- Kiepersol Estates Winery owner Pierre de Wet.
Last month D web editor Jennifer Chininis and I went to the Tomato Festival in Jacksonville, Texas. Somewhere between the Tomato Eating Contest and the Tomato Fight, we bumped into Whit (Jeroboam, Green Room, Gypsy Tea Room) Meyers, now brand manager of Virtuoso Selections, and his buddy Karl Newman, another longtime Dallas wino and former rep for Prestige and Pioneer. The four of us decided to ditch the festival and head north to Kiepersol Estates Winery, just south of Tyler. We spent the rest of the hot afternoon inside the cool tasting room with wine maker Marnelle de Wet Durrett.
I fell in love with the 2007 Semillon (even though Whit suggested the wine had “heavy hints of honeydew melon”). The wine is soft and dry and compliments all of the Texas vegetables now in season. Kiepersol Estates wines are made from the grapes grown on the wineries sixty acres. (For those of you scoring at home that translates into 100% Texas grapes.) Owner Pierre de Wet gave us a mini-tour of the estate and some samplings from his private cellar.
Anywhoo, I tell you all of this because I am working on a larger story on Kiepersol and I am headed over to the winery tomorrow night for a big wine dinner and party. I think Whit is going to be there and if he is, you can be sure both of us will be twittering fools. Follow us @DSideDish.
