Spotlight: Pleasant Hill Winery

The finer points and nuances of being a wine connoisseur are completely lost on me, I must admit. I still go by the school of “white meat = white wine” and “red meat = red wine” when choosing a bottle to go with dinner.

Although I own a 5 ft. high wine rack that was once a Columbia Crest display for grocery stores and proudly display it in my kitchen, it has not housed a full, unopened bottle of wine since the week after I got it. The bottles I originally filled it with were what was on sale at Kroger that week. If wine does enter my abode, it is usually cheap, and it doesn’t last long.

So it was with eager enthusiasm that I looked forward to touring the Pleasant Hill Winery in Brenham recently.

I would see a real vineyard and winery at work. I would learn the ins and outs and Dynasty-like drama of the wine industry. I would learn the difference between a sauvignon and a zinfandel. I would know if a wine was dry, fruity, woodsy or bruised. I would learn what that sniffing thing is all about. Who am I kidding? I would get to drink free wine. Actually, I did learn much about the process of growing grapes and making wine in Texas. All in all an arduous yet rewarding trial and error process for any vintner in any location. Our tour guide and co-owner of the winery, Bob Cottle, was a veritable fountain of information on the subject from beginning to bottle. But I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, as I strongly encourage our readers to take the tour on their own. Not only will you learn about Texas’ growing and thriving grape-growing and wine industry, but did I mention that you get to drink wine free?

Pleasant Hill Winery is a bump off the beaten path in Salem, Texas, just outside Brenham. Take Hwy 36 south from US 290, go west on Salem Rd and look for the winery on the left. If you get to the stop sign you’ve gone too far. The Winery is only open on weekends. Tours are given hourly on the half-hour.

The tour is as brief or as detailed as you like, depending on your level of curiosity. The gift shop is full of wonderful gifts, as well as displaying an antique corkscrew private collection. The tour and wine tasting is free, except for the higher end bottles for which there is a nominal fee. From personal experience I can tell you that you probably will not leave without buying at least one bottle to take home. Whether you are wine-savvy or wine-challenged, you will find that Pleasant Hill produces some very pleasant tasting wines – and did I mention that you could sample many of them for free? How’s that for an expert opinion?

For more information visit Pleasant Hill Winery on the web at www.pleasanthillwinery.com.