A decade ago, we struck a blow for Drink Local
Shelly Wilfong, a well respected Dallas wine writer, sent me an email over the weekend: “Sounds like a neat gig you had doing the wine chats.”
Which brought back a bunch of memories that I had almost forgotten about — the five autumns that John Bratcher and I did wine talks at the State Fair of Texas wine garden. The first couple of years, we did Wine 101 (first, with the late Camille McBee, and then with Dan Peabody). The next three years, we did interviews with Texas winemakers, sommeliers, chefs, and assorted local wine personalities. I always compared it to a mini-talk show, minus the monologue but with a terrific theme song.
Shelly does a fine job recapping what happened, including the Texas Legislature’s foolishness that ended the wine talks (which, as dumb as it was, doesn’t hold a candle to its power grid shenanigans). She was also quite polite when I sent her a longish e-mail in return, with more information about the talks then she could have imagined.
We did good work, and people still ask me if John and I are going to do it again. So what do I remember the most?
• The enthusiasm of the audiences. Really. We actually had people come early, and especially when we did the interviews. They wanted to know about Texas wine, and this was one of the few places to get it then.
• The enthusiasm of the people we interviewed. We had some big names (including Dean Fearing, a leading celebrity chef, and TexSom impresario James Tidwell) and I didn’t have to do much to convince them to come. Which speaks volumes about how important they thought Texas wine was.
• The crowds during Texas-OU weekend, which came for the football game but ended up attending many of the talks. Our location had chairs, beer for sale, and was next to the Cotton Bowl, where the game was played. The result? I tell people I never had to deal with hecklers in the Catskills; John and I had drunks during Texas-OU weekend.