Love wine? Love to help the community? Here are three young Texans who have made a career out of making Austin wine. Ross Mclauchlan, one of the founders and creators of The Austin Winery along with his friends Cooper Anderson and Matthew Smith, which is the first winery within the Austin city limits.
“Cooper and I have been working in the industry since we were 19-20 from tasting room to cellar. We were learning the basics of wine making and having fun flirting with the process. One thing led to another and I ended up in California representing for several small wineries. Meanwhile, we started taking courses. I had gotten an undergraduate degree and I was like, ‘this might be a career.’ So we took some courses through Washington State. Cooper was developing his chemistry knowledge. It helps to have a friend who’s going through it together with you so we were able to study together.”
Mclauchlan explains, “after awhile I was like ‘ok, we know how to make the wine now, and we definitely know how to sell it.’ Cooper is the super equipment expert and has the chemistry background. There was this gap in the market in Austin, all this great food culture that exists, but the Hill Country wineries are kind of out of sight out of mind. While there are good wines to be made in Texas, there are no cool climate varieties. We don’t have anywhere that’s really cold in this state. Pinot noir, Chardonnay, you’re not going to get them in most circumstances. So recognize the situation and showcase the best of what grows the best in Texas and source the rest from California and Washington, which have some of the best vineyards in the world. There’s the fact that we were able to call ourselves The Austin Winery in 2013, which is evidence that there was a major gap. Urban wine production is relatively new. Wineries don’t have to be physically adjacent to vineyards. If you can get the raw materials [grapes] to the urban marketplace and showcase the production right there, it breaks down so many barriers to entry, adding exposure and education to winemaking when previously there was none.”
The eye-catching artwork on The Austin Winery’s bottles is one of the many factors that makes them stand out. “The guy who does all the artwork that you’re seeing on the bottles is Nic Mathis. He’s a good friend of ours and it’s really the most fun part of the whole gig because of the artistic side. We usually drink a bottle of wine together; we want the wines to have a cohesive image from vineyard to consumption” explains McLauchlan. “For instance, each one should have a little story. So Violet Crown is an old nickname for Austin. This is a Rhone style blend which is a really agreeable, really versatile wine, so it’s super smooth.” The artwork on the Violet Crown bottle has a cat with a crown on his head. Mclauchlan states, “So a cat with a crown on his head is kind of like the very agreeable, rubs up against everybody, and can’t be turned away sort of thing.” Then there’s Quarter Horse. “American Quarter Horse is like the nice horses that are in equestrian rides and races. They’re the real pretty horses and this is the one that has a really nice finesse, but also some nice Texas grape taste to it as well. So that’s kind of juxtaposing by a wine called the Work Horse, which is a little more masculine, more like a mule. The malbec has the Dia de Los Muertos inspired label. It’s really rich and inky and goes well with strong meat flavors; good saucy things like mole, pork, shredded pork, or a lot of deep interior cuisine and pizza. This is a wine that is really good with Mexican food.”
The Austin Winery has 16 different wines. “It can get a little confusing figuring out which is which. Each of them has a different label. It helps for us to create that sort of hand-made aesthetic because sometimes you see wines that are super graphic design heavy, and that for me as a customer I’m kind of wary of. So it’s stylistically hopefully cool, but it also has all of the information on there too. For the traditional wine drinkers you have to make sure you have that information there because you don’t want to alienate the classical drinkers because they spend the most.”
Mclauchlan explains that they recognize certain grapes are going to grow well in certain environments. “We have a really Mediterranean climate here. So Spanish, Italian, Portuguese varietals do well. But French, German, Austrian things are not going to happen. Showcase the best of what does grow well in Texas and then you know not to try and push wines that don’t grow well here. Recognizing that some of the best fruit in the world comes from regions that we can have access to, because that’s where we were, that’s where we have friends and bring them here and do the production here. It’s still very local and it’s supporting local.”
One could also find The Austin Winery’s wine at Euphoria Festival served in a pouch. “We found this producer that made these pouches that are 90 percent carbon footprint compared to glass and it has the exact capacity for a bottle of wine. It ended up being a big hit. Sophie Roach did the artwork [for the pouch] and also did all of the artwork for ACL this year. Right now we’re about to re-do a bunch of fresh pouches for the app Bumble. That will be rose and they’re going to give those out to different marketing outlets.”
Their price range is about approachability. “Price point is everything. Having wines that people can afford if you’re a college student who’s on a date night trying to get a pie from Homeslice and a bottle of wine and still make your rent at the end of the month; but at the same time a good everyday drinker can enjoy too. Everything is really between $15-$35. So there’s a little bit of range there, but I think just about anybody can make it happen.”
Ross’ favorite right now is Sonoma Coast pinot noir. “It has the little otter on it. I think this is probably my favorite of the labels too. We’re always trying to get inspiration from the region as well. Sonoma Coast is high altitude and has a lot of maritime influence, but it also gets this nice fog too that comes off the sea. There are a lot of these sea otters that are down there; they’re the coolest animal I’ve ever seen. They’re so cute. After a long day or a super early morning we’ll go down to the beach so we can see these guys and I just love them. They’re family, they’re like dogs of the sea. There was this otter that we saw in this YouTube video that’s at the Portland zoo and he’s around 19 years old, which is super old for an otter. He has arthritis so they got him a basketball hoop and this little otter dunks to help his arthritis. It’s so so cute. So that’s why we put one on the label.”
When Mclauchlan isn’t busy making wine, he’s helping out in the community. “Wine should be meant for everyone. You know, there’s a real power to wine too in terms of bringing people together in a philanthropic role. Getting people a little warmed up with some wine can be really important in terms of getting them to feel a message and be generous, in a conscientious way of course. So we recognize that we are just making an alcoholic beverage, we’re not changing the world, we’re not saving lives with what we do. Hopefully, we’re making some people happy and bringing them together. We want to support local non-profits that support the whole community. As soccer players and young guys, we really identify with the Andy Roddick Foundation. It has these opportunities that allow for kids to have more leadership roles, have more athletic and safe and healthy outlets after school. I really like to help the kids with supporting endeavors to help raise funds by helping people and drinking wine. People give a lot more when they like the beverage they’re drinking.”
The Austin winery sponsored the wine served at this year’s Andy Roddick Foundation Masquerade ball held at the Four Seasons Austin. Their Russian River Valley Chardonnay was paired with the red and green leaf lettuce salad. The pepper steak and maple glazed salmon was paired with Violet Crown. For the mini dessert buffet, the nutty and light caramel tasting Tawny Port was served.
One can find The Austin Winery’s wine at all of the Central Markets in Texas and the Whole Foods in Austin. They also offer free delivery for orders over $50 within the Austin area. To learn more about The Austin Winery, visit: TheAustinWinery.com
Photograpy by John Pesina
