“We can barely keep enough of them cold!” says manager William Croker.
The region to which German settlers first migrated in the mid-1880s is heavy with the picking;varietals like tannat,mourvedre and tempranillo grow lush along the 50-kilometre Fredericksburg Wine Road 290 between Johnson City and Fredericksburg in the state’s centre.
“They’re from the Mediterranean,so they suit this climate,” Crocker says. “It doesn’t really get cold enough around here at night[for cool-climate grapes].”
It’s a harvest that long predates the state’s Germanic heritage:North America’s first vines were planted by Franciscan priests circa 1682 on a stretch of the Rio Grande now incorporated into the Lone Star State.
German settlers,meanwhile,brought with them a culture that endures in the architecture,museums and place names characterising the region. Germany’s trademark beverage has triumphed,too:Fredericksburg celebrates Oktoberfest annually. Year round,visitors are permitted to imbibe beer (along with wine) while browsing shopfronts lining the charming Main Street or the galleries and antique shops crammed into the Warehouse District.
Heritage flavours have also prevailed in the town’s fare. German cuisine is explored in cooking classes offered at Fischer&Wieser’s Farmstead;the fruits of their vast peach orchard and district farms fortify the jellies and sauces sold at their farmstall,Das Peach Haus,built from the remains of log cabin built by German migrants in 1870. Hungry visitors throng Clear River Ice Cream and Bakery,where apple strudel and scoops of German chocolate cake ice-cream are on the menu. At Otto’s German Bistro,diners sip mosel riesling with their schnitzel and flammkuchen.
Beer flows,too,at Luckenbach,a nearby trading post founded by Texas-Germans in the mid-1800s. Everybody is somebody here,says a sign in the general store;it’s an easy achievement in a town with an official population of just three.