S2 EP0038 - Texas Hill Country AVA: With January Wiese, Cliff Bingham, and Michael McClendon The Viti+Culture Podcast

The Texas wine scene is growing by leaps and bounds, and Hill Country as a destination continues its growth at a record pace. In this episode, we change up our format to introduce you to some of the leaders of the Texas wine industry. You’ll meet the Executive Director of the Hill Country Wineries Association, Cliff Bingham of Bingham Vineyards, and Michael McClendon, a winemaker/owner at the custom crush facility, Sage’s Vintage.
Check out our guests and some other great links at:
* Texas Hill Country Wineries: https://texaswinetrail.com/
* Bingham Family Vineyards: https://binghamfamilyvineyards.com/
* Michael McClendon and Sage’s Vintage: https://www.sagesvintage.com/
* Texas Winemakers Docu-Series: https://www.youtube.com/c/TexasWinemakers
* Shelley Wilfong’s “This is Texas Wine” Podcast:
Visit our website at www.VitiCulturePodcast.com, and don’t forget to share with your friends via all major social media platforms @VitiCULTUREPod
Visit Bellangelo Winery and Missick Cellars at www.Bellangelo.com and www.MissickCellars.com.
My first taste of wine from Texas, was actually a little more than seven years ago. One of the things many people don’t know, is the Finger Lakes international wine competition is largely a fundraiser for a place called Camp Good Days and Special Times, which serves as a retreat for children that are fighting cancer. An additional fundraising stream for Camp Good Days through the competition, is a large banquet that follows the end of the competition.  A component of that banquet is a silent auction of many of the remaining wines.  In 2015, I was invited by Scott and Ruth Osborne, owners of Fox Run Winery, to be their guest for the dinner. Scott, if you recall from our first show, the subject of our very first viticulture interview nearly a year ago, has been called the Robert Mondavi of the Finger Lakes.
The Finger Lakes International Wine Competition is one of the largest in the country, and entrants come from all over the world.  Texas wines have done well in that competition, and one of the lots I had bid on was a case of Gold medal winning reds.  Fortunately for me, many of them came from Texas producers.  Within this box were several Texas producers, one of which I had heard of at the time, but many of which were still new names for me. The Pedernales Tempranillo was a wine I had some vague acquaintance within my mind, probably from reading about it in a magazine or seeing something online. 
In the weeks after winning that auction in 2015, I tasted two of the Texas wines that were in that lot. I enjoyed them, and at the time, if I recall correctly, they were of the 2013 and 2014 vintage, and I remember thinking that these wines simply needed a bit more time. Periodically, throughout the years, I would enjoy a bottle or two, to see how they had come along and each time I was impressed. It was sometime around Thanksgiving in 2021, that I discovered a YouTube series called Texas winemakers. This 11 part series of shorts was impressively produced, and followed a handful of Texas producers from throughout the state as they tended their vineyards, made their wines, and discussed their philosophy and their tasting room experiences. The docu-series, produced in 2020-21, captures what was a very difficult period for the Texas wine industry. Inclement weather including freezes, a pandemic, and a difficult business environment throughout the entire country was a headwind. Despite the challenges, the community of Texas winemakers seemed optimistic, tight-knit, and focused on making Texas one of the premier wine states in this country. Between the high quality of production of the series, and the larger than life characters that were featured, there was a sense that there is a momentum and energy to Texas wine that reminded me of what I first felt in the Finger Lakes in 2009.  It convinced me that I needed to visit. I also headed down to my own cellar after watching the serie