Evening With the Authors

by Celia Hayes

That was a wonderful time, although I didn't really get to meet any of the other authors. Readers of books and local supporters of the Eugene Clark library got to purchase books and talk to the authors, while sipping wine and nibbling on a scrumptious array of finger food, cheeses, sweets and whatever, provided and served by students from the Austin Community College Culinary Arts program. Each of us authors had a table with chairs around it, scattered through an artfully planned garden at the back of one of Lockhart's' stately ancestral mansions. Shade trees alternated with spaces of lawn, and pavilions trimmed with icicle lights – which sheltered the buffet line, the dessert table, the booth where wine…

Fun with Fruit Brewing Wine

Like many of these things that I am reluctant to do at first, but get talked into and eventually start having fun – getting into the home-brewing and cheese-making was my daughter's idea. Many months ago, I had noticed that storefront location in a local strip mall was now taken up by an enterprise called Home Brew Party. I was unwary enough to mention this to my daughter. At the next opportunity, she dragged me inside  . . .  and was promptly carried away by the possibilities of making home-brewed beer and wine.

A portion of one of her intermittently ginormous but infrequent paychecks went towards buying two equipment kits – one for wine, one for beer: a couple of…

Crush Me and Make Me Wine

I know, I know – the talk of Texas wine a couple of years ago would make people flash back to the Monty Python sketch about Australian wine - “Black Stump Bordeaux is rightly praised as a peppermint flavored Burgundy, whilst a good Sydney Syrup can rank with any of the world's best sugary wines….”

Australia has had the last laugh, and so does Texas; there is – if the shelves of the local grocery store are an indication - a thriving Texas wine industry. I’ve read that the Hill Country is about in the same place where the California wine-growing regions of Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino were, twenty-five years ago.

There were always immigrant settlers in Texas from…

The San Antonio New World Wine and Food Festival

The New World Wine and Food Festival held in San Antonio is a five day event. Its purpose is to not encourage dieting, but instead, encourage an over-indulgence in eating and fun. The goal is to help you discover new favorites and enjoy the old ones all in one weekend. The event is held at several locations throughout the course of the festival. You will be visiting an assortment of different locations.

Date: November 5th – 9th, 2008

About the Festival

The New World Wine and Food Festival has been established since 2000 and is a non-profit organization. It was designed showcase San Antonio as one of the premiere locations for great wine and food. The…

In this space, we have written before about the growing renown of the Texas wine industry, from the vineyards to the awards being granted to growers in the region.  Starting November 7th and running until the 11th, San Antonio is hosting the annual New World Wine and Food Festival.  Over the course of five days, visitors will be treated to the best wine and food that Texas has to offer. 

The festival has been going since 2000, and is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting, not only the agricultural delights of Texas, but the cultural life and vibrancy of San Antonio and the Texas Hill Country.  Of course, it is called the New World Festival, so it also includes foods and wines from other regions…

Created Wednesday, 18 July 2007 22:42

Texas is big, diverse, and home to an extraordinary amount of various businesses, foods, and production of all types of goods and services, but most people don’t think of Texas as being a major wine-producing part of the world. Well, pretty soon people just may have to start mentioning Texas in the same breath as France, California, Spain, and Italy. In fact, if the recent San Francisco International Wine Competition is any indication, South Texas wines may become the toast of the industry.

At the most recent competition, numerous vineyards from as near as the Hill Country to as far as East Texas, Lubbock and Galveston won medals in the competition while drawing rave reviews. But it really shouldn’t come as…