Uncover the charm of urban winemaking as we toast to The Austin Winery's innovative spirit, nestled in the bustling heart of Austin. CEO and President Ross McLauchlan joins me to spill the secrets of their ten-year journey, from creating Texas wines to orange wines in clay amphoras. Our conversation flows through the essence of their "confusingly easy" philosophy that invites everyone to savor the joy of wine without the fuss.
Step inside the eclectic space of The Yard, where The Austin Winery blooms amidst the industrial vibrancy of Austin, crafting an oasis for wine. From the relaxed no-reservation tastings to the community-centric events like 'Bigger in Texas,' we paint a portrait of a winery that's more than its terroir, a testament to the tapestry of Texas winemaking. Join us for this journey and cheers to discovery and delight in every pour!
The Austin Winery
Become a Patreon of Texas Under Vine and get access to bonus content, like photo galleries from the episode, video walkthroughs of the location, and sneak peek videos of where I'm headed next for future episodes!
Check out my YouTube channel for video versions of the podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@texasundervine
Ep 40 - Video Podcast (https://youtu.be/D41d6eWe3C0)
Locations mentioned in this episode:
University of Texas
The Mark Wine Group
Precision Viticulture
The Yard
Robert Clay Vineyards (Also check out TUV Episode 34)
Reem’s Falafel
Limestone Terrace Vineyard
William Chris Vineyards (Also check out TUV Episode 29)
---------
Texas Regions Guide (see website for map):
CT - Central Texas
ET - East Texas
GC - Gulf Coast
HC - Texas Hill Country
HP - Texas High Plains
NT - North Texas
ST - South Texas
WT - West Texas
---------
Be sure to check out https://www.TxWineLover.com!
Merchandise Store (https://texasundervine.company.site)
Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/texasundervine)
http://www.texasundervine.com
Email: scott@texasundervine.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/texasundervine/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/texasundervine/
X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/texasundervine
Speaker 1: Welcome to Texas Undervine, an exploratory
00:00:19
podcast to scout out the best Texas wine country has to offer.
00:00:23
I'm your wine guide, scott, and I'm here to lead you on an
00:00:26
auditory expedition to the vineyards and wineries across
00:00:29
the great Lone Star State.
00:00:31
Each episode will cover a different vineyard, winery or
00:00:34
wine-related business operating in Texas.
00:00:36
You'll hear interviews, descriptions and details about
00:00:40
each location that will excite you to visit and experience them
00:00:43
for yourself.
00:00:44
Ready to plan a wine tour, use these episodes to choose the
00:00:48
most interesting spots for you and your friends to check out.
00:00:51
Most of all, enjoy hearing about the rapidly growing wine
00:00:54
industry in the state and what makes our wines and wineries the
00:00:58
best.
00:00:58
Howdy, fellow vine tripper.
00:01:12
Welcome to episode 40 for Texas Undervine, and for this episode
00:01:16
, I'm actually staying close to home here in Austin and I'm
00:01:19
going to visit the Austin Winery in South Austin.
00:01:22
Now.
00:01:22
This winery is owned by Ross McLaughlin, cooper Anderson and
00:01:26
Matthew Smith.
00:01:27
They actually opened their doors all the way back in 2013
00:01:31
in Austin.
00:01:31
At that time, the location was actually in a different place
00:01:35
than they are now, but they are thriving in an area called the
00:01:38
Yard.
00:01:39
It's a kind of warehouse shopping district area, I guess
00:01:43
you could call it in South Austin and got a great facility
00:01:47
there.
00:01:47
It's really fun to visit.
00:01:48
Whenever they set up their winery scenario, they wanted it
00:01:52
to feel more like a really casual brew pub style experience
00:01:57
, more so than a fancy white tablecloth style experience,
00:02:01
because they just felt like that would really kind of push
00:02:03
people away from wine and they're really focused on trying
00:02:06
to get more especially urban people into tasty wine and it's
00:02:10
a more non-threatening way to check out great wine in Austin.
00:02:14
And, like I said a few minutes ago, it's located in an area
00:02:17
called the yard.
00:02:18
It's a really cool little area there because they're surrounded
00:02:21
by other little businesses that you can go to.
00:02:23
There's a sake production facility, a coffee shop,
00:02:27
distillery, all kinds of really cool, fun little places.
00:02:30
Matter of fact, you could probably make a whole day just
00:02:33
moving around from place to place, but always start with the
00:02:36
Austin Winery when you go.
00:02:38
Now, when it comes to their wines, they are 100% Texas.
00:02:41
They do source a little bit of fruit from the high plains, but
00:02:45
they really try to get most of their fruit from the Texas Hill
00:02:48
Country and the Central Texas area.
00:02:50
So that's where their main focus is.
00:02:53
You know, based on weather, based on different things every
00:02:56
year with great production.
00:02:57
Sometimes they may have to go a little bit out of that region,
00:02:59
but they really want the majority of their fruit to be
00:03:02
very local here in Central Texas and in that Hill Country, ava,
00:03:06
and they're doing some really kind of experimental and fun
00:03:09
things with their wines.
00:03:10
When you go in they actually have some clay amphoras where
00:03:14
they're making their white wines and they're doing them old
00:03:17
world style with the skin contact to make them orange
00:03:20
wines.
00:03:21
At least this year that's how they produce their white wines,
00:03:24
so you get to try some new things.
00:03:26
It gives a different take on white wines.
00:03:28
If you've never tried an orange wine gives it a little bit
00:03:32
because the skins are there.
00:03:33
You get a little bit of that tannin from the skins and so it
00:03:35
gives it almost like a tea characteristic.
00:03:37
Some people have compared orange wines even to tasting
00:03:41
like bourbon or whiskey or things like that.
00:03:43
So it gives a different flavor to their white wines.
00:03:46
It's very popular right now and so they decided this year that
00:03:49
all of their white wines would be done in that orange style.
00:03:52
So if you've never tried that, what a great opportunity to go
00:03:55
check it out here at the Austin Winery.
00:03:57
They also host some pretty cool events there at their location.
00:04:00
They recently just had a very collaboratory experience that
00:04:05
they host called Bigger in Texas , where they invite wineries
00:04:08
from all over the state to come in and set up shop there in
00:04:12
their location so that people can come in for this event and
00:04:15
taste wine from different places all over the state.
00:04:18
Where you might have to drive I think Ross said is something
00:04:21
like 1500 miles round trip if you were going to try to visit
00:04:24
all these places in Texas because we're such a huge state
00:04:27
but you can get samples of them all at that one event and that's
00:04:30
called the Bigger in Texas event.
00:04:32
So that's a fun one to look out for.
00:04:34
They also recently celebrated their 10th birthday anniversary
00:04:38
and had a big party for that.
00:04:39
So they love to put on events.
