April 17, 2025 • 56 mins
Sipping wine on the patio at Grape Creek Vineyard feels like coming home. In this captivating conversation with Richard from Heath Family Brands, we uncover the remarkable transformation of a modest Texas Hill Country winery into a powerhouse producing 85,000 cases annually across 65+ different wines.
The journey begins with memories of a simple gravel parking lot and traces through Grape Creek's evolution after Brian and Jennifer Heath acquired the property. What's especially fascinating is how they've maintained quality throughout massive expansion—from establishing Heath Sparkling Wines with its food pairings to acquiring Kuhlman Estates and launching their premium JenBlossom line with distinctive butterfly labels.
Richard shares insider stories about their winemaking philosophy, including their commitment to the direct-to-consumer model rather than wide distribution. We learn about their dedicated winemaker and the team's attention to detail in everything from climate-controlled shipping to the subtle design elements on their labels. The conversation takes delightful twists through marketing strategies, Texas weather challenges, and even how wine club memberships have fostered lasting friendships between strangers meeting on their patios.
Whether you're planning your first visit to Texas wine country or seeking your next premium bottle, this episode offers a glimpse into what makes Grape Creek special—exceptional wines paired with experiences that create memories and connections far beyond what's in your glass. Next time you're near Fredericksburg, make time to visit and taste for yourself why their wines consistently sell out year after year.
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https://www.facebook.com/GrapeCreekVineyards
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
So we're going to get rolling.
Hey everybody, this is TiffanyFoy with the Ramblin' Gypsy
Podcast, and today we are onlocation and we are at Grape
Creek Vineyard in Fredericksburg, texas.
It's part of our Wonderingseries that we are doing, which
is our kickoff to our SPF 90tour that we are doing in 2025.
(00:35):
And so this is Richard.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Hi, welcome to Grape Creek.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Grape Creek is phenomenal.
It is by far has been one of myOG wineries that I have visited
.
There is not a time that I donot stop by here.
I tell everyone about thiswinery.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
I did actually had to check your account earlier to
see if that was true, and itdoes.
You've been a loyal wine clubmember for some time now For a
very long time, you know.
Kudos to you on that.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
I was just telling Nick, because this is her first
time to come here with me, andPolo that's with us today is
same.
And I said, man, I rememberwhen I pulled in here one of the
very first times and it wasjust this one row of parking.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Yes, and it was gravel.
It wasn't even concrete, thenit was asphalt.
It was just the gravel parkinglot.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Yep, and I would come in here and shop.
And that's when Kim and I hitit off.
And to the ridiculous partwhere they would have to bring a
dolly to load up my shoppingexperience.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
It was literally like going to a home goods store and
that was, you know, obviouslyprior to COVID and the more wine
you had, the more trips youmade to your car with
merchandise.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Yes, but it got to the point where the guys would
bring y'all's big flatbed dollythat you have and load
everything out and yeah.
So I said, you know, beforelong I'm going to need my like
my parking spot.
So y'all can?
Speaker 3 (01:54):
yeah, exactly, we're just like personal shopping.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Not have to walk so far.
Yes, yeah, and now it's changedan asphalt parking lot that
holds you know about 200 cars,and we still expanded our
merchandise and we still haveexcellent wine, and so it's all
growing.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
And multiple tasting rooms yes, multiple locations
now from Fredericksburg all theway to Georgetown, Texas.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
That's just nuts.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
It is, it is the growth over the years is amazing
for Grape Creek and the Texaswine industry, but Grape Creek
has had a big part in that andbeen very fortunate to be part
of the Heath Family Brandslegacy.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
What started Grape Creek.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
So originally Grape Creek was started in the early
80s by a gentleman who was inthe oil and gas sector, got some
land out here, wanted to growsome grapes to get into the wine
industry.
At the time there wasn't a lotout here in the early 80s, there
was just a few guys out heredoing it sort of pioneering it,
and Mr Sims did it on his own assort of like a small family
(02:50):
operation for a period of timeand after his passing the family
chose to sell Grape Creek andthat was in the early 2000s.
And then it kind of in walksBrian Heath and Jennifer Heath
and kind of swept up Grape Creekin 06 and took it from what was
then about 2,500 caseproduction operation to now 2025
(03:13):
.
We're kind of on the precipiceof doing around 85,000 cases a
year of production on propertyand now multiple locations, as
we just mentioned, fromFredericksburg all the way to
Georgetown, and there's alwaysexpansion opportunities
happening.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
So I remember when I was here on a random whatever
Saturday afternoon and wastalking to Kim and then we were
and she was explaining the wholeheat side of things and what
was coming and the vintageportions, and of course you've
got um for people that don'tknow um.
You have different packages anddifferent memberships that you
can clubs, that you can join wedo.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
So there's around I guess five or six options right
now that you can do, um, justbased on what your preference is
.
And we see a fair bit of peopleactually are in multiple of
those options.
You know they really enjoy thekind of Tuscan style that comes
with Great Creek wines, but thenyou know what we really enjoy
sparkling wine.
(04:19):
So we need some of that as well.
So they're adding on multiplethings.
Some people are now gettingintroduced to our gin blossom
line, which we'll probably talkabout in depth here in a minute,
which is going to be our allkind of AVA driven kind of
premium line, mostly Cabernetdriven wines.
So they're getting different,varying levels based on people's
taste preferences, and that'swhat we aim to provide.
(04:41):
We want to be have somethingfor everybody.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
I love that.
I love that.
So, um, when the growth started, I mean they grabbed ahold of
this section.
Did they know that this?
Speaker 3 (04:55):
I don't know.
You know.
So it was just a smalloperation.
So great Creek at the time wasstill a hundred acre footprint
on the property.
There was, um, you know, abouta dozen or so acres of planted
grapes, and now it's still ahundred acre footprint here on
the home site or kind of ourmain location, if you will, and
we have around 28 acres ofgrapes now here on property.
(05:18):
And but we've expanded outsideof here.
So on this property, we expandedwith the addition of the Heath
Sparkling Tasting Room in 2019.
It's so beautiful, ultra modern.
It's like, if you love,something monochromatic and
modern, floor-to-ceiling glass,top-tier wines, top-tier
everything there.
That's the location and it'sright here, adjacent to Great
(05:41):
Creek, which is what initiallystarted it all and gave us the
opportunity to do that.
And then we've incorporated ourInvention Vineyards property
which is going to be out nearthe airport, on Highway 16 South
, just out of Fredericksburg.
So about 75 acres of propertythere, about 30 acres, 35 acres
in vines, so almost doublingwhat our capacity was for an
(06:03):
estate vineyard.
And then, just as of, I guess,june of last year, with the
introduction of Coleman Estatesafter the acquisition of Coleman
Cellars, so that's a 12 acrefootprint with around seven
acres in vines, so justexpanding our portfolio of
wineries, different styles,different themes and, like I
(06:24):
said, we have something foreverybody.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
You do, you do and when they arrive at your home
and you get that special boxthat says Heath on it.
It is like Christmas it is, andwe see a lot of members.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
You know social media , the power of social media, the
power of podcasting.
These days People get thosepackages in the mail and they're
filming those things.
They're like look, it's mymonthly allocation.
We love this.
Here's what we're going to do,and it has really taken off the
amount of kind of influencersthat are part of our program,
that utilize that platform ofGreat Creek to supplement their
(07:00):
platform, and then just theeveryday wine drinker who gets
an allocation five times a yearfrom us we hear those success
stories.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
That would be me, and it is phenomenal.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Yeah, we eat everything from three bottles
all the way to a case.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
So just as much as you want to drink, we'll provide
it.
It's insane.
And when it does show up, andwhen I have Nick, for instance
everybody knows Nick on my showand it drops off and there'll be
the two or three boxes, and I'mlike oh my gosh, wait till you
have Bellissimo, and then waittill you have the Rendezvous,
and then you have, I mean boomboom boom, and I know the names
of them more so than I do mychildren, and I know, yes,
(07:37):
invention, yeah, when I startedwith Grape Creek and Heath
Family Brands.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
It was just the Grape Creek portfolio of wines in
2018 when I started and sincethen we've added just in my
tenure we've added SparklingWine, heath Sparkling Wines in
2019.
We added the InventionVineyards line in 2022.
We're adding the Gin Blossomline.
We've added now Coleman Estates.
So we used to just have to knowaround 18 or 19 wines and the
(08:05):
last time I checked we'resomewhere around 65 different
labels that we're producing asfar as wine 65.
It is, it is.
It's a lot, but it coverseverything from a white wine
drinker to a red wine drinker toI want premium red wines, I
want vintage sparklings and wedo have some wines for those
(08:26):
sweet wine drinkers.
We have a small portfolio ofsweet wines, but the through and
through we have it all acrossthe gamut of the 65 wines.
So it's amazing 65.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
That is.
That goes back to the graveldrives.
That was here it is, and that'show it started.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
We started just as a small operation but we've
dedicated everything that we doto the quality of the wine and
the quality of the experienceand I think that's what's
propelled Great Creek and HeathFamily Brands from where it was
at the time of the acquisitionto Heath Family Brands in 06 to
what it is now.
That dedication and commitmentto the wine quality has not
(09:03):
waived.
One of those driving forces isobviously Jason Englert.
He has been the only winemakerin the history of Grape Creek
since his inception here withthe program in 2004.
He's been the brains of theoperations.
And over the years he's built ateam, yeah, and it's hard to get
on that team to be a part of it.
(09:23):
They're dedicated to theircraft and it's hard to get on
that team to be a part of it.
They're dedicated to theircraft and, like I said, they
crank out some of, in my opinion, some of the best wines in
history of Texas wines.
But then we also produce someexcellent wines that come from
California fruit and they're noslouches either.
Those are excellent, top quality, top tier wines that we're
producing and that's a testamentto the team and dedication that
(09:44):
they have.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
I've been to.
I've been to a lot of wineries.
I am an absolute wine snob andin every podcast that I have, I
am drinking wine and anythingkind of that I do.
Whether I'm riding my horse ora camel or whatever it is,
there's usually a glass of winenearby, or yes, or it's hidden,
hidden or there's something.
But yes, and I've done a lot oftastings.
(10:09):
I have been to the Napa and theIn-N-Out and what have you, and
I remember the very firsttasting that I did here and Kim
was actually the one that did mytaste.
That's her and her and I metthe very first time and we have
become besties ever since.
But there is not one wine inGreat Creek.
(10:29):
First of all, I know this isawkward, but I'm not, I'm not a
spitter which, but it there wasnot one that I went, eh, I don't
know, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Yeah, yeah, and we see that.
