figure all of that out. And so we started trying to educate ourselves and get better at that as we started. And then, you know, we took classes online once we decided we wanted to open the tasting room so that we could get smarter about kind of the, I guess, the step beyond being a casual consumer.

[00:10:09] And so we started taking classes and both to prepare to open a winery, but also just for our own wine knowledge, right? So I think the best class my husband ever took was a class called Wines of the World. And it was part of an education class. I took it with him because we would go into Total Wines and we were supposed to get like three bottles of wine from a specific region or a specific type, right, that we were studying for the week.

[00:10:39] And we would walk out with a shopping cart full of wines from various different places because we kind of got so into it. So we became really good friends with the manager at Total Wine as we went through and go, okay, we're studying Uruguay. And these are all the wines that we want to do. Or we're studying, you know, studying Wright Bank. Like this is what we're going into. And so it was a fascinating class because you get exposed to so many different types of wine.

[00:11:05] And I think that was a really, the biggest eye-opening experience for us is that, you know, a cab's not a cab. A Tempranillo is not a Tempranillo, right? It depends where it's made. It depends, you know, what experience it's had as it's been growing, what the winemaker chose to do, right? And getting that piece coming from a consumer side, you never really understand that until you kind of go the step deeper.

[00:11:35] And so for us, that was a big turning point of like, wow, this is a lot more complicated and interesting than you might think it is. All right. Tim, what about you? So I started up in Washington State. Okay. Back in 2000 with Chateau St. Michelle. And it's totally by accident. I had no interest in wine. I was a shot and a beer guy. Yeah.

[00:12:00] And I actually was coming out of college. I got a job running a heavy metals lab at a toxic waste site. Wow. So I was turning cyanide into dirt and the PCBs and, you know, all the things. Like if your clothes entered past the gates, they never left again. Wow. Yeah, yeah. And it turned out I really liked chemistry in school. Yeah. Hated it in real life. Absolutely.

[00:12:30] So my mother-in-law sent me a clipping out of the newspaper, mailed it to you. She lived two miles away. Took four days. I saw her like three times before the clipping showed up. Yeah. And I applied to work at a lab in a winery. And so I started with Chateau St. Michelle, Columbia Crest, that whole group up there. And I ran QA department. And then they made the mistake of letting me help them a seller one harvest.

[00:13:00] And I fell in love. Just all the different smells and everything. And so with the encouragement of their head winemaker, Doug Gore, and Ray, I can't remember now. Anyways, I transferred out of QA, took a demotion, and just started working in the cellar. All in hoses and everything. Clean in. Clean in, filtering.

[00:13:30] Me and my buddy, Brendan Layton, we figured out that in three years, I had just pad filtered. Now, we filtered all sorts of stuff. I mean, we were running millions and millions of gallons of cases and stuff. Just that one facility in Woodinville. And I had filtered over nine million gallons of just reese there. Wow. Doesn't count any of any of the others. Yeah. So it was like millions of stuff.

[00:13:55] And so, I mean, it was always just very surreal as I look back now. Yeah. Because when I left there in 2005, I went to smaller and smaller but higher end places up in Woodinville. And then in 2010, I kind of hit a turning point where I needed to make a move one way or another down a draft. Right? Girls are going to open up a place. Was I going to, you know, move?

[00:14:25] And I just decided, let's live someplace else. I've lived in Seattle my whole life. Okay. And so we packed up the kids and I quit my job and we moved down here to Texas. I knew they had wineries, but that was it. Yeah. So I had no job prospects. Okay. Why did you pick Texas? My in-laws happened to be here. Okay. And so we'd come to visit for like twice over the couple of years for Christmas, right?

[00:14:54] It's 70 degrees. We're like, oh, you can barbecue. Texas is lovely. This is lovely. It's like in the 70s, you know, people are riding in the back of trucks. And- Ors are blue. Yeah. This is beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so, yeah, we moved down here in 2010. And then I went through several years of droughts and torrential rains. And it was a good introduction.

[00:15:23] And there's several times where I'm like, I think we made a mistake. Like, it's all flat. Kill the plug. The biggest trees are mesquite trees. Yep. You know, everything hurts and bites you and is poisonous. Right. And, yeah. And so what I did when we moved down here is I just started going around to winers. Just walking in like, hey, I'm a winemaker. I just moved here. Tell me about the industry.

[00:15:52] And especially way back in 2010, there was very few places that made actually good wine. Yeah. There's a lot of jalapeno wine. Oh, gosh. There's a lot of stuff that's close to vinegar. Yeah. And so one of the things I recognize is they didn't have any labs. There's one person who was testing wine, but she was also making wine and consulting and everything. So it was not timely.

[00:16:21] So I started Texas Wine Lab and started testing wines for people. And through that is how I became head winemaker at Flat Creek State in 2011. I was there until 2018. I've done a lot of consulting, been in a lot of places, started up several wineries and stuff. I think the last count I had, I made wine for over 30 wineries in Hutsis. Not directly as the winemaker.

[00:16:51] I've only had a couple of, you know, what we call winemaker in residence. And then I was up helping one of the custom crush facilities up around Lubbock. Their winemaker left and had an opportunity to go do his own thing. And they're like, we just need somebody to come in and do something. I'm like, wine done. Right. I'm consulting. I can go ahead and come up here. And that's why I met Mike and Ross Ann. Okay.

[00:17:20] Because they'd taken their grapes there because they didn't have a winery or anything. And so I met them and we hit off philosophically and personality wise and everything like that. And, and so after a couple of years of them trying to hire me and me telling them no, because they didn't have an actual winery. I'm like, you don't need a winemaker on staff until you actually have a winemaker. Yeah. A winery.

[00:17:47] And so that's how we came here. And it was just three, four years ago or something like that. Yeah. Both times. Yeah. When we built the winery place up here. In 21. Yeah. Well, and that leads, I think, to the next step in your journey. So after you've taken the wines of the world course and you're excited, tell me about how you and Michael got the vision for this place and got it all going. Yeah. So, you know, we lived in North Texas at the time. Okay.

[00:18:16] So, you know, the first thing we did was kind of have a debate on where do we want to open a winery, right? Because there's certainly wineries up in North Texas that are wonderful. Um, but we had been coming down to Fredericksburg. We had seen it down here. And so the question really was, you know, what type of experience do you want to have? So I have a sales and marketing background. Okay. And so the consumer experience is really important, right? There's two key things when you go to a winery, right? You got to have good wine and you got to have a good experience.

[00:18:46] And so, um, you know, Tim and Mike kind of focus on the making sure we've got the right grapes planted and that we're making great wine. Um, and I kind of tackle the consumer experience. And so, and that was a key driver in where we decided we wanted to open the winery. Because if you open it in North Texas, it's more of a, hey, it's a date night. Let's go someplace, right? Or it's around the corner.

[00:19:11] If it's an urban location, if you're in Georgetown, if you're in downtown Fredericksburg, if you're in, um, grapevine, right? Various different places around the state. It's a different experience, right? You, you pop in, you have a glass, you spend an hour, maybe two hours and you head out or you meet friends there. And then, but it's, it's kind of integrated into your daily life.

[00:19:35] The thing that makes Fredericksburg particularly, um, unique is that most of the people that are coming here. So you have the local groups, people who live here or live close who kind of, this is their neighborhood, right? This is our neighborhood. We have a group that comes in every Sunday. They meet their friends here. They'll bring games. They hang out. We love that part. The other part is when people come here, it's to get away. It's a weekend. It's a retreat. They're coming to experience wine.

