Winery Tour & Tasting- Becker Vineyards

My family owns ranch out in the hill country of Texas and about 45 minutes aways is Fredricksberg, a town rich with german history and a thriving vineyard and wine making market! With over 20 vineyards and close to 25 more coming to the area within the next year, there is no shortage of tastings and tours. Becker Vineyards is producing wine out of the small vacation spot and with a great atmosphere it is a fun place spend the afternoon after a little shopping in town! Having been there before with her girlfriends, my mom was so excited to take my dad and I!

The Becker Family bought the land and a small cabin back in 1990. A few years later they would bring out some specialist and find out creating a vineyard was possible with their soil. 

There is about 56 acres of grapes grown at Becker, ranging from Syrah, Petit Sirah, Malbec, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignons, Sangiouveses and Merlot.

Along with the countless rows of vines, lavender is also gardened on the property. 

Starting our tour and we learn that only 10% of Becker wine grapes actually come from the vineyard where we were. The vast majority is grown outside of Lubbock, Texas. 

*Ice built up on the tank*

The production has three different tank rooms with their largest tanks hold 4500 gallons! 

Becker wines are all barreled, whites in french oak barrels for 8 to 12 months and red in American oak for 12 to 24 months. Each barrel is only used twice and then sold. Some barrels are toped with clear heads to allow the winery's visitors to look and check out what goes on during the fermentation process. 

Once fermented the wines are bottled and labeled in house. Around 1.14 million bottles are produced a year with machines going as fast as 3600 bottles an hour... Our guide, who has also bottled in his time with the winery said that is pretty much impossible though! Once bottled and labels the bottles are placed in cases to be shipped off. I do need to note all the the buildings on the tour are kept pretty chilly!

Following the tour we did the tasting, each being able to try 6 wines and one complimentary! The complimentary of the day was a '15 Roussanne Reserve and turned out to be my favorite and the bottle I would end up purchasing to take home! I then tasted the '15 White Wing, a blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon, and finishing out the white dry section a '15 Prairie Cuvee, a blend of Marsanne and Roussane. Next, I tried a dry rose which was a '16 Jolie Rose and very fruity! I went on to the dry red section of the menu and went with a '13 Cabernet Sauvignon and my dad's favorite a '14 Prairie Rotie, a blend of Syrah, Grenache and Mourvedre. Lastly was the sweet whites where I took a leap and did the orange '12 Clemtine which is a late harvest, almost raisin like when picked, Sauvignon Blanc. Lets just say it was like drinking water and a bunch of sugar it was so unbelievably sweet!! 

After the tasting we each had a glass of one of our favorites from the tasting and enjoyed it on the winery's patio with good conversation and plenty of laughs! We also went home with our glasses and two bottles. This trip was so fun snd made me so excited to travel to more vineyards!