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Truly Significant Texans honors Nolan Newsom, Newsom Vineyards · GO TEXAN THE Truly Significant

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: He hot in Texas, found across the sea.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: Ride. It's how we look at risk.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: It is honestly boots, it's what we're wearing. Horses.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we may ride for him. It is so rewarding.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Branch should we do with bride and we's a sun save.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: What's left is just and dene. It's done.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: What you go say, it's.
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: Done, true sign.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: And welcome back to truly significant Texans. I'm rich tokeeny.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: We have a wonderful guest on this morning, and it
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: is Nolan Newsome of the Newsome Vineyards here in Texas.
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: We honored his dad, Neil at the recent Texas.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: Wine and Great Growers' Association convention, and we are so
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: glad to have the very busy Nolan on today to
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: talk about his enterprise and ask him all these deep
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: philosophical questions about grapes and wine and work and life.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: Welcome, sir, good morning, and thank you, Yes sir, yes sir.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: I'm glad that we've connected. I know that you were busy,
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: and there's lots of seasons that go with your industry,
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: so nice to have you on. I'm going to ask
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: you some questions that you know the answers to but
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: you haven't seen the questions, so this will be kind
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: of fun to see to get your reaction. Okay, sure
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: for starters, tell us about where you were born and
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: what it's like to be a part of a newsome
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: enterprise that is multi generational.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: Well, I was born in Lubboock, raised in Plains, Texas,
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: and the first vineyards were planted the year I was born,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: forty years ago, so I can conveniently keep track, so
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: that makes that part easy. But grew up in the vineyards,
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: of course, we also had cotton fields and farmland, so
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: I was on the tractor at five years old or
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: as spray rig one or the other. So I grew
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: up in the you know, in the industry somewhat. But
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: it wasn't just vineyards for us when we started out.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: It was all kinds of agriculture. That was just one
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: of the other crops.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, Now I understand that it was at some point
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: your dad planned in three acres of Cabernet sauvignon on
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: what he described as very challenging land. Correct tell us
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: what that challenging land was.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: Always almost no top soil, very rocky, So it's absolutely
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: terrible farmland. Couldn't even get cotton to grow on it,
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: if that tells you how bad it is. So it
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: was an alfalfa patch because you didn't have to plow alfalfa.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: All you do is run the combine across it and
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: bail the hay. So that was about the only thing
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: that that was good for which low vigor, well drained
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: soils or what grapes need. So we've come to figure
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: out that you know, the worst, the worst farmland will
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: give you the highest quality fruit because the vine understress
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: gives you something better in the press.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: Mmmm. That's amazing.
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: Row and Nolan, here's relative to the land.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: I know that you grew up in the company and
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: you started at five, but there's something that was missing
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: from your dad's interview in question is tell us what
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: vineyard life is about.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: Well, vineyard life, it definitely is seasonal. The vineyards. You start,
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: at least at our place, we start with pruning around
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: Valentine's So you start hiring all the farm hands in February,
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: and you know for pruning. Of course, at this point
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: we have one hundred and sixty acres of wine grapes,
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: so to prune that many grapes. It's thirty plus people,
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: which in our part of the world. You know, labor
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: is an issue, especially nowadays with immigration and things going
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: the way they are. It's hard to find extra warm
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: bodies that the season of workers that used to come through.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: But start pruning in February and by the time you're
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: done pruning, it's the end of May or June, and
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: you keep maybe ten or twelve people which planting. If
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: you're planting, anything new happen in around April, you know,
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: bud break so into April early May. Otherwise it's just
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: a maintenance on the vines because they have green shoots
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: coming out from the bottoms of the trunks called suckers,
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: So you're always desuckering and tying things up that are
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: trying to fall apart, fixing broken wires, things of that nature.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: It's your general maintenance and spraying whatever needs done. You know,
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: we spray on the day that it rains. That's not
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: really a joke out in the desert. I think last
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: year we had two and a half inches of rain,
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: so we might have sprayed three times. And once we're
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: once or twice, we're foll your feeds.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: It wasn't for fungicide. Oh my gosh. Of course we
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: had years that it's wet and we'll be spraying every
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: couple of weeks. But again it's Texas. You don't like
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: the weather. Wait five minutes, it'll change.