We see people come in and theycome back.
A lot of our members come backfor tastings, you know a couple
of times a year what's a newwine, what's a new vintage, and
each time they're like dang, youjust won't stop with the good
wine, like there's not one kindof odd duck in the bunch that we
don't drink.
And that makes it interestingfor from a consumer perspective,
(11:03):
because see varying, we seekind of consistent levels, I
guess, if you will, of our salesof wines across the portfolio.
There's not one that kind ofdominates each of those spaces.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
I was going to ask you about that.
Is there just one that you see?
That just.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
You know, early on in Grape Creek, I guess after the
Heath ownership and theintroduction of Bellissimo,
bellissimo was one of thosewines that was sort of a cult
following.
It really propelled Grape Creekonto the map for a lot of
places and a lot of Texas winedrinkers.
And now you look at the lineupand you're like they're all so
(11:39):
good, like Bellissimo is astaple in a lot of people's
minds.
But then they get to new wines.
Serendipity, we have the bottlesitting right here, is a member
only wine and it's asked forjust as much as the other wines,
and so it just it's interestingto see that on a daily basis.
You know, you might see whitewines outsell the reds or you
might see the reds outsell thewhites, but consistently across
(12:02):
the board there's not.
We don't make a bad wine.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
No, you do not and there's not there's.
I have a lot.
You know, own three liquorstores, so we have a lot of of
of things that will show up inin that box.
There's not one that I go.
No man, put that one to theback or save that one for a uh,
when we have to do a gift foryou know there's, there's just
not.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Sometimes you get one that you're like oh, this will
be a white elephant.
This is perfect, yes, but theGreat Creek wines don't seem to
be white elephants.
No, they are absolutely not.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
No, they are the most stunning elephants, but yeah,
it's very, very impressive.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
Yeah, it's really a testament to what we're able to
do year in and year out.
When you think about producing,you know, 80,000 cases of wine,
even 50,000 cases of wine, andthen we're strictly direct to
consumer, so there's not anybodyelse help peddling these wines
for us.
We do have a small wholesaleprogram that we do, mostly local
(13:02):
, just as a way for us tosupport the community and as a
way for our customers, ifthey're out supporting local
businesses in Fredericksburg, tostill consume the Great Creek
wine.
So we do have that, but acrossthe board.
You know we're selling outevery year, right, you know, 70,
80 000 cases of wine throughour six locations when we
(13:22):
decided that we would do this.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Um, you know, I'm from New Braunfels, texas.
We're a little, not so littleanymore.
And Fredericksburg is goingthrough the growth spurts, like
New Braunfels is, but Owningthree liquor stores and not
being able to have Great Creekin our stores is a struggle for
me.
So it was really cool we weretalking about doing this, doing
our Wondering series and sendingpeople because it is a
(13:47):
staycation for me here.
It's just a jog right down theroad, I'd say it's not far.
No, it is not far.
It's very easy for me to make ajog to come down here, but to
send our clients and people thatare regulars and saying, hey,
do you know?
And I'm like, absolutely, youguys have got to go.
First and foremost, wineriesare popping up all over the
place.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
But Grape.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Creek is, to me is a staple of Fredericksburg.
I think that's something thatthe atmosphere here is, above
and beyond your outside patioseating area, your dining area
inside, outside.
Um, I can, every single time,even just to swing by, knowing
(14:31):
I'm going to get my one freeglass of wine, knowing that I
have four cases at home it doesnot matter.
Yes, I'm going to still stop.
Sit on the patio and the guyswill come out.
Travis was one that waited onme forever and ever and ever out
there and um, I'd say, you know, you don't have to, I'll just
have a Bellissimo or yes.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
And so just knew, by, like knowing your dog's name, I
already knew what and sat downand have my glass and be like oh
, and then just yeah, alreadyknew what and sit down and have
my glass and be like oh and thenjust yeah, the atmosphere is
phenomenal and you do a greatand you mentioned something
about you send a lot of yourclients that come in and ask for
those wines at your liquorstores and that is one of the
reasons I think that helps drivethe fact of why we don't do
(15:12):
major distributions.
We want people to visit with usyou should.
We know our wines the bestExactly, we can tell you
seasonalities, which wines youshould be drinking at certain
times, to help kind of elevatethe profile, and we think we do
a pretty darn good job of takingthrough you this immersive
experience.
(15:33):
It really is, you know it mightonly be 30 to 40 minutes long
for your tasting, but by thetime you're done you're going to
know your server's first name.
You're probably going to haveheard about their five favorite
wines across the company.
They've probably told you.
You know what they drink on aTuesday regularly.
You know you're going to haveshared stories and that, to us,
is what really drives the pointhome, because the wine is
(15:56):
naturally going to sell itselfif it's a good product, and I
believe we have a good product.
But those stories and thatexperience you get at the bar is
actually what I think helps themost is because our servers get
to connect with the members andguests that visit with us and
you are building memories.
So when you go home and youopen that bottle of Bellissimo,
(16:16):
you think back to that time.
you were sitting out on thatpatio and you met this really
lovely couple next to youexactly where I was about to go
you just found like next thingyou know you're in business or
something like, or you're takingtrips together to go see other
places made the christmas cardlist you meet exactly up here.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
hey, we're heading down.
What are you guys doing?
Y'all want to meet up in GrapeCreek?
Let's go have an app.
Let's go enjoy this beautifulday.
A couple of glasses of wine,and then there'll be a table
that'll be over here and they'regoing.
Well, I don't know, and I'm notnot really the shy one I'll
jump up and go.
Here's what you need.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Here's what you need to try.
I've been coming here for avery long time.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
but let me tell you, there's not one thing that
you're going to be disappointedabout here, but yes.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
I always say, like if we could get you know, as
guests come visit with us and dotastings, it's important to
have one member in the buildingbecause they're so passionate
about what we do.
They're almost equally aspassionate as our staff members
and if they're really vocal,like yourself, they go to them
and be like look, just join thewine club.
You'll thank me later and thenwe'll.
(17:23):
We'll continue to see eachother.
You know, year after year we'llsee you at one of the events.
You know we'll be out here onthe patio, our paths will cross
and you hear those successstories and I think that's so
inspirational it's, and I thinkyou know, we do have all of
these beautiful spaces We'vecultivated.
Every patio offers somethingtotally different, totally
different.
So even on a Saturday, when yougo out to our patios, there's
slightly different demographicsthat choose different patios.
(17:46):
They're different groupings ofpeople, but they all have one
thing in common and they reallyenjoy the wine that we produce
and the environment we we canprovide.
And I think that's an instantconnection for people.
I mean, I've heard of peoplesaying I met my now boss on the
patio at Grape Creek sittingthere on a Saturday afternoon
drinking wine.
Next thing you know I'm in hisoffice the next Monday applying
(18:08):
for a job.
Right, and that is incredible.
I mean, that's sort of how Ilanded at Grape Creek.
I was a wine club memberpreviously, out on the patio
with my family and kind oflooking for my forever home as a
career, and I said I'll work acouple of days a week to see
what the wine industry is like.
And now I've been here sevenand a half years and I'm fully
(18:31):
employed and have been and Ihaven't looked back since 2018.
So it's just one of thoselittle success stories that I
enjoy telling about, kind of mystory with Grape Creek.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
I kind of feel like I'm family with Grape Creek.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
You are at this point .
I think so.
You are at this point.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
For such a long time, but I love it and it's you know
I can.
Growing up, born and raised inNew Braunfels in FFA 4-H.
Growing up showing animals.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Well, we're about to have a lot to talk about.
Here we start talking aboutanimals.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Yes, so I spent a lot of time in Gillespie County
growing up and I've won a lot ofshows.
I'm very, very competitive andit's just really, really fun.
And now being an adult andenjoying wine and watching the
growth of everything happen hereand being able to tell people
(19:21):
about Great Creek is just reallyit's really awesome.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
It is, it's really awesome.
It is, and we you mentioned.
You know your upbringing in 4-Hand SSA.
It's one of those.
You know, getting a biggerintroduction of people of what
viticulture and the winerybusiness has to offer is a big
part of the growth of theindustry and that's been a big
part of the wine industry herein Texas for the last, I would
(19:45):
say, five years is introducingthose younger generations to
what we can do, not only showingthem those pathways of
viticulture in college and youcan go to all these universities
now and learn strictly just howto make wine, how to maintain
vineyards and get into theindustry.
And I think that's one of thethings that has helped, because
I would say that really thatpush started about five to eight
(20:07):
years ago in the kind ofcollegiate sector about trying
to push people into thosepathways and show them what the
availability was, and it's justpropelled the growth of the
industry.
Obviously there wasn't a lot ofgrowth from, like you know,
2000 to like 2023, you know,given the time of COVID.
But outside of that we'restarting to see a resurgence of
(20:29):
growth start to happen.
There's some places startpopping up.
You see less and less for salesigns on kind of vineyard sites,
and so I think that's great.
Any growth in the industry isgreat From a competitor
standpoint.
We understand that nowconsumers have more options,
which just means we have to getbetter at what we do in the
tasting room, and the experiencethat we provide people and
(20:51):
that's one thing that we focuson a lot of with our team is hey
guys, we're not necessarily oneof 25 now, we're one of 35.
Now there's more options.
Here's what we're going to doand that's something that we
made a commitment to probablyfour or five years ago.
We made a commitment to sort ofcontinuing education within our
(21:13):
staff and elevating the levelof service we could provide, and
I think it's paid off two,three fold in the experience
that we can do just by providingthat experience of continuing
education for our staff whilealso educating some of the
younger generations as well onwine, what there is to offer
from a career standpoint, andthat it's yeah, it's fun, but
(21:35):
it's also hard work too.
Um, and that it's yeah, it'sfun, but it's also hard work too
.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
It is.
It is hard work, but it's it is.
It is fun it is.
You know, I've got my resort onthe Gwad and I spend a lot of
time with my customers andclientele.
I run the bar down below so I'malways talking and promoting
things, um, but here tastings,it's really it.
(21:59):
It is important.
It is important that thisperson behind here, behind the
tasting room, the bar area,loves what they do.
They do and we currently—You've definitely got to be a
people, person, you do.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
And actually I was looking at some stuff earlier
this week and across the HeathHammy Brands company we have
around 150 to 160 employees,really Um, and it doesn't.
You know, some days it seemslike we employ that many, some
days it doesn't, um, but youknow of those.
A big portion of them are makeup our retail sector and so we
(22:32):
dedicated a lot of our time tomaking sure that they can
provide that experience thatguests love.
You know, guests like yourself,what you loved about Great
Creek in the early 2000s to late2000s when it was a little bit
smaller.
