EVER GO TO YOUR FAVORITE RESTAURANT and have a rich Texas Claret with your Steak Au Pôivre? How about a Texas High Plains Pinot Grigio with your Linguini and Clam Sauce, or a Texas Hill Country Sangiovese Riserva with an oven roasted rosemary chicken? 1 reckon that you likely haven’t. Not because you can’t, but frankly, Texas wines on restaurant wine lists are as rare as an opera lover at a high school football playoff game!

Despite the fact that Texas wines have been increasing in quality and reputation over the years, it is still hard to find even a single Texas wine on most restaurant wine lists. This is most surprising in a stale where people take great pride in native sons, local accomplish­ments and most everything agricultural. To help understand where Texas wines actually fit on restaurant wine lists, I posed several ques­tions to restaurateurs, winemakers and wine and food media luminaries from around our great state.

Mark Hyman, president of Llano Estacado Winery in Lubbock, sees a competi­tive situation and summed it up this way. “The biggest impediment to getting Texas wines on restaurant wine lists is not due to anti-Texas sentiment at all. It is the incredible availability of good wine from this country and the rest of the world. There are incredible value wines from Chile and Australia with impeccable reputations that have earned the respect of restaurateurs.”

Jay Ehret, radio host of the Waco Wine & Food Spotlight and chairman of The Wine Society of Texas Central Texas chapter sees a somewhat different situation by saying, “Having observed from the fringes over the years, the biggest impediment to getting Texas wines on wine lists is that there has been no one on a local level that is a big advocate of Texas wines. Despite increasing quality and international awards (see sidebar, page 28), there has been a lack of public demand for them.”

Interesting enough, one of the biggest fans of Texas wines is Chef Joe Mannke owner of the Houston mainstay, Rotisserie for Beef and Bird, and his newer Bistro Le Cep. Chef Mannke’s restaurant career may have started over 50 years ago as an apprentice in Munich with deep European roots, but he was one of the first major chefs to identify that Texas wines have become worthy of restaurant wine lists.

According to Chef Mannke, “We feature over 50 Texas wines on our award winning wine list.” Actually, he is a bit understated; his wine lists have won the Wine Spectator Grand Award for the past 14 years. However, Chef

Mannke laments, “Most restaurateurs just don’t bother to learn about Texas wines, they would rather just sell Kendall-Jackson and be done with it.”

What are Chef Mannke’s personal favorites? They are Becker Viognier and Cabernet Sauvignon, and Grape Creek Fume Blanc (which the chef feels goes particularly well with his Tortilla Soup). But, what about other major chefs and restaurateurs around the state? Luckily, I have found many that fea­ture Texas wines prominently.

Michael Vilim, owner of Mirabelle Restaurant in Austin has found his Texas favorites that include a remarkably long list with wines from Alamosa, Fall Creek, Spicewood, Becker and Flat Creek.

Vilim related to me that he was recently at a Sangiovese tasting with Pete Seghesio, whose family is a major name in winemaking and makes award-winning Sangiovese in Italy, as well as in California. After Alamosa Sangiovese placed in the middle of pack of our blind tasting, Pete said without hesitation, “That’s a pretty good wine and it will get even better as the vines get older.” Alamosa Sangiovese Riserva is one of Vilim’s personal favorites and Mirabelle has created a special recipe to feature the pairing with this wine. It’s their Smoked Pork Tenderloin Flauta with Sun-Dried Cherry Chutney, Ancho Chile Caciotta and a Charred Ancho-Mexican Oregano Sauce. Now, that’s a mouthful to both say and to digest!

John Sheely of Houston’s Mockingbird Bistro and his Sommelier, Rafael de Obegozo, are also impressed with the recent vintages of wines from Texas. In fact, Sommelier de Obegozo has been around the Texas wine busi­ness for years and knows first hand how far Texas wines have come. They both look criti­cally at Texas wines but have been able to find wines that provide particularly good value and quality to their clientele. These include Becker Viognier, Messina Hof Papa Paulo Port, Messina Hof Angel (Late Harvest Riesling), Val Verde Sangiovese, Sister Creek Meritage, Alamosa El Guapo (Tempranillo Blend) and Pheasant Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon.

Chef Sheely has even paired Texas wines with some of his signature dishes. A good example is his famous Slow Braised Short Ribs paired with a modern blend of Cabernet-Syrah made by Becker Vineyards.

Most interesting is the experience of Kay Pratt and Karen Granitz, owners of the Silver K Cafe in Johnson City. It shows that many out of state visitors are particularly interested in Texas wine. They point out, “We carry only a very few wines that are not Texas wines. Being in Johnson City, home of Texas Hills Winery and near the epicenter of the Texas Wine Country, we get a large number of tourists from all over that seek out a Texas experience. The tourists are always excited to taste Texas wines and are quite surprised that there are so many and they are so good.” The Silver K fea­tures over 30 Texas wines and only five “foreigners” from outside the state.

Now the good news....The number of restaurants  featuring Texas wines  is growing and this bodes well for the future. In this article, it is impossible to feature all of these visionaries. But, an honorable mention should go to restaurants like Salt Grass Steakhouse and Pappadeaux (Messina Hot Cabernet Sauvignon and  Johannesburg Riesling, respectively), Cuvee Restaurant and Wine Bar in Fredericksburg (Dry Coma Creek Syrah, Texas Hills Rubino Ruby Port. and oth­ers), along with many others such as The Meritage Grill at The Hilton DFW Lakes Hotel (Grapevine), and last but definitely not least, fine dining establishments The Mansion on Turtle Creek (Dallas), The Four Seasons (Austin) and Cafe Annie (Houston).

But, most importantly, as mentioned by Jay Ehret, the consumers have the ultimate power. If they know about the quality of Texas wines and remember to request them from the restaurants they frequent, more and more pre­mium Texas wines will be showing up on wine lists. So, don’t forget to ask for your favorites!

Dr. Russell D. Kane has traveled extensively and has serious interests in culinary arts, regional cuisines, and wine and food pairing, and is currently Executive Director of the Wine Society of Texas. For questions on Texas wines and events, contact Dr. R.D. Kane at: rdk@winesocietyoftexas. org.

Photo by Kirn Coffman CULINARY THYMES