Wine Crawl

*I was given tickets to the Burleson Wine Crawl, and asked to write about my experiences there.  The words that follow and the opinions expressed are my own.

A Little Background:
Burleson Texas is not exactly my "hometown."  I'm connected with the place because it's the town where my dad graduated from high school, where the house is that I came home to, where I lived, briefly before moving a little further south to the town I would call my hometown.  I left Texas completely for college, and upon my arrival back home I came to recognize the things that were missing in Burleson.   Unless we were looking for a quick chain restaurant for a casual dinner we didn't frequent Burleson's restaurant scene, in fact, there was no "restaurant scene."  But just in the past few years that has changed.  There's been some kind of movement throughout the city to embrace the small business.  People are considered "trendy" when they find the hidden gem in what is considered the "Old Town" area of Burleson, a small, retro, "cultural district" if you will, that is found in and around the neighborhoods in close proximity to city hall.  I've heard rumors that this will be a walking district with more small businesses setting up shop, hopefully encouraging a safe haven of family friendly sidewalks and the like.  I had a restaurant there, as you know, with a focus on wine.  Maybe it was a bit before it's time....

1st ever press pass :)

You must imagine my surprise when I was asked to attend, and in turn blog about a Wine Crawl in Old Town Burleson.  To say the least my expectations were low.  I hate to admit that, but I'll just be honest, there are only a few local wineries in town, so I believed this would be a street festival with a focus on other types of vendors.  I was right about other vendors being involved, but I was surprised about the winery participation.

First off, it was billed as a local event, and didn't disappoint with  all 3 local wineries (Sunset, Lost Oak, D'vine Wine) there to serve and participate alongside a couple out-of-towners (Barking Rocks and Times Ten Cellars).  I have to say, the fact that there were 5 wineries in attendance really made the vendor/winery ratio exceed my expectations. 

My special helper :)

We were presented with "passports" and allowed 10 tastes of wine. Now, every taste was "paid" for by offering a tiny ticket from the passport and we were encouraged to visit the vendors as well.  For full passport participation (10 tastes and a visit to all the vendors) we were entered into a contest to win prizes.  I brought my sister (also known as my special helper), and we dove headstrong into diligently tasting through 10 tickets.  We make a pretty stellar team!

Santa's Special Label

We kicked off the evening at Sunset Winery's booth. Here we decided that in the future the crawl needs a faster distribution method, I'm not sure what that solution will be - more people pouring at each tent, maybe?  But for this year the lines (though long) moved pretty quickly.  I tried a "Santa's Special" red blend from Sunset that was a sweet blend with little character.  Not a bad drinking wine.  I will admit on this type of wine adventure some of the wineries have styles that I do not prefer, but that doesn't mean they don't have a target market that they know and embrace.  This red blend is a staple at Sunset Winery during the holidays.  The label- featuring a local guy dressed as Santa -  has a unique picture each year, making this almost a collectors item for Sunset customers.

Bruce, the wine maker at Sunset Winery

Local musicians were featured on a main stage, and the music added to the ambiance and seemed to make the wait time in the lines go by faster.  There were also food trucks beyond the featured winery and vendor booths that unfortunatley I didn't get a chance to sample as I was going to dinner with a group after our tour through the main attraction.  The addition of the food trucks was exciting to see and was a great draw for others because all the wine tasting kicks up an appetite!

Tiberia was a great sport taking a picture with me

From there we popped over to Barking Rocks where I was delighted to chat with Tiberia, the
winemaker there, who introduced us to the selection he chose to sample at the Crawl! Tiberia is the real deal.  A winemaker who is involved in his craft and who not only makes the wine, but tends the tasting room and shows up to events like this to educate his patrons on the wines he's made.  I enjoy his enthusiasm, his engaging approach, and his wines.  I tasted a couple at this one - a roussane that was a delicious medium bodied white with some tropical fruit, the rose that had an effervescence that I didn't expect, and I followed that with the merlot which had an almost startling coffee aroma that blended over into the palate very well.

Some of the Lost Oak Wines

I do frequent Lost Oak Winery here in town, so I was less sampling, and more re-visiting some of the wines at the next booth.  I will say tasting these with my sister and a new blogger friend I made at the Crawl was fun because I got to experience them through their eyes.   The Red Roan was top on my list to try again, but my sister and our new friend Emily chose the riesling as their favorite.

Times Ten Cellars from Fort Worth had a great selection, unfortunately they were already out of my first choice (Sauvignon blanc) but the pinot grigio was very nice, it had a peachy aroma along with some citrus that was pleasing.  I did end up sampling a zinfandel they were pouring and a tempranillo as well - hints of caramel and raisin made this one of my favorites of the evening.

D'Vine Wine was also represented.  This is another winery that does well in Burleson, but the style is just not for me.  That doesn't mean, as I mentioned before, that they don't know their market and serve them well, it just means that I'm not in that market.   While they do use some traditional varietals, their biggest sellers, (and the wines they were pouring at the Crawl) are fruit flavored wines.  These are wines that are made in stainless casks using juice that they purchase and then flavor with, from what I can tell, fruit extracts.  I'm no D'Vine Wine expert, but I feel they are a more loose interpretation of a winery than the other wineries in attendance.  I knew to think about these wines in a different way than I had the others, so when I tasted the blackberry merlot I thought it was a great little wine, probably marketed to people who enjoy an easy drinking very fruit forward wine without complexity.

Altogether I'm so proud of Burleson for not only putting an event like this together but for inviting wineries from other areas to compliment the ones we have in town and make a great event fabulous.  I am so looking forward to next year's event and watching this city embrace cultural growth in this way.

Postscript: Know of any wine related events going on around you?  I love to travel and would get a kick out of more festivals and tasting events like this one!