If you live in or around Houston, Texas, you know that the month of March means “Rodeo” in the Bayou City. Before all you non-Texans roll your eyes and start muttering pejoratives, I challenge you to come down to the largest city in the Lone Star State and at least attend the event before you criticize.
[Full disclosure: before I moved here and attended the rodeo, I would have been the first to lambaste a rodeo and those who choose to attend one, but not anymore!]
As some of you may know, for the past nine years, I have served as a judge for the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo’s Wine Competition (one of the largest in the country) and in this month’s article in the Spring Branch Plus Magazine, I look over the menu at the Rodeo’s Wine Garden and offer my picks as the “wines to drink” while visiting the event.
Here is the link to Spring Branch Plus:
And here is a screenshot of my article (pages 10-11):
the drunken cyclist 
I love Virginia Sauvignon Blancs :). My favorites are Linden’s Avenius vineyard which is so intensely acidic and gorgeous – not overwhelmingly floral or herbal, but crisp, bright fruit and Walsh’s Bethany Ridge Vineyard – similarly sharp acidity without that grassy component grocery store Sauvignon Blanc tends to have. Not a fan of the widely popular ones off the shelf however.
When I go to broader tastings I get intense palate fatigue, so I can only imagine judging and having so many wines. When they’re good it’s hard to spit or dump, and when they’re bad I want to wash my mouth out with something and wait to rebalance before having anything else. I remain impressed by judges who can manage all of that.
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