We still have that feel andthat conversation and it's a
relaxed refinement environmentand that's really what we aim to
(22:56):
do.
And then the rest of those 160employees, what we aim to do.
And then the rest of those 160employees, you know, outside of
retail make up our vineyardproperty team.
They make up the winemakingteam.
We have a dedicated team thatis there five days a week to
handle any of the concerns ofour wine club members.
We now have a concierge personwho helps with the member guest
(23:16):
relations.
That helps them from getting tobookings to if you want to do a
proposal at grape Creek, um, ifyou have questions about
something, we have somebodythere who can assist you, but we
want it to be that personaltouch.
So when we launched ourconcierge program, we reached
out to Kim, who a ton of ourmembers absolutely love, and so
this made sense for us is ourmembers love her the best she's
(23:39):
able at providing that level ofservice they're looking for.
Let's put the two and twotogether, and over the last six
to seven months that we'velaunched that program, it has
had nothing but success stories,which is what we wanted.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
So we couldn't be more thrilled.
So when people come to visitGreat Creek, let's talk about
what they can do.
So first of all, you've got howmany tasting rooms now.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
So on the Grape Creek property we have kind of one
main tasting room that we useevery day and then we have a
backup tasting room that we useon the weekends to help expand
our capacity.
And then we have obviously ourother locations each have
tasting rooms, with HeathSparkling Wines having a tasting
dedicated tasting room on site.
Invention Vineyards has the onesouth of Fredericksburg on
(24:23):
Highway 16, has a dedicatedspace.
And then we are currently inrenovations on our Coleman
Estate property, so we're hopingto be inside that new space.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
And that Coleman.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
Estate's property is where that property is going to
be, about seven minutes to theeast of Grape Creek, so just on
the other side of Stonewall,sort of between Stonewall and
High, right on the edge ofGillespie County there.
So we are fully renovating thattasting room space right now
from the previous version ofwhat it was.
We're still open but stilldoing the renovations.
(24:53):
We're hoping to be in thatspace early May and then we're
going to complete a bistro onthat property as well.
We know the need for smallbites.
People love the food.
So we've partnered with stouts.
They provide our restaurantservices for our great creek
property.
We're going to expand and dothat with our bistro at coleman
estates as well.
And then we have our two urbanlocations currently.
So we have our small tastingroom in georgetown and then we
(25:13):
have our urban tasting room onmain street in fredericksburg.
Yes, so those are the cases thatyou can taste any of the wines
from any of our portfolios, justabout where they'll carry the
gamut.
Most of them are dedicated towhatever they are on each of the
sites.
So if you go to Invention,they're probably going to try
and get you to try the Inventionwines.
If you need to try a GreatCreek wine.
Probably going to have aBelissimo sitting back there if
(25:35):
you wanted to try one.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Yes, what is ironic that you bring up the main
street location is I would stophere just to let you know my
patterns and because I am notpredictable whatsoever, stop
here, have my glass on the patio, go into town, do whatever.
I'm usually at carol bolton'sor doing some picking up some
shopping yep, go by the mainstreet location, grab my glass.
(25:59):
There, the sweetest people, notsaying that you do not have the
sweet, but the main streetlocation because there's
thousands and thousands andthousands of people that will
stroll through downtownfredericksburg on any given
weekend, holiday, not holidaywhatever, but the main street
people.
I could put them in my pocketand take them everywhere.
(26:20):
They are so, so adorable.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
They're absolute gold .
And you hit the nail on thehead with the amount of foot
traffic.
It's insane.
The Main Street corridor inFredericksburg is probably if
you compared Main Street trafficto winery traffic in
Fredericksburg, I feel like youwould come up with similar
numbers and so they have alittle space there at our main
street.
It's a hallway and they will getyou in, they will get you out.
(26:44):
If you want to take a glass togo and continue shopping, which
I'm sure you have done, you cantake a glass to go, which we
love about Fredericksburg is youcan walk with a glass of wine
and do some shopping.
It not only helps us with space, but I'm pretty sure it helps
the retail sector as well.
A little liquid courage to makethat purchase, which we love as
(27:05):
well.
It's so good.
It is so good.
So we offer tastings all of ourportfolios across all the board.
Something that is unique toGrape Creek that we currently
have here is we offer a fullproduction tour.
We really pride ourselves onhaving a full vineyard.
We have a full productionfacility, so we will take you on
a tour of that.
We will explain you the ins andthe outs of what it takes for
(27:26):
us to make those 80,000 cases ofwine here at this property.
Now we won't be giving away anyof Jason's trade secrets, but we
will take you through justabout everything.
We'll show you the barrels,we'll show you the tanks.
We'll even let you sample somered wine out of a barrel that's
not quite ready to be bottledyet.
So that way, after you comeback and visit with us, maybe
the next year, six months later,that wine might be in a bottle
(27:49):
you could try it again, relivethose memories of what you had
when you had the tour with usand then kind of one of the
unique one-offs that we do onthe tastings, which is something
we incorporated really from theget-go.
Anytime anyone's doing asparkling wine tasting with us
over at Heath Sparkling Wines,we do a food and wine pairing.
So we offer a food and winepairing.
I love that.
Yes, and we have Chef Ivan Knopp, so we kind of jokingly call
(28:13):
him the wine Viking.
He's got a big beard, long hair, great guy though, cute and
cuddly if you will, but justknocks it out of the park with
these bites of food, and so theydo a seasonal menu.
So if you go in two or threetimes a year, you're probably
going to get a different bite offood each time.
You're still going to get tosample some of those same
vintages of wines, possibly, butfour new food options for you,
(28:37):
anywhere from maybe a lightappetizer all the way to a
dessert and everything inbetween.
Um, I know even at one pointthere was maybe an introduction
of caviar somewhere on the menu,which I know is quite popular.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Yeah, it was fan favorite, I think um, we just
had a caviar conversation withour wine rep in new brunfels and
we were just talking about shesaid it was down in
fredericksburg, blah.
So we were talking about thiswhole thing and that happened to
come up.
Do people need to makereservations for tours?
Can you walk in?
So we offer both.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
So we do tasting reservations and tour
reservations.
We love people that plan ahead.
It allows us to be a littlemore prepared so we know what's
coming down the pipeline.
But always we do our absolutebest to incorporate walk-ins the
best we can, especially if it'sa last minute thing.
We will try our best.
But sometimes it just gets hardto get people in if we're booked
out.
We certainly have capacitylimits that we can reach on
(29:29):
tours, especially Saturdays.
Typically those will sell outby about Wednesday or Thursday
the week of going into aSaturday.
So we definitely tell people,plan you know, early in that
week.
If you're coming with us lateon the weekend, on Saturday or
Sunday, plan ahead by a week,give yourself some time, reserve
your spot so you know you canget in with us, especially when
(29:50):
you talk about some of thesmaller locations because their
capacities aren't quite what wecan handle at grape Creek as far
as the space.
But we do the tour seven days aweek so you can visit with us
seven days a week and do thetour tasting seven days a week
at all of our locations as well.
So we're there's really notmany days that somebody is not
here willing to pour you somesome wine and talk with you
about it?
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Yes, so before we wrap up, I want to hit the gym
blossom.
Yes, talk to me.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Yes, what are we doing here?
So gin blossom, um Blossom itwas.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
That's this guy, you guys, exactly.
So it's on our glass here, ourbeautiful glasses with the
butterflies.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
So Gin Blossom was actually the name.
Go for it.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
The day the box showed up with the butterflies,
I'm like who?
What's happening?
Speaker 3 (30:31):
right here.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
What is happening?
Speaker 3 (30:32):
It is.
So Gin Blossom was actually anickname that Brian had had for
his wife, jennifer, and theytravel frequently doing some
kind of exploratory trips out inNapa and Sonoma so that they
can see different experiencesthat we might be able to help
incorporate here.
And at dinner one night theykind of found themselves looking
through a list of wines andit's like we're paying, you know
(30:55):
, 200, 250 for a bottle of wine.
We have a really greatwinemaker on our staff.
Why is he not just doing thisfor us?
Like, let's create a reallyspecial wine, a premium wine
that we really want to drink,and I bet you there's a lot of
people in Texas who have beensearching for the same thing.
(31:15):
So let's make it available.
So we launched the Gin Blossomline.
Originally it started out as asingular Cabernet and then it
kind of flourished.
So the original introductorywine amazing name, scary good.
It didn't just get the name, ithas lived up to it every
vintage, since there's three orfour vintages of that wine.
Now that was the one that kindof started it all.
(31:37):
So since then we now contractaround a dozen or so really
special vineyard sites in Napaand focusing all on Cabernet
wine.
There is a Cabernet Franc inthere from the Knights Valley,
which is super special, just nota big vineyard site, so it is a
limited production wine, butthen across the board we're
going to do around seven oreight AVA driven Cabernet.
(31:59):
So if you like wines that aregoing to be from more of the
mountain, we have a HowellMountain-style wine for you that
comes from that AVA.
If you like valley-style NapaValley, we got a Napa Valley one
.
We got a Rutherford, we've gotjust the gamut of Cabernets.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
If you're a Cabernet lover and you love the quality
of wine that you've had with usin any of our other portfolios,
come try the Jim Blossom wines.
That is the creme de la cremewhen it comes to Heath Family
Grants, oh my goodness.
So for whatever reason and Idon't know how this happened,
but something somewhere alongthe line I don't know it was
through our liquor stores orwhatever but there'd be like a
random bottle that would show upat my house and I was like,
okay, you know maybe this is onethat they want us to try.
But no, this was when I won thevery first time that the bottle
(32:49):
showed up, and I think it wasmaybe a singular bottle, or
maybe it was just two that cameearly on, and I'm thinking, okay
, maybe this is just.
I was thinking it's from thisother deal that they were.
You know, try this try this andthen maybe put it in your
stores.
And then I looked at it and Iread it what?
No, I opened it, I didn't evenpay much right out the gate.
(33:13):
Gotta try it okay, we got abutterfly.
We got a wine, a littlebutterfly on it, this, let's
just try this see what this isabout.
And then I drank it.
I said what in the hell is thisfull-bodied nonsense?
Of flavor.
And then I turned it around.
I was like, look at my people,look at them.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
It was a really pivotal part, and now, when the
butterflies show up.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
I'm like.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
You look forward to it, right?
Speaker 2 (33:34):
Well, I move those to the back.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
I those to the back.
I'm like we're not going to popthose open when the people that
.
Yeah, exactly, the Gin Blossomline was a pivotal kind of move
for us as far as a company,because we felt like our staff
and ourselves as a company wewanted to look for something
that was a little more, had alittle more push to it, a little
more oomph you know a littleelegance a little more style, a
little more class, something alittle different than what we
produce in some of our otherlines.
And so when the Gin Blossomlines came out, it um, just to
(34:07):
see the look on people's facesas they try one of those wines
the first time, or, uh, you knowany of those things, the
stories they tell.
Like you said, you tried thewine and then you realized you
had it and then you tried to goget another bottle of it or
something.
You know, it's those storiesthat we hear about, those wines,
people celebrating, you know, a25th wedding anniversary hey,
(34:27):
this is the wine I'm going toserve at my wedding.
You know, these are the typesof wines that you hear about and
we're now making themaccessible to people here in
Texas with a wine program that'sgot decades of history behind
it.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
It is so good.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
They are.
They are, if you ask the staffon my front porch.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
It is like oh Lord it is.
It is, and I'm not just sayingbecause it was a surprise, but
it was the way that I did thewhole thing and I was like, okay
, you know, let's just try this.
Let's see what just showed uphere today.
Speaker 3 (34:59):
Let's just see how good it is and then go from
there.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
And then I took a drink and I was like holy
pickles, it is.
What is this?
Speaker 3 (35:06):
It's a totally different experience and we felt
that that market was lacking.
And since we have done it andlaunched the Jim Blossom Wines,
our kind of intuition wascorrect.
People are coming in andthey're trying our wines and
they're committing right away tojoining one of our wine clubs.
But then they're like but we'realso looking for something else
(35:27):
.
Like what else do you have inaddition to?
And that is really kind ofwhere the exploration is coming.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
Another big reason why I love Grape Creek because
I've got stuff that shows upevery quarter.
It's all organized deliveries,but yes, but the surprise factor
of how y'all did that and itwas the whole.
It's like Santa came in July.
Speaker 3 (35:54):
It was Christmas and it was.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
you know it was a lot of thought behind that.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
It was a slow.
We wanted to.
You did it right.
We wanted to do somethingdifferent than what we've had.
We didn't want to put a bigbillboard out there, build a big
building and then say, hey,come, try this.
Absolutely didn't.
It was a slow introduction ofthose wines, sort of an
indoctrination, if you will, of,hey, we know what you like from
us, but give this a try.
Like, hey, try this one.
(36:19):
And you know, when you have areally good friend who you've
been drinking wine with for along time and you all know each
other really well, and they justslide a glass to you and are
like, hey, try this.
And they kind of give you thatlook, that's what it was with
the Jim Bloss Boston wines is.
We would have people here andwe'd be like hey, we know you
love bellissimo, but like buthey, why don't you try?
This.
That's exactly what it was seetheir faces light up and it's
(36:42):
just you've blown their mind andthey don't know what it is.
And then you explain to themwhat it is and it's just like a
craving it's so never saw itcoming.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
It's so never saw it coming.
No, was not ready for it, whichis the best surprise ever.
And to one, the labeling, theeverything, was a full-on twist.
Yes, it was totally different,totally different.
Which was like, which was why Inever expected which is maybe
another.
I mean, they, we all have ourbrands.
My brand is unpredictable andthat was an unpredictable move
(37:19):
and it was by far brilliant.
Speaker 3 (37:20):
It was and it's uh, there was a lot of.
There was a lot of people andthose conversations, um on what
do.
But I think one of the one ofthe driver driving factors of
that label, um, is going to beJennifer herself, brian's wife,
and she had a family member whoactually had drawn a picture of
a butterfly and sort of giftedit to her, and so when we
(37:43):
decided, like okay, we're goingto put something on the label,
it was really easy for us to go.
Actually, we want to do thisbutterfly, but there's something
to be said about subtlety anddetails and the fact that if you
actually looked at each of themaybe seven or eight different
lines in that portfolio, each ofthe butterflies are a slightly
different color, designating aseparate AVA.
(38:03):
So we have everything from sortof kind of like a really soft,
kind of like magenta, all theway up to this kind of like dark
purple, almost blue color, justspanning in that range, which
might drive you to believe thatJennifer's favorite color is
purple, which would be correct,which is why it's on the label
(38:24):
of the wine that's named afterher, which is fitting and people
love it and they have theirfavorites.
Some of them have a favoritebecause of the color of the
butterfly because, it remindsthem of a birthstone.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
Some of them I don't care what color that butterfly
is, it's so good, I don't reallyhave any.
Speaker 3 (38:38):
I I don't know I can't pick a favorite.
Um I you know a lot of peopleyou know love scary good.
We wrote it on the bottle foryou.
We made it easy, I think butthere's so many of those wines
that are excellent and we'rejust really in the infantile
stage which is scary good itreally is you know, we're only
(39:01):
on like as far as producingbottles, we've only released, um
, you know, the first vintagewas the 2016, then there was a
couple of non-vintage yearsbecause of the fires out in
california, right, and we're nowup to as far as, like,
releasing maybe like vintagethree or four for some of these
wines, and some of them it'sjust vintage number one because
of when we were able to securethe contract.
(39:21):
So we really are in thebeginning stages of something
which I think is really amazing.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
Not only is the whole process of how you guys did
that, but the fact that you havethis very um, soft, subtle
blend of a butterfly on thefront and then you labeled one
of the wines scary good is sucha twist on totally, which I mean
(39:47):
if that doesn't intrigue you itis and it um it's.
Speaker 3 (39:53):
it's one of those things that I think a creative
mind has to be behind.
And.
I don't know that I'm quite oneof those creative minds, but
somebody saw that and go andsaid this wine is scary good,
but then let's put a butterfly.
Let's put this beautiful littlebutterfly.
And I think that's so amazingfrom a marketing perspective,
(40:23):
from a conversation perspective,from an imagination perspective
to have kind of those powerfulof words being scary, good and
you put just the most regalbutterfly you could find with.
It is really part of the story.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
Marketing is so huge in the wine industry story.
Marketing is so huge in thewine industry and there is um I
am, if you could get in here,and it's you want to talk about
scary.
Yeah, I was gonna say yeah,yeah, I have um, yes, it's,
there's not too many people thatI allow to get because I am
such a different, strange, butit absolutely is 100% okay.
(40:55):
But taking the risk of doingthat and realizing that you
would not believe how importantmarketing and labels are in wine
.
If you think about consumersthat go into your total wine
stores.
You go into my little tinythree liquor stores Gypsy
(41:17):
Liquors and Canyon Lake.
You know it's this small townand from your larger grocery
stores to people are not gonnago and they're not gonna read
that little label that says it'sgot a hint of cherry and a
little black pepper and a littlethis and a little of that, says
it's got a hint of cherry and alittle black pepper, and a
little this and a little that,and no, they are.
(41:38):
It is label, label, label it'salmost like location, location,
location.
But in the wine it is label isso crucial?
Speaker 3 (41:47):
it absolutely is, and there's that process actually
for label approval you have tobe brave.
Speaker 2 (41:50):
It's quite have to be strenuous to get a label
approved.
Speaker 3 (41:51):
Yes, not only get a name approved, but now youuous
to get a label approved.
Yes, not only get a nameapproved, but now you have to
get a label approved.
And there are certain ways youcan do things, and I think we're
fortunate in the fact that wedon't compete on the shelf with
everybody else.
You know, if you think aboutwalking into an average liquor
store and there's maybe ahundred to 200 bottles and for a
(42:12):
consumer, let's say, you say Iwant a bold red wine, so you're
instantly think Cabernet.
Okay, now you've narrowed itdown to 50 wines.
How do you?
Know, do you want the?
one, you know, that has apicture of this on it.
Do you want the one that isvery minimalist?
Do you want one that's over thetop?
So that just kind of thatsensory overload of what's on a
(42:34):
label can be quite challenging,and so that is one of the
reasons, one of the otherfactors that says hey, come
visit us.
We got a really cool, reallynice, simple, easy label for you
.
But I'm also going to walk youthrough the wines, so we're
going to take a lot of theguesswork out of it for you and
explain why we do what we do.
And there's little nuances.
(42:54):
So even on the bottle we havehere, we're talking about this
bottle from invention vineyards,which is our conflation line.
You know you can't see it, butthose those little lines in the
eye and the V are actually kindof reminiscent of eye beams.
The reason we did that, we madeit textured, is because that
location is what we callindustrial chic, and when you go
to that location, the tastingroom has eye beams everywhere
that are painted black.
(43:14):
I love it.
So you get a little hint ofokay, what makes this label
different than the other ones?
Oh, you know what I rememberwhen I was at Invention and I
saw those eye beams that framedin the tasting room, framed in
the red brick walls that we haveat that location.
I'm getting it in the label too.
Like that takes some stayingpower to do and some creativity
(43:35):
to make happen, and that's oneof those things.
Speaker 2 (43:38):
when you make 60 something different wines and
they're between five differentlabels, four different labels,
you get a lot of experience atdoing and that's something that
we really put a lot of effortinto that is one thing that I
would love to and and I can'treiterate enough, is for Grape
Creek and Heath and Inventionand the Gin Blossom is that it
(44:00):
is as much as you would love totrust the label when you are out
and about and you are at thesewine stores and liquor stores
and grocery stores and anywherethat you can purchase wine, you
find yourself trusting the label.
Speaker 3 (44:18):
You do and you have to put a lot of trust into it,
and then you go home and you'relike, okay, this is shit.
Absolutely, and I think youfeel let down.
Speaker 2 (44:24):
You absolutely do.
It's so disappointing becauseI'm so excited about the label
and you don't know what wentwrong with the wine.
Speaker 3 (44:32):
Was it potentially a winemaking thing that happened
over time?
Was it the wine not storedproperly?
Huge deal so there's a coupleof different factors and when
you buy direct from a winery youknow a couple things peace of
mind, storage is utmost takencare of.
Speaker 2 (44:53):
Let me tell you guys, and this is something that I
want to, and I'm so glad youbrought this up, and I don't
mean to interrupt you, no,you're good, this is so big for
me because you guys are thatpersonable and that involved and
you pay attention to texasweather.
If you guys do not know texasweather, it can go from what
were we at 33?
(45:13):
this in the middle of the night,like two days ago, is in the
80s and we had a massive fire inglasgow today from 33, 33
degrees to 80 degrees is what weare doing in less than 24 hours
in fredericksburg, in newbrunfels, texas, in, in in texas
, so that can happen.
You guys will pick up the phoneor you will send an email.
You, you will let every one ofyour members know.
(45:35):
By the way, this is whathappened in Texas, in case you
guys were in.
Wherever your, your uh wine'sgoing to be delayed, or it's
going to, because you're notgoing to ship it in the heat.
You are not going to take therisk of ruining your wine.
It is not going to show up on110 degree weather in August the
(45:57):
5th, not if you can help it Now.
You know.
No, yes, but you guys are.
So.
Speaker 3 (46:02):
We do.
We used to do a June wine clubshipment for those like yourself
that have been in the wine clubwith us for a while.
We used to do an early June,mid to June shipment and over
the last I guess six years westarted moving that shipment
more and more into.
May, and the reason was is wewant to get people their wine,
but we don't want it at the costof the quality of wine.
(46:23):
We don't want to risk thequality of the wine by waiting
and believe it or not, as we'vegotten hotter over the years.
Um, we've realized okay, we gotto get that shipment in May to
get people out so they have,especially for those visitors
who aren't close to us.
They can't always come try thewines, they can't always do a
pickup of the wines and we havea pretty big following of people
(46:43):
that live outside of kind ofthat three hour driving radius,
who can only maybe get heretwice a year.
So they rely on us to handlethe wines properly.
Speaker 2 (46:51):
I can get here and I rely on y'all us to handle the
lines properly.
I can get here and I rely ony'all.
I can get here and I still rely.
Yes, you don't even know if thestruggle is real.
Like I said, I stopped intotown, I stopped main street, I
stopped out of town and then Ihead back home and then I'm
waiting for it on my porch.
Speaker 3 (47:07):
We try climate control, all of our facilities
do climate control shipping asbest as we possibly can and that
is part of our dedication tothe quality of the wine making
and the quality and care of thewine from basically us to your
doorstep.
So we we fully encompass thedirect to consumer along the
(47:28):
direct route to the consumer.
Speaker 2 (47:30):
We are monitoring everything and we stand behind
you absolutely do, and becauseI've been a member from way back
when I remember when that wasthey?
Everybody has growing pains,everybody figures out everything
.
And, yeah, we had I don't knowif there's a couple bottles,
whatever come and was like hey,I just want you guys to know
(47:51):
this is the heat really got ahold of this one, and oh my gosh
.
So epic, and they're like youknow what, and the heat really
got ahold of this one, and oh mygosh.
Speaker 3 (47:56):
So epic, and they're like you know what?
And now that we do a Mayshipment and we don't do a June,
we get people calling us inJuly or August and they're like
um when is our wine?
Speaker 2 (48:05):
When's my next shipment?
When can I get more wine and umyou know?
Speaker 3 (48:09):
if we, if somebody needs wine, we will get it out
to you the absolute best.
But If we, if somebody, needswine we will get it out to you
the absolute best we can.
But it's one of those thingslike when you're in high demand
and you're a hot ticket item um,people want the wine they do,
and so we can't get enough tothem sometimes and I know you're
one of them I am absolutely oneof them, and I'm not that far,
and you need more wine in Julyand August.
Speaker 2 (48:28):
I need more May 1st and 15th and the 30th.
Speaker 3 (48:31):
My next one is October, that's not going to
work.
Speaker 2 (48:33):
No, it doesn't.
No, it doesn't.
So anybody that is watchingfollowing and you guys need me
to do a stop and drop.
I've come through, fred, allthe time.
Yeah, it's just a personal shopfor you.
Absolutely, I know exactly whatyou guys need.
In fact, I'm not even going toask, I'm just going to show up
with a couple of butterflies anda couple of hot ticket items
(48:57):
and you guys will thank me later.
Grape Creek, Fredericksburg,Texas.
You've got Heath SparklingWines on this property.
Here there's the Grape CreekTasting Room on Main Street.
Speaker 3 (49:15):
Georgetown is.
Grape Creek as well, and then wehave the Invention location on
Highway 16 South.
It's two and a half miles,three miles off of Main Street.
So Venture to say it's probablythe closest full production
facility that you can get fromthe grape to the bottle process
that you're going to get to mainstreet is right there at
(49:36):
invention vineyards on highway16.
It's so good and then so good,coming online with a completion
of the renovations here.
This may still open now if youdon't mind walking through a
construction zone, but we'reopen.
We have our coleman estatesproperty.
So, a little different, we'regoing to do farmhouse modern,
we're going to paint the wallswhite, we're going to give black
(49:57):
trim, we're going to go withneutral earth tones and we're
going to do an open concept.
And then a whole new line ofwines to support it.
So, wines you haven't heard fromus.
I can give a sneak peek, Iguess, and kind of tell you
what's coming down the pipelineGo Great Creek.
(50:18):
Hasn line go a great creekhasn't done a traditional style
malbec as a red wine.
We've always done a rose ofmalbec, but we will be releasing
with the columbina states wine.
We are going to do a rose ofmalbec for that, or a
traditional malbec red wine forthe columbina states wine.
We're also going to accompanyit with a sprinkling of maybe
some California wines that wehaven't done before.
So possibly you're going to seea Sonoma County Pinot Noir on
(50:42):
the shelf, um, to come and taste.
And then I think, what is goingto be a fan favorite when you
release here in three weeks,we're going to do a rosé of
Syrah.
We're going to take big juicy,jammy Syrah and we're going to
make a rosé out of it and it'sgoing to be dry big juicy jammy,
syrah, and we're going to makea rosé out of it and it's going
to be dry.
Speaker 2 (51:00):
I literally cannot wait because I am everybody's
got their their, their tastesand their flavors.
I am not a sweet person.
I love.
I love my dry and yeah, you hadme at rosé all day and the dry
dry, dry, we, we do it.
Speaker 3 (51:13):
That's not to take anything away from this, no, not
at all like sweet wines.
Um, a lot of our sweet winedrinkers.
They buy those wines by thecases.
Our bread and butter for whatwe do is dry style wines.
A lot of our portfolio is goingto be dry reds.
We're going to tease you with acouple of dry rosés.
We do dry rosé of malbec, we'regoing to do a rosé of Nouveira
(51:34):
and now we're going to do a dryrosé of Syrah to go with it, and
then we have really crisp,really clean, what I would say
are elegant red wines or whitewines.
That's what we're going to havefor you too, on the white wine
profile.
So each tasting room has alittle bit of something
different from the white wineperspective.
Speaker 2 (51:55):
I, I am so excited if you come to Great Creek and you
don't find anything you need tostick to you need to stick to
Welch's Grape Droops we'll pointyou over to.
Speaker 3 (52:03):
We'll point you to our friends over at at Garrison
Brothers.
They do an excellent job.
Speaker 2 (52:09):
They do a great job of whiskey.
Speaker 3 (52:11):
They do a great job the other way, we will as long
as you support our industry andsupporting the alcohol industry
in the state of Texas, we loveit.
We will point you in thedirection of a local operation
for you to enjoy.
Great Creek doesn't have thewine for you, but I would be
shocked if we don't havesomething.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (52:30):
And yes, you were going to want to unfollow and
unlike and the whole thing's,because I am 1 million percent,
yeah, and Great Creek a hundredpercent.
I am so excited about the, theColeman deal and the Rose.
(52:50):
Oh yes, so good, so good.
I cannot wait.
Speaker 3 (52:52):
Relaxing farmhouse vibes with the same quality of
wine.
Speaker 2 (52:57):
I love it, that's such a good, solid twist.
Once again, I love y'allsurprises, I love what y'all are
doing.
I am a huge supporter.
I am, yeah, one of the one ofthe first and foremost, and, and
you guys have y'all got meforever.
I love it forever, forever, yes.
Speaker 3 (53:15):
I tell everyone new.
Speaker 2 (53:16):
Absolutely not, please, thank you, yes, yes, if
not, it's nothing for me to zipover here in a, in a, in a road
trip, so yeah.
Speaker 3 (53:24):
And you just got to stop on by and maybe do some
shopping while you're there, yes, and everybody.
Speaker 2 (53:28):
When you guys get here you come to Great Creek,
tell them Gypsy Mama sent you.
They will know who I am.
Ask for Kim, go, shake her hand, give her a big hug.
She's a hugger, just like I amwhere I'm huge huggers, we love.
She loves big.
Yeah, she is a rock star, thisguy Richard, come have some
tastings.
Talk the talk.
Your knowledge is above andbeyond so appreciative.
Speaker 3 (53:52):
I just I love it.
I've been very fortunate.
I love it, it's a great programfrom an employee perspective,
from a consumer perspective.
Everything is going in theright direction for Heath Famous
Brands and if you want to be apart of it, come by, come visit
with us.
Come try the wine we will showyou.
Speaker 2 (54:10):
Yes, we will share all the links, all the locations
we'll show you.
Speaker 3 (54:17):
yes, we will share all the links all the locations
um hours, how to get to thetours, you name it.
We'll probably link everythingup for instagram as well
beautiful all of our socialmedia um, and that way, I know a
big portion of your followingis social media uh driven, so
we'll get you all used to that.
We have an excellent marketingteam.
They're updating daily.
Um, I actually just did a tvshow yesterday so that's awesome
.
So if you want to see me in,action.
Speaker 2 (54:40):
I can't even believe I'm sitting here doing a podcast
in great Creek knowing yeah,absolutely.
Speaker 3 (54:45):
And we cleared out the tasting room just for you.
Speaker 2 (54:47):
Hey, I have gone by here just to go walk and go to
the bathroom, having my glass ofBelissimo out in the patio and
there'd be like, look at them.
With that, they opened up theback room for there's 30, 40
people in there.
So good, I feel so special.
This is special.
This is what we do for all ofour members.
We roll out the red carpet.
I'm telling you, yeah, and ifyou guys are looking for any
(55:16):
type of decor and what have youfor your home, Drop Kim a little
note, Promise you she will findit.
Literally half of my livingroom is grape grape decor.
Oh my gosh, Wine presses thingsthat I'm going.
You're not going to really keepthis here, Are you?
And she's like Tiffany, like itwill just look so good in my
living room.
Speaker 3 (55:30):
You know, you do.
Speaker 2 (55:31):
You guys come visit.
I appreciate you.
Thank you, thank you so much.
Thank you for having us, thankyou for having me, thank you.
Such a gem it was great.
Speaker 3 (55:39):
Um, I'm glad we we got you to stop by.
Speaker 2 (55:42):
I just got me to stop by.
It's throwing me out.
It's the problem.
Yeah, it is, it is.
Speaker 3 (55:51):
I'm glad.
I hope all of your listenershave enjoyed it.
If you haven't been to GreatCreek, like I said, they will
trust me during the week, comeon the weekend, come to enjoy it
, schedule it schedule it, andif you can't hurry, don't be in
here, just come and really relax.
I promise you you're not goingto want to leave.
Speaker 2 (56:08):
Yeah, You're not going to leave.
You'll sit out here in theunderneath these huge trees.
Exactly, we do trees Exactly.
They're used to me, it's fine.
They're used to throwing me out, it's fine.
Yes, yeah.
And if you buy too much,they've got people with dollies.
They will take it and they willwheel it right to your car.
They've been doing that for mefor years and years.
Yes, yeah, it's good time.
(56:29):
Yep, thank you.
That's our favorite part, andcut.
So we're going to get rolling.
Hey everybody, this is TiffanyFoy with the Ramblin' Gypsy
Podcast, and today we are onlocation and we are at Grape
Creek Vineyard in Fredericksburg, texas.
It's part of our Wonderingseries that we are doing, which
is our kickoff to our SPF 90tour that we are doing in 2025.
(00:35):
And so this is Richard.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Hi, welcome to Grape Creek.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Grape Creek is phenomenal.
It is by far has been one of myOG wineries that I have visited
.
There is not a time that I donot stop by here.
I tell everyone about thiswinery.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
I did actually had to check your account earlier to
see if that was true, and itdoes.
You've been a loyal wine clubmember for some time now For a
very long time, you know.
Kudos to you on that.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
I was just telling Nick, because this is her first
time to come here with me, andPolo that's with us today is
same.
And I said, man, I rememberwhen I pulled in here one of the
very first times and it wasjust this one row of parking.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Yes, and it was gravel.
It wasn't even concrete, thenit was asphalt.
It was just the gravel parkinglot.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Yep, and I would come in here and shop.
And that's when Kim and I hitit off.
And to the ridiculous partwhere they would have to bring a
dolly to load up my shoppingexperience.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
It was literally like going to a home goods store and
that was, you know, obviouslyprior to COVID and the more wine
you had, the more trips youmade to your car with
merchandise.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Yes, but it got to the point where the guys would
bring y'all's big flatbed dollythat you have and load
everything out and yeah.
So I said, you know, beforelong I'm going to need my like
my parking spot.
So y'all can?
Speaker 3 (01:54):
yeah, exactly, we're just like personal shopping.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Not have to walk so far.
Yes, yeah, and now it's changedan asphalt parking lot that
holds you know about 200 cars,and we still expanded our
merchandise and we still haveexcellent wine, and so it's all
growing.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
And multiple tasting rooms yes, multiple locations
now from Fredericksburg all theway to Georgetown, Texas.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
That's just nuts.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
It is, it is the growth over the years is amazing
for Grape Creek and the Texaswine industry, but Grape Creek
has had a big part in that andbeen very fortunate to be part
of the Heath Family Brandslegacy.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
What started Grape Creek.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
So originally Grape Creek was started in the early
80s by a gentleman who was inthe oil and gas sector, got some
land out here, wanted to growsome grapes to get into the wine
industry.
At the time there wasn't a lotout here in the early 80s, there
was just a few guys out heredoing it sort of pioneering it,
and Mr Sims did it on his own assort of like a small family
(02:50):
operation for a period of timeand after his passing the family
chose to sell Grape Creek andthat was in the early 2000s.
And then it kind of in walksBrian Heath and Jennifer Heath
and kind of swept up Grape Creekin 06 and took it from what was
then about 2,500 caseproduction operation to now 2025
(03:13):
.
We're kind of on the precipiceof doing around 85,000 cases a
year of production on propertyand now multiple locations, as
we just mentioned, fromFredericksburg all the way to
Georgetown, and there's alwaysexpansion opportunities
happening.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
So I remember when I was here on a random whatever
Saturday afternoon and wastalking to Kim and then we were
and she was explaining the wholeheat side of things and what
was coming and the vintageportions, and of course you've
got um for people that don'tknow um.
You have different packages anddifferent memberships that you
can clubs, that you can join wedo.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
So there's around I guess five or six options right
now that you can do, um, justbased on what your preference is
.
And we see a fair bit of peopleactually are in multiple of
those options.
You know they really enjoy thekind of Tuscan style that comes
with Great Creek wines, but thenyou know what we really enjoy
sparkling wine.
(04:19):
So we need some of that as well.
So they're adding on multiplethings.
Some people are now gettingintroduced to our gin blossom
line, which we'll probably talkabout in depth here in a minute,
which is going to be our allkind of AVA driven kind of
premium line, mostly Cabernetdriven wines.
So they're getting different,varying levels based on people's
taste preferences, and that'swhat we aim to provide.
(04:41):
We want to be have somethingfor everybody.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
I love that.
I love that.
So, um, when the growth started, I mean they grabbed ahold of
this section.
Did they know that this?
Speaker 3 (04:55):
I don't know.
You know.
So it was just a smalloperation.
So great Creek at the time wasstill a hundred acre footprint
on the property.
There was, um, you know, abouta dozen or so acres of planted
grapes, and now it's still ahundred acre footprint here on
the home site or kind of ourmain location, if you will, and
we have around 28 acres ofgrapes now here on property.
(05:18):
And but we've expanded outsideof here.
So on this property, we expandedwith the addition of the Heath
Sparkling Tasting Room in 2019.
It's so beautiful, ultra modern.
It's like, if you love,something monochromatic and
modern, floor-to-ceiling glass,top-tier wines, top-tier
everything there.
That's the location and it'sright here, adjacent to Great
(05:41):
Creek, which is what initiallystarted it all and gave us the
opportunity to do that.
And then we've incorporated ourInvention Vineyards property
which is going to be out nearthe airport, on Highway 16 South
, just out of Fredericksburg.
So about 75 acres of propertythere, about 30 acres, 35 acres
in vines, so almost doublingwhat our capacity was for an
(06:03):
estate vineyard.
And then, just as of, I guess,june of last year, with the
introduction of Coleman Estatesafter the acquisition of Coleman
Cellars, so that's a 12 acrefootprint with around seven
acres in vines, so justexpanding our portfolio of
wineries, different styles,different themes and, like I
(06:24):
said, we have something foreverybody.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
You do, you do and when they arrive at your home
and you get that special boxthat says Heath on it.
It is like Christmas it is, andwe see a lot of members.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
You know social media , the power of social media, the
power of podcasting.
These days People get thosepackages in the mail and they're
filming those things.
They're like look, it's mymonthly allocation.
We love this.
Here's what we're going to do,and it has really taken off the
amount of kind of influencersthat are part of our program,
that utilize that platform ofGreat Creek to supplement their
(07:00):
platform, and then just theeveryday wine drinker who gets
an allocation five times a yearfrom us we hear those success
stories.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
That would be me, and it is phenomenal.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Yeah, we eat everything from three bottles
all the way to a case.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
So just as much as you want to drink, we'll provide
it.
It's insane.
And when it does show up, andwhen I have Nick, for instance
everybody knows Nick on my showand it drops off and there'll be
the two or three boxes, and I'mlike oh my gosh, wait till you
have Bellissimo, and then waittill you have the Rendezvous,
and then you have, I mean boomboom boom, and I know the names
of them more so than I do mychildren, and I know, yes,
(07:37):
invention, yeah, when I startedwith Grape Creek and Heath
Family Brands.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
It was just the Grape Creek portfolio of wines in
2018 when I started and sincethen we've added just in my
tenure we've added SparklingWine, heath Sparkling Wines in
2019.
We added the InventionVineyards line in 2022.
We're adding the Gin Blossomline.
We've added now Coleman Estates.
So we used to just have to knowaround 18 or 19 wines and the
(08:05):
last time I checked we'resomewhere around 65 different
labels that we're producing asfar as wine 65.
It is, it is.
It's a lot, but it coverseverything from a white wine
drinker to a red wine drinker toI want premium red wines, I
want vintage sparklings and wedo have some wines for those
(08:26):
sweet wine drinkers.
We have a small portfolio ofsweet wines, but the through and
through we have it all acrossthe gamut of the 65 wines.
So it's amazing 65.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
That is.
That goes back to the graveldrives.
That was here it is, and that'show it started.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
We started just as a small operation but we've
dedicated everything that we doto the quality of the wine and
the quality of the experienceand I think that's what's
propelled Great Creek and HeathFamily Brands from where it was
at the time of the acquisitionto Heath Family Brands in 06 to
what it is now.
That dedication and commitmentto the wine quality has not
(09:03):
waived.
One of those driving forces isobviously Jason Englert.
He has been the only winemakerin the history of Grape Creek
since his inception here withthe program in 2004.
He's been the brains of theoperations.
And over the years he's built ateam, yeah, and it's hard to get
on that team to be a part of it.
(09:23):
They're dedicated to theircraft and it's hard to get on
that team to be a part of it.
They're dedicated to theircraft and, like I said, they
crank out some of, in my opinion, some of the best wines in
history of Texas wines.
But then we also produce someexcellent wines that come from
California fruit and they're noslouches either.
Those are excellent, top quality, top tier wines that we're
producing and that's a testamentto the team and dedication that
(09:44):
they have.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
I've been to.
I've been to a lot of wineries.
I am an absolute wine snob andin every podcast that I have, I
am drinking wine and anythingkind of that I do.
Whether I'm riding my horse ora camel or whatever it is,
there's usually a glass of winenearby, or yes, or it's hidden,
hidden or there's something.
But yes, and I've done a lot oftastings.
(10:09):
I have been to the Napa and theIn-N-Out and what have you, and
I remember the very firsttasting that I did here and Kim
was actually the one that did mytaste.
That's her and her and I metthe very first time and we have
become besties ever since.
But there is not one wine inGreat Creek.
(10:29):
First of all, I know this isawkward, but I'm not, I'm not a
spitter which, but it there wasnot one that I went, eh, I don't
know, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Yeah, yeah, and we see that.
We see people come in and theycome back.
A lot of our members come backfor tastings, you know a couple
of times a year what's a newwine, what's a new vintage, and
each time they're like dang, youjust won't stop with the good
wine, like there's not one kindof odd duck in the bunch that we
don't drink.
And that makes it interestingfor from a consumer perspective,
(11:03):
because see varying, we seekind of consistent levels, I
guess, if you will, of our salesof wines across the portfolio.
There's not one that kind ofdominates each of those spaces.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
I was going to ask you about that.
Is there just one that you see?
That just.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
You know, early on in Grape Creek, I guess after the
Heath ownership and theintroduction of Bellissimo,
bellissimo was one of thosewines that was sort of a cult
following.
It really propelled Grape Creekonto the map for a lot of
places and a lot of Texas winedrinkers.
And now you look at the lineupand you're like they're all so
(11:39):
good, like Bellissimo is astaple in a lot of people's
minds.
