The Napa Next Door: A tasting tour of Texas wine
Kim McPherson opened a bottle of sparkling Chenin Blanc in the Lubbock tasting room of his eponymous McPherson Cellars, never pausing in his storytelling. He is the inheritor of two traditions, one deeply embedded in the West Texas caprock and one relatively new but emerging from the same soil. His father, Doc McPherson, is the undisputed pioneer of Texas wine; beginning the oenology program at Texas Tech in the 1970s after planting his “ground zero” vineyard in 1968. That is the newer of the traditions — being a top contender for best or most important winemaker in Texas.
The stories that McPherson spins, with all their comical profanity and West Texas embellishments, are an extension of the prairie yarns and cowboy boasts that extend back to the founding of the Republic of Texas and beyond, and so are the embodiment of the first tradition. McPherson is a graduate of the justly famous wine program at The University of California, Davis, where he had classmates like Doug Shafer and Randall Graham, but in his down-home storytelling and with his Lubbock home base, he represents all that is great about Texas wine: It is unapologetically what it is, just like McPherson.
To explore Texas wine, at least historically, starting in Lubbock is practically a must. You can start in Fredericksburg, Austin, San Antonio or College Station, but eventually, you land in Lubbock. The good news is that Lubbock is not what you might think it is, unless you’ve been there recently and are aware of options like the Pioneer pocket hotel, The Nicolett — one of the Top 50 Best New Restaurants in America, per Bon Appetit — and The West Table. Like many cities its size and type (geographically isolated from the state’s largest cities), Lubbock has developed its own microculture and economy, and it includes excellent restaurants, high-energy bars, more than 200 pieces of public art and many of the best wines in Texas, including McPherson Cellars’ Cinsault, Carignan, Viognier and sparkling Chenin Blanc.
Lubbock is also home to English Newsom Cellars, where Steve Newsom has produced award-winning wines (double gold in San Francisco more than once) since leaving behind his sixth-generation cotton farming business for life as a winemaker and grape grower. His wine dinners are legendary around West Texas, and he too can spin a story and entertain an entire room while sipping on a wine Texans stubbornly pronounce PEEK-ar-DAN, rather than the French name Picardan with its frankish obliviousness to letters and phonics.
The beauty of Texas wine is that it’s Texas wine, with all the pride, bombast, stubbornness and iconoclasm that we’ve come to expect from Texas. To be great, wine must be from a place that produces specific grapes based on soil and climate — the French idea of terroir. So, no, Texas wine doesn’t taste like Napa, but neither does Burgundy or Barolo, and no one faults the French and Italians for not making California wine.
In other words, head to Texas and be ready to try new varietals from a new region that are genuinely among the best wines being produced in the U.S. right now. Lubbock is the outlier, located as it is far from so much of the state, but it’s where 85% of the grapes come from. The Lubbock winemakers are opening tasting rooms along Highway 290 between Fredericksburg and Johnson City, or they’re partnering up with Fredericksburg wineries, so wine culture is booming in the Hill Country, and the synergy between the High Plains and Hill Country regions is good for Texas wine.
To fully enjoy Fredericksburg, you can stay in Fredericksburg, or slightly outside the city. HoneyTree provides some of the state’s most distinctive accommodations with its beautifully appointed tree houses. These are not the slapdash backyard treehouses you might remember from your youth; if the best hobbit interior designers went to work on tree houses, you’d have HoneyTree.
Highway 290 is where you’ll find most of the Fredericksburg wineries, and some of them — Southold and William Chris, for example — rival Napa tasting rooms in beauty and quality. William Chris is a partnership with Texas Wine Company’s Andy Timmons of Lubbock, who is, according to Kim McPherson, the state’s most innovative winemaker. You’ll find his Lost Draw tasting room in Fredericksburg proper. Don’t leave the city without eating at Otto’s German Bistro or Sage, a beautiful modern American restaurant with excellent food and wine. For Texas wines with French sensibility and restraint, hit up Kuhlman Cellars. Benedicte Rhyne’s wines are beautiful and brilliant, as are the Marcona almonds with herbes de Provence.
The Hill Country is easy to access from San Antonio — much easier than via Austin — and La Cantera Resort & Spa offers lovely accommodations only an hour away. The resort is on the northern edge of the city, and it boasts one of the country’s best spas in Loma de Vida. You’ll find five swimming pools, including the adults-only Topaz pool and bar, the excellent cocktail bar Sire and a beautiful golf course. Dinner at Signature is a must, as is a tour and tasting of one of the best wine lists in San Antonio.
Finally, College Station is the starting point for the Brazos Valley AVA, home to Messian Hof Winery and Bernhardt Winery. Stay at The George, a Valencia property, and you’re at the garden gate, so to speak, of the Brazos Valley. Dinner at The Republic Steakhouse is imperative, and not just for the prime steaks; the menu is a combination of Continental cuisine and prime chophouse. •
THE LUXIERE LIST — THE STARS’ ROUNDUP
Brazos Valley Wineries
Bernhardt Winery and Resort
Messina Hof
High Plains Wineries
English Newsom — for Viognier and Picardan
La Diosa Cellars
McPherson Cellars — buy or beg for sparkling Chenin
Hill Country Wineries
Adegha Vinho — brilliant reds from Portuguese varietals
Becker Vineyards
Heath Sparkling Wines
Kuhlman Cellars — what could be the best wine in Hill Country
Lost Draw Tasting Room — best rose in Texas most years
Southold Farm + Cellar
Texas Wine Collective — includes McPherson Cellars wines
William Chris Vineyards
