Vina Vita University - Learning has never been so fun

​Vina Vita University

Vina Vita.  Literally “Wine Life”.  This is not just the name of our wine club, it is also a cornerstone of our wine philosophy.  It is an invitation to our community, an offer to join your individual wine life journey with ours as we taste, enjoy and appreciate the fine things in our lives.

For Kuhlman Cellars, the Wine Life isn’t just great wine, it’s also learning to appreciate it as well.  You see this in our tastings when we explore not just amazing wine, or wine and food pairings, but also in how we explore the reasons why we tend to enjoy the things we love.  It’s an Ah-Ha moment we love to share!

In our education efforts, we host a seminar series called Vina Vita University (VVU).  These classes explore viticulture, harvest, wine blending, and wine and food pairing theory.  Each class combines education with entertainment - and wine!  We had to suspend these classes in 2020.  But they are back! 

On December 5th, VVU returns just in time for the holidays with one of our favorites:  Naughty or Nice.  This class explores what happens when a wine goes wrong - corked, cooked, Bret, oxidized.  We will sniff and taste these common flaws to help you better identify them and know what to do when you encounter them.  

Studying has never been more fun!

 

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Curious to learn more about the Naughty or Nice Class?

Vertical Tasting?

Alluvé

Alluvé is our most popular wine.  And for good reason!  It is a beautifully balanced, complex red wine blend with medium body, lovely aromatics and nice fruit on the palette.  It is an easy wine to love, while also offering nuanced layers to experience and explore over time.

The grapes in the Alluvé blend change each year, reflecting the bounty of Mother Nature’s harvest.  While one year Sangiovese might be the lead grape, Mourvédre may take the lead in the next.  What doesn’t change, though, is the style of the wine - an approachable red blend perfect on its own but also very food-friendly.  (Our favorite pairing?  Kuhlman Cellars Herbed Almonds, of course!) 

It is remarkable how consistent the wine is from year to year.  It has become our “House Style”, in the same tradition as the great Champagne houses of France, though Alluvé is a vintage wine each release.

We are often asked how Texas wine ages and matures.  We jokingly say, we learn each day as our Cellar gets another day older!  However, one of the most fun things to do is to taste through a Vertical of a single wine to see how the wine tastes as you go further back in time (or forward, depending on your tasting order.)  What is a Vertical Tasting?  This is when you taste through different vintages of the same wine - for example a 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 Alluvé.  It is fun to experience what is consistent and what is different from each vintage, especially with the older ones.

Want to do a vertical tasting of Alluvé?!?  You are in luck!   We are launching a limited edition special tasting where you explore the 2015, 2016, and 2017 Alluvé as well as get a sneak tasting of the not-yet-released 2018 Alluvé!  Even better, we also include a barrel sample of the 2020 Alluvé  Offered once each Friday and Saturday at 11AM, this tasting will only be available for a short while starting November 5, 2021.  Reservations can be made online here (link) or by calling our tasting room at 512-920 2675.

 

7 Years!

SevenYears!

It’s hard to believe it has been  seven years since we first opened our doors to welcome guests to the Estate.  What a journey!

Some of you may recall the early days - back when the vineyards were not yet planted, or when the Barrel room was the only structure on the property.  How we started out with an ideal of building the best boutique winery in the Hill Country through exceptional fine wine coupled with exquisite hospitality.  Today, Kuhlman Cellars is a welcoming place to slow down and savor an afternoon away.

We acquired the Estate property in 2013 when it was just a coastal grass field.  And we got to work.  Drilling a well, installing a fence, getting electricity as well as an entrance from the highway.  Vineyards were put in with both irrigation as well as the physical trellising, followed by planting vines in 2015, 2016 and 2018.  White.  Rosé. Red.  We are wine-growers.   Tending the land in addition to growing the best boutique winery in the Texas Hill Country

Fine wine takes time.  Building an Estate community does as well!  Things evolve when raising a community.  We’ve had guests spend their first date at the Estate to be followed by engagements and then visits after their wedding.  We’ve celebrated birthdays and anniversaries, welcomed new babies to the family.  And we’ve also mourned the loss of loved ones.