00:04:41
You can rent out the place all kinds of really fun stuff they
00:04:44
do at the Austin Winery.
00:04:51
Now when you go to visit and you want to do a tasting in the
00:04:53
interview you'll hear Ross has says that their tastings they
00:04:54
try to make them confusingly easy.
00:04:55
I love that phrasing because they want it to be as relaxed
00:04:59
and as casual as possible so it's not intimidating to the
00:05:03
average person coming in who maybe doesn't know very much
00:05:05
about wine or wants to explore some new things, like maybe
00:05:08
those orange wines that I talked about a moment ago, and so it's
00:05:11
a very simple and easy tasting process.
00:05:13
Ross will cover a little bit more of that in the interview
00:05:16
and, by the way, while I'm here, I did get to sit down with Ross
00:05:20
for a little while and talk to him.
00:05:22
So we're going to go to that interview so you can hear some
00:05:25
of his stories about how the winery was started, some of his
00:05:29
background and how that philosophy really led into what
00:05:32
they're doing today in this kind of casual brewpub style
00:05:36
environment, and I look forward for you to hearing his story.
00:05:39
So, without further ado, let's go hear from Ross.
00:05:42
Without further ado, let's go hear from Ross, all right?
00:05:48
Well, I'm here with Ross McLaughlin at Austin Winery, and
00:05:52
he is the CEO and founder of this winery, so we're going to
00:05:55
learn a little bit about this place and I'm going to ask Ross
00:05:58
a couple of questions here.
00:05:59
So, ross, first tell me, how did you get into the wine
00:06:02
industry?
00:06:03
Speaker 2: Pretty fortunately, I wasn't born into the wine
00:06:07
industry.
00:06:07
Neither actually nobody in our business here at the Elson
00:06:12
Warner was sort of legacy winemaker or anything like that.
00:06:15
Truthfully, I wanted to work for Anthony Bourdain and
00:06:19
unfortunately he didn't get my memos in time.
00:06:22
Rest in power.
00:06:25
I studied at University of Texas.
00:06:26
I was a European Studies major, which is a very broad language,
00:06:29
politics, economics, sort of thing, and then I also had
00:06:33
degrees in radio, television, film and nutrition, thinking
00:06:37
along those lines of getting into entertainment in that
00:06:41
regard, again like winemaking, though I didn't have any
00:06:45
experience or connection there and I met one of my business
00:06:50
partners, cooper Anderson, playing soccer in my last
00:06:54
semester at University of Texas.
00:06:56
I had just come back from studying abroad in Barcelona
00:06:59
where I stodged a little for a cover production there.
00:07:03
But I think when you're 21 and studying abroad you're going to
00:07:08
love everything you're going to do.
00:07:09
You know and drinking and speaking, you know some Spanish
00:07:12
and Catalan.
00:07:13
But as a result I come back and I have one more semester and
00:07:17
Cooper had just moved down from Virginia.
00:07:19
He was working in some hill country wineries, didn't have
00:07:22
any friends and, you know, needed some buddies.
00:07:25
So I got him a soccer team and some friends.
00:07:27
He got me a job out there and before you knew it we were on
00:07:32
the first steps of our career together.
00:07:34
So that was the start there.
00:07:37
Speaker 1: All right, and then how did that lead to the
00:07:39
founding of the Austin Winery?
00:07:40
Speaker 2: So after I ultimately graduated, I went to work for a
00:07:44
wine broker called the Mark Wine Group, and that was really
00:07:48
a intermediary that you know, we're all familiar with the
00:07:51
three-tiered system, and what he did was he actually just
00:07:54
represented family-owned wineries, but two national
00:07:58
accounts, and so I was a liaison of bringing national buyers out
00:08:02
to these smaller wineries in California and Oregon and we
00:08:06
represented, say, 12 wineries in that region.
00:08:09
And at a very young age I got to kind of be a fly on the wall
00:08:13
and I got this exposure point to all these different styles of
00:08:16
running a winery, styles of making wine.
00:08:18
And also, ultimately, I realized you know, previously I
00:08:22
didn't realize that most people weren't making wine with all
00:08:26
estate grown fruit, and then many people didn't even own
00:08:28
vineyards, and so the sort of light clicked on that I was like
00:08:31
, oh my God, this isn't a.
00:08:33
You know, you need $5 million to start a winery, right?
00:08:37
That's what you always assume, right?
00:08:39
I'm like okay really, I think we could get some winemaking
00:08:42
equipment, secure some sourcing.
00:08:49
This is, you know, a couple hundred thousand dollars, is you
00:08:50
know, much more in reach.
00:08:51
So Cooper and I started, um, negociant, uh, sort of blending
00:08:53
other people's finished wines just to sort of see where we
00:08:56
were at in our competency.
00:08:58
Um, we saw a big gap in the market in Austin, if you, if you
00:09:02
think 10 years back from now, how many Texas wines you saw
00:09:06
present in off-premise grocers, liquor stores or on-premise and
00:09:11
wineless by the glass in particular, it was really hard
00:09:15
to find.
00:09:15
But conversely, we had a really high food IQ here in Austin,
00:09:20
and so I felt that people would engage with wine if it was more
00:09:25
in like the brew pub model, right, I think that there's this
00:09:27
communal casualness, energy and culture that Austin has, and I
00:09:33
felt like if we show the blue collar side of production, the
00:09:37
green thumb side of it, and sort of remove the white tablecloth,
00:09:40
and people will engage with it and meet with it without this
00:09:44
sort of structure of intimidation or foreignness.
00:09:48
Uh, or that wine was going to make them feel dumb, uh, about
00:09:51
themselves, because nobody wants to do that in their free time.
00:09:54
So that was sort of the, the impetus and how we you know the
00:09:58
inception of the idea.
00:09:59
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, and then when did you get started?
00:10:01
We?
00:10:03
Speaker 2: opened our doors in May of 2023.
00:10:07
I'm sorry, may of 2013.
00:10:12
So we're just coming at our 10-year mark right now, and it
00:10:17
took us a long time, though, to really kind of climb the ladder
00:10:21
on the contract list of being important, relevant, reliable.
00:10:25
I mean, if I can't blame most farmers if, 24 year old me and
00:10:31
Cooper and Matt came up to them and saying that we wanted to
00:10:35
source fruit and we had an urban winery in Austin, texas, I
00:10:39
probably wouldn't have them at the bottom of the list too.
00:10:40
But in time in time, we, we grew.
00:10:43
We've, you know, been very active in working in the
00:10:46
vineyards as well.
00:10:47
We're super tied to a vineyard management company here in the
00:10:50
Hill country called Precision Viticulture and, you know,
00:10:55
shortly and slowly, we started to produce wines of good quality
00:10:59
, uh, and from good provenance.
