Wine Life - Houston

I was pleased to have the opportunity to taste the current selections of  Artesa Vineyards and Winery with winemaker, Mark Beringer, while he was in town. We sat down together at Cru Wine Bar on upper Kirby to talk about not only the five years that he has put into Artesa but where he started and how he feels about where he is now and what he is doing. Growing up Napa for Mark meant growing up as a country kid. Napa had not yet become the wine destination that we all know and love today. As a direct descendant of Jacob Beringer, the co founder of Beringer Vineyards, Mark did have many opportunities to immerse himself in all the various aspects of the wine business. He started on the low end stocking shelves and cleaning up in his parent's wine store when he was young. His uncle put him to work at his winery while Mark worked on his degree in enology in college. This was followed by a short stint at Glen Ellen and then a more illustrious career at Duckhorn from 1992-2005. After

One of my husband's business associates stopped by after work. As he is a lover of Chardonnay, we opened up a bottle of the 2010 Jordan Russian River Valley for our before dinner drink.  It had fruity aromas of apple, apricot and grapefruit with matching flavors, a medium body, refreshing acidity and a long citrus and mineral finish. Delicious with cheese and crackers, it would be even better with broiled lobster and drawn butter. Highly recommended at approximately $25.

As originally seen in the March 2014 issue of  Galveston Monthly magazine.

The 2012 Ipsum is a 100% Verdejo wine sourced from vines that were grown organically in a high elevation vineyard in Spain's Rueda region. The wine was fermented with the grapes' natural yeast and aged in stainless steel with no malolactic fermentation for a pure interpretation of what this terroir can produce. I really enjoyed this refreshing wine and I will be looking for more! It had fresh aromas of citrus blossoms and peach with flavors to match. It had a medium body, medium + crisp acidity with a clean, mineral-laced citrus finish. The perfect patio sipper for spring and summer, highly recommended and a great deal at $12!  *media sample

The Houston Sommelier Association hosted another fantastic seminar and tasting. This week, members were treated to an in-depth discussion of the terroir of Chablis and how it influences the wines that are produced there. The seminar was led by winemaker Jean-Philippe Archambaud of Simonnet-Febvre . We started with the 2012-2010 vintages from two Chablis Premier Cru vineyards, Vaillons and Fourchaume. They both have the famous Kimmeridgian limestone soil. Vaillons is located on the left bank of the Sereine River and Fourchaume is on the right. The Vaillons vineyard's history is to create more accessible wines. For both of these wines, Jean-Philippe prefers to use all stainless steel, no oak barrels in this production, he does allow full malo-lactic fermentation for complexity; he does not engage in any battonage or stirring of the lees during the 10-12 months that the wine ages with the yeast. Jean-Philippe discussed 2012 as being a rather difficult year with a wet spring and a

Noelia Orts   I had the opportunity to meet Coyam's resident winemaker, Noelia Orts, last week while she was in Houston hosting a tasting and lunch at Masraff's. Originally from Spain, Noelia worked for wineries there and in New Zealand before heading to Chile for the 2009 vintage. She began working for the Emiliana family shortly thereafter along with consultant winemaker, Alvaro Espinoza.  Noelia talked about the vineyard and her feelings of responsibility not only to help create great wine but to help enhance the lives of the workers and the people that are involved in every facet of the vineyard and winery life. Going organic and biodynamic not only means less chemicals, it means more work. This work requires   more people for the manual labor.  This labor includes planting multi-colored flower beds every five rows to draw insect attention away from the vines, it involves tilling lentils into the soil to release nitrogen organically, it means moving animals and chick