When I first heard that someone had started a winery in my old home town, I was skeptical to say the least. Surely any wine scavenged from grapes grown in the hot humid climate of East Texas was bounded to be cheap and terrible tasting…..

Yet, I was wrong (shocking, I know!)

The wines produced by Kiepersol Estates are first class wines with a smooth, oaky favor that does justice to old craft. Especially their “2007 Kiepersol Estates Syrah” – wow..that was a good bottle!

Sadly enough, I didn’t really care for their Cabernet Sauvignon….mostly because it was a tad too oaky – which was due to the wine being aged in America Oak barrels. However, I was impressed that all their wines are brewed to be aged five or six years – a striking statistic as most commercial wines are make to last one or two years max.

The third wine I tastes was their “2007 Vitzin Rosé.” This was also a very good wine, abet one that is not really my style (I tend to stay with the dry reds), but it did have a nice favor.

The one wine that was way, way too sweet for me was their “Three Barrel Reserve” Port. Boy, it was sweet enough to rot your teeth off before it hit the back of your throat!

Besides tasting the wines, the other reason I had to eat some crow was the tour. We had a wonderful guide who walked us through the entire wine brewing process at Kiepersol Estates. This includes sourcing the right materials and equipment, such as looking to buy used wine barrels California to help with the wine-making and aging process. He was open and honest about the challenges of growing a vineyard in East Texas while educating us on how these challenges have been overcome (granted, the tour lasted twice as long due to questions from my bother and me…much to the demise of the other guests).

So if you are in the area and need a break from life, drive on over to Kiepersol Estates, grab a glass of wine and sit down on their glorious back patio and watch the sun set over the Texas horizon. You won’t regret it.