D & E Wine Tasting Tour, Saturday – 24 April 2010
I picked up Diann at 9:00 in the morning. It’s just not right that someone looks that good that early on a Saturday morning!! 
I’d been up since 6:30, re-washed the car, and got some coffee, and I’m sure I looked like hell!
I had programmed into my GPS the 4 stops for the day, so I punched in Texas Olive Oil Company and began to follow the green line! Below is a description of the day. Times are close, but I wasn’t keeping an actual journal!
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10:00 – 11:30 – The Bella Vista Ranch , located in the hill country of Wimberley, Texas. Designed to reflect a traditional Italian family farm, the ranch is home to over 1000 producing olive trees, seasonal fruit and vegetables, a frantoio (olive press), a winery, tasting room and gift shop. http://www.texasoliveoil.com/
This was our first stop. Came here mostly to learn about the olive orchard he has and how olive oil is made. I swear I was back in Dr. Lagowski’s Chemistry 301 at UT!!! This guy LOVES to talk, and KNOWS his olives. Was very interesting hearing about how fragile the trees are, yet how durable they can be under the right circumstances. He and his contemporaries really are pioneers. The tasting was interesting also. Naturally, I loved the Garlic Olive Oil.
We didn’t do the wine tasting here. It was a tad early for that. We did buy a bottle of olive oil!
There were only 6 of us on this tour/lecture. And of course, there was one guy that thought he knew more than he did and was asking lots of questions. You could tell at times the owner was a bit perturbed with him. At least he was somewhat entertaining for the rest of us!
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12:00 – 12:45 – Hillsedge Grille and Pub
Wimberley, TX (512) 847-1133http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/11/1421605/restaurant/Austin/Hillsedge-Grille-and-Pub-Wimberley
We headed in to Wimberley to visit the Wimberley Wine Store. What we didn’t know was that there was the Wimberley Art Festival taking place that day!! Wimberley isn’t exactly designed for alot of traffic. So it took us quite a while to get to the Square only to find out THAT’s where the festival was taking place, so we decided to just go for a drive and find some place to eat.
Since we were down to under 200 miles of gas left, I stopped in to top off the tank. (Actually, I was going to ask directions for some decent eats!!) The girl at the gas station motioned over to the ‘grill’ in the back that they have there at the gas station. Yeah. That’s where I want to take Diann. NOT! So, with as little snobbery as I could muster, I asked her if she knew of a ‘sit down’ place nearby. One that served vegetarian dishes. She replied, “We have bean burritos!” ugh.
Anyway, she mentioned a place up the road, Hillsedge Grille. We had a nice lunch, and then headed to our next stop.
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1:30 – 3:00 – Driftwood Estate Winery
is owned and operated by Gary and Kathy Elliott. The vineyard, planted in 1998, is 20 acres with 14 acres currently in production with 7 grape varieties. We received our winery license in July of 2002 and did our first commercial grape crush with the August 2002 harvest. Our first commercial wine was bottled in February 2003 and we opened the winery to the public on March 1, 2003. Our first year production totaled about 1,200 cases, which included 5 different wines. We now produce over 4,500 cases. http://www.driftwoodvineyards.com/
The next stop was supposed to be Mandola’s Winery, but I must have ‘fat-fingered’ the GPS and selected Driftwood Vineyards instead. What a stroke of genius!!!!
After winding through these country roads, we see the sign for Driftwood and (after making a quick U-Turn) pulled in to the property. The vineyard is on the right of the drive and then we start heading up. And I mean UP! We get to the top and see the parking lot and pull in to a spot. The place looks kind of like a very nice camp/park site. Off to the right are the buildings, but dead ahead was a nice view, so we headed for the view. As we got closer, the view got better and better. We were probably 500 feet up on a bluff looking down at the vineyard, a pasture loaded with goats and the Hill Country.
We pulled ourselves away and went to the Tasting Room / Store. For $10 each, we got to taste any 6 of their wines, and keep a wine glass. The wines were all very good at worst. And a couple were excellent! We bought a couple bottles of wine to take with us, and we each bought a glass of our favorite from the tasting and walked out to a spot on the wall looking over the valley, and just……………………RELAXED! We spent probably an hour just enjoying the view, the sun and the breeze. We could’ve just stayed there the entire time.
We WILL be back! 
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3:30 – 5:30 – Mandola Estate Winery
Founded in 2005 by Houston wine connoisseurs Drs. Stan and Lisa Duchman and inspired by their travels to Europe, the Mandola Estate Winery in Driftwood, Texas (about 20 miles southwest of Austin in the Texas Hill Country) recreates a small corner of Italy http://mandolaestatewinery.com/about/
OK, so on to Mandola’s! As we pulled in to the parking area it seemed to be a much more ‘corporate’ feel. Paved parking, big building, etc. But the building is very impressive. Large, european (Italian) style place. As we walked in to the foyer, it was even more impressive. Tastings were going on in the lobby and the tasting room. Here we got to taste 9 of their wines. The server (docent) told us that the 9 tastes would equate to roughly one and a half glasses of wine. WRONG! LOL His pours were very generous.
We didn’t get to pick the wines we wanted to taste. He went down their selection from the menu in order. As he poured, he described what we were tasting, and the story behind the wine. Very nice. There were a couple wines that were just OK, but the rest were very good. After about 6 tastes the tour began. We enjoyed the tour guide immensely. He’s a 22 year old student about to be certified in wine making with a great delivery. The tour was only about 20 minutes long and when it was done, we went back to the tasting room and finished the last 3 samples.
We bought 2 bottles there also, and walked around the grounds a little bit and then started for home.
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It was time for dinner and we decided to go to The Clay Pit, where we each had a glass of their wine. As we tasted their wine, we seemed to have an all new appreciation (and critiquing) of it.
This was quite a day. A blast from start to finish. Fun, educational and relaxing. I think next trip will be to the Marble Falls area. Can’t wait.
Diann, thank you for making the day great!!
P.S. If I got anything wrong, let me know.