00:11:00
And, you know, a big thing for us is transparency and education
00:11:04
.
00:11:04
So all of our bottles will have a vineyard designate, the, the
00:11:09
varietal blend, if any, if we added any SO2 and the case
00:11:13
production numbers, and I think, in terms of increasing the IQ
00:11:17
and the exposure of of local drinkers, it's really important
00:11:21
to know the AVAs and then the vineyards and the varietals.
00:11:24
So, um, I think that's helped us or endeared us to to some so
00:11:29
yeah, Well, and you mentioned Matt.
00:11:30
Speaker 1: how does he figure it in this?
00:11:31
Speaker 2: journey.
00:11:32
Matt, uh, handles all.
00:11:36
He's our chief of operations, so he was the third member of
00:11:38
the triumvirate that before we opened we were like, okay, we
00:11:40
really need, um, somebody at the switch point so he handles all
00:11:43
accounting administration.
00:11:44
We're in an extremely rigid sort of paperwork business with
00:11:52
a lot of government oversight, so all that reporting and we
00:11:55
also we do export to Canada, hong Kong, distribute in
00:12:00
multiple states, so there's a whole operation that from a
00:12:04
sales and winemaking perspective , you really need somebody in
00:12:08
the middle there keeping it all together.
00:12:11
So he handles all that for us.
00:12:14
Speaker 1: And how did your background in working with the
00:12:17
three-tiered system and working with a merchant, or was a broker
00:12:21
the broker.
00:12:21
How did that help you with?
00:12:37
Speaker 2: now your distribution .
00:12:38
You do a lot of distribution of your wine direct to consumer or
00:12:42
through the tasting room, which had been the case.
00:12:45
And then when COVID restrictions hit, you know there's no
00:12:48
tasting room traffic, right.
00:12:49
So that model really had to flip.
00:12:52
So we were really at a point where we were at about 75%
00:12:55
direct to consumer, 25% wholesale, which was about
00:12:58
exposure, about people seeing and learning about our wines.
00:13:01
It was more of a marketing cost , almost right.
00:13:05
Then that really flipped and during the COVID period we were
00:13:09
at almost 75, 25 the other way right.
00:13:12
So now we're in this really healthy split where we're
00:13:15
increasing in our production of wine.
00:13:16
We have healthy traffic coming in the winery, but it also is
00:13:19
helping being driven by exposure of people having our wines.
00:13:23
If we're in the central market, you know, if we're in Central
00:13:25
Market in Dallas, if we're in Los Angeles in a hip spot, or
00:13:28
New York, people end up coming to Austin for all kinds of
00:13:32
reasons, usually not just for us , but hopefully we can take, you
00:13:35
know, an hour of their time and convince your significant other
00:13:39
to taste some wine with you to start the day, and that seemed
00:13:44
to work pretty well.
00:13:45
Speaker 1: And how did you find this place so?
00:13:47
Speaker 2: initially we were in a really crummy warehouse slip
00:13:51
and I recommend anybody if you're starting your business
00:13:55
and you don't have endless money , you should start with really
00:13:58
low operational costs.
00:13:59
So we were actually.
00:14:00
The street was called Tuscany Way, but it's actually the
00:14:03
street that you go to if they like lose your mail, like where
00:14:06
the UPS fleet is right.
00:14:08
So the funniest thing is people who are, you know, little
00:14:11
office, warehouse, commercial strip people would come out and
00:14:15
they'd call us and they'd be like we must be lost.
00:14:17
I don't think we're here.
00:14:18
We're like no, no, no, you're here.
00:14:19
You're here, you know, come on in.
00:14:21
And that was where we started.
00:14:23
We didn't actually have running water in the cellar so we had
00:14:29
an IBC tote that we would fill, that we'd run through a hot
00:14:32
water heater to sanitize that we're using for cleaning.
00:14:35
But when you start with poor equipment, poor infrastructure
00:14:41
and you can make good product therein, then you've earned the
00:14:43
right kind of to go forward.
00:14:45
So where we are today is a region called the Yard.
00:14:48
We're just South Congress and St Elmo, so about seven minutes
00:14:52
from downtown, which is really terrific.
00:14:54
But we're also in this wonderful community of next door
00:14:58
.
00:14:58
We share a wall with a coffee roaster who has beer taps,
00:15:01
there's a sake production, there's a distillery and there's
00:15:04
two other breweries.
00:15:05
So there's quite a kind of you know.
00:15:07
Not everybody runs the whole block but you know there's a lot
00:15:12
of overlap and cross-reference and customers visiting, you know
00:15:16
, like-minded businesses.
00:15:17
So it's great because these are all industrial producing
00:15:21
businesses with a customer facing aspect still in the, you
00:15:25
know, center hub of Austin.
00:15:26
Speaker 1: You can almost do your little pub crawl just right
00:15:28
along the way.
00:15:30
Speaker 2: That's why we like to be the first to open.
00:15:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, there you go.
00:15:33
Well, this may be kind of a silly question, but what led you
00:15:37
to the name?
00:15:37
What?
00:15:38
What led you to think we're going to call it the Austin
00:15:40
winery?
00:15:40
Speaker 2: Well, it's as I always actually joke about this
00:15:43
often, that it's kind of it's as I always actually joke about
00:15:49
this often, that it's kind of it's pretty embarrassing how
00:15:51
long it took us to come up with that name.
00:15:51
Uh, like, we were trying to, you know, think of all these.
00:15:53
You know clever, subtle, nuanced names, and you know what
00:15:54
we realized is look, we're first to market.
00:15:57
Um, we're the only people and still to this day are the only
00:16:01
people making wine within the city limits.
00:16:03
Um, you know, there's a lot of of structure and oversight that
00:16:07
goes into making one in the first place federally, then
00:16:10
state level is usually just kind of a copy of that.
00:16:12
But within the city, when we went to do our permits, they're
00:16:15
like, well, we don't have any wineries, like we're not really
00:16:18
sure where you guys file they.
00:16:20
You know it was completely we don't know how to handle it
00:16:23
Literally like the fire, the fire review guy.
00:16:25
He's like all right, now, when you're brewing this stuff, I'm
00:16:27
like no, no, no, no, no brewing, we're not cooking anything up
00:16:30
here, you know.
00:16:30
Uh, very low fire risk, um, and so you know it took us a while
00:16:35
to come to that, but I thought that it was one um sounds bigger
00:16:40
than we are right.
00:16:40
There's also the ease of all you have to know is what are you
00:16:45
drinking and where are we right ?
00:16:47
And I think that part of us trying to be very transparent,
00:16:54
clear and transparent, you know, understated in a way too that I
00:16:59
thought that this sort of helped carry that mission and it
00:17:01
was very, um, yeah, very even keeled, yeah.