[00:20:05] They're coming to experience getting away from the big city, right? And so we kind of had to decide which version of that we wanted to do to decide where we wanted to build the tasting room. And we picked Fredericksburg because I like the idea of people coming here seeking to experience kind of relaxation and family and friends and good wine. They're coming here to relax and have a good time, but it's all associated around kind

[00:20:34] of their food and wine experience. Um, and I think it's as a side note, I think it's fantastic that Fredericksburg is starting to have some diversity, right? So you get different types of groups that come in and go, Hey, one day we're going to do wine. And the next day we might do a distillery or we might go shopping or whatever so that it, it gives them a more full bodied experience when they have their kind of three or four day weekend getaway.

[00:20:58] Um, well it's still, and it's, it's amazing how we feel it's such a small town, but yet we're still second to Napa in wine tourism. You know, I mean, a lot of people come out here for this. Um, but yet, you know, it's not always inundated, you know, maybe if you're walking through downtown, but you know. Yeah. Cause it's spread out cause there's a lot of variety and options for people. And so I think that was one of the pieces.

[00:21:28] So we picked Fredericksburg, um, because we wanted that consumer experience. Um, we knew we wanted to focus on, um, kind of higher quality wine and that was a big piece for us. Um, so that kind of puts you in, I would say a different, you know, a price point that kind of says, you know, we're not going to be the, the, it's not going to be a hundred dollar bottle of wine that you're going to have to pay for when you go to Napa.

[00:21:53] Um, but we want good quality kind of that mid to upper tier type of, of wine experience. And so then that kind of says, or if you're, if you're doing that, what kind of experience does that mean you need to have in the tasting room? Right. So we wanted to have a really nice indoor big space because when I looked at coming here, one of the challenges you have is a lot of places have small indoor tasting rooms and the big, beautiful outdoor spaces, right?

[00:22:21] They'll get big, beautiful trees and they do that. Well, we live in Texas and it's hot as crap and no one wants to sit outside or it's too cold or the wind is blowing too much or it's, you know, whatever. I mean, there are beautiful days where we all get to sit out. There are mornings that you can sit out, but four o'clock in the afternoon in the summer, you don't want to sit outside. There's like a three week period in the spring and in the fall. Right.

[00:22:51] Sit out all day. And so we wanted to have a nice indoor space. Um, and, uh, so we, we picked that. We knew we wanted space. We wanted a, a unique building because, you know, there are a lot of wine rooms here. So you want to stand out and we wanted to be as equal conscious as we could. So we decided to, when we partnered with that, our architect to build this into the hill, so to speak, I am originally from Florida. And then I moved to Dallas. So this is a hill.

[00:23:20] There are some people, if you move from Colorado and you come, you're like, this is not a cool. We're like, no, no, no. It goes up. It's a hill. It's a solid decline. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So the best. It will all is built into the hill. And so it's all center block. So it helps kind of from a, you know, an air conditioning and thermal insulation and that type of stuff. Um, so we did that and then we wanted it to be semi-circle because, um, we love what the Italian Piazza means. My husband's Italian. We love to go to Italy.

[00:23:49] It's one of our favorite places to visit. And, you know, the circular component of like the, the Piazza, it's like the center of town, right? There's music, there's art, there's family, there's laughter, there's food, there's wine. There's all the things that when we thought about the, what we wanted people to think of when they come to us, it's all of those things. And so we just said, how do we make Italian Piazza meets hill country kind of come. So we have a fountain in the middle.

[00:24:16] It is not, you know, made by a famous artist, you know, 2000 years ago. It is, you know, hill country, granite stones, but you know, you kind of get the local. You guys get the stones out yourself. We did. So yeah. We went to the granite graveyard, they call it, and got to pick them out. It's basically the stuff they're not using for kitchen counters and, you know, that kind of stuff. I'm sure some cool pieces are in there. Yeah. It's amazing. That thing's like 12 feet tall, six feet into the ground. Yeah.

[00:24:45] It took a semi to get it here. It's the bigger one is 15 tons. Yeah. So it's very, it's very big. It's not moving. But yeah. So anyway, so, but we had, we had a lot of fun kind of designing it and picking it and finding things that we thought were kind of unique. And we honestly, we looked at three properties on 290 and it just didn't give me that feeling, which when I go to a winery, that's what I want since I was building it.

[00:25:13] I picked what I want, which is I want to go and decompress and relax and just escape. You do. And you want to feel like you're transported someplace different. You know, you want to forget that you're an electrician or the secretary at the elementary school and you want to feel like you're the royalty that's a, you know, hanging out.

[00:25:41] And I think that's the important part of, of what we've tried to do for your experience is, is transport you someplace else. And something I've always said was, we're not here to sell wine. We're here to sell the experience. Wine is the magnet you take home as to remember it. Uh-huh. Yeah. So that's a lodge. Yeah. I mean, I like to think I am more important than a magnet, but you know. You're a wine magnet. Yeah, you know. Yeah.

[00:26:11] When did you build the location? When did you get open? So, um, so we started planting grapes in the high plains in 2018. Okay. So, and that's like, you met them up there a couple of years after that when we were renting to crush. So we have 35 acres up here. We bought this property in 2021. Okay. And this is 38 acres. And so the first thing we did, which is different than a lot of wineries, right? Like we did this the longest, most expensive way you could do it.

[00:26:41] But we felt like it was the way to get the best quality wine, which was the most important component for us. So we planted grapes first, right? In the right place and got good help to kind of help us guide things. And then we bought the property. And the first thing we did was build a production facility. Yeah. So we got that up so that we could start to do this. This was a hole with this big mound there. Yeah. Yeah. A big block of granite right in the middle. Yeah.

[00:27:08] So this was the last thing that we built. And so we opened this in August of 23. So we bought the property in 21. It took us a couple years to get the buildings done. And then we, um, planted the vines that are here. So we have eight and a half acres here. And we started doing that in, um, in 21. Okay. So, um, you know, that was totally the right way to go about it. You know, a lot of times. With the wine first. Exactly.

[00:27:37] Because a lot of times, you know, especially because it's not necessarily an affordable industry to get into. It's capital heavy. Yeah. And so the first thing you want to do is, you know, how do I generate income? Yeah. And so you open, you open and you're like, okay, we're going to put vineyards over here. But now you have no fruit. You have no wine. So you're just going to try to buy bulk wine. You're good.

[00:28:06] You know, you're, you're sourcing and sourcing from vineyard partners is great. But, but when you first open, if you don't have wine, what do you sell? So you buy bulk wine. And oftentimes it's, especially in Texas, we're so small and new. I mean, we're still relatively new. I mean, even our biggest wineries are classified as small wineries. So, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good way to put it, actually. It's really good.

[00:28:35] Still needs stridex. But, you know, in California, they have high-end bulk wine producers who all they do is make bulk wine to sell people. And we don't have that here. So if you open up and you haven't been making your wine, you're, you're making that silk purse. Yeah.

[00:28:56] You know, and, and so by going, uh, the direction that we did is, is really the smart way to go ahead and be able to control your quality, be able to open the doors already with that vision in place, you know, and not having cup corners in order to, to, to get that. Yeah. Have the aging all ready to go and all of that. One of the things that was important to us that we opened with wine that we had grown.

[00:29:24] So we still partner with people because we're young, right? Our vineyard is, I mean, even though we planted an 18, it's still young. It's really young. And so, you know, we're still buying grapes from people. But as I say, you know, when we grow up, hopefully all the wine that we sell in the tasting room will be stuff that we've grown. Um, and so that's a little bit unique.

