You probably don’t think of Texas when you ponder which states produce great wine. Beef and BBQ, sure, but not wine. Well, if you ask a gaggle of Texas-based young adults if they’d like to try a bottle of Texas wine, they’d say, “hell yes, and bring me another.”

Believe it or not, Texas is beginning to grow unconventional varietals. And, surprise: Texas is now the fifth largest wine-grape-growing state. In fact, in 2013, “wine and grape production created nearly $2 billion in economic activity for the state,” reports CBS. West Texas has a high altitude, deep sandy soil, and a dry climate, which is optimal for wine production.

Recently, CBS reported on the Texas wine trend. The story featured a few notable wine makers in Texas. One of the wine-grape growers was Neal Newsom, owner of Newsom Farms. According to CBS, Newsom began planting almost 30 years ago. Currently, his West Texas farm is 144 acres. He sells 12 different varieties of grapes, sold to 12 different wineries.

The other wine producing family the CBS story focused on was the McPherson family. The McPherson family has been bottling their wines for over 40 years. Currently, the family is well known for their unique wine varietals, which are popular with Millennials, reports CBS:

“They are not drinking what their parents drink. The mom and dad might be drinking Chardonnay, Cabernet and Merlot. And they really don’t want to drink that. You give them a weird wine like Carignon or Mourvèdre or Cinsault or Viognier, they’re going, ‘Oh, we like that. We love this,’ McPherson said.”

In addition to Texas’ grapes popularity, the vines also take less water than cotton plants.

And speaking of water saving and sustainability: As wine production “booms” in Texas, some vineyards are creating sustainable and organic wines:

Bending Branch Winery: This winery resides near Comfort, Texas. It features “sustainable practices” and has an “organically focused operation.” It sits on 20 acres and carries 16 varietals.

Pedernales Cellars: This estate has quite a few vineyards, but the Kuhlken family runs the Cellars’ Kuhlken Vineyards. Kuhlken Vineyards keeps its operation sustainable by using “ecologically sound agricultural practices that minimize the impact on {the} landscape.” The estate is 17 acres and is in the Texas, Bell Mountain AVA (American Viticultural Area). This estate grows:

– Tempranillo
– Touriga Nacional
– Albarino
– Mourvedre
– Grenache
– Small amounts of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot

Related on EcoSalon

20 Unusual Uses for Wine

9 Simple DIY Wine Rack Projects You Can Make Yourself

Learning About Types of Wine: What is Natural Wine?

Image: John Tornow

The post BBQ, Cactus and Texas Wine? It’s a Thing and People Dig It appeared first on EcoSalon.

Is the image of boxed wine changing?

When you hear the words “boxed wine,” what comes to mind? While just a few years ago your brain may have immediately gone to Franzia (and the college-sized hangovers that came with it) the image of wine in a box in the U.S. has begun to grow up. Nowadays, its easier to get good wine in a box, which raises the question: is the American image of boxed wine about to change?

Jordan Salcito, the beverage director at NYC’s much talked about restaurant Momofuku, wrote an article for the Daily Beast, announcing that the restaurant would soon be serving a new Italian wine… from a box. She aptly titled her article “Taking Boxed Wine Seriously: It’s Not Just for Hobos and Teenagers Anymore.”

When a well-known restaurant in one of America’s food capitals starts serving wine from a box, you know that change is afoot.

While in the U.S., boxed wine has for years gotten a bad rap, in other parts of the world it is simply part of the wine culture. In fact boxed wine, otherwise known as bag-in-box, started in Australia in the 1960s, and while bottles have certainly entered the picture down under, boxes still makes up almost half of the country’s wine sales. You know who else loves boxed wines? The French.

So if other wine producing regions are loving boxed wine, why are we so behind?

Wine writer Talia Baiocchi wrote a couple of years ago that it all has to do with quality. “Still, the major obstacle for production of boxed wine here in America is one of quality; in order to see a legitimate revolution with this sort of packaging the wine has to actually be good. Much of the high quality boxed wines produced in Europe never make it to the states, and the wines that are boxed in this country come from industrial plonk producers simply because they’re the ones with the money and the access to filling machinery.”

Industrial plonk producers? No, thank you.

But it’s not just the quality that Americans have been upset by. It’s also the image. When we hear the words “boxed wine” we think of a huge, clunky box. Again, it all goes back to Franzia. But even that is changing. Thanks to Tetra Pack, you can now get 1-liter boxes of wine if you want to, and Tetra Pak boxes are made with 75 percent paper, much of which is Forest Stewardship Council certified.

When it comes to shipping costs, boxes win out over bottles, with a much lower carbon footprint. The environmental and economic reasons for putting wine in boxes instead of bottles has prompted some to call for American vintners to get on the boxed wine bandwagon.

And as the quality improves, we can hope that more and more American vintners do in fact get on board; because when it comes to truly sustainable drinking choices, you want to look for wines that are produced locally.

There are after all, plenty of bad boxed wines out there, and cheap ones can have a lot of additives. As with anything, know what you’re buying and where it came from. And next time someone serves you wine from a box, drink up. You’ll still be able to stay classy.

Related on EcoSalon:

30 Famous Quotes About Wine

Natural Wine, S’il Vous Plaît: Foodie Underground

3 Reasons Your Next Bottle Of Wine Should Be Organic

Image: Wikipedia Commons

The post Can You Drink Boxed Wine and Still Feel Classy? appeared first on EcoSalon.