00:17:05
Speaker 1: Okay, cool.
00:17:06
So being an urban winery, uh, you don't have a vineyard out
00:17:09
front or anything like that, or out back, I presume.
00:17:12
Um, where do you source most of your fruit?
00:17:15
Speaker 2: Um, well, we, right now we're at about a 50% split
00:17:18
between the Hill Country and the High Plains.
00:17:19
Okay, as you know, most of the Hill Country wineries were
00:17:24
sourcing.
00:17:24
Usually up to about 75% of their fruit was coming from the
00:17:28
High Plains.
00:17:29
Thankfully, we've had good new plantings and regenerative and
00:17:37
restorative work in the vineyards, a lot of which has
00:17:41
been done by people like Precision Viticulture and, I
00:17:44
think, also plantings that occurred, maybe you know, five
00:17:47
to 10 years ago.
00:17:47
Those wines are finally coming to producing time and so that's
00:17:52
been a really great thing for us because we also want to be
00:17:55
active in the vineyard.
00:17:57
Cooper and Adrian were just out pruning in Wimberley last week
00:18:00
and you know the, the more intimacy we have with the vines
00:18:05
and the better connection we have with the grower is going to
00:18:08
help us, project um, have better foresight and better
00:18:12
awareness of what's going to be.
00:18:14
You know the the conditions of the grapes as we harvest them
00:18:17
Right, and we all know that winemaking does start in the
00:18:20
vineyard.
00:18:20
So you know, if you're just setting bricks marks for where
00:18:23
you want your grapes to be harvested, there's a lot that
00:18:27
can be lost within that before they're you know on your crush
00:18:31
In that equation, right yeah, so we really prefer doing hill
00:18:34
country work.
00:18:35
Also, it's our nearest AVA but the High Plains is, you know,
00:18:41
wonderful for reduction in disease pressure.
00:18:42
That higher altitude, I mean.
00:18:43
It is a totally different AVA and last year was one of those
00:18:47
not all too rare but rare occasions where there was really
00:18:50
wonderful production in both regions.
00:18:52
I always think it's good to have a diverse portfolio of
00:18:55
where you're sourcing from, because acts of God and nature,
00:19:00
you know, are all too common.
00:19:02
But yeah, those are really the two regions that we're most
00:19:07
active with.
00:19:08
Speaker 1: I gotcha.
00:19:08
So 100% Texas, 100% Texas fruit .
00:19:10
And do you have like a crush pad here, or do they crush them
00:19:13
there and then you bring here?
00:19:14
Speaker 2: Typically everything arrives here on stem, whole
00:19:16
cluster, whole cluster.
00:19:18
So we run it through our own crusher to stemmer.
00:19:20
We have a pretty uh, but mighty press right there.
00:19:23
Um, but yeah, typically everything sometimes in the high
00:19:27
plans we'll have, if it's a large vineyard, we'll take it
00:19:30
and consolidate it and just crush into stem, but then having
00:19:34
must here, but everything otherwise is still grape to
00:19:37
glass right here okay, well, and that kind of leads to the
00:19:39
follow part of the question.
00:19:40
Speaker 1: So you do all the production here in this location
00:19:43
where the tasting room is?
00:19:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, satellite location or anybody doing custom
00:19:47
crush for us like that.
00:19:49
I mean, it's one of the things we'd really take a ton of pride
00:19:52
in.
00:19:52
Is that we we every aspect of our winemaking we're we're
00:19:57
solidly in control of.
00:19:58
Speaker 1: So you get to sit here and taste your wines right
00:20:01
around where the magic is done all around you, that's right,
00:20:03
and it's all native yeast fermentation.
00:20:08
Speaker 2: So this facility has its own ambient yeast, now that
00:20:09
we've been operating in here for almost seven years, and I think
00:20:12
that often the similarity is the way Jester King has sort of
00:20:15
a signature.
00:20:15
You know, they're sour, right.
00:20:17
Our yeast that is cultivated in here tends to have something
00:20:22
that I think is very unique to us, without overpowering just
00:20:27
the character of the terroir.
00:20:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
00:20:29
Well, what are the type of wines that you like to produce
00:20:32
here?
00:20:33
Speaker 2: We do a really large range, to be honest, but one of
00:20:36
the things that I thought was really fun this year is all of
00:20:39
our white wines, quote, unquote.
00:20:41
We did a certain amount of skin contact to all of them, so
00:20:44
they're all orange wine, ok.
00:20:46
So there is this sort of fetishization or this sort of
00:20:49
obsession with, in vogue, the hot thing right now.
00:20:51
Yeah, orange wine, and what we wanted to do is show the breadth
00:20:55
of that category.
00:20:56
So we have a couple of wines that are skin contact in that
00:21:00
and I say that with maybe less than four days of skin contact,
00:21:02
so just a little kiss of texture to them.
00:21:05
A couple of wines that are more in that caricature of orange
00:21:11
wine right, you can tell just from looking at it very high
00:21:12
acid but still pithy and good skin contact.
00:21:15
And then we have a couple of wines that we do in these
00:21:17
Amphora over here which are more in that amber wine.
00:21:21
Like you know, georgia or Albania, and those tend to be a
00:21:26
really old world, really old world right.
00:21:28
A little slightly more oxidized potentially, but usually have
00:21:32
like this wonderful balance of acid and like a tea note in the
00:21:35
tannin, and we've had really good success, just sort of, you
00:21:39
know, expanding people's horizons with that.
00:21:42
And, um, you know, I'm always, I think, by and large like with
00:21:46
Texas wine.
00:21:46
In general, I'm fine with people having a being skeptical,
00:21:49
right, healthy skepticism.
00:21:50
Um, just, you know, taste with us and let us, let us show you,
00:21:54
you know, a bit of, uh, a bit of what's out there.
00:21:56
And is it mostly dry or do you do any sweet?
00:22:02
We do.
00:22:02
We haven't done any sweet wine because of native yeast
00:22:03
fermentation.
00:22:04
Everything needs to go all the way dry.
00:22:05
With the exception of that, we do make a vermouth which has a
00:22:09
little bit of residual sugar.
00:22:10
It's all locally forged botanicals too.
00:22:13
So that's really lovely over ice cream or just on its own
00:22:17
with a little soda water too.
00:22:18
Speaker 1: Cool.
00:22:19
So and I know this is a hard question for many winemakers but
00:22:22
what are your favorite wines to make?
00:22:24
What do you just really like?
00:22:25
I'm really like oh, we got a batch of this.
00:22:27
I love making that.
00:22:29
Speaker 2: We had a lot of success.
00:22:30
We really loved a really soft maceration of a Cerasuolo style
00:22:34
which is like a Sicilian style of a chillable red being in
00:22:44
Texas your red wine, you know big, robust red wine.