[00:29:47] Um, they might be a handful of things that, you know, don't grow well in our, you know, slice of heaven up in the high plains or down here that we want to get, or we need a wine for a specific reason that we've partnered with folks. But, you know, that was important to us that we, you know, kind of went down that path. And, you know, a lot of, there, there's two ways you come into the wine industry, right? There's a lot of, there's some folks that are like us that it was, we loved wine. We were consumers of wine.

[00:30:13] And for some crazy reason, we decided we thought we could open a winery. And, you know, we planted grapes and Mike and I both kept working, right? So, you know, there's that version. And then there's the version of people who have a lot of money and this can be a write-off or they're a big corporation, right? And they're in those two different buckets, um, generally speaking. And, you know, we're in the, we're wine lovers who, you know, decided we wanted to chase this crazy dream. Our kids were grown.

[00:30:41] And so we were kind of done with that responsibility. We were like, what do we want to do for phase two? You kids, the wine barrels. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Exactly. Yeah. And that's, and that's kind of what we did, right? So instead of doing competitive sports and having all of our money do that for three children. So, um, you know, the, the quality and having your name on it was, is, is important to us, right? That we feel really good about what it is we're serving and that people will enjoy the, the experience, right?

[00:31:11] We're, you, you also have to know what you are. Like, we don't have sweet wine. Yeah. Um, we have dry wine. You know, if you are, you know, a typical, and I'll say typical because my 20-somethings tell me that I've ruined them because they can't go out with their friends and drink the, you know, $5 sweet stuff. Um, but you know, typically if you're at the beginning of your wine journey, right, we might not be the best fit for you because I don't have sweet wine. Right. And that's usually where people start from, right?

[00:31:41] They start kind of launch. And my style is not making beginner wines. Yeah. You know, it's, and, but that's one thing, like you said, by having, you want to be, have this upper tier, um, wine. And that's what we're going to make. And the price point kind of reflects that. It's a way to communicate.

[00:32:02] You know, if all you want is an $8 bottle of two buck chuck, which is never $2 in the one, you will not like the wines we have because they're, they're built to age longer. You know, they, they have more cannons that don't have a little sweetness to them and stuff like that. And it's not like that's a, that's the fun thing about the wine industry is there's room for immense variations. Absolutely. Yeah.

[00:32:31] And, and that's just the, the style that we went ahead and pursued down. And like I always say, I have to make wine that I can drink because if things go horribly wrong, someone has to drink it. And so if I'm going to drink it, I'm going to make sure I like it. Yeah. You know? But I don't want it to come across like it's not approachable either. Right. No, it's not. Not at all.

[00:32:55] It's, it's, um, you know, and one of the things like we call our folks wine educators in the tasting room and the important thing is to meet people where they are in their journey. Right. So if you come in as a, you know, with a W set three, well, your conversation with them is going to be really different than if we have somebody who's newer in the wine industry. You're like, Oh, I haven't heard of that grape. Can you please tell me about that? Right. Or, Oh, you know, what does that mean?

[00:33:23] And it's important that people feel welcome and that they don't feel talked down to and that people are meeting them where they are in their journey so that everybody does feel comfortable. And lead them on to something new. Yeah. They may find something that they had no idea. Oh, I've only had these wines and I've never tried this. Oh, wow. I really like this. You know? That was one of the things that really attracted me to Texas is I'm dealing with grapes I never heard of in Washington. You know, so out there you're like Vordos and Syrage, Chardonnay, Riesling. Oh, right.

[00:33:52] I'm like, I got Montepulciano, Allianico, all of a sudden Toriga. I don't even know what this grape is. And, and so it's really fun in Texas because it's, we have such broad and different climates. Yeah. That we can grow a lot of different things well.

[00:34:14] Um, and, and then on, on top of that, it's, uh, to go back, like you were saying, it's, it's not like all our wines are unapproachable or anything. We make wines across a spectrum, you know, for different styles, but that's also reflective of the philosophy that we want to express what the vintage gives us. In some years you make very cerebral wines.

[00:34:39] Some years you make chugging wines, you know, it just kind of depends what mother nature is going to give to you. Right. All set. So, you know, I mean, it's, and it's super fun to be able to, to present that. I think that makes it a fun for the consumer. Right. You don't want to just come here and taste something similar that you could, you know, buy at HEP.

[00:35:03] Um, and, and, and so you, it gives a lot of variation and a sense of adventure. Yeah. You know? Okay. Well, so the lot winery location, you mentioned a moment ago, some people might miss it. I know it's just a little bit off the wine room. Tell me about kind of the location here and what, why you picked this property. I know you talked about the eco sustainability and all that, but where is it kind of located in relation to the wine road? So customers kind of know how to find you. Yeah. So we're actually right outside of town.

[00:35:31] So, um, outside of Fredericksburg, sorry. We're a mile off of two 90s. So two 90s known as the wine trail, right? Um, so you turn down old San Antonio road, which if you've going to Fredericksburg, if you've never been here, the bat caves are down this road much further down, but they're down there. Um, in a state park, but we're just a mile off of a main road. But that mile gives you that feels like you're not in the middle of it.

[00:36:00] You don't hear rushing traffic going by. We have 10 acres of pecan trees that will stay natural so that it kind of has more of a natural feel to it. Um, when people come onto the property. And so, you know, the, the, the thought was we wanted to be pretty close to town when people come, because that's one of the things that, you know, you hear people kind of complain about a little bit. Well, if I'm saying in Fredericksburg, that's so far out. Oh yeah. Right.

[00:36:27] And so we're pretty close to town and we wanted to be able to do that one because we wanted locals to be able to come and it not feel like you were, you know, driving all the way to Johnson city. And, um, but we wanted to have that relaxation and getaway feel. And so being off the highway a mile makes a huge difference. And our neighbors are kind enough to have longhorns next door. So you'll see the longhorns. They're not our property. I don't know how to take care of livestock.

[00:36:54] They're not, I have nothing to do with them, but they're right through the fence. So you can look at them if you want. And you don't get the road traffic noise and all that kind of stuff. If you're right there on the highway. Yeah. But yeah, we're actually really excited because our big black and white sign and just went on the corner of old San Antonio road and two 90 just actually went up this weekend. So we're yeah. Oh, I guess. That would never concede. I totally didn't. As first thing in the morning, as you weren't concerned about drinking the coffee, it was like, you know, it went up.

[00:37:22] It went up on Saturday. So yesterday. So we're super excited. So look for the black and white sign. Black and white sign. That's right. And you just turn right. It's a mile down the road. And we have, we have a pizza truck down, a truck down here. So there, we have food. I think that's one of the things that changed about the whole country. And after COVID is people had to put food on property. And it used to just be a couple of folks that had like full blown restaurants.

[00:37:49] And now even if folks like myself who decided not to have a full blown restaurant, most of us have some sort of food offering or a food truck, which is good because, you know, it's good. Probably 10 years, 10 years ago when I came out here, I don't usually eat breakfast. And I assumed I could catch lunch somewhere along my drinking trail that didn't work out well for me. And I didn't make it to dinner because there was no food offer. So I think it's good that we have food along the way. But yeah, we have a, you know, he does pizza.