But then they get to new wines.
Serendipity, we have the bottlesitting right here, is a member
only wine and it's asked forjust as much as the other wines,
and so it just it's interestingto see that on a daily basis.
You know, you might see whitewines outsell the reds or you
might see the reds outsell thewhites, but consistently across
(12:02):
the board there's not.
We don't make a bad wine.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
No, you do not and there's not there's.
I have a lot.
You know, own three liquorstores, so we have a lot of of
of things that will show up inin that box.
There's not one that I go.
No man, put that one to theback or save that one for a uh,
when we have to do a gift foryou know there's, there's just
not.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Sometimes you get one that you're like oh, this will
be a white elephant.
This is perfect, yes, but theGreat Creek wines don't seem to
be white elephants.
No, they are absolutely not.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
No, they are the most stunning elephants, but yeah,
it's very, very impressive.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
Yeah, it's really a testament to what we're able to
do year in and year out.
When you think about producing,you know, 80,000 cases of wine,
even 50,000 cases of wine, andthen we're strictly direct to
consumer, so there's not anybodyelse help peddling these wines
for us.
We do have a small wholesaleprogram that we do, mostly local
(13:02):
, just as a way for us tosupport the community and as a
way for our customers, ifthey're out supporting local
businesses in Fredericksburg, tostill consume the Great Creek
wine.
So we do have that, but acrossthe board.
You know we're selling outevery year, right, you know, 70,
80 000 cases of wine throughour six locations when we
(13:22):
decided that we would do this.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Um, you know, I'm from New Braunfels, texas.
We're a little, not so littleanymore.
And Fredericksburg is goingthrough the growth spurts, like
New Braunfels is, but Owningthree liquor stores and not
being able to have Great Creekin our stores is a struggle for
me.
So it was really cool we weretalking about doing this, doing
our Wondering series and sendingpeople because it is a
(13:47):
staycation for me here.
It's just a jog right down theroad, I'd say it's not far.
No, it is not far.
It's very easy for me to make ajog to come down here, but to
send our clients and people thatare regulars and saying, hey,
do you know?
And I'm like, absolutely, youguys have got to go.
First and foremost, wineriesare popping up all over the
place.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
But Grape.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Creek is, to me is a staple of Fredericksburg.
I think that's something thatthe atmosphere here is, above
and beyond your outside patioseating area, your dining area
inside, outside.
Um, I can, every single time,even just to swing by, knowing
(14:31):
I'm going to get my one freeglass of wine, knowing that I
have four cases at home it doesnot matter.
Yes, I'm going to still stop.
Sit on the patio and the guyswill come out.
Travis was one that waited onme forever and ever and ever out
there and um, I'd say, you know, you don't have to, I'll just
have a Bellissimo or yes.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
And so just knew, by, like knowing your dog's name, I
already knew what and sat downand have my glass and be like oh
, and then just yeah, alreadyknew what and sit down and have
my glass and be like oh and thenjust yeah, the atmosphere is
phenomenal and you do a greatand you mentioned something
about you send a lot of yourclients that come in and ask for
those wines at your liquorstores and that is one of the
reasons I think that helps drivethe fact of why we don't do
(15:12):
major distributions.
We want people to visit with usyou should.
We know our wines the bestExactly, we can tell you
seasonalities, which wines youshould be drinking at certain
times, to help kind of elevatethe profile, and we think we do
a pretty darn good job of takingthrough you this immersive
experience.
(15:33):
It really is, you know it mightonly be 30 to 40 minutes long
for your tasting, but by thetime you're done you're going to
know your server's first name.
You're probably going to haveheard about their five favorite
wines across the company.
They've probably told you.
You know what they drink on aTuesday regularly.
You know you're going to haveshared stories and that, to us,
is what really drives the pointhome, because the wine is
(15:56):
naturally going to sell itselfif it's a good product, and I
believe we have a good product.
But those stories and thatexperience you get at the bar is
actually what I think helps themost is because our servers get
to connect with the members andguests that visit with us and
you are building memories.
So when you go home and youopen that bottle of Bellissimo,
(16:16):
you think back to that time.
you were sitting out on thatpatio and you met this really
lovely couple next to youexactly where I was about to go
you just found like next thingyou know you're in business or
something like, or you're takingtrips together to go see other
places made the christmas cardlist you meet exactly up here.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
hey, we're heading down.
What are you guys doing?
Y'all want to meet up in GrapeCreek?
Let's go have an app.
Let's go enjoy this beautifulday.
A couple of glasses of wine,and then there'll be a table
that'll be over here and they'regoing.
Well, I don't know, and I'm notnot really the shy one I'll
jump up and go.
Here's what you need.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Here's what you need to try.
I've been coming here for avery long time.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
but let me tell you, there's not one thing that
you're going to be disappointedabout here, but yes.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
I always say, like if we could get you know, as
guests come visit with us and dotastings, it's important to
have one member in the buildingbecause they're so passionate
about what we do.
They're almost equally aspassionate as our staff members
and if they're really vocal,like yourself, they go to them
and be like look, just join thewine club.
You'll thank me later and thenwe'll.
(17:23):
We'll continue to see eachother.
You know, year after year we'llsee you at one of the events.
You know we'll be out here onthe patio, our paths will cross
and you hear those successstories and I think that's so
inspirational it's, and I thinkyou know, we do have all of
these beautiful spaces We'vecultivated.
Every patio offers somethingtotally different, totally
different.
So even on a Saturday, when yougo out to our patios, there's
slightly different demographicsthat choose different patios.
(17:46):
They're different groupings ofpeople, but they all have one
thing in common and they reallyenjoy the wine that we produce
and the environment we we canprovide.
And I think that's an instantconnection for people.
I mean, I've heard of peoplesaying I met my now boss on the
patio at Grape Creek sittingthere on a Saturday afternoon
drinking wine.
Next thing you know I'm in hisoffice the next Monday applying
(18:08):
for a job.
Right, and that is incredible.
I mean, that's sort of how Ilanded at Grape Creek.
I was a wine club memberpreviously, out on the patio
with my family and kind oflooking for my forever home as a
career, and I said I'll work acouple of days a week to see
what the wine industry is like.
And now I've been here sevenand a half years and I'm fully
(18:31):
employed and have been and Ihaven't looked back since 2018.
So it's just one of thoselittle success stories that I
enjoy telling about, kind of mystory with Grape Creek.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
I kind of feel like I'm family with Grape Creek.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
You are at this point .
I think so.
You are at this point.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
For such a long time, but I love it and it's you know
I can.
Growing up, born and raised inNew Braunfels in FFA 4-H.
Growing up showing animals.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Well, we're about to have a lot to talk about.
Here we start talking aboutanimals.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Yes, so I spent a lot of time in Gillespie County
growing up and I've won a lot ofshows.
I'm very, very competitive andit's just really, really fun.
And now being an adult andenjoying wine and watching the
growth of everything happen hereand being able to tell people
(19:21):
about Great Creek is just reallyit's really awesome.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
It is, it's really awesome.
It is, and we you mentioned.
You know your upbringing in 4-Hand SSA.
It's one of those.
You know, getting a biggerintroduction of people of what
viticulture and the winerybusiness has to offer is a big
part of the growth of theindustry and that's been a big
part of the wine industry herein Texas for the last, I would
(19:45):
say, five years is introducingthose younger generations to
what we can do, not only showingthem those pathways of
viticulture in college and youcan go to all these universities
now and learn strictly just howto make wine, how to maintain
vineyards and get into theindustry.
And I think that's one of thethings that has helped, because
I would say that really thatpush started about five to eight
(20:07):
years ago in the kind ofcollegiate sector about trying
to push people into thosepathways and show them what the
availability was, and it's justpropelled the growth of the
industry.
Obviously there wasn't a lot ofgrowth from, like you know,
2000 to like 2023, you know,given the time of COVID.
But outside of that we'restarting to see a resurgence of
(20:29):
growth start to happen.
There's some places startpopping up.
You see less and less for salesigns on kind of vineyard sites,
and so I think that's great.
Any growth in the industry isgreat From a competitor
standpoint.
We understand that nowconsumers have more options,
which just means we have to getbetter at what we do in the
tasting room, and the experiencethat we provide people and
(20:51):
that's one thing that we focuson a lot of with our team is hey
guys, we're not necessarily oneof 25 now, we're one of 35.
Now there's more options.
Here's what we're going to doand that's something that we
made a commitment to probablyfour or five years ago.
We made a commitment to sort ofcontinuing education within our
(21:13):
staff and elevating the levelof service we could provide, and
I think it's paid off two,three fold in the experience
that we can do just by providingthat experience of continuing
education for our staff whilealso educating some of the
younger generations as well onwine, what there is to offer
from a career standpoint, andthat it's yeah, it's fun, but
(21:35):
it's also hard work too.
Um, and that it's yeah, it'sfun, but it's also hard work too
.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
It is.
It is hard work, but it's it is.
It is fun it is.
You know, I've got my resort onthe Gwad and I spend a lot of
time with my customers andclientele.
I run the bar down below so I'malways talking and promoting
things, um, but here tastings,it's really it.
(21:59):
It is important.
It is important that thisperson behind here, behind the
tasting room, the bar area,loves what they do.
They do and we currently—You've definitely got to be a
people, person, you do.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
And actually I was looking at some stuff earlier
this week and across the HeathHammy Brands company we have
around 150 to 160 employees,really Um, and it doesn't.
You know, some days it seemslike we employ that many, some
days it doesn't, um, but youknow of those.
A big portion of them are makeup our retail sector and so we
(22:32):
dedicated a lot of our time tomaking sure that they can
provide that experience thatguests love.
You know, guests like yourself,what you loved about Great
Creek in the early 2000s to late2000s when it was a little bit
smaller.
We still have that feel andthat conversation and it's a
relaxed refinement environmentand that's really what we aim to
(22:56):
do.
And then the rest of those 160employees, what we aim to do.
And then the rest of those 160employees, you know, outside of
retail make up our vineyardproperty team.
They make up the winemakingteam.
We have a dedicated team thatis there five days a week to
handle any of the concerns ofour wine club members.
We now have a concierge personwho helps with the member guest
(23:16):
relations.
That helps them from getting tobookings to if you want to do a
proposal at grape Creek, um, ifyou have questions about
something, we have somebodythere who can assist you, but we
want it to be that personaltouch.
So when we launched ourconcierge program, we reached
out to Kim, who a ton of ourmembers absolutely love, and so
this made sense for us is ourmembers love her the best she's
(23:39):
able at providing that level ofservice they're looking for.