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: That's ry, that's right.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: And then when Hart rolls around, you know, starting about
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: the middle of August. Typically on the Whites, at least,
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: we harvest at night so everything is cooler. So we
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: start about nine pm because as soon as the grape
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: comes off of the grapevine, it will start fermenting from
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: the natural yeast and the vineyard, and most winemakers want
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: to get it to the winery so they can get
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: their certain strains in that kind of keep some of
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: the funkiness out on your wine making. So we start
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: at nine PM. So ideally the semi truck is full
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: by midnight, because we can harvest an acre per hour
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: or a semi truck in about three to four hours.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: So when that truck, refrigerated semi leaves the vineyard, it
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: gets to the winery ideally about seven eight am here
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: in the hill country, so they can start processing the
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: fruit or doing whatever they need to do. Right at daybreak,
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: when it's the coolest time of the day at the winery.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: So we do our best to eat quality on both
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: ends when the industry is three hundred and fifty four
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: hundred miles apart for the most part.
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, when did you discover that that harvesting
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: starting at night was the way to go?
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: Oh they've known that for millions of years.
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: So history has informed you about window harvest whites.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: Well, all grapes. Just it's the harvesting at night when
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: it was done by hand, was not very easy. So
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: you had to do it at the coolest parts of
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: the day, which was either early morning or evening. You
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: didn't do it in the middle of the day, right exactly,
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: and they'd be having their grape stomps and partying in
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: the middle of the day.
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: And speaking of that, you've got this.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: Annual event called the Newsome Grape Day that brings growers
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: and winemakers together. I got a sense from you and
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: your dad that educating the general public is a big
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: part of running the enterprise.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: Tell me about that, well, the industry as a whole. Absolutely.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: The first Newsom Vineyards Grape Day I can remember, because
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: I was barely tall enough to see over the table,
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: and my grandmother cooked a brisket in the oven and
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: all twelve people that attended could fit around her dining table.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: Of course, some of the people that were there are
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: titans of the industry that no longer around even anymore.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: Doc McPherson, doctor Bill Lpe from A and M Extension Service,
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: some of these people that helped get the industry going
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: in the first place. That was kind of where it started.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: In the proper region for growing wine grapes for the
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: best quality at least is the Texas High Planes. So
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: with the Newsom Vineyards Grape Day, I think there are
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: fifty six growers, fifty six of us up on the
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: high plains that represent sixty five or seventy percent of
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: all the wine grapes in Texas. So that's not very
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: many people.
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: It's a very tight family. You had Doc McPherson and
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: doctor Bill Lyt around your table. It's almost like you
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: had the forgive me God for saying this, the disciples
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: of Texas wine making.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's I mean, that's I don't remember who said
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: it before, but we all stand on the titans that
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: you know, stand on the shoulders of the titans that
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: came before us. That's everybody always thinks I'm very knowledgeable
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: and well in foreigned, and I'm like, I don't know
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: about that. I know people that have forgotten more than
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: I'll ever know.
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well said, Well said, So how do you define
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: success today relative to the very best harvest year that
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: you ever experienced at Newsome Vineyards?
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: Well, I guess that's got two different answers to it.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: So for the vineyard, it's agriculture, and that end of
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: things is based on tonnage. So if you can make
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: more tons, that would be a good year for the farm,
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: but it may not be the best quality year for
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: the winery, which is kind of backwards thinking. So these
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: years when the vineyard doesn't do as well, the wine
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: quality tends to be higher because of the stress on
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: the vines, is better in production. So that's why that's
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: got two different answers. So the best year that Newsom
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: Vineyards ever had was twenty seventeen. That was the cinder
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: really year for Texas on production. You know, every Texas
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: had a bumper crop across the state. No late freezes
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: or halstorms that tend to prune things down. Early freezes,
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: so the climate and the weather just happened to work
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: out that year. Timing on rainfall was perfect. So that
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: year at the vineyard we made four hundred and forty
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: four tons of fruitsh Man, I'm sitting here trying to
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: do the math real quick.
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: Four hundred and forty tons. I'm going to have to
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: look back on twenty seventeen at the meteorological history there
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: to figure out what had happened in the pattern of
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: great pattern of weather.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: That was actually the in between year like it's supposed
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: to to be this year of the El Nino and Lonina.
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: Yep, yep. That's what I was thinking, and what where
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: were we relative to that.
