Dog Days of Summer 2022

If you look to the east just before dawn you will see the Sirius star, also known as the “dog star”. It is the brightest star in our sky and is known as Orion’s hunting dog. It is most clearly visible in the late summer. The ancient Greeks noticed this star rising parallel to our sun and believed that this is what caused the scorch of late summer which is why this time of year is called “the dog days of summer.” On Sunday, July 17th, Kuhlman Cellars and the Humane Society of the New Braunfels Area  (HSNBA) was shining just as brightly as Orion’s pup while celebrating the second Dog Days of Summer event at the Kuhlman Cellars Estate.

We once again partnered with HSNBA in their effort to give pets a second chance at a first-class life. You may have met our vineyard cat, Nico, lounging around the water station or stalking through the tall grass of the garden. Nico used to be a resident of HSNBA before he called the Kuhlman vineyard home. Some of our guests have their own former HSNBA residents in their homes, some just have a heart for misplaced fur babies. Dog Days was also a great opportunity to simply get back out to our vineyard and soak up the vibe. The Kuhlman team enjoyed catching up with everyone while raising money for a wonderful cause.

One dollar from each bottle sold was donated to the HSNBA and we released some monumental landmark wines for this event!

Our 2021 Calcaria has big bright citrus notes of melon and honey-suckle with the satisfying body Calcaria is known for.

Then, of course, our 2021 Estate Rosé, a Provence-style summer helper made from grapes taken from the vines right here in the Kuhlman Estate vineyard.

Finally, after NINE years, we released our first Estate Red. This Carignan forward blend is fruitful and medium-bodied and a wonderful summer treat for wine lovers that don’t want to put their reds away for the summer. A glass of our 2019 Estate Red is nine years of love, care, family, and friends in a five oz pour.

We had great live music on the patio and, for our pups, we had “barkuterie” plates with meat and cheese.  We put the doggie pools out to beat the heat and, as always, glasses were poured by friendly faces excited to show you and your fur family some love.

Sunscreen was applied, pets were played with, and bottles were opened. And $416 was raised towards finding pets new forever homes! 

Thank you to everyone who came out and was a part of our story. Until next summer! 

Cheers!

 

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!

 

Wine and Wildflowers

Beautiful Spring Color Awaits Your Visit!

The Texas Bluebonnets loved the snowpacalypse because the snow acted as a great insulator. The leaves, shaped like the bonnets pioneer women wore, peeked out of their icy covers awaiting sunshine and temperatures in the 70’s. At Kuhlman Cellars they will greet you at our entrance and in the parking area along with some late blooming daffodils. They form a blue carpet on the south side of the wine garden beneath the pink peach and white plum blossoms. Look closely for purple-bonnets and you might even spy a red or white bonnet.

 

Soon the red Indian Paintbrush will burst forth, followed by yellow coreopsis. Red poppies are popping out, and should be at their peak in late March and April. Take a walk and see how many different colors and color combinations you can find. 

Return frequently to witness the sequential blooms of delphiniums, blanket flowers, daisies, Mexican Hat, Black-eyed Susan, Rudbeckia, Butterfly Bush, etc that are host and food plants for butterflies. Sit near the fountain and relax to its musical splashing that sends droplets out for the pollinators.

Finding Thanks for Thanksgiving 2020

Thanksgiving 2020!

 

Thanksgiving looks a little different in 2020.  Covid-19 caused a collective upheaval in our lives and continues to pose a threat.  It is sometimes difficult to remember just exactly what we are thankful for this year; a year presenting challenges for all.

BUT… Thanksgiving is about giving thanks!  It is a time to acknowledge the silver linings in the dark clouds of the past nine months.  

While there have been difficulties, we feel blessed.  Most importantly, our team has remained healthy and safe.  Many of our staff members pulled double-duty and discovered new skills in other areas of the winery.  This year’s Estate vintage is exciting for many reasons, but the greatest is all members of the Kuhlman team contributed to our Estate harvest this year – a true team effort!  Through Virtual Tastings and Facebook Live, we learned new ways to maintain and build community with our guests.  And, we were finally able to reopen and see your smiling eyes, even if we could not see the smiles behind your masks.  

This Thanksgiving, we are thankful for our health.  We are thankful for our amazing, hard-working staff.  We are thankful for the opportunities coming from adversity.  We are thankful for our community.  We are thankful for our wonderfully supportive Vina Vita club members.  And, of course, we are thankful for great wine!

We wanted to make our 2020 Thanksgiving bundle something to really celebrate this year.  So, we turned to the cellar for some popular, limited supply, library wines.  When you look for wines complimenting your Thanksgiving favorites, the key is versatility.  You want wines pairing well with a variety of foods, so make sure you have plenty on hand!  

