Author and Leadership strategist Linda Stiles has teamed up with Vintners Own Winery to create Vintage Leadership, a 12 month long assemblage of winemaking and leadership training. Stiles, who has written several books on personal and professional leadership modeled the program Vintage Leadership after her book The 9 principles of leadership. Stiles 9 steps, including; creating a vision, fostering an open mind, developing focus and maximizing motivation will go hand-in-hand with individual steps of the winemaking process.

Grape harvest will be paired with leadership vision while having patience will be learned by tasting young wine during the aging process. The benefit of fostering an open mind will be taught in conjunction with wine variations. As any winemaker will tell you, subtle changes and variations, such as oak chip choice, yeast additions and acidity levels have a huge effect on the overall composition and taste of wine. An open mind is not only necessary, its profitable.  

Employers and employees alike will will gain a new set of leadership skills, and an understanding of the logistics that go into making wine. Not to mention the two cases of customized wine with personalized labels that everyone gets to take home at the end of the workshop. 

We figure, great leadership, like great wine doesn't happen over night! Anyone intending to lay a sturdy leadership foundation is a candidate for this program.

For more information contact Linda Stiles:

linda@lindastiles.com 

713-208-2015
www.vintageleadership.com

To learn more about winemaking and special events at Vintners Own: Visit our Events page! 

During summertime at Vintners Own, we get really excited about shipping in fruit from Napa and Sonoma Valley in California for grape harvest. This year, we are even MORE excited because we are crushing scrumptious grapes from the high plains in Texas where some of the best Texas wine is produced.

Vintners Own has partnered up with Chris Caldwell, the winemaker of Caldwell-Crosby and Reddy Vineyards in the High plains to crush, ferment and bottle the first Caldwell-Crosby Vintage. I sat down with Chris to ask him a little bit about Texas wine and his new brand.  

“We really just jumped right in,” Chris said, “this went from being a hobby to a commercial business.”

Chris' dad, who represents the Caldwell name in the brand, has been traveling to Napa for nearly 30 years and has always wanted to make wine. He and his good friend Jim Crosby decided to fund a brand, which, they originally planned to produce and bottle in California.

While Caldwell and Crosby debated on where to produce the delectable fruit for their wine, they couldn't resist the idea of creating an all-Texas wine.

"Texas is where Napa was in the 60's," Chris said, "opportunity and potential in Texas is huge."

Currently, Caldwell-Crosby has contracts for 12 tons of fruit with Reddy Vineyards, one of the larger vineyards in the Texas High Plains. This area of Texas is prime grape growing land due to the area climate.

At the end of the 2010 winemaking season, two Caldwell-Crosby 
all-Texas wines will emerge from this year’s harvest: a Cabernet Sauvignon and a ‘Bordeaux’ blend.

At Vintners Own, we can't wait to work with Caldwell-Crosby on their Texas brand! 

Culturemap Houston features Vintners Own 'Wine by the Glass' program.

Chris Caldwell is a native Houstonian and the winemaker for Caldwell-Crosby, a new Texas brand that will be available in 2012.

“We really just jumped right in,” Chris said, “this went from being a hobby to a commercial business.”

 “My dad has been traveling to Napa for nearly 30 years,“ Chris said, “He has wanted to make wine for a long time.” Chris’ father and his good friend Jim Crosby originally planned to purchase a vineyard and winery in California, but in the end, they couldn’t resist trying to grow grapes in Texas.

Currently, Caldwell-Crosby has contracts for 12 tons of fruit with Reddy Vineyards in the Texas High Plains. This area of Texas, considered by many to be the Napa Valley of Texas, is prime grape growing land due to the area climate.

When harvest season starts, which for Texas is normally during the month of September, Caldwell-Crosby will be crushing, fermenting, aging and finally bottling their fruit with Vintners Own Winery.

“Vintners Own is a fully equipped winemaking facility”, Vintners Own Manager, Simon Payne said, “and Texas fruit producers are beginning to realize it’s easy to let Vintners Own do the analysis, record keeping and tasks of the winemaking process.”

At the end of the 2010 winemaking season, two Caldwell-Crosby all-Texas wines will emerge from this year’s harvest: a Cabernet Sauvignon and a ‘Bordeaux’ blend.

When Vintners Own was contacted to contribute to Pink Night Out 2, a fundraiser benefiting Pink Ribbons Project, we decided to sponsor by bottling our first Rose wine! In fact, we even made a pink Sex and the City 2 label!

Pink Night Out 2 was a fabulous night of cocktails, a fashion show and of course, the Sex and the City 2 movie itself! The pre-screening cocktail party and fashion show were held at Hotel Sorella, one of the sponsors of the night. M Penner and Beautique were also sponsors of the evening as well as BRIO tuscan grille, Houston Magazine and activeimagination. 

The Pink Ribbons Project was started in 1995 when Jane Weiner, a professional dancer in New York City, learned that her sister Susan Rafter had breast cancer. Jane foudned Pink Ribbons Project: Dancers in Motion Against Breast Cancer to help her sister fight breast cancer. The original goal was to raise enough money to send breast cancer survivors to court to testify about thier experience. The testimony helped convince the FDA to approve three new cancer fighting drugs, one of which helped save Susan Rafter's life.

At Vintners Own we are so happy to contribute a little to the project!

Visit our Events page to see more VO photos! Vintners Own Events

We have decided to expand our winery!

We are adding 950 sq. feet in the form of another office, an event space
and a fermentation room. 

Take a Look at our Expansion Photos: