Jimmie Vaughan, a blues legend

Owners Lisa and Stan Duchman (center and right) caught up with blues legend Jimmie Vaughan last week in Austin (photo by Jeff Courington).

With a smoking-hot new album and an international tour, Jimmie’s got a lot going on these days. But, somehow, he always finds time to share his music with his beloved Austin.

A living blues legend, he’s one of the things that makes this town great…

Cheers, Jimmie! We’re loving the music!

Upcoming events at the Duchman Family Winery

Our tasting room is open every day except Monday,
Tuesday-Friday 12 pm – 9 pm,
Saturday 11 am – 9 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m. – 8 p.m.

Please call (512) 858-1470 for more information.

Dripping with Taste Wine and Food Festival
Dripping Springs, Texas
Saturday, September 11, 2010
12-7 p.m.

Adults: $25 ($30 at the gate)
Ages 6-20 (no wine included): $5
(Free admission for ages 5 & under.)

Movie in the Vineyard
featuring
Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita (1960)

Duchman Family Winery Vineyard
Driftwood, Texas
Friday, September 24, 2010
Gates open at 8:00 p.m.
Movie starts at 8:30 p.m.

Please bring your favorite blanket or folding chair and join us.
Wine and cheese available for sale through the tasting room.
No pets, outside food or drink allowed.

Duchman Family Winery
13308 FM 150 W
Driftwood, TX 78619-9274
(512) 858-1470

Click here for directions.

Scenes from the 2010 Texas harvest

That’s winemaker Dave Reilly with the Orange Muscat grapes that arrived today. The staff has been working literally around-the-clock to press the grapes as they arrive in the winery on refrigerated trucks.

Laboratory specialist Rachel Hughes is on call at all times to test the pH and brix levels of the wine must as the grapes are pressed. When not in the lab, she helps out by making lunch for the staff, many of whom have been sleeping over at the winery on cots.

Today: grilled salmon burgers (fresh salmon ground with Hatch chiles and bell peppers).

Being a winemaker isn’t always the most glamorous profession in the world! ;-)

The staff is tired but still working hard, morale is high, and Ben Harper was on the jukebox this afternoon…

Winemaker Dave Reilly: “When you support Texas wine, you support Texas agriculture.”

Above, from left: Winemaker Mark Penna, owner Stan Duchman, and winemaker Dave Reilly, who was featured in a recent profile of the winery in Country World magazine.

“The grapes are doing well this year, both in Driftwood and on the South Plains,” wrote central Texas journalist Clay Coppedge in the latest edition of Country World Magazine, “and the [Duchman Family] winery has drawn notice in the marketplace through its strong showing at the San Francisco International Wine Festival. Duchman’s 2008 Texas Dolcetto wine was awarded a double gold medal and two other wines received silver medals.”

For winemaker Dave Reilly, wrote Coppedge, “the awards are not only a validation of the Duchman Family Winery wines, but of Texas wines in general. ‘People in Texas have every reason to support their Texas wines’ [said Reilly]. ‘Wine labels are tricky enough anyway, but some say things like For Sale in Texas Only and people think it’s a Texas wine when it’s not. When you support Texas wine, you support Texas agriculture. That’s a big part of what we want to do here.’”

The Duchman Family Winery is a proud member of the central Texas farming community.

Click here to download the entire article.

In other news…

The Duchman Family Winery will be participating in the Wimberley Wedding Expo at the Wimberley Community Center.

Wimberley Wedding Expo
Saturday, August 28, 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Wimberley Community Center
14068 Ranch Road 12
Wimberley, Texas

For more info, please call (512) 847-2510.

The Duchman Family Winery will be contributing a wine basket with a selection of our wines for the door prize drawing.

To book your wedding or event at the Duchman Family Winery, please call Events Manager Paula Rester
at (512) 858-1470, ext. 107.

HEB reaches out to community with locally sourced products

Above: HEB Dripping Springs manager Frank Chaney (left) took time out the other day to pose for the D’Amore Wine Selections blog with our president Julio Hernández.

When the new HEB Supermarket was slated to open in Dripping Springs, TX in the Texas Hill Country, the local community reached out to its management.

“They wanted us to carry locally sourced products,” said manager and wine buyer Frank Chaney (above) who has worked with the company for 11 years.

Today, the brand new store (opened July 23, 2010), carries a wide variety of locally sourced food products: cheese, produce, teas, waters, honey, said Frank when we visited with him. And, of course, wines.

D’Amore is proud to announce that the Duchman Family wines are now offered by HEB as part of their “local wines department.”

Whole Foods Market to carry Duchman Family wines

We’re proud to announce that Duchman Family wines will be available for shoppers at Whole Foods Market beginning this fall.

Here’s what one of the most respected wine buyers in the country, Devon Broglie, Specialty Coordinator for the South West Region for Whole Foods Market, had to say about our wines:

I like the Duchman Family Winery wines, because they represent style and innovation in the Texas wine industry. I like how they’ve embraced experimentation and instead of planting Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, they’ve hung their hat on Italian varieties.

The Duchman Family Winery is proud to be a part of the team at Whole Foods Market, a Texas original that changed the way Americans think about and shop for food.

Click here to read a profile of Devon and the story behind his journey to becoming one of the most respected wine professionals in the country.

A new look for Duchman Family Winery

We have our new road signs in place. Our entryway is still in the same place on FM 150 in Driftwood. Make sure you stop in a try our newly released Duchman Family Wines!

Movie in the Vineyard, Thursday July 15, 9 pm

Movie in the Vineyard

When: Thurs., July 15, 9 pm
Where: The vineyard at the Duchman Family Winery
Movie: A Good Year, with Russell Crowe
Price of admission: FREE!

For more info, please call: (512) 858-1470.

Let’s keep our fingers crossed that we have clear skies for this months Movie in the Vineyard!

Join the staff at the Duchman Family Winery for one of our favorite summer events, Movie in the Vineyard: a screening of Hollywood classics on the grounds of our estate in Driftwood, Texas Hill Country (click here for location and directions).

And before you settle in for a screening under the beautiful Texas night sky, please visit our tasting room to pick up a bottle (or two) of our award-winning wine and gourmet cheeses and charcuterie. Please bring your favorite blankets and lawn chairs.

This week’s featured wine is our 2008 Dolcetto, which just won the Double Gold Medal at the prestigious San Francisco International Wine Competition (click here to read more).

Happy 4th of July from Duchman Family Winery

We wish all of you a very happy and fun-filled 4th of July this weekend! Please come visit us at the newly christened Duchman Family Winery this weekend. We will be open on Sunday, July 4th from 11-9 p.m. and Monday, July 5th from 12-6 p.m. in the Tasting Room, so please come out and try a selection of the 7 new white wines we released this Independence Day weekend!

We have a new name and a new label!

We are proud to announce the release of our new wines and new label, the Duchman Family Winery!

Our award-winning wines are still produced by winemakers Dave Reilly and Mark Penna and our tasting room is still managed by the same friendly staff. But we have a new logo, a new look, and a new name.