My wife and I are taking Amtrak from Portland to San Antonio. I have 2 questions. First I am looking for wine shops in San Antonio, especially around the Riverwalk area. Next I am asking for some names of Texas wines I should look for. Any help would be great. We will be there in the middle of July.
No Texas wines are worth their respective price tags. Period.
Central Market has more than a decent selection from my last adventure down there. If nobody offers up any good suggestions, PM John Webber here. He is local to SA.
Central Market would be my choice as well.
Zinc Wine Bar in the downtown area is a good place for sampling.
As for Texas wines, avoid standard grapes and focus on Spanish or Italian varietals. Tempranillo, Sangiovese and Vermentino are better choices. Duchman makes a great Vermentino and Becker and Landon are pretty solid labels. Moscatos and other sweet white wines are generally more hit than miss and there is a ton of sweet reds if you are into that, I’m not.
Monte
There used to be some great Texas wines- I still have some Cabs from the late 80s that are drinking well- but alas such things are almost impossible to find now.
Keep an eye out for Cruz de Comal. Fairly new to the scene- and run by a legendary Texas attorney who made a career change. He is spending a lot of time (he is out there working in the vineyards every day) trying out all sorts of varietals and blends- and he is making some good wines that are very unique and reflect our terroir.
Becker is the other one I would recommend. The Viognier is a favorite locally and very nice. Sometimes there is a sweet wine- Amabile- in halves that can be very nice, but note it is not a fat or opulent offering like most dessert wines. Their top end Cabs are solid- very tough in youth but with time come around quite well. I had their 97 Cab a couple of years ago and it was not only quite nice but showing far better than it had in youth.
On San Antonio, I have not been there in years- but there was a time when Saglimbeni was a good stop for top wines. Still, in the past 10 years there has been massive consolidation and many storied names no longer carry top wines- so I have no idea if they are still a good choice.
I’ve had some good tempranillos, but then came the price tag. Not great QPRs given what you can obtain elsewhere. Unless you have some sentimental reason to purchase them, I haven’t found Texas wines to be that great considering other choices.
As for wine stores, unfortunately there isn’t much around the Riverwalk. Some great new restaurants, The Monterey and Bliss, likely requiring a short cab ride or 15 min, 110 degree walk in July. The best wine store in town (IMO) is Gabriel’s Superstore at 1604 and Blanco. Ask for Joe Baker, he knows his stuff and has some great old wines. Saglimbeni has good wine, but selection is limited and pricing is a bit high given other competitors. Otherwise, I stick to mail order or hold out for a visit to Specs in Houston. While we do have a location in SA, it doesn’t measure up to the downtown HOU location on Smith.
There’s really isn’t a great wine shop near downtown/riverwalk. Joe Baker is at the 1604/blanco location of Gabriel’s (the big regional chain) where the best selection in town is. If you have something in mind I’d call him and then have it sent down to the Broadway location where your cab ride would be much shorter. Your best options close to downtown are Seazar’s(just OK selection) on New Braunfels and Central Market (but high pricing). Joe Sags is also good, but worse pricing and I’ve had several years of bad service there so I only go if there’s a bottle I want that no one else has.
Send me a note when you get here if you want, I live on the northern part of the Riverwalk, can help with restaurant selection, hang out, whatever. (I would second Monty and Bliss, both with established corkage policies).
Don’t know anything about Texas wines.
Tom, you’re in San Antonio? I thought I knew all the wine people in town…PM me and I’ll make sure we add you to the local list. We have a good group in town with pretty frequent events.
Thanks for all the info. It has been fun researching some of the suggestions. I am curious about Saglimbeni since I saw that one of my favorite New Zealand producers, Jules Taylor was just through town.
A couple years ago we visited our son in Houston and he took us to Specs on Smith street. What a place. In fact our son is driving down to meet us. I am anxious to try the Zinc Wine Bar.
Zinc is a nice spot with a down the middle but solid winelist. Very good small plates. IMO the Monterey has the best list in town at great prices. Mostly outside seating. Changes frequently and online (http://www.themontereysa.com/menu).
Full disclosure–I’m friends with one of the owners of the Monterey, but no business interests/ties.
Texas wines to try Haak Blanc du Bois, especially anything 2009 and later, this is a solid wine.
Becker Viognier is solid year to year
Pheasant Ridge makes a solid but hard to find cab
The advice I would give is stick to Spanish and Italian grapes, our summers are brutal on the typical Bordeaux wines
Saglimbeni is 15 minutes tops from downtown and has a very nice selection. Prices are high, but everything is 20% off on the weekend to accommodate. The owner is a convicted sex offender if that matters.
Central Market is solid, but pricey.
Another vote for the Monterrey. They had Donnhoff visiting on Friday for a tasting.
I’ll second everything Durham and Webber said. I personally don’t shop at Saglimbeni for the reason John mentioned.
I cannot recommend any Texas wines. I’ve never been impressed by the ones I’ve had and one member of our small wine group is forever putting a Tx blind into our tastings.
I will be curious to see how prices in Texas compare to Oregon since I sell wine here. I seem to remember that Texas does have sales tax. That is something we don’t here in Oregon. I expect to find a few Oregon wines there.
Depending on the municipality, sales tax will be in the 8.75% range on wine.
Wine is relatively expensive in TX due to our 3 tier system. It was often cheaper to order from NY or CA and pay shipping than buy local. Too bad that is not a legal option for us anymore.