Dry Comal Creek Vineyard & Winery

This winery is listed in: Central Texas Wineries

Dry Comal Creek Vineyard & Winery
1742 Herbelin Rd.
New Braunfels, TX 78132
(830) 885-4076
Website: www.drycomalcreek.com

Upcoming Events:

“Order of the Purple Foot” 6^th Annual Grape Stomp (posted 7/24/2008)

Winery U!

Our review

Dry Comal Creek Vineyard & Winery is located outside New Braunfels just off Texas State Highway 46. Dry Comal Creek was founded in 1998 by Franklin D. Houser. Like many of the folks in the Texas wine industry, Franklin left a successful career as a lawyer to pursue his dream of making wine.

Also like most Texas vintners, he has had his share of hard times. Just after planting 4,000 vines in 1996, Dry Comal Creek turned wet in 1998, flooding the vineyard that was in a flood plane. Following the flood of ’98, Dry Comal Creek was struck by Pierce’s disease which destroyed almost all of the vines. Not to be deterred, in 2000 Franklin replanted the vineyard with Norton (a grape cultivar possibly derived from Vitis aestivalis) and Spanish Black (Vitis labrusca). Both Norton and Spanish Black are resistant to Pierce’s disease.

The day we stopped in to visit Dry Comal Creek vineyard, they were pouring 12 different wines, but only two wines were made from 100% Texas grapes, the 2006 Spanish Black ($29.99) and the 1096 Port ($75.00). The ’06 Spanish Black is dark violet in color with a dark fruit driven nose. In the mouth, the wine is somewhat soft with relatively low acid. If you are not familiar with wines made from Spanish Black grapes (also called Lenior), you should give this wine a try. The combination of mouth feel and flavors is very interesting, and some people just love it.

The 1096 Port is very popular and is frequently sold out at the winery. The port is extremely dark with lots of dried fruit aromas. In the glass, the port is strong with a rich mouth feel.

The rest of the wines available when we visited were made from grapes from all over. Mr. House says that all his wines are “Texas style”. He defines Texas Style as fruit forward wines without an abundance of tannins, and his wines reflect his thoughts on the subject. We liked his ’07 Orange Muscat ($17.99), his Foot Pressed Red ($12.99), and his ’06 Syrah/Shiraz ($23.99).

If you happen to be down on the Guadalupe River, stop in and see the good folks at Dry Comal Creek. They will be happy to see you.