Reflecting on things, one of the most remarkable parts of creating our Kuhlman community is the friendships and memories.  The FEB2021 ice storm comes to mind, but also getting notification of our Estate White winning medallions in the Concours d Lyon International Wine Competition. Our little patch of heaven, along with our team, grow wonderfully beautiful fruit which is transformed into exceptional wine.

We appreciate all who have joined our journey and look forward to welcoming new smiling faces as we go into the future!

As of October 2021, seven years into being open, we have not yet released an Estate Red wine.  We have the 2019 vintage Estate Red in the bottle and can’t wait to share it, but it is not yet ready.  As with many things in the wine business - it takes time.  Patience.

Thank you for growing with us.  Thank you for celebrating - the big and small - with us.  We wouldn’t be here without our amazing team - and that includes our guests, our friends, our community.  Vina Vita!

 

What is Non-Vintage?

First things first, let’s look at definitions.  

What is “vintage” and what does it mean?  

When a year is listed on a wine label – for example, 2017 Marl, “2017” is the vintage year.  The vintage year listed on a bottle denotes the wine within that bottle was made from grapes harvested in that specific year.  In our example, the vintage year is 2017. In the United States, a wine must be at least 95% from a single year in order to be labeled with a vintage year.  

A “non-vintage” wine is made by blending grapes from two or more harvest years.  The newest releases of Calcaria and Hensell are non-vintage wines.  Our newest release of Calcaria is a refreshing blend of Roussanne, Marsanne, Trebbiano, Viognier and Albarino grapes.  Familiar notes of  ripe pear and honeysuckle are enhanced by delightful hints of papaya and white peach.  Our newest Hensell is a blend of Cinsaut, Grenache, Carignan and Mourvedre.  A classic, delicate Provence style rosé, this wine is reminiscent of fresh summer strawberries and cream.  

So, does vintage year have anything to do with quality?

Great question!  The answer is “yes and no”.  Look, we all have good days and  challenging days, right?  Well, vineyards can have good and bad years.  Depending on what happens in the vineyard in any given year, we could have a range of possible outcomes impacting quantity and quality of our fruit.  In Texas, the biggest issue isn’t quality - it is Quantity.

A great vintage in Texas is when we actually harvest fruit.  Freeze.  Hail. Hurricanes. Drought.  We have all sorts of weather related calamities waiting to destroy our fruit!

The “good vs. bad vintage” analysis is mostly dependent on weather - something we can’t control.  In Texas, we often see wild fluctuations in the quantity of fruit.  For example, if a vineyard is hit by hail, we might lose 60% or more of the crop im 5 minutes/  If we have a late spring frost, we can lose 100% of the crop before the vines even gets started.   Alternatively, if we have ideal growing weather with ample rain, we might see excess fruit.  Historically, we have not had “excess” fruit, but rather we have seen weather events reduce our crop yield.  For example, in 2013, our first full commercial year, we lost 90% of our fruit to late spring frosts.  More recently, we lost 50% of our fruit to a combination of frost and hail in 2020!  

It can be very challenging to deal with high fluctuations in our fruit quantity.  One way to smooth out quantity variations is to share of the “excess” fruit from one year with a “shortage” crop from another.  We did this in 2020 in response to severe winter issues reducing our Texas High Plains crop.  We simply held onto some of our awesome 2019 wines to support our lower volume 2020.   This is where “balanced wine” shines through.  

The Champagne houses in France (full disclosure: Champagne is my #1 go-to wine, closely followed by Kuhlman Cellars Hensell) utilize blending wines from different years to create non-vintage wines that express the “house style”.   Where a single vintage can tell a story of a particular year in the life of a winery, a non-vintage wine can tell a story of life in a particular winery.  At Kuhlman Cellars, we aim to provide the best and most balanced wines Texas has to offer every year – even if the wine represents more than one vintage year!