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: Hopefully this year will be a good year. We'll see
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: it's every seven to ten years. It's about time.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: It runs cyclically, doesn't it.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: It absolutely does. It's based on El Nino and Lannino,
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: which is part of the tawar the weather that we
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: deal with. So the last couple of years kind of
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: answering that question. So at twenty seventeen in our vineyards
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: we made the equivalent of twenty seven thousand cases of
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: wine grief and that's so we sell wine grapes to
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: twenty eight different wineries, so that was a really good
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: year for Texas production across the board. And then we
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: had a late freeze after harvest at the end of
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: October at Halloween night, so the vines were still green,
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: and we got a hard freeze Halloween night that popped everything,
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: including a lot of the wood, down to the ground.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: So twenty eighteen and twenty nineteen were rebuilding years, or
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: we only made thirty percent of a crop, so we
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: went from having some of the best years ever to
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: some of the worst short order. Twenty twenty was more
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: of a normal production year. We made sixty percent of
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: a crop. So twenty twenty and twenty twenty one where
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: I think some of the better quality years that we've
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: had come out of the vineyard now that I'm on
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: the wine production end of things, But in twenty twenty
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: and twenty twenty one, there was only about a half
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: inch of rain for the entire year in the vineyard,
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: so the vines are getting all kinds of drought stress,
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: and even turning on the irrigation, you can't get enough
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: water to them. So that leads to different challenges on
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: the wine side, and it's making the same wine twice
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: in Texas that is almost an impossibility. So when somebody
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: learns how to make wine from other regions of the
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: world that have a more moderate, ocean regulated or Mediterranean climate,
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: they have one off year and twenty and all they
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: do is cry about it. We're in Texas. I can
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: make the same wine twice in ten years. There's one
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: really good year. In one or two years, it's one
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: hundred percent loss. So making wine from fruit that is
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: that different across ten years is the challenge. Of course,
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: it's also part of the fun because you're it's always
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: hold my beer and watch this.
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh. Talk about if you compare that your
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: enterprise to other businesses, you've got the least predictability and
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: making something twice every ten years. Can you imagine if
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: if you were an automobile maker, Well, I can only
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: make this tesla the same every ten years, what kind
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: of business would that be?
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: Well' why it's going to be. I don't know if
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: Texas Wine will ever make it into distribution. You know,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: it's always a hand sell because it's always different.
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's as unique as the last batch.
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: And that's what being in distribution people don't want. And
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: that's something very hard to do. Of course, wineries can
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: self distribute, but Texas wine is more expensive to produce
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: across the board, so we will never be able to
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: compete against a distribution wine no matter what we do,
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: and Texas other than quality. So that's why quality of
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: Texas wine I think has come a long way since
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: I grew up, at least in the industry, because quality
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: for price point a wine comparable Let's say from California,
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: you have to go to the back of to find
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: comparable to news and vineyards. You have to go all
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: the way back to Calistoga in Napa Valley, and you're
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: paying ninety to one hundred and seventy dollars a bottle
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: for wines made to the same protocols that I use,
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: to the same quality. So the stuff that's in distribution
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: is probably not as good as what we can do
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: in Texas at least, So we've got to have better
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: quality because we have a higher price point.
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: No matter what the common elements from season to season,
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: what are they besides God, the sun, the a little
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: bit of rain, and then how you amend the soil
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: or don't and then water Texas water. What are the
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: other common elements that would bring about a twice every
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: ten year batch.
• 16:58
  Speaker 4: Well.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: Being Texas, it's a coal front. The only thing between
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: US and Canada is to barble our fence to slow
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: those down, so they come through pretty quick. And everybody
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: always asks like, well, why don't you do the firepots
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: like they do in France. I'm like, well, that's for
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: a frost, not a coal front, and they go, what
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: does that mean? Like seventy mile an hour windin'd burn
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: down the whole county. It's not much you can do
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: to stop that. And when you have one hundred and
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: sixty acres of grapes to cover, that'd be a whole
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: lot of things to burn. So the flips out of
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: that you couldn't afford to ford it if you wanted to.
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: It's almost ridiculous as someone would say that because they
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: say it without knowing what the hot lanes is, Like,
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: why would.
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: You think everybody's seen the movie? Everybody thinks they know
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: more than we do. That's kind of a normal thing.
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and they don't you sell to twenty eight wineries
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: over the course of your lifetime, have you have has
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: your intention changed? Because you are a great grower and
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: a wine producer. So you've got this abundance mentality of
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: let's get more partnerships and collaborations.
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: Well, we were farmers first, so the wine end of
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: things has kind of been my project.
