Texas Wines - Yellow Rose by Landon Winery

Found an interesting article that got me thinking about local wines, and what I enjoy. I very much appreciate the locavore concept, and when possible and affordable, I choose locally grown and produced over imported goods.

She says:  This book sounds like it will be interesting.  I am not much of a wine drinker myself, I tend to dislike the tannins, and prefer mead.  Thomas has gotten me to try some Rieslings and sweeter dessert wines which I have liked very much.  Now when we travel, we check out the local wine shop, and have a good time talking with folks and learning about the local wines.

When we go wine tasting, we prefer to go to Fredericksburg or Gruene, where the wine shops tend to specialize in local wineries. We had an excellent time at Texas Vineyards and Beyond when Thomas took me to Fredericksburg for my birthday.  They are great folks, willing to take the extra time to talk to new visitors and educate them about their offerings.  They often have tastings with the wine makers, and carry a wide variety of local mead, wine, and other fine products, including some amazing port.  I do like good port. 

We also had a good time talking to the people at the Bell Mountain Vineyards tasting room in Der Kuchen Laden, and Oberhof makes a lovely sweet mead, which I just had to purchase.  The folks who work there are kind and friendly, and we got to talking about mead brewing.  Though they also brew mead, they encouraged me to try to bring my own production up to the professional level.  I thought that was really cool. You should visit with them if you are in town.

When we were in Gruene for our anniversary in February, we picked up a lovely white wine called Yellow Rose made by Landon Winery at the Grapevine.  The Grapevine is a lovely shop - well laid out, with a tasting counter, some seating off to the left and also some outside seating by a fire pit.
We tried several wines, but of all of them, the Yellow Rose stood out. It was light and sweet, and by far the best wine I tasted that night, so we purchased a bottle which we enjoyed after dinner last night, since it was a nice evening for it.  I served it with a light dinner of seasoned pork loin, flavored brown rice, and salad.

The wine had a very light scent, with faint floral notes.  The taste was light and sweet.  Not cloying, it was very smooth to drink.  There is a light taste that reminds me of apples. The winery's description includes peach in the flavor profile, and I must admit, I couldn't taste the peach.  The wine has very little tannin bitterness, which is probably why I like it. All in all, I think this is a great wine for summer entertaining.  I highly recommend it for flavor and value.

He says: We had tasted this one while in Gruene a couple months back and decided to bring it home. Val made a wonderful dinner of savory pan seared pork, brown rice pilaf, and a light garden salad and we decided to have some of this sweet, yet light, wine to go with it.

It was a very nice contrast to the spices on the pork and the "earthiness" of the rice pilaf. It was served slightly chilled and the nose just opened up as it slowly rose to room temperature, revealing itself as a little more full bodied than I remembered. The apple/fruit flavor became more pronounced and was very pleasant.

I look forward to trying this at the end of a hot day mixed with chilled spring water.

She says:
In closing, when in Fredericksburg, try Texas Vineyards and Oberhof and when in Gruene, try The Grapevine.  Also, if you like sweet wines, Yellow Rose is amazing.