{"id":1964,"date":"2016-08-20T16:17:24","date_gmt":"2016-08-20T21:17:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecorkscrewconcierge.com\/?p=1964"},"modified":"2017-07-07T16:16:30","modified_gmt":"2017-07-07T21:16:30","slug":"messina-hof","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecorkscrewconcierge.com\/2016\/08\/messina-hof\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Harvest Fun at Messina Hof Winery"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I\u2019ve previously mentioned here<\/a> and here<\/a> I\u2019ve been visiting Texas wineries for years. Interestingly enough, I hadn\u2019t visited the Messina Hof Winery<\/a>, which is one of the largest and most well-known and is only about an hour and a half from my house. Go figure! For years I\u2019d read about their many harvest events and I\u2019ve actually had a couple of their wines (love the Port<\/a>), but just had never made it to the actual winery itself. Well that all changed when they invited me to participate in their Harvest Festival Bash which was an exclusive event for media and sponsors.<\/p>\n

Messina Hof is owned and managed by the Bonarrigo family, who planted their first vineyard in 1977 and created the 4th winery in the State of Texas. There are hundreds today. But even before setting up shop in Bryan, Texas, the Bonarrigo family had begun making wine in Sicily in the 1800s. In fact, the name of the winery is named after founders Paul & Merrill Bonarrigo\u2019s family origins of Messina, Sicily and Hof, Germany. I\u2019d always wondered what the origin of the name was and now I know! In addition to the flagship winery in Bryan, Texas, which is about an hour and half outside of Houston, Messina Hof also has locations in Fredericksburg in the Texas Hill Country as well as in Grapevine, which is in northern Texas outside of Dallas.<\/p>\n

So off we went (The Husband came to play too) to Bryan to enjoy the festivities. The grounds are quite extensive. In addition to the winery itself, there is a Villa Bed & Breakfast on the property which would be perfect for a romantic getaway. It\u2019s quite swanky and the villa\u2019s Great Room even features beautiful stained glass windows from The Louvre in Paris. The property also houses the wonderful Vintage House Restaurant.<\/p>\n

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We started off by whetting our palates with a glass of wine from their tasting room while we waited for the event to begin. I opted for their Sparkling Brut which is made from Blanc Du Bois and The\u00a0Husband started with with a glass of Tempranillo. As a huge fan of bubbly, I love that I’m seeing more and more sparkling wines from Texas winemakers.<\/p>\n

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The event in question was held in one of their barrel rooms which serves double duty of aging wines and acting as an event space.<\/p>\n

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The first official wine of the evening was the VERY new Sparkling Spumante made from Muscat Canelli.<\/p>\n

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This was the very first release of the wine and we were literally the first group to try it out as it was being released the next day. \u00a0It’s made in the Method Champenoise, which is the method of wine making in which French champagnes are made. Drinking it was almost a meal in and of itself. It was rich and creamy, with a hint of sweetness and had aromas and flavors of almond and fresh baked biscuits. Toasty, perhaps. This would make a great porch sipper.<\/p>\n

We then took a short tour outside where Paul\u00a0Bonarrigo explained a little bit about the harvest process and introduced us to the winery’s newest toy, an Italian grape press.<\/p>\n

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