[00:38:19] We have skewers, salads, you know, stuff for folks that, you know, if you're trying to eat healthy, you can. If you're trying to eat gluten-free, we've got an option. If you want to have a pizza, then that works out well too. And of course, charcuterie boards. Well, we talked about kind of the history of the location and you putting it together. Let's talk about the name. And it may kind of sound silly at the moment, but what made you come up with the name, Michael Ross? So it's actually, so I mentioned I have a sales and marketing background.

[00:38:47] And so I spent weeks coming up with creative names and I had this list for their work, doing the whole thing. And I start going through it with my adult children, which at the time were probably kind of 18 to 25. And we were going through that and they were like, no, I don't like that one. There's this, there's that, right?

[00:39:13] And so they were just like ripping all the, I know, and I was like, okay. And Mike and I were like, well, these are, this one's really good. What about this one? And they were like, no. Right? So then, then we come out and we're like, okay, so my husband's name is Mike. My name is Ross Ann. So we said, and I said, what about Michael Ross? They were like, we love it because for the most part, I don't go by Ross. He doesn't go by Michael. You know, his mom calls him Michael, but that's it. Um, so we came up with Michael Ross and the kids loved it.

[00:39:43] And so that's what we went with. You know, it's our, it's our dream. And, you know, there we go. It passed the litmus test of your children. It did. If it hadn't been for them, we probably would have had a much more creative name, something else. And it might have been better. But I had like the creative juices going. I had like two pages, like naming a kid, right? With the names on the refrigerator. We were doing that for the winery. But the beauty of Michael Ross is no one else has that. You don't have to worry about it. That's yours. And it's, uh, no one else.

[00:40:12] Well, the comment I get the most is it's missing an S because everybody expects it to be R-O-S-S-U. And my name is spelled R-O-S-A-N-N. So I always say. It leads in the story. Blame it on Doris. That's the way my mom does it. So that's just what it is. But yeah, that's the part that confuses people as they try to put two S's on the end. I say it all the time. Michael Ross, one S. One S.

[00:40:38] Well, uh, you've talked a little bit already, but let's go a little bit more into your fruit. So you said you have about 35 acres up in the High Plains and about eight and a half here. So what do you have planted and what does that look like? So, um, the High Plains, uh, vineyard that is, it's a, what? 268 acres. Uh-huh. Um, now the water is not going to allow us to have that big of a vineyard. Nor do we need that money. Nor do we need that money. Exactly.

[00:41:05] Um, but the nice thing about having, uh, that amount of space is we do have lots of room. So we can plant more acres than we need and then reduce the amount of yield that we get off there to increase the quality. So right now we're averaging about two and a half tons an acre. Okay. Um, uh, between two and three, between whites, reds, and different varieties.

[00:41:33] Um, it's a, we have a wide variety planted, uh, because of course, um, you guys were fairly new and, and Texas also doesn't have a focus. You know, you're not like, oh, Willamette Valley. Yep. You got Pinot, you know, or, or, or, you know, Napa. Oh yeah, we're going to grow some calf.

[00:42:00] Um, Texas is really still figuring out what varieties do well. And then on top of that, you throw in clones and root scock and, and everything. Um, so we do have some, uh, Bordeaux's. We got five Bordeaux's planted up there. Okay. Um, fairly limited.

[00:42:23] Um, so we really concentrated on how we grow those in there, in order to bring out what we want out of them. Uh, and especially because our, our goal, it really is to, to push boundaries, uh, of what you think that we can do in Texas.

[00:42:46] And, and so, um, we, we really are striving to compete with French wines, with California wines, with, you know, we're not competing with our neighbors. We all are super excited to be here. We're all trying to elevate each other. You know, you're competing with everyone who's in distribution and shows up on grocery store shelves. Yeah.

[00:43:10] You know, and, and so, um, I'm really excited, uh, about, uh, our Rhone and Italian varietals. Those are doing stellar. Yeah. Um, and then of course we have some Tempranillo and, and, uh, one or two little Spanish varietals sprinkled in there. It's what, 18 varieties we have planted? Yeah.

[00:43:41] Half of the vineyard. So eventually we'll get to 60. Okay. That's the plan. The goal. So the first half of that, the first 30, right, is let's plant small acreages of a lot of different things. See what does. And see what does well. And what grows, because just cause you're in, hey, the neighbor over there is growing this and it's really good, right? My soil could be different. There's not mean. Yep. And so we said, it's a little bit of an experiment. We know that we're doing it that way.

[00:44:07] So we planted anywhere from some varietals have an acre and some varietals. Some are 0.6 acres. Yeah. Uh, that we have. And then some that are closer to two acres, two, two and a half acres, right? A little over two acres are our biggest blossom. So the idea is then whatever we decide we is going really well or that's really resonating with us is we'll blow that out. Right.

[00:44:32] So the next 30 acres will be bigger blocks with stuff that we think are growing really well. And there's some stuff we planted because we wanted that to be, we're making a blend that we have in our head and we need that for whatever for blending. Right. So I might have cab that cause I want to have a blend or I need something because I want to make a GSM. Right. But I don't need, I don't need 600 cases of it. Right.

[00:45:02] I need a little bit. And so we kind of approach the high planes as a bit of a, an experiment, an experiment. Um, cause I think the biggest question we get that I get is what do you, what are you known for? Well, first of all, to know what I'm known for. Right. I mean, we won some awards. You too. Things we feel really good about. Right. But, and I'm not sure I want to be known as. Fijian Hole. This is the, this is the thing. Right.

[00:45:31] I want to be known for making really high quality, but affordable wine. Yeah. Right. But, but good quality wine. And so whether that's in whites or rosés or in reds, I think that's really kind of the, the plan. So it's not a, it's not a direct answer to your question of, you know, we have two acres of Tempranillo, we have 10 acres of, you know, this or that type of thing.

[00:45:57] But we, we have a large variety planted up there and we will decide what we want to grow. The answer down here is a little easier because it's only eight and a half acres. Right. Right. And down here you got specific. Montepulciano and Alianico, right? Two Italian varietals. It's raw. Yeah. It's raw. It's raw. I know they grow really well here. You know, I've been growing grapes in the hill country since 2011. Yeah. Um, and, and I know those varieties do well.

[00:46:25] I believe Montepulciano is a superstar in Texas, no matter where you grow it. Yeah. From East Texas to the hill country to the high plains, it grows really well. And very different results. I'm kidding. Where it is. Based on the area. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, in the years it's really, really good. Oh yeah. It's really good. Um, but Petite Surah is one that I love.

[00:46:53] Um, and it's nice cause we have some acreage up there. We have some acreage down here. They taste totally different. And, um, kind of the nice thing about having the smaller blocks is because there's one thing, yeah, like you said, to be, to be focused. Yeah. Right. Like, oh, we make three wines and it's a blend between Cab, Cab, Franc and Merlot. Right. A lot of high end wines happen.

[00:47:23] Yeah. Yeah. But, um, my ADD. Uh huh. And my interest and everything allows to, to kind of focus on a couple different things and to be able to approach them differently. And luckily we have really good people in the vineyard who prune things very specifically for the variety, um, and what we want to accomplish.

[00:47:50] And then, but, but also to get back to your side, I think it brings more interest of, we don't want to go ahead and be on every store shelf. Yeah. We don't want to be available at Waga Bag in Costco and everything. We want people to come here and get the experience of being here. Cause that's really the best part of this is coming here.

[00:48:17] The feelings, I mean, you were listening to the laughter and everything kind of from the tasting room. And so by having these really small locks, we can continue to just produce small locks so that we can have lots of little things that can sell out through the year. And so if you come back every other month or every three, four months, there's new wines to go ahead and try. Yeah.

