Wine and Food Fest: Red, White & New

There’s no better way to ease into the weekend than to start with a wine tasting at 3:30 in the afternoon, is there? Especially when the locale is the Driskill Hotel’s Victorian Room and the occasion is the Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival’s Red, White & New tasting.

More than 20 wineries and winemakers were on hand to enjoy samples, talk grape and enjoy passed appetizers from Driskill executive chef Jonathan Gelman.

Did a trend emerge? From the offerings in the room, it’s plain that the days of extreme wine are well past us, but then you knew that. Most of the wines were true to their styles with interesting variations. There was Long Boat, a 2006 sauvignon blanc from Marlborough, New Zealand, with grapes grown from five high-elevation vineyards and a portion of the wine fermented with wild yeast. It’s bright and fruity. (The name recalls Polynesian explorers who navigated the rough seas.)

There there was Candor zinfandel, an offering from the Hope Family, which also makes Liberty School and Treana. “It’s our goal to create a varietally correct wine,” said spokesman Joel Peterson. “It’s a balance. It’s a blend.” Quite literally — the zin is a blend of 2006 and 2007 grapes. The finished product featured a fruitiness and brightness as a result of the younger wine not being in the barrel as long. You know how a lot of zins are so off-puttingly assertive they might as well be cabs? Not this one. And the price is right — around $20, higher than Liberty School (at around $13 or so, the right price for a wine-drinking newspaperman) and Treana, whose white Rhone blend is around $25 and whose red will cost you roughly half a C.

Think you don’t much care for Rieslings? Try Eroica from Chateau Ste. Michelle. The sweetness was more subtle than many Rieslings, offset by a pleasing crispness. And it’s a good deal at around $20.

Chardonnay of the day: The ‘06 from William Hill Estate, which was smooth and rich all the way to the end, typical of their offerings. As Carmen Castorina, Gallo’s rep in Dallas (Gallo bought the winery in 2007) put it, “It’s easy-drinking. I think those showy wines fatigue people’s palates.”

And with two more days of wine fest events, we can’t have any tired palates.

For more Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival coverage, visit austin360.com/food.

(American-Statesman photo by Patrick