Greet your guests with our 2019 Hensell (or pour yourself a glass while you prepare the feast – we won’t tell.)  This delicate Provence-style Rosé is a perfect pre-dinner drink on its own but also pairs nicely with your favorite appetizers.  For the main meal, you will want to serve both a white and a red wine.  Our 2018 Estate Roussanne is both bright and complex at the same time.  This wine has lovely acidity with herbal notes on the nose and flavors of pear and citrus in the mouth.  The 2017 Sangiovese is a perfect accompaniment due to its beautiful structure, not overly oaky or tannic, and sharp acidity.  Thanksgiving meals are usually heavy enough on its own, so it is best to keep the wines refreshing.

Thank you for being part of our Kuhlman Cellars community!  We wish you all a happy Thanksgiving and a delicious Thanksgiving meal!

 

Concours International de Lyon Gold!

The Concours International de Lyon wine competition announced earlier this week Kuhlman Cellars won two Gold Medals and three Silver Medals!  

We are obviously honored to win these medals; however, these medals are significant, not just because they are Gold and Silver, but also because of the competition itself.  

Concours de Lyon is one of the largest wine competitions in France.  Most of the entries come from France, though wineries around the world enter, with over 6,000 wines entered for this competition.  No more than one third of the entries earn medals, making it one of the most competitive wine competitions.  French wines, grapes and winemakers (Vignerons) are the focus and soul of the competition.  We aren’t just competing against the entries of the year, but generations of experience growing grapes in their ancestral homelands as well as generations of winemaking experience.

The winning wines:

Gold Medal Winners:

2018 Estate Kuhlmanation White:  A beautiful blend of Marsanne and Roussanne grown right on the Estate in Stonewall, Texas.  We dug the holes, planted the vines and grew these vines since 2015.  This is our second vintage and the wine perfectly captures the fresh, lively, brilliant ideals we envision for our white wine program.

2018 Texas High Plains Viognier:  2018 saw perfect ripeness in the grapes allowing for nearly ideal varietal characteristics to blossom!  Ripe, rich, structured fruit grown for us by our vineyard partners, Bingham Family Vineyards.

Silver Medal Winners:

2016 Reserve Merlot:  Grown by Flache Vineyards in Brownfield, our 2016 Reserve Merlot is our first reserve bottling.  It spent a total of 30 months in French oak barrels, providing sufficient time to fully express the beautiful old world style of the best Merlot in the world.

2017 Marl:  A new wine named after the clay and limestone soil of the estate (and found in Bordeaux), the 2017 vintage is a blend of Merlot and Petite Sirah - a blend never to be found in France, but certainly in Texas!  The Merlot comes from the Flache vineyard while the Petite Sirah comes from Lahey vineyards.

2017 Sangiovese, Newsom Vineyards:  100% Sangiovese of the Brunello Clone.  A special wine and our first ever Vineyard Designated!  Neal Newsom, the legendary grower in Plains, Texas, tended the vines and grew this beautiful fruit for us showcasing classic varietal characteristics.

To further expand on the meaning of these awards: 

Roussanne, one of our Kuhlmanation Estate White grapes, is thought to have originated in the Rhone Valley of France.  It is one of only four white grapes permitted in Chateauneuf du Pape and is also found in the Northern Rhone.  These areas are just south of Lyon and wineries and Vignerons have made wine from these grapes for generations.  It is no exaggeration to say they have hundreds of years experience in growing, harvesting and making wine with these grapes.  This same experience applies to other French grapes - Marsanne, Viognier, Merlot, and Petite Sirah.

We planted our estate Marsanne and Roussanne in 2015.  The 2018 Vintage is only our second harvest.  

We sent our wine to this year’s competition knowing it would be blind-tasted, side-by-side with all the other entries and judged by French wine professionals, many winemakers themselves, who know the best expressions of the grapes and wines.

We won Gold.  

Great things are happening in quality Texas wine.  There is no doubt:  Texas Wine belongs on the world stage.

Hidden Wine Gems

Here at Kuhlman we love being able to feature wines with fun pairings. While we all know and love Alluve, Barranca and Kankar; let's take a minute to talk about wines we consider “hidden gems” for our favorite Texas foods. Our cultural history is written in food & wine and Texas is no exception with its melting pot of flavors. 

2017 Marl: This blend of Merlot and Petite Sirah has been winning hearts at the winery. Its velvety tannins and blackberry notes seem to surprise people who don’t care for merlot. The Petite Sirah adds a peppery note making this a great match for burgers on the grill or picnics with Roast beef or even Ruben sandwiches. We particularly love this with something that has red peppers in it like romesco sauce over potatoes. Try it with Texas style queso and tortilla chips.  A red wine with chips and queso?! Yes!

