La Vina Loca

The Journey

This weekend, we will celebrate our 6th year in business, and I haven’t written a single blog since we opened! Everyone knowledgable about Marketing tells me I should take the blog down, but I say, “No”, I’ll get around to it!

Basically, the business has grown like crazy. I can’t possibly catch you up on all that has transpired, but I can share that we have laughed a lot, cried a lot, built a lot, crushed a lot, grown a lot, and been blessed a lot. My business is still open, we are still married, and there have been no fatalities.

The business “story” is based on the fact that it is located on Randy’s ancestral property in Moravia, TX, where Czech immigrants from the wine-growing region of Moravia, CZ, found a safe and bountiful place to settle in America. These Moravians brought their love of wine to Texas and every native family in our area has a home-made wine recipe that has been handed down. I am very proud to have built a vineyard and winery here to honor that legacy.

This weekend, we celebrate our anniversary and, also, the fulfillment of one of my main goals. Just as Grandpa had used the native TX Mustang and Muscadine grapes to make his wine, I wanted to showcase wine made from wine grapes that grow well in our area…Blanc Du Bois and Black Spanish.

On Saturday, I will be excited to share the following new wines with you:

Blanc Du Bois Barel (CZ for wood barrel)– Oak-Barrel Aged Blanc Du Bois from Majek Estate grapes, which joins our stainless steel finished Dry and Sparkling Blanc Du Bois.
Cardinal’s Kiss – a delicious Black Spanish Rose’, from 2019 Majek Estate grapes.  
New Praha – a Dry Black Spanish, 2018 Majek Estate grapes, which pairs beautifully with our newly refreshed charcuterie plate.

Additionally, we will launch the new version of Opal – 2019 High Plains Fruit and New Cardinal’s Friend – a Sweet Red Wine made from 2018 Black Spanish grown at Mil Veranos Vineyard in D’Hanis by Virginia Rodriguez.

Thank you to Winemaker Tim Drake, as well as the other winemakers and TX dreamers who have traveled with us on this journey.
The days are long, but the years are obviously short! I look forward to serving you soon.

Lynne

 

The Saga

In the interest of brevity, I will postpone the first 8 or so years of The Saga, until another day.

In the beginning, Randy and I were corporate-people, working 5 or more days a week, in office-type jobs.  We had a nice home, but wanted to have “a place to go”.

Grandpa Sassin’s land had been laying fallow for many years, after his retirement to Corpus and his eventual passing.  After working with relatives, we inherited part of our property from Randy’s mom and purchased part from two of his aunts.

The land had been cleared at one time and planted with cotton, corn, and other fruits/vegetables to sustain Grandpa’s family.  After years of laying fallow, however, the property was completely overgrown with cedar.  The lane from 957 was not even detectable.  Many comfort-zone expanding experiences were to follow as we tackled the tasks to retake the property.

Fast-forward to about 3 years ago.  Vast amounts of capital outlay, heavy lifting, help, and prayer yielded:

Road Improved (this is debatable)
Land Cleared
Little Barn Built
Small Farmhouse Built
It’s all good!

Through our neighbor’s love of vineyards and wine, I have “caught the bug” to have my own vineyard and winery, as unbelievable as that sounds.  We helped him a little bit at his place...

 and I was accepted to the Texas Tech Viticulture Certificate Program.

Randy and I started to plan the business.  We began making wine in our office to get a high level understanding. 

I lost my original “name” to the trademark police (Rocky Creek Vineyard).  I am now in the middle of many varied permitting and licensing processes.

I plan that my vines will eventually look like this. 

Today, after planting during Spring Break 2013, they look like this. 

 

We are beginning to see the crazy challenges of Agriculture and we anticipate many other unplanned-for outcomes.

The reason for The Saga is really two-fold.

1.  When owning property, there is sense that something needs to be done with it.   Our “farm” has been such a blessing to us…the beautiful property and the rich heritage that comes with it.  I want to share both the product and the experiences from our blessings….as Grandpa did.
2.  I felt that if I could put a portion of my creative energy that I put into my day job, into a business of my own, we would be successful.

My business will be fun, innovative, diverse, hopefully profitable, and rich in experiences for our patrons, our employees, and ourselves.