00:22:45
Drinking season is typically quite limited and for me I want
00:22:46
something that you know is a red wine that I can pair with
00:22:50
seafood, with light grilled meats, with pasta, but that I
00:22:53
can drink without breaking a sweat.
00:22:54
So slightly lower alcohol, nice skin contact, good like lip,
00:22:59
smacky stem tannins, whole cluster like this Mvedra is
00:23:02
really terrific for that, with a long finish.
00:23:04
You know I hate when you have a wine.
00:23:07
It's like just cold and wet and it's gone.
00:23:08
You know Drinking's fun but you know I'm good at it, so it's
00:23:12
nice to have something that I can, you know, expand and
00:23:14
stretch over time.
00:23:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.
00:23:17
Well, in kind of from the other half of the coin.
00:23:19
So what are some of your most popular wines with customers?
00:23:22
What do you find that people say, oh, you got to go, you got
00:23:24
to taste this when you go to Austin Winery?
00:23:25
Well, I, always.
00:23:26
Speaker 2: I kind of think about it like you're building out an
00:23:28
album.
00:23:29
Right, if you're a musician which I am certainly not, but
00:23:34
you know you kind of want something that's really
00:23:36
approachable.
00:23:37
First thing is you want something that's really
00:23:38
approachable, something you know , a ballad with something with a
00:23:40
good chorus.
00:23:41
So for us, we usually go for a smooth, medium bodied red wine
00:23:50
like this Workhorse.
00:23:50
It's a hundred percent Merlot from Robert Clay Vineyard in
00:23:51
Mason, which is one of the best vineyards in the state.
00:23:52
Speaker 1: Just interviewed him a couple episodes ago.
00:23:54
Oh yeah, dan, and we have the same last name too.
00:23:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, that that one, I think is just something you
00:23:58
could drink all day all year, and we we almost call that like
00:24:01
mother-in-law wine, right, like you could give that to anybody
00:24:04
and they're going to like it.
00:24:05
Yeah, I think on the flip side of that it's you always need a
00:24:08
nice sparkling wine.
00:24:09
So we do a Petnat.
00:24:10
It's a rosé of a Tempranillo here has a really nice sort of
00:24:15
like strawberries and cream, a little bit of salinity to it,
00:24:19
then having a nice skin contact wine and then having something
00:24:22
that is really like dad wine, right.
00:24:24
So like this Toriga Nacional, really really rich, deep, dark.
00:24:29
It was 2021 vintage, so it's got some maturity to it, and I
00:24:33
think, having been at this now for 10 years, one of the nicest
00:24:37
things is being able to age some wine now, because we used to
00:24:40
have people oh you know, all your wines are good, but they
00:24:42
all need a little age.
00:24:43
You're like, well, I can't afford to age them right now.
00:24:46
So now we're finally at that point where we are able to lay
00:24:49
down a quarter to a third of our production for proper maturity,
00:24:53
and that's a wonderful thing too.
00:24:55
So it's something to be celebrated.
00:24:58
Speaker 1: All right.
00:24:58
Well, so here in the Tasty Room , the winery itself.
00:25:01
So do you do any kind of events or parties or things like that.
00:25:04
What type of stuff do you do here?
00:25:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, we try and have uh something fun and exciting
00:25:08
for people to do uh, every week, every month.
00:25:10
Uh, I was just telling Off Air that one of the events that we
00:25:14
do that we really love is called Bigger in Texas, where we
00:25:16
invite all these other wineries who you know are were scattered
00:25:19
all across the state.
00:25:20
We have great, big, wonderful state but it's really hard if
00:25:24
you were to like go tick off the boxes and hit all these
00:25:27
wineries you want to hit your.
00:25:28
Your vacation time is pretty filled up.
00:25:30
You got to have a motor home to do that.
00:25:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, and a chauffeur probably.
00:25:34
Speaker 2: So that was an event that we did.
00:25:35
We do this once or twice a year , depending on availability,
00:25:37
where we bring in all these other wineries.
00:25:38
Once or twice a year, depending on availability, where we bring
00:25:39
in all these other wineries, host them here in sort of a fair
00:25:42
style where it's a 65 bucks and you get to taste up to 60 wines
00:25:48
.
00:25:48
Essentially there's no competition or anything like
00:25:55
that, just pure enjoyment, and that's a great one.
00:25:56
We'll be having our 10th birthday on May 4th, so we'll
00:25:58
have, you know, food, music, all that fun stuff, lots of kind of
00:26:02
library wines, but we're always trying to make sure that
00:26:05
there's an extra reason for you to be here.
00:26:07
We do offer cheese and charcuterie boards, but a lot of
00:26:10
times on the weekends we'll have a pop-up of you know some
00:26:13
different type of cuisine of a visiting chef.
00:26:16
That that's always fun too.
00:26:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
00:26:24
Well, let's talk about what it looks like if a customer said
00:26:25
I'm interested, I want to go check this place out.
00:26:26
What does it look like for a first-time visitor for a tasting
00:26:27
?
00:26:27
So if someone comes in to do a tasting, what are the fees
00:26:29
involved?
00:26:29
Is there a set flight of wines?
00:26:31
Do they pick their wine?
00:26:32
Do they need reservations?
00:26:33
What does that look like?
00:26:34
Speaker 2: So we keep it really casual, almost confusingly easy.
00:26:38
So there's no reservations unless there's a private event
00:26:42
or if you've got a large group, call and give us a heads up.
00:26:44
But we ran a reservation system during COVID and things like
00:26:48
that and we like to keep those barriers to entry very small,
00:26:51
right.
00:26:52
So there's no reservations.
00:26:53
Our capacity in here is about 180.
00:26:57
So we've got lots of room and we're not doing the souffles or
00:27:01
anything like that, so we can turn tables pretty quickly.
00:27:05
Uh, tastings are a la carte, so there's no, like you know, entry
00:27:09
fee or something like that.
00:27:10
You have all the wines are available by the glass and by
00:27:13
the bottle.
00:27:14
But a tasting we do three wines for $20.
00:27:17
It's a half a glass pour, so by the end of it, like you had a
00:27:20
glass and a half a wine, we rotate that what's available on
00:27:28
the tasting menu every two weeks .
00:27:29
So we have lots of new wines coming out all the time, with us
00:27:30
making about 16 wines a year.
00:27:31
You know that's where we're changing more than more than
00:27:34
once a month.
00:27:35
So that's a good thing.
00:27:36
And we have a reserve flight as well of some of our, you know,
00:27:40
like the Tariga and the Merlot are both on there and oftentimes
00:27:44
we'll pull out a library wine too, of something cool A little
00:27:47
special.
00:27:47
Yeah, but yeah, we keep it really really straightforward
00:27:51
and open for groups.