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: Okay for me.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: I had a bad car accident thirteen fourteen years ago now,
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: so the manu labor thing on the farm was kind
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: of out for me. So I started making some of
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: the first wines for the Newsom label, and that was
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: how I decided I was going to try and stay
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: in the industry. Because even the easiest job on a
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: farm driving tractor, after five or six hours of bouncing around,
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: I'd be sick for a day or two. Oh my gosh,
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: so at least leaving to do something else. So I
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: started working for chef friends in Loveook and making some
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: of the wines so I could stand and still and
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: still be productive and do things I enjoyed. And the
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: tasting room is fun because that's the education side of
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: the industry. You always get to meet new people, and
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: I think they're awful surprised when they come into the
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: tasting room and comfort and start wandering around and looking
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: at pictures and things, and they'll be like, wait, is
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: that your picture on the wall. Yeah, I just work here,
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: still trying to figure out how to get fired. But
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: even ten years into the tasting room here, I'm up
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: to using one percent of Newsom vinyards production, maybe two,
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: So we'll call that seven or eight hundred cases of
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: that twenty eight thousand the vineyard produced on its best year,
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, which is still quite a bit of wine.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: That's more than you can drink your way out of that.
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: Can I ask you about your car accident?
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: Oh sure, yeah, let's head on going down the highway.
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: I don't recommend it. So I proceeded to have twenty
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: seven surgeries over the next couple of years to put
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: Humpty dumpty back together. How are you doing today, It's
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: another day in Paradise.
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: Well, there's maybe there's.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: I do just fine. I mean, I don't care for
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: coal front days, but I can't fix that. It is Texas.
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: Otherwise I can. When I do have labor and things
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: to do, I can at least do them at my
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: own speed and my own time, being self employed.
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: Nolan, you stowed the words right out of my mouth.
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: I was going to ask you about if you're affected
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: by cold fronts and do your bones feel it or
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: your back or I.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: Have more titanium than the space shuttle. It's the titanium
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: and stuff where you're Your bones don't expand and contract
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: at the same rates as those, so that's why you
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: feel it.
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: M On the other hand, though, it's a bit of
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: an inflection point for your life and what you're doing now,
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: and as we age, it's not intended for us to
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: go out and do all that hard work. We got
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: to be hopefully graduating to something else, So trying to
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: put a positive spin on it, maybe it was just
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: a quicker entry into what you were supposed to be doing. Anyway.
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'd always kind of had the plans on that
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: end to move into the wine side of things, or
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: at least the education part of it. But my original
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: idea was, since we sold wine grapes at the time
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: to ten or twelve different wineries, to have a Newso
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: Vineyards tasting room and feature ten or twelve other wineries
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: new some vineyards wine and then I'd be educating on
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: the differences that a winemaker makes. Because you give a
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: cabernet to ten different winemakers, you get ten different as
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: mm hmmm.
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: Without a doubt.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: And then of course the time we had maybe twelve
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: varieties and sold grapes to twelve wineries, so that would
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: have been a you know, two hundred wines in the
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: tasting room for education purposes. So that's was kind of
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: my original idea anyway, and then started making the wines
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: for the Newsom label. Of course, when I first opened,
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: I had two whites and two reds. Started making reds
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: in twenty thirteen and fourteen, and whites in twenty fifteen.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: So when I opened in the fall of twenty sixteen,
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: I only had four wines on the tasting sheet.
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: Oh my.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: Well, for a small time period, I got wine from
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: some of my neighbors to plug some holes in my
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: list to actually have a tasting with five or six wines,
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: but they were new some vineyards. Fruit of course, I
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: started producing more or at the same time. But you know,
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: it takes years to make a wine, so I went
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: from four wine labels when I opened. I think I'm
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: up to twenty eight different labels currently. Oh my heavens,
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: So in ten years I've spooled things up quite a bit,
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: but they're all small batch, handmade wines. You know, two
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: barrels maybe three barrels, so forty to seventy cases. So
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: it's pretty much tasting room wine club only.
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: That's amazing. And of all the varieties that you've got today,
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: tell me where tempornello ranks at least in your heart
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: and head and palette relative to all the other varieties
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: that you got.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: Well, for tempernillo, we were one of the first vineyards
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: and first vineyards in Texas to commercially plant it in
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: two thousand and two yep. And we planted did temporneo
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: specifically for Dan Gatland in what the state's winery, and
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: he kept saying how good the grape would be in
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: the high plains. And course we talked to our industry
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: and nursery friends in California and they said, oh, don't
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: do it. Timpernello's terrible in California. So we were kind
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: of leary about doing it, and we're wanting to do
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: a test plot and Dan Gatland kept asking my dad
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: to plan it for him, and my dad finally said, well, Dan,
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: why don't you put your money where your mouth is?
