Wine & Food Fest: Sunday Fair

The Texas Hill Country Wine & Food Festival’s Sunday Fair is the event’s rough equivalent of the Auditorium Shores concerts during South By Southwest — an offering to the masses who play host to a weekend-long gathering, folks who aren’t willing to pony up $100 or more for the tonier events (a mere $45 will get you in the door). You don’t have to dress fancy, you’ll probably get dirty but you’ll have a fine time.

And so it was Sunday at the Vineyards at the Salt Lick near Driftwood. After an intermittently stormy couple of days there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and organizers trucked in hay to take the edge off the mud in the rural locale. The only thing that wasn’t perfect early in the day was a persistent wind.

But Salt Lick brisket and sausage on the way in made things tolerable, as did Cafe Josie’s Jamaican jerk chicken with a killer sauce. But Whole Foods’ duck in mole may have been the best thing fair-goers could have sampled. Louis M. Martini, the California family winery that had been a formidable presence all weekend, offered an “approachable” 06 Cabernet from Sonoma and a bolder and much more assertive ‘05 from Napa.

Locally, Wimberley Valley Winery had a nice, airy Merlot, a tad too light for my taste but perfectly fine for an early afternoon pour. And Mandola’s Estate Winery had a 2007 Sangiovese that suggested berries, oak and Hill Country air. And they’ve only been growing grapes out there since 2005?

All that and a hefe weizen (wheat beer for you people who only drink wine) poured by Live Oak’s Chip McElroy made for a fine close to a near-flawless 2009 festival. Cheers!