Marshall, a fifth-generation Texan and wine writer for the Austin Chronicle, has thoroughly researched Texas wineries and the wines they produce, traveling from Big Bend’s Davis Mountains to the bayous of East Texas, from Dallas to Del Rio, from Galveston to Lubbock, putting 5,500 miles on his car. He met the vintners and tasted their wares, listened to their stories, and even created convenient maps to help organize a day trip to a few wineries or to plan a complete Texas Tour of 40-plus producing wineries.
Texas is the fifth-largest wine producing state. A 15,000-square-mile area of the Texas Hill Country, home to many of the state’s oldest wineries, is the second-largest viticulture area in the U.S. A 12,000-square-mile area of the Texas High Planes is the nation’s third largest viticulture area. In 2001 Texas vineyards grew 9,300 tons of wine grapes, yielding 1.4 million gallons of wine.
No less an expert than Robert Mondavi, founder of California’s Robert Mondavi Winery, sees distinct parallels between California’s Napa Valley wine industry in the middle of the 20th century and that of the burgeoning Texas wine industry at the beginning of the 21st century. Mr. Mondavi terms Wes Marshall’s wine column in the Austin Chronicle "one of the best in the country." High praise, indeed.
Wes Marshall appraises more that 400 Texas wines and chooses the top ones at each winery. The Wine Roads of Texas also features amazing stories of survival and triumph of the individual winemakers, suggestions for restaurants, hotels, B&Bs, convenient grouping of wineries by region for travel planning, as well as notes on attractions along the way.
The Wine Roads of Texas is the perfect book for experienced wine experts and novice wine lovers. It is the ideal guide for anyone wishing to learn more about one of the state’s most remarkable agricultural elements.