[00:48:44] And they'll have a common theme that ties in together, but the details are different. So it's always an adventure. It's always fun to come out, you know, cause if you're going to a place where you're like, Oh yeah, I love that one wine and it tastes the same over and over again. And I can just get it down the road. Why am I going to go ahead and, and come out to the winery where you get a much bigger experience coming here to the winery. You know, it's the people that, that make the difference.

[00:49:11] It's the, the place, the, the, the whole feel of it all, the music is playing, all that changes everything and makes you feel a certain way. Yeah. And to go back to that, we want to transport you away from your daily life. If you're having a bad day, like, uh, you remember that, that Saturday we went and hung out here. Let's have a bottle of that. And I wanted to transport you back to that.

[00:49:38] So you can have that experience again and your own, you know? Yeah. And I think, um, I think right now where we are in our journey, right. Cause we've only been open eight, two months. So we're new. Right. And all of our reds are spend anywhere from 18 to 36 months in barrel. Right. Depending on kind of what Tim's doing. So, um, when we, like our club members, one of the things they love about our pickup parties

[00:50:04] is we bring a barrel down here into the tasting room and they get to try what's coming. Right. So that's right. And so we let them kind of be part of that journey because we have, like, we don't have any red blends today. Right. They're all single varietals. We have five different ones. And, um, but we're getting around Monday. We bottle our first red blend. Okay. Right. And our pickup party on March 1st. People got. A Bordeaux style coming. A super Tuscan style coming.

[00:50:32] We have, uh, off the wall. What? A non-approved. Yeah. A blend coming, which are actually my favorites. Go ahead and they. The math scientist did you. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Which makes it interesting and fun. Right. So, you know, I think that that's the fun part about where we are in our journey is we have so many wonderful things that we know are coming and we try to let people kind of into that

[00:50:59] a little bit because, you know, we're, we don't want to release wine before we're proud of it. Sure. And so that means, unfortunately, you know, we have to be patient. And sometimes I am flustered because my winemaker says it's not ready. However, it is super fun. So, so like we, we do this and we do some extended aging and stuff. Cause I think it needs to have that. And the bottle aging, I think is incredibly key.

[00:51:28] I mean, being able, we've had wines like the, our first San Gio where when you released it a year and a half later, we're like, Oh my God, this is so much better. Yeah. And that's almost three years in bottle, you know? And, but, uh, one of the things I'm super excited about, cause like you said, having tasting the barrels is, is we're going to start in the annual spring barrel tasting.

[00:51:54] So kind of that in premier kind of style where we're just going to taste the 24s. Okay. So like the super young wines and which is they're so far from ready, but you can get such an idea of the potential of where they're going to go. Yeah. You know, cause most, you know, usually you have wine that's ready to go. It's coming out of the bottle, you know? And, and, or you have barrel tastings like, especially like for our release parties, usually

[00:52:24] we have, here's what's coming up, you know? So it's almost ready. You know, it's a teenager. They can dress nice, you know, share their little rough around the edges. Right. But we're going straight down to preschool. Yeah. With this. And so it's going to be super fun to, to allow people to experience and see behind the curtains, so to speak, you know, where, where the sausage. Lit the veil a little. Yeah. Yeah. Cause there are wines that usually only winemakers can like. Yeah.

[00:52:54] You know, you're like, oh, this is not pleasant. Yeah. I know it's braided, right? But I mean, I think that's part of it. Right. So, you know, everybody starts their wine journey in a certain place. Right. And if you're interested, which there will be a handful of people that are, and there will be a handful of people who are like, you know, that's too much. Right. Like I just want to have a glass of wine and call it a day. And that is fantastic. I mean, to that point, the reason that we don't have tasting notes in the tasting room is because everybody's experience is different.

[00:53:22] And they're, everybody, what they taste and what is tied to their childhood or their memories or what they've had, right. That they can relate it to. My tasting notes are terrible for people to use because everyone's like, what's a salmon berry? I'm like, oh, you should try the licorice for a year. And they're like, unless you grew up in the Alphiolific mountains, you have no way to put it back. Yeah. So, I mean, we put them on the website because you have to do text sheets and do that kind of stuff. Right. But when people come in, I'm like, well, what do you taste? Right. It's important.

[00:53:52] Do you like it? That's really the most important question. Right. Do you like it? And then we can go from there. And so I think offering opportunities where people can improve their wine education if they want. The one to one is absolutely is an important part of us kind of, I'll call it giving back. Yeah. Right. Right. Because we started that same journey. Right. I mean, there are still things. Tim did a barrel class on our one year anniversary weekend and I was taking copious notes. Right. So are the servers.

[00:54:21] We're all in here like taking notes going, well, I didn't know that one. Right. Some of it I was like, yeah, I know that. Yeah, I know that. And then I was like, well, I didn't know that. Right. And so, you know, we're all still unless you've been a winemaker for 30 years. Right. Most consumers are so much you don't know about it, which makes it. For me, the interactive component, the ability to learn if you want to or the ability not to learn if you don't want to and just come have a slice of pizza and a great Sangiovese and call it a day. That's right.

[00:54:51] That's OK, too. Yeah. Because ultimately. We try to rock grapes in style. Yeah. You know, does it taste good? That's the ultimate thing. You know, the cerebral part of, well, how is it done this way and that? That's extra interest. But the main goal is, does it taste good? Yeah. Do you like it? And everybody's palate's different. So there's one particular wine that we did. I do not personally like oaked white wines. Some of my favorites. Right? Yeah.

[00:55:20] He has some oaked white wines that he absolutely loves. Our customers love them. I do not want to drink them. Right? They're not my favorites. When people ask me, I'm like, it doesn't matter what I like. Right? Because I, that's just not me. I want white. I want crisp. I want refreshing. I want summer in a bottle. Right? With subblank spurt. But other people like it differently.

[00:55:45] So it's, you know, we try to make stuff that fit the gambit, not just, you know, a particular pigeonhole. And that's why I like the term wine journey because it is a journey and it changes over time, you know? It does. Because, and we have so many people. So there's a lot of people coming here like, oh, I don't like Tempranillo. Right? And I'm like, just try it. I'm like, I'm like, what you don't like is the black pepper punch. The Texas, that's what I call it. The Texas black pepper punch. Right?

[00:56:15] Ours is a white, a softer white pepper. And so it's not so in your face. People love one way or people don't. And I'm like, so try it. Because you know what? Even if you tell me that Tempranillo is your favorite, this one might not be your favorite because it doesn't have the big black pepper punch. It's super fun because Tempranillo is one of my least favorite wines. Yeah. And so I try. It's one of our best selling.

[00:56:39] And I try to make it how I would want it to taste and not what's necessarily typical. Like the typicity and, you know, here's the Wikipedia of what it tastes like. Like, yeah, I don't like that part. Yeah. And so we do have a kind of a different take on it. It's still recognizable as Tempranillo. Yeah. But it's dressed differently. Which leads again into that interesting discussion of that we talked about earlier,

[00:57:08] your winemaking choices. So many things can affect the way a wine comes out. You can't just say this varietal or this varietal. They can be different in the expression of the terroir. I love what you're doing in your vineyard there in the High Plains, letting the terroir tell you what to plant, you know? Letting the ground dictate these are the things that are going to do well here. And so all those things can affect where it's grown, how the winemaker does it, all kinds of things. Yeah.