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: He said, I don't want to take all the risk.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: You want three acres? Well, that's at that time, you know,
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: a hard cost of seventy seventy five thousand dollars. He said,
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: why don't you pay for the planting and we'll grow
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: it for you and we'll see if it works, and
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: then we'll give you a discount on your fruit till
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: you get your money back. So that was the first
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: contract planting by a vineyard for a winery in Texas,
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: and that's where Timperneo got started. We had three acres
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: of it. So a few years later the first vintages
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: of Temporneo started coming out and everybody was loving them.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: And of course some of our neighbors saw that we
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: planted Timpernello and planted Timpernello as well, like, well, if
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: the nuisance are doing it, we might as well do it.
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: Tempernello took off pretty quickly, and the variety as a
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: wine grape does really well in Texas. It can handle
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: it's one of the few that can handle the heat
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: and humidity in the hill country. But it's still from
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: the Rioja region of Spain, desert side of the Pyrenees,
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: so it does really well in the Texas high plains.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: Being in our semi arid desert grassland climate that we
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: do have. So it's one of our more consistent yielders,
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: and it tends to handle our heat just fine. But
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: it's the cold winners that are kind of the problem
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: in the Texas high planes, and it seems to handle
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: depending on the year, of course, but it handles the
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: cold winners. Sometimes the winners are too hard in the
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: high plains and it can cause wood damage, which is
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: another challenge that we have. The French Britals don't like
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: anything below, you know, fifteen degrees for more than a
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: day or two, and then you get wood damage, which
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: causes its own problem.
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: That's right, so many obstacles to overcome. But it's almost
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: like that particular variety was destined to be kind of the.
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: It's now the most planted, it's now the most planeted
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: red wine grape in Texas. So Texas temporneo is definitely
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: a thing if they make. If a winery makes Texas wine,
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: most have a temporneo, not all. There's still exceptions. There
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: is it the story?
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: No one really about that one is the one that
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: can overcome the most struggles.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: It just handles them better. I don't know about overcome
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: the most.
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: Handles the BET's that's the better way of putting it.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: So we started originally with cabernet and a few years
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: later my grandmother planted Murloau. Well, when we planted our
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: vineyards there were only twelve wineries in Texas. We had
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: to plant what they wanted, not what we wanted to
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: grow because we were just the farmer. That's why it
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: was French bridals. So it's taken twenty plus years for
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: the industry to change enough for there to be more wineries,
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: to have people wanting other things and or people do
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: small batch, you know, smaller amounts of wine, not trying
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: to be in distribution that they can sell everything that
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: they can make out of their own tasting room or
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: wine club. But one of the ones we wish we
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: had a star guarded with a long time ago, besides Tempornio,
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: is Cabernet franc. Cabernet Frank handles the weather much much
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: better than Cabernet savignon, although Cabernet savignon is the grape
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: that we have the most of that we are most
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: known for. But they both make absolutely fantastic wine. But
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: Cabernet franc is a little more consistent on the yield,
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: it'll average two and a half tons preacre, or the
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: Cabernet that's a little more sensitive to the weather. We
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: average you know, two tons breaker two tons per acre,
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: which is we considered a very low yield. So low yield,
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: high quality.
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: That's the difference.
• 28:47
  Speaker 3: I love talking to you. We're gonna be by the way, folks.
• 28:50
  Speaker 3: We're gonna be out.
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: At the Comfort Texas location awarding Nolan and his family
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: the Truly Significant Texan Award from Go Texan. I think
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: it's going to happen in September. I've got down September
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: the twenty six somewhere in that vicinity where we're the
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: Truly Significant Band's going to be out there honoring you guys.
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: But as we wrap up this show, tell us about
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: how everyone can find out about your organization, visit your
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: tasting rooms, and enjoy your company throughout the entire seasons
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: of the year, not just one stop, but going out
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: there frequently, taking their kids, their grandkids, and making it
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: a part of their life experience.
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: Sure well, the tasting room and Comfort I'm open seven
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: days a week, so always in comforts a little small
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: tourist town. You can walk everywhere you want to go.
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: It's only two blocks wide, so it's a neat little town.
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: It's what Fredericksburg was thirty or forty years go, right,
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: And we do have a bed and breakfast in Comfort.
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: And then there's a bed and breakfast in Plains, Texas
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: by the vineyards out there where my parents are usually around,
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: and they're happy to give a vineyard tour if they're
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: there and not busy. In part of the year, starting
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: towards the end of July through September, you might can
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: actually get an edible vineyard tour in which is also
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: pretty neat because wine grapes are amazingly delicious. They are
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: approximately at harvest time at least they're twenty two to
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: twenty five percent sugar, where a table grape is seven percent.
