G’Day Ya’ll!  Welcome to the new Wine Society of Texas website!

I hope that you will enjoy our redesign, which will present a new “take” on our wine. world. Our mission is, “wine appreciation through education” and w aim to teach people about wines in a fun and interesting way. 

As you can see from this website, we have a great  affinity for Texas wines and winemakers, visiting many of them over the years and featuring Texas wines in tastings all over the state. However, we are not only involved with Texas wines and we cover wines from all over the world in our quest for education and fun. 

For example, this year, we are participating in a boutique tour of wineries in Australia. This two week trip begins on September 19 and ends on Oct 4, 2008, which is a two week period of touring and tasting. Three cities in Australia will be visited (Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney) and five different wine areas. 

For more information, click here. 

We are taking reservations for the tour right now.

For a Wine Society event closer to home, click here, which will lead you to all of our local chapters and their events. 

We are the “Texas Friendly” Wine Society, so don’t hesitate to contact us and come to an event to check us out. 

We love guests and our secret is that we don’t require an advanced wine knowledge at all, just a love of good wine and good friendships. Hope to see you all soon at one of our events!

The Permian Basin Chapter of the Wine Society of Texas discovered that a nice hike through the wilderness goes better with great wine and food! 

In one of the more creative wine events of the year, the Chapter members celebrated their 4^th anniversary hike in McKittrick Canyon of the Guadelupe Mountains with a movable feast of wine and food.in November, 2008. McKittrick Canyon is well known among Texas nature lovers as a vast and unspoiled wilderness where Texans can see fall colors similar to those in New England. 

A common resting place for the 1.5 mile hike is Pratt’s Cabin, an original homesteader’s cabin deep in the woods with picnic tables. 

Approximately 28 people with the Wine Society of Texas completed the hike and then set up with an unbelievable array of appetizers, cheese, salami and even Tuscan Brushetta at Pratt’s Cabin. Wines were poured from all over the world including Texas, California, Chile, Spain, France and Italy. Even more unbelievable was the fact that the entire spread came out of everyone’s backpacks.

Special guests were welcomed from the U.S. air base in El Paso, including NATO allies from Quebec, Canada, Germany, Holland and France. Wine Society members first met this NATO group by accident on the trail several years ago and now both groups meet at Pratt’s Cabin every year at the same time. Several of the NATO visitors to the U.S. told how they loved American wines, particularly Texas wines. 

They were collecting local wine while stationed in the U.S., just like Americans who travel to Europe collect and enjoy the local wines. 

It is funny how great wine and food bring people together from all over the world and overcome national differences! 

After several hours of good cheer and international fellowship, everyone said goodbye and hiked out of McKittrick Canyon, tired but happy.  What a great way to see the wilderness and have a feast, as well. Beats the heck out of the usual trail mix and granola!  

The Wine Society of Texas celebrated its 11^th anniversary in October 2007 in a “Western” way with a weekend filled with events in the Stockyards district of Fort Worth, Texas. 

Wine Society members got together from four different local chapters from all over the state. Several wine tasting were hosted and the group heard several educational presentations on Texas wine.

Winemaker Jim Evans of the Lone Oak Winery started off the day by giving the members a little history lesson and saluting Texas winemakers, who have to cope with heat, hail, rain and freeze, sometimes all in one year. Last year was particularly challenging because of the excess rain in many areas of Texas. 

Midway through his presentation, Jim was joined by Lone Oak Winery owner Gene Estes, who explained in detail all of the extra steps they had to take to avoid disaster in 2007. The winery and tasting room is located in Burleson, Texas, which was inundated with water much of the time, like the rest of the Dallas Fort Worth area.

This was a tough year for Texas winemakers, who, like their ancestors before them, are Texas heroes, making their living off the land and battling the elements.  

Jim also talked to the Wine Society members about the future of Texas wine. Grapes such as Malbec and Tempranillo are the future grapes of Texas, he explained, because they can come back after heat, rain, hail and freezes. They also are more attuned to Texas’ Mediterranean climate. Look for these warm weather grapes in your local tasting room soon.  

After the first presentation, the group enjoyed a leisurely stroll through the shops of the Stockyards District to buy a few western souvenirs. 

Another tasting was hosted by Lone Star Wines, which is located in Stockyards Station. Many wines that are not carried by the local supermarkets and liquor stores are featured in this tasting room. 

To cap off the day, Wine Society members had a traditional Texas steak dinner at Cattleman’s Steak House featuring Lawrence Tiberia, the winemaker and owner of Barking Rocks Winery in Granbury, Texas. “Tiberia,” as he likes to be called, entertained the crowd with stories about his wines, including one which is named for his grandmother. 

The wine worked well with the food. 

In the strangest wine pair of the night, the Barking Rocks Cabernet Sauvignon was served last with the cheesecake dessert.  Inexplicably, the pairing worked, probably because of the heavy cherry sauce on the cheesecake.

What an interesting end to a great day of wine, food and friendships! 

Let’s get together and do it all again next year for our 12^th anniversary!