[00:57:33] So, again, it's shockingly more complicated, which is why I totally understand when people get overwhelmed. Yeah. Because there's so many different nuances. But again, if you break it down to the simple thing of, do you enjoy what's in the glass? Does it taste good or does it not? Does it taste good? All it may be. If you like it, it's the best bottle of wine I've ever had. If you like strawberry wine, by all means, drink strawberry wine.

[00:58:02] You don't have to like a big cab that's supposed to age for 30 years. That's totally fine. Enjoy that. I mean, we're not serving that. But I can tell you who is and I can send you that way. Which is, and the other thing that I think is really special about Texas being young and small, while there are some nuances, but in general, we're still super supportive of each other.

[00:58:32] Absolutely. And I love when people come in, we've had such a good time. Where should we go now? We're like, oh, head over here, head over here. You like this point? Based on what you like, here's where you got to go. Yeah. You know? And I think that it's still so much fun. And I think T90 still embodies that camaraderie. Yeah. I would echo that. So, you know, Mike and I don't have farming backgrounds. We don't have winemaking backgrounds, right?

[00:59:02] We were strictly consumers. I grew up on the beach, right? Tractors, not part of that. In Florida, right? You do a fine job driving the tractor and blowing under pecan trees. I have learned how to drive a tractor. Not very well, as he's joking about. Nope. But I can drive it. But the answers to some of the questions that we've had and us being willing to say, you know, stupid people questions like, I don't know, help me understand from a farming

[00:59:29] perspective all the way to the way the tasting room works or, you know, everything in between. The community of the wine grape growing journey. I would say the whole family, right? From the growers to the winemakers to the tasting room folks are all always willing to answer questions and to help people. And you rarely hear people talk bad things about other wineries, which coming from corporate America is such a refreshing component.

[00:59:58] What they need for that. Yes. Yeah. When I started this podcast with the wine industry, I assumed that winemakers would be the same way. They'd be very protective of their stuff and very competitive. And to find this open environment where everybody was sharing and co-op, I was like, wow, this is really different. I would expect that. Well, when I talk to people who are in wine industries in other parts of the country, specifically like a California, Washington, Oregon, I get the impression. A lot more cutthroat. That it's not what it is in Texas.

[01:00:25] I remember the first time I went to Napa, I learned not to tell them I was in the industry because I wasn't allowed to go on any tours. Oh, interesting. And I'm like, trust me, we've been making wine for thousands of years. There may be a different piece of equipment. Right. But it's doing the exact same. There's no trade secret that you're... No trade secret you're getting away, right? You're like, I want to see what cooper I'm using. I'm like, you're using Terrence O and Surrey.

[01:00:55] It's cool. I understand. I mean, it's a perfect example, right? So we want... We're going to introduce a sparkling, this song. Yeah, yeah. So we're super excited about that. One of the other wineries is doing a force, right? I mean, we made the base wine. Sure. But she has all the traditional methods. She has the equipment and you know how to do that part of it. So we're allowing them to go ahead and do that. And so we get to partner up with them.

[01:01:26] Which is right. We're super excited. Yeah. Exactly. Especially as expensive as that equipment is. Yeah. Exactly. That's a whole nother winery. Well, let's talk for just a second. I want to talk about your wines for a second, but I do want to rewind just for a second here about the grapes themselves. So you have the vineyard there in the High Plains and you have here, but you said you built a production center here. Do you truck those grapes down or do you do any kind of production up there? We do. So it depends. Okay.

[01:01:57] This is my favorite is. Yes or no? Not really production. Do you do a little? Yeah. At most, the big thing is we partnered with someone who harvests the grapes. Okay. It's extremely clean. It's extremely well. Yeah. And that eliminates a lot of needs to do scuff right away. But there are some varieties, especially like whites or whatever, that we may take three

[01:02:26] miles down the road to a custom crash place, have them go ahead and press it, then it just then be able to bring it down here. We're not doing actual production up there. At least not anymore. Not since we have this here. But it's not whole clusters. Mostly it's because I hate giving up that control. Well, however, when we are picking us up, I'm up there riding on the harvester. I'm protecting the grapes as they go and I'm making decisions in the middle of the night

[01:02:56] as we're harvesting. And so it may be we have a plan and all of a sudden I'm like, oh, these aren't in as good a condition as we'd hope. We need to get them pressed and get them off the skins and do some stuff right now. And especially because I have a lot of experience and good relationships in the industry that

[01:03:23] we can pivot real quick. However, especially like our first year up there when we had this here, I'm like, oh, we're crossing all the whites up there. We're crossing the rosés up there. And it actually didn't turn out as how I wanted it to. So I actually like the transport type. Okay. And we're just bringing just our truck. Sure.

[01:03:51] So before the grapes are even starting to get picked, the truck's there. The temperature controls are on. Um, like I said, I'm adding SO2, covering the, you know, taking care of the grapes as they are picked. Um, and then soon as we're done, I don't care if it's one ton of grapes. It's going on a 53 foot trailer that's kept down at 25 degrees and it's coming down here.

[01:04:19] So they show up anywhere from six to usually about six hours after they're done getting picked. Yeah. Um, which in reality, I worked at places, high end places that crush stuff as things are getting picked. Yeah. Six hours is a very short amount of. Sure. Yeah. So let's talk about, uh, listeners getting excited, wanting to come in to do a tasting and check the place out. Um, what can they expect? So what does a tasting look like? Do they, do you do a flight of wines?

[01:04:49] Does the customer choose their wines? Uh, what does that look like? What does it cost? What is a tasting typically? Yeah. So we have a couple of different options. So, um, our, our standard offers are, you have a signature tasting, which consists of five wines for $30. You can pick whether or not you want that to be mixed with white and reds, or you want white only or red only. Um, and then there's an elevated tasting that has six tastings on it and you get to take your classes home with you. So equally.

[01:05:18] And so, um, kind of. They get little bonus wines that you don't always get. Yeah. Yeah. And they, they spend more time, I would say, kind of with them walking through more wine education and experience and that kind of stuff. And then we have fun tastings that we add along the, the way. So in February, as an example, we did a chocolate and wine tasting that we did for the month of February and for Valentine's day. We did this similar thing in October and then we did cupcakes and wine. Excellent.

[01:05:48] They were so good. Little tiny cupcakes that we did for our anniversary, a couple of weeks around that, but that's what they can expect for, for, for those. And then what are your operating hours? So on Thursdays is actually our, we'll call it our late night. When we do that, um, when the time changes, our times change. Right. Right. So now that the time has changed, it's from 12 to seven. So that allows people who are coming in for a long weekend to stop by and get some wine after their drive or for locals to come out.

[01:06:18] And then we have. Especially before the tourists all, uh, uh, you know, the crowds, you show up, it gives them an opportunity to come out. Sure. Their own kind of private time after they get off work. Yeah. Yeah. And we have music from four to seven and then, um, Friday and Saturday it's 11 to six and Sunday is 12 to five. Okay. And so, and our food truck is open whenever we're open. So they have the same hours that we do. Yeah. For you to be able to get food.

[01:06:44] Speaking of food, if people are coming, can they bring their own food or do they, is that allowed in the winery or. Okay. You can't bring your own food because we have a food truck. We have a purveyor here. Um, we do allow kids and dogs, dogs outside only. And when people come in, so our greeter will greet you and kind of take you in and welcome you and hand you off to a server. Um, but she always reminds parents that their children are allowed, but they have to stay with them. Okay. Um, we have some fields next to us.

