Break Out the Bubbly

A few months ago at the Texas Mushroom Festival in Madisonville, Texas, we bought all-day tickets to the wine tasting. For a mere $10, we got to sample wine all day long and received a commemorative wine glass to boot.

I took a card from each vineyard that participated, and on the back I made notes about the wines I liked best. I'd like to tell you about one of the wines that my daughter and I, and even my husband, found utterly delicious. It's Bubbly from Lone Hen Winery.

Note: Unfortunately, I discovered that their website is navigable only with Internet Explorer. Since I use Mozilla, I had to make an extra effort to visit their site and was disappointed that the website offered no way to buy the wine.

So my darling husband trekked over to the winery a couple of weeks ago to buy some wine for me. Unfortunately, he found out that their fabulous Bubbly is all gone, but there'll be a new vintage in the spring. He did get a nice impromptu tour and was quite impressed with their operation.

Lone Hen Winery

Steve and Vicki Kirkpatrick are the guiding forces behind Lone Hen Winery. The vineyard itself is next to their home so they can give the wine "the loving attention it deserves."

Lone Hen is not a huge operation. It's a small, artisanal winery with the land kept organically for the last 17 years. It's in the College Station-Bryan area of Texas and just a stone's throw from the Brazos River.

Their mission, according to the website is: "to produce wold-class wines with a local personality." I fell in love with their Bubbly, a sparkling wine made in the French champagne style from their estate pears, or so Vicki told me when I chatted with her at the Mushroom Festival.

They actually have 3 wines right now: Bubbly, a Sparkling Pear Wine; Juicy, a Sparkling Berry Wine, and Pink, a Grape & Pear Blend. We were excited to hear that they will have a Blanc du Bois, one of our favorite white wines, next year.

Takeaway Truth

I'll let you readers who love your sunshine in a glass know as soon as Lone Hen has some more wine.