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: So wine grapes are sweet and delicious, but they have
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: so much acid you can't eat more than a small
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: handful or it will clean you out. That's one of
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: the things with wine grapes. And as for the tasting
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: room and comfort, this weekend is Easter weekend, so holiday
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: weekend will be plenty busy, but I have an Easter
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: Sunday sun set service in the Comfort Backyard, which is
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: the yard behind the tasting room, and there will be
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: live music four to seven pm from a guitar violin
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: duet Anthony Garcia and Megan Burson, and then a service
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: at seven point fifteen. In this year it's Reverend Rick Doyle,
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: and then we do Communion at seven thirty and Newsome
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: Vineyards has the Communion wine sponsored.
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: It's a beautiful thing open to the public.
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: Mistake nights with an RSVP. That's the only part that's
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: not free. Otherwise it's free for anyone to join, and
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: our tips for the day will go to the Comfort
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: table and food pantry and any ties and offerings, which
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: is comforts version of meals on wheels kind of.
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: It's all good. It's all for the most significant thing,
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: and that's giving back. Nolan, Thank you so much. It's
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: been a pleasure to talk to you. We're going to
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: do this again. You have songs for each more than
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: just thirty minutes worth. But you're a busy man. Thank
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: you and your family for what you're doing.
• 32:08
  Speaker 3: You I mean this.
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: You guys are in the work of significance. And I
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: know you have your ups and downs and the weather
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: and everything else makes things topsy turvy, but you're really
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: in an important enterprise and work.
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: And from our perspective, thank you do appreciate it.
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: Yes, sir, that was Nolan Knewsome. Make sure and go
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: to newso Vineyards dot com to find out everything about
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: them and if you can make it to the sun
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: Set service, which I think is a brilliant idea to
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: celebrate the most important thing in life this coming Eastern.
• 32:44
  Speaker 3: It's Newsome Vineyards dot com.
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: Correct, absolutely very good.
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: Thank you Nolan. We appreciate you, and folks, as we
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: always say, we know you're busy, we know you're living
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: a fast life, but stop every once in a while
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: and pay attention to what's significant. Protectors found a prossss
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: day right.
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: It is how look is brisk, It is holy, bots
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: is what we're wear.
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: It boses yere we may ride form.
• 33:15
  Speaker 3: It is so rewarding ranch and we do it.
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: Bride and we a suck sa.
• 33:25
  Speaker 3: What's left is just an.
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: It's not what you go say.
• 33:35
  Speaker 3: It's no InTru.
• 33:41
  Speaker 4: I've heard that stoicism is currently now back in fashion.
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: I am Socrates with a message for you.
• 33:51
  Speaker 4: Come let us examine a question worthy of our time
• 33:55
  Speaker 4: in the twenty first century.
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: What is it that makes a life significant?
• 34:02
  Speaker 4: Is it wealth, which slips through the fingers like sand,
• 34:07
  Speaker 4: Is it reputation which depends not on the truth but
• 34:11
  Speaker 4: on the fickle applause of the crowd. Or is it
• 34:15
  Speaker 4: something deeper, something that endures when titles fade and noise
• 34:22
  Speaker 4: grows quiet. I have long argued that the unexamined life
• 34:28
  Speaker 4: is not worth living. Yet examination alone is not enough.
• 34:35
  Speaker 4: One must also seek wisdom from those who have walked
• 34:39
  Speaker 4: the road with intention, humility, and heart. In this spirit,
• 34:46
  Speaker 4: I commend you to a literary work called Truly Significant,
• 34:51
  Speaker 4: written by Rick TOLKINI. This is not a book that
• 34:56
  Speaker 4: shouts answers at a reader. Rather, it buy it's reflection,
• 35:01
  Speaker 4: much like a good dialogue. Within its pages, you will
• 35:06
  Speaker 4: encounter men and women who have wrestled with purpose, chosen
• 35:11
  Speaker 4: character over convenience, and discovered that significance is not measured
• 35:17
  Speaker 4: by power but by service. Ask yourself, what legacy will
• 35:25
  Speaker 4: remain when my voice is silent? Visit ww dot truly
• 35:32
  Speaker 4: significant dot com today to buy it for a life
• 35:36
  Speaker 4: examined is noble. But a life examined and lived with purpose, well,
• 35:43
  Speaker 4: that is truly significant,