[01:07:13] So kids love to run. We have an upstairs. They love to run on that. None of that is allowed, um, because it's disruptive to other people. Well, um, so we do allow kids, which, you know, that was a big time. We went to open a lot of, um, whiners. When I talked to them said no kids, no dogs. And they had come to those policies because they had had negative experiences that led them to that. Um, I was a young mom. I had my first kid at 25 and I worked full time.

[01:07:39] And so when I went somewhere on vacation, my children went with me. And so, you know, as long as we have parents that are doing what they're supposed to be doing and watching their children, then I think that they're welcome. And, you know, we've had that discussion with a couple of folks and they've been, you know, so knock on wood, right? People have been accommodating. Some lovely families come through where, where it's like, oh, you understand where it is. You are, you know, it's, it's not a jungle gym.

[01:08:07] Um, the, the fields we have, we still have snakes and foxes and, and this is a farm. Yeah. You know, this isn't a park. I don't have a, a kid's play place, you know, for everyone to say. Yeah. Yeah. So it's all good. Do you have any maximum group sizes? Do people need to make reservations? So if you have a size larger than six, we ask you to call us to make a reservation so that we can

[01:08:34] be prepared, make sure we've got servers, we've got enough space, that kind of thing. Um, but for the most part, we can accommodate any size party. We just need enough advance notice to be able to set that up. We have our barrel room, which the seats about 32 people in here. Um, so we can take, we have some tour groups that come in. We have, um, you know, just small tour. Most of it really, uh, uh, one thing I like is like when we've had corporate parties and

[01:09:01] and stuff like that, that, that we've been able to reserve and open on days that we are not normally open so they can come in and kind of take over the space and, and do their whole thing. And that works really good for really large, yeah. Large parties. Yeah. And so we do. We're not built for the tour bus to pull in. Yeah. Per se. Yeah. But that is the thing, right? If somebody has a special occasion they want to do, they just need to reach out to us and we usually can accommodate that.

[01:09:28] And if, uh, listeners come in now, they tasted, they think this is really good stuff. Do you have a wine club? Of course we have a wine club. Tell me about your wine club details. So, you know, the thing that I would say that people love the most about our wine club is they get to pick their wines. Okay. So we do, we have a four bottle club and we have a case club. And so we will send out, here's the wines that are going to be in the wine package. And then you have two weeks to decide if you want to change those all up. Switch things around. You can do that. Um, and so you take it, um, four different times.

[01:09:57] And so they get, you know, you get discounts on club members, on, um, club events, on, uh, merchandise, on wine. And then of course you get a couple free glasses of wine whenever you come into the tasting room. And you, and you do get the first skids on, uh, on things like volunteering for bottling and, you know, helping out with stuff and inside tracks. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The, the, you know, the little perks that aren't on paper that do just happen. What about like distribution of anything?

[01:10:26] If people can't come here, is there a way for them to taste your wines? Do you sell them online or? We sell them online so you can order them online. We, we ship to the majority of the states in the U S but there's some that we don't, that don't allow, like Arkansas, they don't allow us to ship in. There's some weird. Um, but, uh, we do ship so you can order it online and get it shipped to your house. We're in a couple of restaurants. So we're in one in Fredericksburg, we're in one in green, and then we're in one in driven Springs.

[01:10:53] But, you know, on purpose, like Tim mentioned earlier, you know, our objective is not to be in mass distribution. It's selective. It's with partner restaurants that we're doing kind of cross promotional things with and, um, you know, getting our wine out there where it makes sense. Um, because we really want people to kind of join the club, come to the tasting room experience and be part of our personal, you know? Yeah.

[01:11:20] Do want it to be a really kind of a conversation between us and you and, and that whole idea of the Piazza, the family and stuff like that. We want to have a community. Yeah. And we have soft seating in here. So we have two couches, um, in front of some fireplaces with soft seating. We've got tables, right? And we have a bar. So you can really kind of, you can do it inside, outside. You get to kind of pitch the experience that you want to have.

[01:11:48] So we've talked a little bit about your possible growth for the vineyard and things like that. Do you have any other dreams or plans for growth of the winery itself? Of course. Anything you can share with the listeners? I fight all the time. She's like, we can't afford that yet. Not yet. So, you know, I think the thing that we did when we built this property was we had a master plan, if you want to think about it like that.

[01:12:11] So this building is kind of off to the, if you come in the farthest to the right, um, so that there's room for us to expand to another tasting room. Um, a club, probably an exclusive club membership piece. We have plans to do a really nice outdoor space. Um, you know, imagine fire pits and, you know, soft seating around that and water features and all that kind of stuff. Right. And then this, we did the same thing with the production facility. Right.

[01:12:41] So you, you know, we put the building in. I know what it will look like in stage five. Right. Like where it will go. Right. So there's room for multiple buildings to be added to that. Um, but you know, you have to, you know, kind of the build it and they will come. You have to do it in a, in a logical way. So it doesn't also feel, um. Not too mishmash. Yeah. Not mishmash, but also you want to, we really still want people to feel like a family. Right.

[01:13:08] I think, you know, that intimacy of people coming in here and feeling comfortable and the hospitality and people knowing who you are and feeling welcome is a key part of our identity. So our logo stands for family, faith, friendship, and fellowship. Right. And so if you think of that as kind of our guiding principles, right. Um, we want to make sure that those things are built into our consumer experience and

[01:13:36] their way our employees are treated and the way they feel, um, and how we present ourselves out to the public. And so, um, you know, I think growth for the sake of growth sake is, you know, just me feeding my pride growth sake for it making sense and for enhancing an experience. Um, but we're babies. Like, I don't know what I don't know. We've been open 18 months. Believably young. Yeah. It is still. It's like you're going to be a kindergartner. What do you want to be when you grow up? Exactly. Sorry. We're fired.

[01:14:06] We have big plans. Those could all be very wrong and they may change dramatically by the time I get there. I'm sure that they already have their dreams right now. That's right. But yeah, we, we bought this property and it's big enough and we designed it with what it, the future could be future growth could be. And God willing, we will get to the needs for those things, but not yet. So there are a lot of places out in Texas and along the wine road here where people can go to, to taste great wine and have great experiences.

[01:14:35] So what do you think really sets Michael Ross apart from other locations that people would say, I really need to get there and visit? So I think, um, obviously I would say the wine because I think we have great wine, but there are other places that have good wine too. Right. Like, cause that's kind of a subjective piece. I think the thing that sets us apart is our people and the hospitality. Okay. So, um, you know, you have a greeter that meets you as soon as you kind of get out of

[01:15:04] your car and come in and they hand you off and say, Hey, this is where you're going to sit. Lori's going to take care of you. Right. And so. I do that. That. Even in me, just coming down. She'll come out to say hi to me. Yeah. And he's like, she recognizes me. I'm like, it's the face of the winery or whatever, but she comes out and it's like, Oh yeah. Hey Tim. Right. Here's what's going on. And our people are the same way. Right.

[01:15:29] Like we want the customer to feel like they're the only person in the room on a Saturday. That's hard to do. Right. But the ability to have people have enough staff or to be a little overstaffed so that people are feeling special and not feeling like a number. I don't want people to walk away with that. And I think that's one of the things that we do really, really well.

[01:15:54] And we hear a lot from our customers when they come in is just how great that hospitality experience is. And of course they wouldn't come back if we didn't have great wine. Right. And so we got to have great wine. But again, there, there are people that have that. So I think that is the piece that's the most unique along with our building and the fact that it doesn't feel like all the others. It's pretty. It really is pretty. I think we have the circular in this of it is always catches me.

