Texas Wine Crush at Vintners Own

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.