I promised to write more about my pre-Christmas activities with my folks in town, and here it is … in more detail than you probably wanted.

My folks have been considering moving to Austin for about a year – there’s a long story involved as to why they are where they are now that involves Hurricane Katrina and its oft-neglected impact on the Biloxi-Gulfport area, but I won’t go into that. The reason that I bring it up is that we spent quite a bit of time looking at developments in north Austin, Round Rock, and Georgetown, and I tried my best to be really patient but probably failed. When they went back on Tuesday morning to look at their last two choices one more time, I decided not to go with them so that they could take their time and not deal with the sighing child in the corner looking at his watch every thirty seconds. That’s an early Mother’s Day gift from me.

On Saturday last, I decided to take my parents to some of the wineries in the Texas Hill Country. Since they’re wine drinkers (and the apple hasn’t fallen far from that tree), I thought it would be a fun way to spend an afternoon. We went through a good four bottles (unless it was five?) while they were here, and I thought it would be a nice addition to the weekend if maybe some of those five (wait, was it six?) were bottles we’d found together.

If you’ve never heard of the rapidly growing Texas wine industry – and chances are you haven’t – we have some rather promising up-and-coming labels. The problem is that none of them can export from the state of Texas yet, so no one has heard of the vast majority of the Texas vinyards.

If you should happen to find yourself in the Austin/San Antonio area with a car and a free day, they’re definitely worth a trip. The majority of them in this area are in the Texas Hill Country, which is a pleasant drive when it doesn’t start to pour down torrential rain like it did on Saturday. Check out Texas Wine Trail dot com for info and a map. (No, I don’t work for them — I’m just a big fan).

There are lots of good ones … and one scary one that I visited about a year ago with Ray and Natalie that we were convinced was going to end up something like Deliverance. I can’t remember which one it was, but I do know that it wasn’t one of the ones I’m about to mention.

We started off at Flat Creek Estate, which entails an absolutely beautiful drive through the hills on FM 1431 (not for the easily seasick). It had been about two years since I was there last, and they’ve built a large tasting room that was bustling. For $5, we tasted enough wines to make us forget that we hadn’t eaten lunch, and we walked away with a few bottles.

My two “regulars” are Spicewood Vinyards and Texas Hills Vinyards. Spicewood turns out a number of good wines, and introduced me to the idea that there are good chardonnays out there — it’s just easy to do them badly. Spicewood has a very good one. I was sad to hear that it’s up for sale due to the owners’ declining health – it’s a really pleasant spot, and the two bouncy Jack Russell terriers (and their big brother, Sam) who wander around the place are always a nice distraction.

Texas Hills is another favorite – about four years back, we had a conference with a national audience and they came and did the wine-and-cheese reception for us. So many people wanted to take bottles home with them (“they’re not going to believe that this is from Texas!”) that Gary, one of the owners, took orders and made a second trip with more bottles, arriving shortly before the busses started leaving for the airport.

Tasha (above) would like it known that she’s the true owner of Texas Hills Vinyard, however. She’s a very sweet dog, and was enjoying the heated concrete floor because it turned rather cold while we were out there.

At this point in the day, it was about four o’clock, pouring rain, and getting dark, so we packed it in without proceeding on to the string of wineries down US 290 on the way to Fredericksburg. Next visit, I promised my mother, since she wants to go back to Fredericksburg anyway (I guess there’s a dearth of cutesy little antique villages in Tennessee?).

Anyway. Enough speaking from the soapbox … er, wine barrel. I hope your holiday was pleasant and enjoyable and filled with the spirit (holiday or otherwise) of your choice!

Tags: Flat-Creek-Estate, Spicewood-Vinyard, texas, Texas-Hill-Country, texas-hills-vineyard, texas-wine, wine