00:27:53
There's, you know, also, we're dog friendly, which is really
00:27:56
terrific you can bring your.
00:27:59
We're family friendly too, so you know, well-behaved children
00:28:02
and dogs and adults.
00:28:03
So it's not just we're not, you know, we don't want you to have
00:28:06
to go get a babysitter to come try some wine.
00:28:09
I love that.
00:28:10
Speaker 1: What?
00:28:11
What are your operating hours?
00:28:12
Speaker 2: We're open Tuesday to Friday or Tuesday, thursday,
00:28:16
from two to 9 PM.
00:28:17
Friday, saturday, sunday noon to 9 PM.
00:28:21
Speaker 1: Okay, perfect, and then you talked and then you
00:28:22
mentioned it a second ago.
00:28:23
I want to delve in just a little bit more Food type of
00:28:26
options.
00:28:26
You talked about having charcuterie options.
00:28:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, we have cheese and charcuterie boards that we
00:28:30
do here, sourcing everything from Antonelli.
00:28:32
So it's domestic and international Great stuff.
00:28:35
I've been wise to keep off it.
00:28:37
Speaker 1: I'm getting married.
00:28:37
I've been.
00:28:38
Speaker 2: I've been wise to keep off.
00:28:38
Him get married in a couple of weeks, so congratulations, thank
00:28:40
you.
00:28:40
And then we have a terrific food shop, Jerusalem street food
00:28:45
, called Reem's Falafel.
00:28:46
So great vegetarian options, wonderful falafel, good spicy
00:28:50
shawarma, all that, but all fresh and clean and yeah it's,
00:28:54
it's a good setup Nice.
00:28:56
Speaker 1: Do you have any maximum group sizes?
00:29:04
Speaker 2: Like if a bus rolled up into the parking lot and
00:29:05
things like that.
00:29:06
No, no, no, we are non-discriminating like that.
00:29:07
We're good.
00:29:07
If you want to have a private event here, you can do, seated
00:29:08
up to like 120 for like a seated , proper dinner, and then if you
00:29:11
want to have like a big party, we can do 200 people in here.
00:29:13
Speaker 1: We've had like Uber's holiday party here, mix and
00:29:15
mingle kind of thing.
00:29:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, big networking stuff.
00:29:18
So, yeah, it's really terrific.
00:29:21
So what are your?
00:29:30
What would you say as an urban winery?
00:29:31
I don't know if it's different, but what would you say?
00:29:33
Are your busy and kind of slow seasons?
00:29:34
What's the best time to come visit?
00:29:36
Everything together?
00:29:37
Uh, the week is always wonderful, or Sundays?
00:29:40
Saturdays can be very busy.
00:29:42
You know we've not done this as much lately, but we used to
00:29:46
have so many bachelorettes, uh, and bachelor parties, which is
00:29:50
totally fine.
00:29:50
But you know, there's this that that comes with its own, uh,
00:29:53
bag of accessories, uh, but uh, yeah, I think I don't discourage
00:29:58
anyone from coming at any time, even if you're coming on a
00:30:00
Saturday.
00:30:01
It'd be very lively and fun.
00:30:02
But I promise you we'll have, we'll have a glass in your or
00:30:05
one in your glass in, uh, you know, just a few minutes.
00:30:08
So I always say that like if, if people are stressed out our
00:30:11
staff.
00:30:11
I'm like guys remember, you're just a flick of the wrist from
00:30:13
solving the problem.
00:30:15
So, um, yeah, come anytime.
00:30:17
I would say summer months are quieter because it's just so hot
00:30:21
, but this is a really terrific time to visit.
00:30:24
I think wine tastes great in this weather and it's good for,
00:30:28
you know stocking up before a nice air conditioned place right
00:30:30
in the middle of the city.
00:30:32
Speaker 1: So people are having to drive out in 110 degrees out
00:30:34
into the country somewhere.
00:30:36
They can just come right here, right around the corner, if they
00:30:40
live in this area quickly, but it's a lot of also like I live
00:30:42
down here.
00:30:43
I'm a first time home buyer.
00:30:44
Speaker 2: It's a lot of young families, but there's also a lot
00:30:46
of young professionals with all these apartment complexes
00:31:05
popping up, and so it's really nice to see people like in a
00:31:08
walkable community um in Texas, which you know is is hard to do.
00:31:12
We're all spread out.
00:31:13
So, um, yeah, we, we get.
00:31:15
We get really nice, healthy traffic, a blend of tourists,
00:31:17
locals and wine enthusiasts.
00:31:19
Speaker 1: So yeah, well, do you offer any kind of a wine club
00:31:23
that people?
00:31:23
Speaker 2: can sign up for for distribution.
00:31:25
Speaker 1: How's that work?
00:31:25
Speaker 2: We have a wine club.
00:31:26
It's really terrific.
00:31:29
We have two levels, reds only or whites only, and you're
00:31:33
either getting wine quarterly or semi-annually.
00:31:35
So it's three bottles in each shipment.
00:31:37
So you're only signed up for as little as uh, uh, half a case
00:31:41
of wine.
00:31:41
So if you can't drink six bottles of wine a year, if
00:31:43
you're probably not my friend anyway uh who are those people?
00:31:46
Speaker 1: Yeah Right, they're like oh wow, we still got that.
00:31:49
Speaker 2: I'm like are you hoarding?
00:31:50
Uh, but one of the great things is you get a free glass of wine
00:31:53
every time you visit um, which is really terrific, because then
00:31:56
you know, for our local wine club members like they, they,
00:31:59
they become a huge ambassadors, because it's like where do they
00:32:02
want to get, want to meet for a drink?
00:32:03
Well, where they get a free glass of wine, 15% off on all of
00:32:07
your wine, including your shipments, and you know some
00:32:12
exclusive pre-releases, some things that are wine club only,
00:32:15
and you know there's a great sort of intimacy and exchange
00:32:18
with with those customers and um , they're they're, you know, is
00:32:21
the lifeblood of your business.
00:32:22
They're very important.
00:32:23
So, yeah, we're thankful for them.
00:32:25
Speaker 1: Well, if somebody can't come in to visit um but
00:32:28
they want to taste your wines, we talked to, we touched on
00:32:30
distribution a little bit.
00:32:31
So tell me about where can people maybe taste your wines or
00:32:34
find your wines if they can't come in?
00:32:35
Speaker 2: We have a very big portfolio of wines, but I would
00:32:38
say the wines that should be consistently available and you
00:32:42
should be able to find at Whole Foods or Central Market, which I
00:32:45
always think are kind of our most accessible retailers
00:32:48
generally.
00:32:48
This Petnat, this will sell out before the end of the summer,
00:32:52
for sure.
00:32:53
That's kind of a seasonal one.
00:32:54
This Mavedra is really terrific from Limestone Terrace, I
00:32:58
believe that's in both.
