A few of weeks ago Kye came home absolutely raving about a
wine one of his reps had brought by the restaurant. Not to imply he hasn’t
gotten excited about other wines before, but there was something different in
his excitement about this one. It was a sparkling Lagrein from Southold Farm
and Cellar, their 2016 Horseshoes and Hand grenades to be exact. I think the
part of what had him so excited was that this producer had recently moved from
Long Island to Texas and their tasting room was located less than two hours
away outside of Fredericksburg. Since I hadn’t seen Kye that excited about a
producer in a while I was intrigued and we made plans (that inevitably got
postponed) to go up there as soon as we both had a day off together. We finally
made it up there this previous Sunday and though we’d thought about hitting
other wineries nearby we wound up just spending most of our time there. Their
tasting room sat at the top of a hill that gives you an amazing 360 view and as
soon as I tasted the first wine (their 2015 Chashing Moonlight Sparkling
Lagrein) I could understand why Kye had been so excited about their wines.
Everything they let us taste was just really cool and unique
(yes, I know those are terrible descriptors, but it’s the best I could come up
with right now and it’s true). Regan Meador obviously has his own way of doing
things and that way works very well for the wines he produces. His dad, Rusty,
was manning the bar of the tasting room and he was incredibly nice and
informative. The Southold winery was originally established in North Fork Long
Island and most of the wines they’re pouring right now are from that area. Kye
had apparently heard about them before they moved their operation to Texas
because their wines had such a good reputation. We don’t get many New York
wines down here so I was thrilled to get to try so many from a part of the
country I was mostly unfamiliar with.
That being said, I’m also really excited to see what Regan
does with Texas wines. I think my favorite part about talking with him was his down-to-earth
approach he was planning to take with the wines he produced down here. He didn’t
wax on about how he was going to produce the greatest wines ever here, it seems
more like he just wants to produce wines that really highlight the best out of
Texas grapes. I really liked how practical he was about that, especially coming
from someone who already had a reputation for producing some incredible wines up
north.
We bought several wines from them after the tasting and
tonight we opened their 2015 Love Habit Cabernet Franc:
This wine is just lovely, that’s really the best way to put
it. It’s on the lighter end of medium-bodied and a bright and refreshing
example of this varietal. It’s practically bursting with notes of red cherry,
raspberry and strawberry with hints of vanilla, allspice and a slight
smokiness. The finish is clean with nicely balanced acidity and smooth tannins.
It’s definitely a wine that can be enjoyed with or without food (though to be
fair I don’t honestly believe there’s a wine that can’t be enjoyed without food).
