In the last several weeks I had time to taste several of the wines of three of the Northern Hemisphere's most unlikely wine regions - Texas, Virginia and England. Until recently the most popular image of drinking in Texas had us conjure up images of cowboys making their way to the bar, a gun on each hip, to order a glass of whiskey. The time has come to change that image, for ever since they started to appear in the late 1970s, the wines of Texas have surprised even the most serious of wine lovers by their high quality.

Because much of Texas is far too hot and humid to allow for the growing of high quality grapes, for many years no wine was produced there at all. About twenty-five years ago, however, it was found that two areas, the first known as "Austin Hills" and the other, in the west of Texas, known as "Staked Plains", have climate and soil conditions remarkably similar to those of the central valley of California. Located near the city of Lubbock, on a plateau nearly 1,200 meters high, Staked Plains has a cool, dry climate that seems well suited for raising Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, and it was from wineries in this region that I sampled several wines, many of which were very appealing.

Like all Texas wines, the Cabernet Sauvignon wines I tried are not meant for aging and should be drunk when quite young. Although they lack depth, they were fresh, rich, fruity in both aroma and taste, and extraordinarily refreshing. The Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc wines I sampled had each been aged in oak casks for between three and six months, and these were equally good. Not at all watery, the wines were balanced, and even though all had a striking character of ripe fruits and lemons, each also had its own personality. Interestingly, even though nearly all Texan winemakers are using the technology of California, most of the wines I tasted were closer in style to those of Australia than to those of California.

Texan wines can be tasted can be sampled at better restaurants in Dallas, Austin and Houston, and several have even been added to the wine lists of restaurants in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Restaurant prices for these wines vary between $8.00 to $15.00. The Texas wines I most highly recommend are those from the wineries of Staked Plains, Fall Creek, Pheasant Ridge, and Messina Hoff.

North to Virginia

At the same tasting, I also had the opportunity to sample several wines from the state of Virginia. The fact that a few wine growers have succeeded in raising high quality wine grapes in the hot, humid, hurricane prone climate of Virginia is as close to a miracle as one will find in the wine-growing world. Using modern agro-technology, however, a few local wineries are no actually producing surprisingly good dry Alsatian style Rieslings and light, fruity and well made Chardonnays. Wine stores throughout Virginia sell these wines, most of which cost between $6 - 10 per bottle and they are also popular in many of the restaurants of neighboring Washington. Although the red wines of the state are to be avoided, the whites of Chateau Morisette, Ingleside Plantation and Prince Michael wineries are worth trying.

Even Further North - To England

Despite the painful realities that England is at the northern limit of the zones were grapes will grow and that it always seems to rain during the harvest season, 1,200 English farmers and land owners continue to try to raise grapes for wine. Whatever their problems, the English are famous for persistance, and every few years it seems only polite to try their wines once again.

The most interesting of the white wines I tried recently were those made from the Seyval Blanc grape, a French hybrid that some say is ideal for English climate and soil conditions. The best of these remind me of young, dry Sauvignon Blanc. The Chardonnay wines I tried were fresh and pleasant but a bit too sour to be realy sophisticated; the white Muller-Thurgau wines were dull and too sweet; and the Pinot Blancs I sampled were simultaneously watery and too sour.

The English wine industry is a very small one, producing less than four million bottles annually but since 1987 the English Vineyard Association has been able to award special labels for "Quality Wines". Very few wines have qualified for those labels, and it will take a good deal to convince me that English wines will ever be anything more than light, flowery, slightly sour summer beverages which are best when one adds a shpritz of soda to them.

© Daniel Rogov