00:32:59
Violet Crown, which I don't have, is really terrific from
00:33:00
limestone terrace uh, I believe that's in both.
00:33:01
Uh, violet crown, which I don't have on the table with me right
00:33:03
now, but it's a purple dog with a crown on his head on the
00:33:06
label it's a temperneo.
00:33:07
That's probably our most recognizable one.
00:33:09
Um, I'd say that that'd be the one that you're most likely to
00:33:12
find in off-premise.
00:33:14
But keep your eye peeled.
00:33:16
Uh.
00:33:16
Once you, once you see, uh, or or have awareness of our wine,
00:33:20
it seems to start to like appear for you.
00:33:22
Yeah, but we don't do any marketing or spend any outside
00:33:27
dollars on that.
00:33:28
We focus it all on the wine.
00:33:30
So, you know, we kind of say our target audience is like an
00:33:33
NPR listener, right, it kind of transcends socioeconomic status,
00:33:37
but it's more about just being, you know, a little more
00:33:39
attentive, a little more clued in and, uh, discerning in that.
00:33:43
Speaker 1: So uh, yeah Well, and you mentioned a magnificent
00:33:46
opportunity coming up.
00:33:47
Your wines will soon be found in, possibly in Japan, that's
00:33:50
right.
00:33:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're.
00:33:51
We're just finishing a deal distribution there, so William
00:33:55
Chris is already there.
00:33:56
We're not the first Texas wine there but, uh, we do have a goal
00:33:59
sort of to to be, um, one of the first Texas wine there, but
00:34:02
we do have a goal sort of to be one of the first Texas wines
00:34:03
that's exposed or tasted critically by the world at large
00:34:07
.
00:34:07
So that doesn't mean we want to produce 60 cases, we want
00:34:10
it to be, you know, healthy scarcity.
00:34:12
But we really have enjoyed being an ambassador and a
00:34:16
representative for our city, for our state, for our winery and
00:34:20
for our wine region.
00:34:23
Speaker 1: Do you have any plans for future growth?
00:34:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, we do.
00:34:27
We're growing naturally, organically.
00:34:31
We haven't had—one of the great things is that we are really
00:34:34
employee-owned.
00:34:35
That can be a tough thing too, but we grow really based on—our
00:34:42
growth is really so tied to nature.
00:34:43
So last year we were able to produce a really healthy amount
00:34:47
of wine.
00:34:48
That's affording us the ability or requiring us, however you
00:34:52
want to look at it to expand our distribution, which is terrific
00:34:56
.
00:34:56
But you can't have any of these things happen without good work
00:35:01
in the vineyard, without a little bit of luck from nature.
00:35:04
Um, and so you know, it's it's.
00:35:07
It's a lot of hard work on both ends, but yeah, we hope to grow
00:35:10
Right.
00:35:11
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:35:11
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:35:12
Speaker 1: Yeah Well, what, in your opinion, is the number one
00:35:15
thing that really sets the Austin winery apart?
00:35:16
Speaker 2: that would make somebody say I got to come check
00:35:24
that place out.
00:35:24
Well, I think there's a wonderful thing is that people
00:35:26
can get a glass of wine anywhere now, but what I think is really
00:35:27
the real benefit of coming here is the education aspect that
00:35:31
you have, where it's really transparent, where I really do
00:35:37
believe like we want to empower people to know more about wine
00:35:39
so that when they select a wine, they get the most value out of
00:35:41
it in terms of satisfaction, enhancing their experience.
00:35:46
Another thing that I think is really really important to me is
00:35:49
that when you have a glass of wine here, you're not just
00:35:52
supporting this business, this staff here, but you're
00:35:55
supporting Texas agriculture, you're supporting a really low
00:35:59
carbon footprint, because this wine hasn't traveled far.
00:36:02
I'm happy to distribute in Japan and those places.
00:36:05
I'd love to sell all my wine right here because that has a
00:36:08
much lower impact on the environment.
00:36:11
I believe in walkable communities.
00:36:13
I think politics, I think culture, I think everything
00:36:17
starts local, and if we're not engaged in that at a local level
00:36:21
, then you know what's the point of sort of like looking beyond
00:36:24
that, um, so uh, I love that aspect of it and the story and
00:36:28
helping people understand how tied this is to nature and that
00:36:32
each, each wine in itself is a snapshot of the, the climate and
00:36:38
the characters of the year before, whenever that vintage
00:36:42
came from.
00:36:42
And so I think that that, really kind of you know, puts a
00:36:46
light bulb on in your head of something that I like, something
00:36:49
that I really appreciate what went into this and that you're
00:36:52
doing something that's helping sustain a good community.
00:36:57
I would just say a lot of people will ask sometimes what what
00:37:01
natural wine is, or what qualifies, or what do you guys
00:37:04
do?
00:37:05
Um, a couple things on.
00:37:06
There are no organically certified vineyards in texas.
00:37:09
Okay, um, that does not mean that there's not really healthy
00:37:14
and good, positive farming practices.
00:37:16
Uh, the path to getting organic certified is expensive, it's
00:37:20
lengthy, uh, and it also can be, uh, run off course by things
00:37:26
that are beyond the farmer's control a neighbor's spring,
00:37:29
things like that.
00:37:30
So, uh, go for the transparency of vineyard practices rather
00:37:35
than a sacramental symbol, right ?
00:37:37
Um?
00:37:38
Secondarily from that, uh, what that means for us from a
00:37:42
winemaking side is that all of our we don't inoculate or
00:37:44
introduce any yeast in our winemaking practice.
00:37:47
Everything is native.
00:37:48
So, like we were saying that ambient yeast from the vineyard,
00:37:51
from in here, that fermentation starts and ends on its own.
00:37:54
Uh.
00:37:55
We don't filter any of our wines.
00:37:57
So if you see any cloudiness or uh texture like that, years ago
00:38:03
we were taught that that was a flaw in wine, but that's really
00:38:06
an advent of modern wine making.
00:38:09
And lastly, if we add any sulfur dioxide, we'll say so on the
00:38:15
bottle, and I think most people now the sort of general diaspora
00:38:21
has said okay, it's okay to be adding sulfur at bottling,
00:38:24
because that's all about protecting the longevity of the
00:38:27
wine.
00:38:27
It's not going to give you a headache.
00:38:29
These are very, very low thresholds and these are about
00:38:31
making sure you're not drinking vinegar and protecting the wine
00:38:35
from oxidation.
00:38:36
So, yeah, that's what I'll say about that.
00:38:38
But I value anyone's time who's listening to this.
00:38:42
I value your time.
00:38:43
If you're coming to visit and taste with us, please do.
00:38:45
Yeah, we're open six days a week and we'd love to have you.
