Experience Texas Wine and Food at Tour de Vin 2015

Twin Liquors at Hancock Center hosted a sneak peek wine tasting event last week for the upcoming Tour de Vin, an annual festival from the Wine & Food Foundation of Texas. Vendors and wineries gave a preview of some of the wines they’ll be presenting during Tour de Vin at the Fair Market on September 17th. The pre-tasting event featured mostly California wines, but Tour de Vin will include several wines from Texas and around the world.

Wines that stood out at the pretasting that you’ll see at the main event include the 2012 Catena malbec and the trebbiano from Duchman Family Winery. Both have a length that exceeds their price points.

New This Year: Contest and Wine App

This year, the Wine & Food Foundation will hold a “Box or Bottle” contest at Tour de Vin, and attendees will try to guess a wine’s packaging based on taste.

Festival-goers will also have the option to install a wine list application on their smartphones made especially for the event. We’ve all tasted a wine at least once and thought, “I have to remember this,” only to forget the name the next day. This won’t be the case after this year’s Tour de Vin. The application will help festival-goers remember a wine and find where to find it at Austin stores and restaurants.

This year, the Wine & Food Foundation plans to have booths set up in a manner that not only highlights specific types of wines, but also organizes wines by occasion. For example, birthday wines or weeknight wines will be curated and placed together for tasting.

Texas Wineries to Attend

Texas wineries that will be featured at Tour de Vin include Duchman Family Winery (Driftwood), Fall Creek (Driftwood), Messina Hof (Fredericksburg) and McPherson Cellars (Lubbock).

A representative from Duchman Family Winery attended the pre-tasting event and provided samples of their Trebbiano and Anglianico wines. Duchman has an affinity for Italian grapes and makes wines from Italian grape varieties grown right here in Texas.

Up and Coming Local Chefs to Prepare Exclusive Bites

Up and coming local chefs will prepare special hors d’oeuvres for Tour de Vin 2015. Chefs who will be preparing this year’s vittles include Andrew Wisehart from Gardner and Contigo, Ek Timrerek from Kin & Comfort, Jacob Weaver from Juliet, Jodi Elliott from Bribery Bakery and Joe Anguiano from VOX Table.

Where to Buy Tickets

Tour de Vin will take place Thursday, September 17, 2015 at Fair Market on East 5th Street. Tickets are on sale online for $70 (members $55).

Beneficiaries of this year’s event include Dell Children’s Hospital, the Sustainable Food Center and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Viticulture & Fruit Lab for biological research that protects Texas grapes.

 

@natalien_n wants to know:

What is your favorite Texas wine?