Alex Lee - Assistant Wine Maker talks about the 2018 White Zinfandel and Vit | ep 22

Kiepersol Texas Podcast

Alex Lee - Assistant Wine Maker talks about the 2018 White Zinfandel and Vit ep 22 | Kiperersol Texas Podcast

Today we are joined by Alex Lee, the Assistant Wine Maker at Kiepersol. Alex has worked within the company for over 6 years now, starting off in the Restaurant at Kiepersol, then the Tasting Room Manager for the Winery and has been in the winery production facility for the last couple of years.

White Zinfandel is considered a "blush wine", which comes from the Red Zinfandel grapes, but is made like it's a rosé. "Blush" will almost always refer to a sweeter wine, while "Rosé" can actually be sweet or dry. This 2018 Kiepersol White Zinfandel has some strawberry-kiwi notes to it and is very juicy! This will be perfect for summer and nice lighter meals will be enhanced by pairing this wine with it.

2018 Kiepersol Vit (meaning "white" in Afrikaans) is a proprietary blend, which stylistically achieves the same goal in flavor, based on what the grapes taste like in that vintage. So it's not really possible to give the exact grape blend, as it changes from vintage to vintage, to achieve a Riesling style, semi-sweet wine. This 2018 Kiepersol Vit is very fresh, crisp, semi-sweet and pairs well with spicy food or even fatty meat cuts or can be enjoyed all by itself!

Alex recently spent some time in Napa Valley, California doing some research and was able to compare Texas Wine to Napa Valley. Alex's takeaway from his visit is that Texas Wine, specifically Kiepersol Wine, has a lot more "comfort" compared to Napa Valley Wines, while still highlighting the Texas terroir. Napa wines typically are very bold and beefy, but very different.

Texas is one of the fasted grape growing and winemaking regions in the nation. Kiepersol has been in business since 1999, making this our 20th year and we were the 34th bonded winery (since prohibition). There are now over 350 active wineries in Texas! Texas wine not only offers that comfort, but we have wine unlike any other region in the world. Alex recommends anyone interested in wine tasting really needs to experience Texas Wines.

Alex is a big fan of Port Wine and has been trying different Texas Port wines, other than Kiepersol's. He really likes Haak Vineyards & Winery Port. Alex likes Messina Hof Winery, William Chris Vineyards and a lot of other great wineries set up in Fredricksburg, Texas. One of our East Texas neighbors Los Pinos Ranch Vineyards - Pittsburg, TX just opened up a location down Fredricksburg area, which is exciting for the Texas Wine world! Alex talks about how Kiepersol embraces "competition" in our backyard, because it's more about the community growing together, rather than tearing each other down. We want people to have a great experience when they try Texas wine. By having more wineries show up, we will encourage each other to make a bottle of better wine, every vintage, every style, every time!

We look forward to having Alex back on the podcast to go more in-depth with some other wines and geek out over wine!

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