2016 Gypsum: Gypsum is our hidden summer favorite. Lighter than Alluvé, this wine can be enjoyed chilled. (shhh, try it in sangria!) Gypsum’s light and cheerful nature makes it a wonderful surprise pairing for seafood and spicy Mexican, Tapas and Spanish foods. Try it with spicy Barbecue, beans, and potato salad on a hot summer night. This wine is the perfect way to introduce dry reds to people just beginning their wine journey, but it also has a complexity that lets those “experienced” wine drinkers enjoy as well. 

2017 Zinfandel:  There is a reason we put Texas on the label. This isn’t California Zin. This Zinfandel is light, fresh and peppery with hints of strawberry. Because this Zin is a lighter style, it is surprisingly versatile and loves big flavors in food. Try it with Lamb meatballs or Pulled pork with Barbecue sauce. We often pair this Zinfandel with game meats to complement their earthy nature. Try smoked duck breast for an extra treat. Zinfandel tends to be high in alcohol which can make spicy food seem spicier so be cautious with the hot peppers. But Indian flavors and Zinfandel are a perfect match, I also love it with chicken fried steak or Jaeger schnitzel. But the best… try it with barbecue potato chips. 

Enjoy!

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Spring 2020 Release: Estate Wines and Hensell Rosé

As we, at Kuhlman Cellars, look out of our empty tasting room windows over a vibrant green vineyard and beautiful flowering grounds, 

we are struck by how different the natural world is from our current world events. Things are quiet and we sit on opposite ends of the tasting room at our makeshift desks and dream of ideas to connect with you, our customers and community. Work still continues and the vines need tending. The beauty before us in our vines and flowers is a cycle that is never ending and always changing. The vines grow inches every day at a startling rate and the rain brings more lush green to our world view.

This time of challenge is a perfect opportunity to stop and view the world around us as an example of what is to come. Flowers will still bloom and grapes will still ripen. We will take time in anticipation of harvest and celebrate each other in a way that connects us to the world. Times are hard. We worry for your safety and health and look with hope to a time in the future when we can sit with you at our tables and enjoy the bounty that the vineyard cycle brings forth.

Now, in the midst of uncertainty, we cherish even more the opportunity to connect with you, our extended family. We developed virtual tastings, podcasts and Facebook Wine Time as a way to reassure all of us the harvest still comes and brighter days lie ahead. Life will follow nature if we let it and the cycle will continue.

Spring is a time to celebrate renewal and fresh beauty. It is a time to celebrate our Estate Vineyard with our spring club release, even though we can’t have an in-person pick up party. Take time to join us virtually and connect - we miss you!  Two estate wines will be coming to you in this club shipment (unless you decide to customize.) These represent the heart of Kuhlman Cellars.

 

2019 Estate Roussanne

The third harvest of our Estate Roussanne gave us a wine attracting you with an “Or Blanc” (white gold) color and shows an intense nose of jasmine, honeysuckle, orange blossom, pear and lemon zest. You will not be disappointed as you sip this wine because it bursts with flavors of peaches and lychee with a touch of green mango. The well balanced and lingering acidity will make this wine a perfect accompaniment to ceviche, tapenade and tapas.

Roussanne can be challenging in the vineyard. We call it our “princess” and baby it to get the best, most flavorful Roussanne possible. Harvest comes when not just the sugar and acid are correct but the grapes pop with lemon curd flavor on the tongue. This always happens in the heat of the summer!

 

2019 Estate Rose

This delicate Rosé made from our Estate Carignan and Mourvédre will seduce you with a soft strawberry color and smooth wild violet with crushed strawberry aroma. This light and refreshing wine has a subtle acidity that will best be enjoyed on a hot Texas summer evening with tabbouleh or any picnic food - hopefully at one of our picnic tables at the Estate! 

 

2019 Hensell

Fans of the 2017 Hensell will be ecstatic! This release of Hensell is lighter in color and true to classic Provence-style Rosé. Delicate in the nose with hibiscus, pink apple and lavender aromas but powerful on the palate with a perfectly balanced acidity. Flavors of ruby red grapefruit will pair magically with spicy Thai or Mediterranean style food.

 

Celebrating spring in your home with your community, even if only virtually, is important for all of us in times like these. This is a beautiful time to strengthen our relationships and deepen friendships, being grateful for the gifts we have. Enjoy time with your community to cook, garden and be out in nature. Celebrate this spring as a time to renew our bonds and appreciate the joy that is Food, Family and Friends.