[01:16:24] off guard because it, one, it doesn't feel as big as it is, but it also feels bigger than what you see, you know, cause it just kind of keeps going on. And, but yet at the same time you have these intimate little thingies and I really, really love the design of this. And, and even like outside on the upper patio is some of my favorite places to sit. That's all about favorite places. You can watch people.

[01:16:54] And you get a, even in the middle of summer, especially you get four or five o'clock in the afternoon. One, the, it's completely in the shade. Yeah. And then the breeze comes every day. And so. And the sunset is maybe hot. But it's still just feels nice. I like to picture them, you know, out on the Lido deck on a crease. You know, when we built this, the original idea was that people would park upstairs and

[01:17:23] come in and then see the openness of the entire experience. The whole, the whole courtyard and the vineyard and the pecan trees. Right. And they kind of get this massive experience. Yeah. Parking wire down here. There was not intended. And I suppose we drop off only, but the people parked there. Yeah, we couldn't train people to go upstairs and come through and then come down. Yeah. So, you know. Oh, there's accessibility. You adjust and adapt. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. But it is beautiful up there.

[01:17:52] One of my friends was in yesterday. She's like, I can't believe people miss that. Like, they don't go up there. It's so gorgeous when you walk in from upstairs. Yeah. So, anyway. Well, I do like, Q, as you're coming down the road, you can see us from almost a mile away. And you're like, that is unique looking. What is that sticking out of the hillside? And I really do. I think it was really, really well done.

[01:18:18] And it really is an impressive facility to go to when you go check it out. Whether you go upstairs and park and come in from the top, like Rossanne talked about, or if you come into the parking lot down below and you come into the front by the granite stone fountain. Um, it's really evocative of that Italian piazza.

[01:18:45] You're, it gets you really excited for both great wine and great community. And as always, make sure to check out their website before you go. It's www.michaelrosswinery.com. That's at one S in Ross. So don't make the mistake like Rossanne talked about in the interview. Uh, we're trying to put two S's on there. It's michaelroswinery.com. And on their website, you're going to find information about all of the different wines that they have available to you.

[01:19:12] What to expect when you visit, as well as a place where you can actually go make reservations, especially if you're coming with a larger group. You'll even find information about their wine club there, uh, their event calendar, things that they have coming up at the winery and read more about their story and their team on that website. And don't forget when you go, don't forget to tell them you heard about them on this podcast, Texas under Vine. So once we wrapped up our time together, uh, I got to go in and sit down and do a little bit of a tasting of some of these great wines. They're very delicious.

[01:19:42] Uh, I have to say, I'm very impressed with their philosophy and the fact that they did put the wines first when they put this winery together. It was evident in the tasting of these wines. Uh, these weren't just thrown together or last minute or even young wines. These were very tasty wines that were easily able to be aged and had a lot of flavor and characteristic to them. It's evident that they spent plenty of time already in the barrel and even in the bottle for doing some of that aging that a lot of wines need and can benefit from.

[01:20:12] And these wines were worthy of that. They also have actually entered their wines in a few wine competitions already and begun a winning awards, which is a pretty important thing, especially for such a young winery. As a matter of fact, my favorite of the bunch during my tasting was their 21 Tanat. So, um, uh, those of you that have been watching the episode know I like my Tanats and this was really, really tasty.

[01:20:35] Uh, this actually won the platinum medal at the Texom 2025 Texom wine competition, which is a huge accomplishment for such, again, such a young winery. It's a testament to that effort they've put into the wines and it's definitely worthy of that award. I have to admit the judges were right. Uh, I had to go with this one as my choice for my wine library for this particular episode.

[01:21:01] Uh, very big and bold as you might expect from a Tanat, but not in a biting way that the tannins were nice and round and soft. Um, but giving you lots of dark fruit, maybe a little bit of dark chocolate on the back end of the palette. Um, and even some spicy type of notes on there. So I really loved this wine and that became my wine library bottle for this episode, as I said a moment ago. So make sure when you go, you get a chance to try this 21 Tanat. You won't be disappointed. Now, even if Tanat isn't your thing, that's okay.

[01:21:31] They have such a wide variety of whites, rosés and reds, and I'm sure that you're going to find something that's going to make your palate happy while you're there. And with that, it's time for me to leave the Piazza and journey on down the road to my next destination. I really hope you're enjoying the podcast and I hope that it's really getting you excited to go visit some new and maybe even some familiar wine destinations and get out and see our great wine industry here in Texas.

[01:21:57] I do plan on bringing you even more great destinations, um, but I'm sure that there are other people out there who would love to have this information, but they just don't know that it exists. So would you do me a favor and share this podcast with all of your wine loving friends? And if you could take just a second and go to wherever you get this podcast, uh, whether it's on Apple podcasts or Spotify or YouTube or wherever it may be, and leave me a rating and review there. Just tell me kind of what you think and others what you think of the podcast.

[01:22:26] It really does help get the podcast seen by more people. Uh, we got in this technology age, you have to beat that algorithm and that really gets things moved up in the algorithm more. So more people might discover it. And in addition, hopefully discover our great Texas wine industry. And the more people we have drinking Texas wine and the more money we see flowing into that industry will not only get bigger, but it will also help us get more known on the world scene and more people will take notice of the great wines we're producing here in Texas.

[01:22:55] Plus leaving a rating and review is free and it only takes you a few seconds of your time. And for those of you that are watching this on YouTube, make sure to like, follow, and subscribe to the podcast and leave a comment down below. As always, if you've been to Michael Ross winery, tell me your favorite thing about it, or if you haven't been yet, but now you're really anxious to go after watching this episode, make sure to leave me a comment telling me what are you most looking forward to seeing or tasting or experiencing when you go to Michael Ross winery.

[01:23:23] And with that, my time is up. So don't forget, subscribe to my socials and follow the podcast to be notified anytime a new episode is released. And until then, happy trails and bottoms up, y'all. Thanks for listening to Texas Undervine. We strive to provide you with the best information about wine businesses all over Texas.

[01:23:47] Be sure to check out our website at texasundervine.com and follow us on our socials at Texas Undervine to stay up on all the upcoming episodes. Please email us with any suggestions or feedback. Also, contact us if you're interested in donating, sponsoring, or advertising on the podcast just to help us cover our expenses and bring even more great info to you in future episodes. Above all, travel safely and most especially, drink responsibly.

[01:24:23] Howdy, Vine Trippers. Did you know that I now have a merchandise store for Texas Undervine? I only have a handful of limited items, but you can go check those out and wear your Texas Undervine swag if you'd like to tell all your friends about the great wine locations we have here in Texas and maybe get them interested in the podcast as well. So, there are things like t-shirts, there's a hoodie, there's a beanie, a ball cap, things like that. But one of the most exciting things I have right now is my limited time offer t-shirt that's my season one t-shirt.

[01:24:52] So, this is your Tasting Through Texas, Texas Undervine season one t-shirt. It's only going to be available for a little short amount of time. On the back, it has all the different locations like a band tour t-shirt. So, this is a limited time item and you can go out and get it now. And one of the great things about that t-shirt is a portion of every sale goes to support the Texas Hill Country Winery Scholarship Fund.

[01:25:14] So, you know that by buying that t-shirt, you're also investing in the growing and flourishing of an amazing wine industry here in Texas and all of those people that are going to come and make it even better. Check out that merchandise store. It's on my website at texasundervine.com. Just go up to the top. You'll see the link for the merchandise store.