I had dinner in a Salisbury, Maryland restaurant where I asked for a local wine. There is a winery just a few miles from the restaurant. The waiter returned with a list of California wines. Three thousand miles isn’t exactly local. One of the challenges of the drink local wine movement is getting local wines into restaurants and having customers order them.

An idea suggested by Hunter Hammett, sommelier at the Fairmont Hotel, was to delete the Texas page from the menu and integrate it into the rest of the menu. He told the attendees that people at the restaurant would turn past the Texas page on the menu. He focuses on the grape varietal not where the wine was produced. His restaurant has 25 Texas wines on the list and sells them by the glass giving patrons an opportunity to taste Texas wines.

Gil Kulers, a chef who writes for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, mentioned that Atlanta restaurants are resistant to local wine, even though they readily accept local food. Restaurateurs are concerned that if they have dinners that feature local wines, they may not be able to sell out.

Doug Caskey, Colorado Wine Industry Development Board, stated that some restaurants in Denver are beginning to offer Colorado wine, beer and spirits on list. It takes time to change the mind set. For example, the idea that when in Aspen visitors want to drink wine from the great world wine regions needs to change to when in Aspen visitors should have the opportunity to experience the taste of the place.

The panel put forth that consumers might very well have a double standard. If they travel to France, they want to experience local wine and food. However, if many of the same people travel to Texas they do not have the same interest in experiencing local food and wine.

What do you think?

Texas has 177 wineries and is the fifth largest wine producing state in the country. As the number of wineries steadily grows, so do the acres of vineyards. Although the modern wine industry started in the early 1970’s, a tremendous growth in the Texas wine industry has occurred during the last decade. Some of the current trends include: the agri-tourism movement, the Texas Department of Agriculture’s support of the wine industry, a greater emphasis on quality of Texas wines, wine and food tours of a Texas region and the thirst for more wine education by consumers.

Mary Kimbrough, Food Roots a Culinary Tourism company, pointed out that people would like deeper access to the wine experts. People are looking forward to extend their wine education. The best place to acquire this education as well as the wine experts is at the local wineries.

John Griffin, SavorSA, discussed the importance of the drink local wine movement that is occurring in restaurants. John also pointed out that grocery stores are not on board with the drink local movement. However Chesley Sanders mentioned that some grocery stores are discovering that local wine shops are making money by selling Texas wines. He believes that market pressure will eventually force grocery stores to sell more Texas wine.

Wes Marshall, Appellation America, gave a historical perspective. He mentioned that Robert Mondavi in the 1960’s had to educate people about California wines. Wes believes that Texas has to do the same. “We need to educate people about local wines.” Chesley Sanders, Lone Star Wines, seconded the importance to inform the consumers. He would pour Texas wines without telling people that it was a Texas wine. Chesley also pointed out that Texans are a proud people. They are proud to drink Texan wine and then find out that it is good and will drink more.

Texas has a promising future for its wine industry. More and more people are aware of Texas wines and the drink local wine movement is becoming more popular.