00:38:56
Speaker 1: All right, and that was Ross McLaughlin, the CEO and
00:38:59
president of the Austin Winery.
00:39:00
And by going to the Austin Winery and when you enjoy their
00:39:04
wines, you know that you are helping to contribute to their
00:39:07
efforts to sustainability and helping the environment and it
00:39:10
becomes a community as well, and beyond that, it's just a really
00:39:13
fun place to drink wine because you're surrounded by all the
00:39:16
winemaking equipment, the barrels all around, even those
00:39:19
cool clay amphoras there where they're making those wines.
00:39:23
That's all active going on right around you while you're
00:39:25
drinking those wines, making those wines that's all active
00:39:28
going on right around you while you're drinking those wines.
00:39:30
And the area where they're located the yard that he talked
00:39:34
about is actually a really hot and upcoming spot here in Austin
00:39:35
.
00:39:35
I've already heard of several other developments very similar
00:39:37
to the yard springing up in that very same area.
00:39:40
So in addition to all of the great things you can do there in
00:39:43
the yard, like the sake and the distillery, the coffee place,
00:39:47
there's some food in the area.
00:39:49
Don't forget the food truck out front of the Austin Winery, but
00:39:52
there are other places like that popping up as well.
00:39:54
It should be a really hot spot for people to come and really
00:39:57
enjoy a day out, and don't forget, you got to customize
00:40:01
your trip there by bookending it Start at the Austin Winery and
00:40:05
then go see some of these other fun little places and then close
00:40:07
it out at the Austin Winery.
00:40:09
It will be a trip that you will remember.
00:40:11
Now, as always, before you go, make sure you check out their
00:40:15
website.
00:40:15
It's wwwtheaustinwinerycom.
00:40:20
And, of course, on their website you'll be able to read a
00:40:23
little bit more about some of the philosophy that they put
00:40:26
into to creating this location some of the things that ross
00:40:29
talked about in the interview and that's, of course, detailed
00:40:32
a little bit more on their website.
00:40:33
You can also shop online for some of their wine if you want
00:40:36
to have some of it shipped to you.
00:40:37
See their full menu.
00:40:39
You can find out information about renting the place out if
00:40:42
you want to host an event there at the austinery and even more.
00:40:45
So check that out and don't forget, when you go to see them,
00:40:49
make sure you tell them.
00:40:50
You heard about them on this podcast, texas Under Vine.
00:40:53
Now, after we wrapped up the interview and all the equipment
00:40:56
was put away, ross actually took me over to the bar and pulled
00:40:59
out some of those great wines for me to try and I've got to
00:41:02
say they did not disappoint.
00:41:04
Being a red wine drinker personally myself, those are
00:41:08
more of my favorites.
00:41:08
I loved several of the varietals that they had there.
00:41:11
That Toriga that he talked about in the interview was
00:41:14
really, really good and enjoyed really what they've done with
00:41:17
those red varietals and their take on those wines.
00:41:19
But I have to say the wine that surprised me the most were
00:41:23
those white wines that he's made into an orange style.
00:41:26
So my favorite, I think, of the whole tasting experience was
00:41:34
their Albarino and I've always had Albarino as this really
00:41:35
bright, white, clear, crisp white wine.
00:41:37
But he did it in an orange style.
00:41:39
So I got to try their.
00:41:42
Albarino that is an orange style wine had some really unique
00:41:46
character.
00:41:46
Albarino that is an orange style wine had some really
00:41:50
unique character, flavors to it, some nuttiness to it, very
00:41:51
different from a typical albarino, and so whatever you
00:41:53
know about white wines or about even things like albarino, you
00:41:57
got to put that out when you come to taste it because you're
00:41:59
going to get a really cool, different type of tasting
00:42:02
experience with those wines.
00:42:03
And again, those orange wines are made kind of like a red wine
00:42:07
.
00:42:07
You just leave them on the skin and get some more skin contact.
00:42:10
So they get that kind of orange or amber-ish color from the
00:42:13
skin.
00:42:14
They develop a little bit of tannins to them that you don't
00:42:16
normally see in white wines.
00:42:17
So it's just a fun, interesting take on some wines that you
00:42:20
don't typically get in a lot of places.
00:42:22
So that was my library bottle for this episode.
00:42:25
I had to go home with some of that, all right.
00:42:27
Well, my time here has come to a close and it's time for me to
00:42:31
move along to some other great wine destinations.
00:42:33
But before I go, if you are getting any great information
00:42:37
from this podcast, if you're enjoying it, if you're able to
00:42:40
go try some of these amazing destinations that I'm sharing
00:42:43
with you, would you please consider leaving me a rating and
00:42:45
review wherever you get this podcast.
00:42:47
If you're watching it on YouTube, you can just click the
00:42:49
like and subscribe button and maybe leave a comment.
00:42:52
If you've actually been to the Austin Winery, tell me about
00:42:54
your experience there and what some of your favorite things
00:42:57
were.
00:42:57
But those ratings and reviews really help the podcast get seen
00:43:01
by even more people and we can share this great state of Texas
00:43:05
wine with more people who are not only natives to our state,
00:43:08
but people who are coming in to travel to the state and want to
00:43:12
learn about our wine experience here in Texas.
00:43:15
And with that my time is up, so don't forget, subscribe to my
00:43:19
socials to be notified anytime the next episode is released.
00:43:22
And until then, happy trails and bottoms up y'all our socials
00:43:26
at TexasUnderVine to stay up on all the upcoming episodes.
00:43:29
Please email us with any suggestions or feedback.
00:43:49
Also, contact us if you're interested in donating,
00:43:52
sponsoring or advertising on the podcast just to help us cover
00:43:55
our expenses and bring even more great info to you in future.
00:43:58
No-transcript.
00:56:59
No-transcript.
Related Episodes
Duchman Family Winery (Hill Country)
Send us a Text Message.Mark your glasses for episode 43 of Texas Under Vine, where we set off to explore the vibrant Duchman Family Winery in Driftwood, Texas. This family-run gem is more than just a place to savor delicious wines – it's a haven for live music, Italian-style aesthetics, and genuine ...
Messina Hof Winery (East Texas)
Send us a Text Message.Buckle up, Texas wine enthusiasts! Episode 42 of Texas Under Vine takes us to the iconic Messina Hof Winery in Bryan, Texas. This family-owned winery has been a legend in the Texas wine scene for decades, and for good reason. We'll be exploring the Messina Hof story, from thei...
Stoneledge Winery (Hill Country)
Send us a Text Message.In episode 41 of the Texas Under Vine podcast, we journey to the heart of Texas Hill Country wine country and uncork the story of Stoneledge Winery. Nestled in the charming town of Lometa, Texas, Stoneledge Winery boasts not only award-winning wines but also a breathtaking set...