On Saturday, August 21, a group of wine lovers showed up at Vintners Own Winery to create a wine profile for a barrel of Cabernet Sauvignon. The barrel sharing group recently bought a full barrel from our winery, which will be bottled with a custom label and shared among its members in 2012. The wine profile is the first step in the winemaking process, where clients sit down with Vintners Own winemakers to conceptualize a blueprint for their customized wine.

Saturdays barrel sharing group was co-organized by Bob Scheidemann and Steve Bergman, two Houstonian's who work in the oil and gas industry. Steve has been interested in red wine tasting for the last 30 years and in 2005 taught a class at UT Dallas called 'The Geology of Wine' which explored the effect of terroir on grapes.

"I had independently been searching for a suitable winemaking entrepreneur when Bob told me about finding Vintners Own," Steve said. Bob and Steve are both members of a Merlot barrel sharing team which they got together in 2009. After testing the waters with a Merlot, they assembled another team to create a Cabernet Sauvignon. 

"Our group consists of colleagues and friends who all share a passion for drinking good wine, and for many of us, getting to lift the hood and learn all the art and science involved is a real joy," Steve said.
The groups first goal on Saturday was to reach a consensus for the Cabernet blueprint. They decided to bring in five familiar brands of beloved Cabernet to narrow down possible characteristics in their wine, such as alcohol content and acidity. The five bottles, which came from the Napa and Sonoma regions included: Chalk Hill, Freemark Abbey and Sequoia Grove. 

The different types of wine were put up to an olympic style blind taste test and voted on. Blind taste tests which are conducted by Soda companies (think Pepsi and Coke) Vodka companies and wineries are often used to determine which product is most favored by a panel of voters. The 'blind' part of the test was conducted to weed out favoritism and biases toward one particular brand. The winner of the test on Saturday was Sequoia Grove Cabernet, Vintage 2005.

After the blind taste test, profiling began to further define the groups desired characteristics in their barrel. During profiling, structure of wine is separated into distinct categories, such as sweetness, tartness, dryness, mouth feel and color depth. Not to mention flavors such as: earthy, woody, caramel, nutty, hebacious spicy and floral. The group chose, on a scale of 1-5, how prominent these features will be in their Cabernet. Other decisions such as yeast type, tannin level and oak blend were also chosen. The winemakers at Vintners Own will use this blueprint to create a customized wine for the Olympics of Cabernet group. 

A Vintners Own Membership is a window into the exciting world of winemaking. Learn the intricate details that make up the old world tradition of winemaking as you participate in the different stages of the winemaking process. Watch and join in the process as grapes are transformed into spectacular customized wine! As the wine makes its journey to bottle, you will discover how different techniques are used to shape wines, and you will receive two cases of wine you help to make. Share the fun of winemaking with a friend or family member; every membership includes a free guest pass!

Members who join the program will get to join in year round activities, including: sort, crush, press, tasting, and bottling. At the end of the winemaking process, each member will receive two cases of delicious wine!

In addition to receiving two cases of custom wine, members are entitled to a 20% discount off all wine sold by Vintners Own. Chose from a multitude of varieties: Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Syrah, Petit Syrah, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Rosé, Merlot, Zinfandel and our Reserve Red Blend.

Members are invited to participate in all the following winemaking activities throughout the year:

Crush - At our custom crush facility, you will use our sorting tables to ensure the only the best grapes are made into wine. It’s real hands on! 

Press - Pressing is the act of applying pressure to grapes in order to separate juice or wine from grapes and grape skins

Blending Session – While much of the winemaking process is scientific, blending is the winemaker’s art form. Blending sessions provide members with an insider's perspective on winemaking. Last year Benedictine Rhyne, a native of Aix-en-Provence and a wine consultant, joined barrel owners to blend their 2009 Sonoma Merlot.

Tasting Events – Join us during our many tasting events throughout the year. Stop in to barrel test wine as it slowly matures from barrel to bottle, or join us for one of our many wine and cheese tours!

The Stomp – Every year we sponsor the “Annual Rodeo Stomp” – an enormously fun event and a chance to meet with the movers and shakers of the Houston Rodeo.

In Texas, grape harvest can start anywhere from early July to late September. In the high plains area of Texas, around Lubbock and around the Guadalupe Mountains in the Trans-Pecos region, harvest is in September which coincides with the harvest seasons in California and France. This year, Vintners Own is sorting and crushing a lot of Texas Fruit. Here are some photos from Reddy Vineyards, one of the largest vineyards in the Texas High Plains. Vintners Own will be processing 12 tons of fruit from Reddy Vineyards.

Call us to see how you can get your own wine dispensing system!