May 17th: Cooking Demo & Spring Dinner Events Featuring Chef Rosh – Click for Details & Tickets!

February 9th, 2025: Our Texas Wine Program

One of the great parts about making wine in Texas is the freedom we have to dictate what we want our wine program to be. There are few expectations put on us by the industry and consumers to only make wine from specific grape varieties in specific styles. This lets us play around with varieties and styles that best suit our palate and our vision for the future of Texas wine.

What does that mean for Kalasi Cellars’ winemaking program? As you may know, we only use estate-grown, Texas fruit (grapes). This means that we only make wine from grapes grown at our own vineyards. If we don’t grow it, we don’t make it. Here’s a summary of grape varieties we make into wine (though some other varietals will make a special appearance from time to time):

White Wine:

  • Malvasia Bianca: This is a staple of our program that we always try to produce each vintage. It’s a nice, crisp white wine for enjoying on its own or pairing with food.
  • Albariño: This is a wine we have now made two vintages of and have been very pleased with the results. It’s a great white wine to pair with food.
  • Sauvignon Blanc: We made a small amount of Sauvignon Blanc in 2024 as a trial run. I expect it to pop into our lineup from time to time.

Rosé Wine:

  • Sangiovese: This variety produces a nice, light rosé that is pretty flexible to enjoy on its own or with food. We love the pale blush color we can achieve with the wine, too. Our goal is for our rosés to have lighter bodies.

Red Wine:

  • Sangiovese: This is the perfect variety for pairing with Italian food, which we love.
  • Sagrantino: We love the big tannins and body that Sagrantino offers, and makes it an amazing food wine.
  • Teroldego: This is our signature red varietal. Our vineyard, Narra Vineyards, was the first to plant it in Texas, and we were the first to release a single variety of it. Over time we’ve evolved the style of Teroldego we make. It’s now a very refined, smooth wine that is absolutely beautiful.
  • Re d’ Italia (Italian Blend): This is a blend of Sangiovese, Sagrantino, and Teroldego. As we use 100% estate-grown fruit, and we sell grapes to a number of wineries across the state, it can be a challenge to pull this blend off.
  • Merlot: Merlots are absolutely beautiful wines, and we believe ours are no different. They are elegant and a touch lighter in body than many of our other red wines.
  • Malbec: Who doesn’t love Malbec? It makes a very approachable wine that is easy to enjoy. Malbec is also a great component in Bordeaux blends, and as a standalone varietal.
  • Petit Verdot: We’ve now bottled two Petit Verdots, with one being released to date. These are elegant, full bodied wines that we can never get enough of.
  • Carménère: Carménère is a fan favorite with a loyal following. It’s hard to find a single varietal and we’re thrilled when we can release one. Outside of its life as a single varietal, it works great in Bordeaux blends as it brings some pepperiness, along with raspberry and plum.
  • Cabernet Franc: Similar to Carménère, Cabernet Franc has some pepperiness. We are in love with our 2022 Cabernet Franc that has been bottled, but not released yet. This June we will participate in CabFranc-A-Palooza for a second time in Livermore, California. This is an amazing opportunity to taste through countless Cabernet Francs and talk with other producers. I’m sure over the years of participating in this event we’ll make some tweaks to our program based on what we learn from others.
  • Cabernet Sauvignon: We currently grow 8 clones of Cabernet Sauvignon. On the winemaking side we look to work with as many clones as possible. To date we’ve released clonal Cabernet Sauvignons from 3 different clones (8, 685, and 337) and expect to release a broader portfolio of clonal Cabernet Sauvignons in the future.
  • Tannat: We grow two clones of Tannat (Entav, Tablas Creek), with the Entav clone being the one we use for our winemaking program. These wines have a high level of tannins and go great with Texan cuisine.
  • Kanchi (Bordeaux Blend): This Bordeaux Blend changes by vintage, with two having been released to date, and a third coming shortly.
  • Raj Collection (Bordeaux Blend): This differs from the Kanchi in that it is always a Merlot dominant red blend – at least so far. Two vintages are in bottle, with one having been released to date. We think these are beautiful blends to enjoy with an amazing dinner.

While this is essentially the full program, it’s always a bit aspirational. We sell grapes to a number of other wineries and need to ensure everyone is successful. Sometimes one variety comes in a bit low, and we will forgo keeping a variety for ourselves so others can meet their needs. If you come into our tasting room, expect to see a selection of these wines on our menu. The menu always changes as we release new wines and run out of favorites. If you want access to our full portfolio, the best way is to join our wine club. Our smallest, most exclusive wines go to our amazing wine club first. Lastly, you can always check out our website to see what’s currently available and have it shipped to you.

Related Posts