Let's put the two and twotogether, and over the last six
to seven months that we'velaunched that program, it has
had nothing but success stories,which is what we wanted.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
So we couldn't be more thrilled.
So when people come to visitGreat Creek, let's talk about
what they can do.
So first of all, you've got howmany tasting rooms now.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
So on the Grape Creek property we have kind of one
main tasting room that we useevery day and then we have a
backup tasting room that we useon the weekends to help expand
our capacity.
And then we have obviously ourother locations each have
tasting rooms, with HeathSparkling Wines having a tasting
dedicated tasting room on site.
Invention Vineyards has the onesouth of Fredericksburg on
(24:23):
Highway 16, has a dedicatedspace.
And then we are currently inrenovations on our Coleman
Estate property, so we're hopingto be inside that new space.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
And that Coleman.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
Estate's property is where that property is going to
be, about seven minutes to theeast of Grape Creek, so just on
the other side of Stonewall,sort of between Stonewall and
High, right on the edge ofGillespie County there.
So we are fully renovating thattasting room space right now
from the previous version ofwhat it was.
We're still open but stilldoing the renovations.
(24:53):
We're hoping to be in thatspace early May and then we're
going to complete a bistro onthat property as well.
We know the need for smallbites.
People love the food.
So we've partnered with stouts.
They provide our restaurantservices for our great creek
property.
We're going to expand and dothat with our bistro at coleman
estates as well.
And then we have our two urbanlocations currently.
So we have our small tastingroom in georgetown and then we
(25:13):
have our urban tasting room onmain street in fredericksburg.
Yes, so those are the cases thatyou can taste any of the wines
from any of our portfolios, justabout where they'll carry the
gamut.
Most of them are dedicated towhatever they are on each of the
sites.
So if you go to Invention,they're probably going to try
and get you to try the Inventionwines.
If you need to try a GreatCreek wine.
Probably going to have aBelissimo sitting back there if
(25:35):
you wanted to try one.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Yes, what is ironic that you bring up the main
street location is I would stophere just to let you know my
patterns and because I am notpredictable whatsoever, stop
here, have my glass on the patio, go into town, do whatever.
I'm usually at carol bolton'sor doing some picking up some
shopping yep, go by the mainstreet location, grab my glass.
(25:59):
There, the sweetest people, notsaying that you do not have the
sweet, but the main streetlocation because there's
thousands and thousands andthousands of people that will
stroll through downtownfredericksburg on any given
weekend, holiday, not holidaywhatever, but the main street
people.
I could put them in my pocketand take them everywhere.
(26:20):
They are so, so adorable.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
They're absolute gold .
And you hit the nail on thehead with the amount of foot
traffic.
It's insane.
The Main Street corridor inFredericksburg is probably if
you compared Main Street trafficto winery traffic in
Fredericksburg, I feel like youwould come up with similar
numbers and so they have alittle space there at our main
street.
It's a hallway and they will getyou in, they will get you out.
(26:44):
If you want to take a glass togo and continue shopping, which
I'm sure you have done, you cantake a glass to go, which we
love about Fredericksburg is youcan walk with a glass of wine
and do some shopping.
It not only helps us with space, but I'm pretty sure it helps
the retail sector as well.
A little liquid courage to makethat purchase, which we love as
(27:05):
well.
It's so good.
It is so good.
So we offer tastings all of ourportfolios across all the board.
Something that is unique toGrape Creek that we currently
have here is we offer a fullproduction tour.
We really pride ourselves onhaving a full vineyard.
We have a full productionfacility, so we will take you on
a tour of that.
We will explain you the ins andthe outs of what it takes for
(27:26):
us to make those 80,000 cases ofwine here at this property.
Now we won't be giving away anyof Jason's trade secrets, but we
will take you through justabout everything.
We'll show you the barrels,we'll show you the tanks.
We'll even let you sample somered wine out of a barrel that's
not quite ready to be bottledyet.
So that way, after you comeback and visit with us, maybe
the next year, six months later,that wine might be in a bottle
(27:49):
you could try it again, relivethose memories of what you had
when you had the tour with usand then kind of one of the
unique one-offs that we do onthe tastings, which is something
we incorporated really from theget-go.
Anytime anyone's doing asparkling wine tasting with us
over at Heath Sparkling Wines,we do a food and wine pairing.
So we offer a food and winepairing.
I love that.
Yes, and we have Chef Ivan Knopp, so we kind of jokingly call
(28:13):
him the wine Viking.
He's got a big beard, long hair, great guy though, cute and
cuddly if you will, but justknocks it out of the park with
these bites of food, and so theydo a seasonal menu.
So if you go in two or threetimes a year, you're probably
going to get a different bite offood each time.
You're still going to get tosample some of those same
vintages of wines, possibly, butfour new food options for you,
(28:37):
anywhere from maybe a lightappetizer all the way to a
dessert and everything inbetween.
Um, I know even at one pointthere was maybe an introduction
of caviar somewhere on the menu,which I know is quite popular.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Yeah, it was fan favorite, I think um, we just
had a caviar conversation withour wine rep in new brunfels and
we were just talking about shesaid it was down in
fredericksburg, blah.
So we were talking about thiswhole thing and that happened to
come up.
Do people need to makereservations for tours?
Can you walk in?
So we offer both.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
So we do tasting reservations and tour
reservations.
We love people that plan ahead.
It allows us to be a littlemore prepared so we know what's
coming down the pipeline.
But always we do our absolutebest to incorporate walk-ins the
best we can, especially if it'sa last minute thing.
We will try our best.
But sometimes it just gets hardto get people in if we're booked
out.
We certainly have capacitylimits that we can reach on
(29:29):
tours, especially Saturdays.
Typically those will sell outby about Wednesday or Thursday
the week of going into aSaturday.
So we definitely tell people,plan you know, early in that
week.
If you're coming with us lateon the weekend, on Saturday or
Sunday, plan ahead by a week,give yourself some time, reserve
your spot so you know you canget in with us, especially when
(29:50):
you talk about some of thesmaller locations because their
capacities aren't quite what wecan handle at grape Creek as far
as the space.
But we do the tour seven days aweek so you can visit with us
seven days a week and do thetour tasting seven days a week
at all of our locations as well.
So we're there's really notmany days that somebody is not
here willing to pour you somesome wine and talk with you
about it?
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Yes, so before we wrap up, I want to hit the gym
blossom.
Yes, talk to me.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Yes, what are we doing here?
So gin blossom, um Blossom itwas.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
That's this guy, you guys, exactly.
So it's on our glass here, ourbeautiful glasses with the
butterflies.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
So Gin Blossom was actually the name.
Go for it.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
The day the box showed up with the butterflies,
I'm like who?
What's happening?
Speaker 3 (30:31):
right here.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
What is happening?
Speaker 3 (30:32):
It is.
So Gin Blossom was actually anickname that Brian had had for
his wife, jennifer, and theytravel frequently doing some
kind of exploratory trips out inNapa and Sonoma so that they
can see different experiencesthat we might be able to help
incorporate here.
And at dinner one night theykind of found themselves looking
through a list of wines andit's like we're paying, you know
(30:55):
, 200, 250 for a bottle of wine.
We have a really greatwinemaker on our staff.
Why is he not just doing thisfor us?
Like, let's create a reallyspecial wine, a premium wine
that we really want to drink,and I bet you there's a lot of
people in Texas who have beensearching for the same thing.
(31:15):
So let's make it available.
So we launched the Gin Blossomline.
Originally it started out as asingular Cabernet and then it
kind of flourished.
So the original introductorywine amazing name, scary good.
It didn't just get the name, ithas lived up to it every
vintage, since there's three orfour vintages of that wine.
Now that was the one that kindof started it all.
(31:37):
So since then we now contractaround a dozen or so really
special vineyard sites in Napaand focusing all on Cabernet
wine.
There is a Cabernet Franc inthere from the Knights Valley,
which is super special, just nota big vineyard site, so it is a
limited production wine, butthen across the board we're
going to do around seven oreight AVA driven Cabernet.
(31:59):
So if you like wines that aregoing to be from more of the
mountain, we have a HowellMountain-style wine for you that
comes from that AVA.
If you like valley-style NapaValley, we got a Napa Valley one
.
We got a Rutherford, we've gotjust the gamut of Cabernets.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
If you're a Cabernet lover and you love the quality
of wine that you've had with usin any of our other portfolios,
come try the Jim Blossom wines.
That is the creme de la cremewhen it comes to Heath Family
Grants, oh my goodness.
So for whatever reason and Idon't know how this happened,
but something somewhere alongthe line I don't know it was
through our liquor stores orwhatever but there'd be like a
random bottle that would show upat my house and I was like,
okay, you know maybe this is onethat they want us to try.
But no, this was when I won thevery first time that the bottle
(32:49):
showed up, and I think it wasmaybe a singular bottle, or
maybe it was just two that cameearly on, and I'm thinking, okay
, maybe this is just.
I was thinking it's from thisother deal that they were.
You know, try this try this andthen maybe put it in your
stores.
And then I looked at it and Iread it what?
No, I opened it, I didn't evenpay much right out the gate.
(33:13):
Gotta try it okay, we got abutterfly.
We got a wine, a littlebutterfly on it, this, let's
just try this see what this isabout.
And then I drank it.
I said what in the hell is thisfull-bodied nonsense?
Of flavor.
And then I turned it around.
I was like, look at my people,look at them.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
It was a really pivotal part, and now, when the
butterflies show up.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
I'm like.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
You look forward to it, right?
Speaker 2 (33:34):
Well, I move those to the back.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
I those to the back.
I'm like we're not going to popthose open when the people that
.
Yeah, exactly, the Gin Blossomline was a pivotal kind of move
for us as far as a company,because we felt like our staff
and ourselves as a company wewanted to look for something
that was a little more, had alittle more push to it, a little
more oomph you know a littleelegance a little more style, a
little more class, something alittle different than what we
produce in some of our otherlines.
And so when the Gin Blossomlines came out, it um, just to
(34:07):
see the look on people's facesas they try one of those wines
the first time, or, uh, you knowany of those things, the
stories they tell.
Like you said, you tried thewine and then you realized you
had it and then you tried to goget another bottle of it or
something.
You know, it's those storiesthat we hear about, those wines,
people celebrating, you know, a25th wedding anniversary hey,
(34:27):
this is the wine I'm going toserve at my wedding.
You know, these are the typesof wines that you hear about and
we're now making themaccessible to people here in
Texas with a wine program that'sgot decades of history behind
it.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
It is so good.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
They are.
They are, if you ask the staffon my front porch.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
It is like oh Lord it is.
It is, and I'm not just sayingbecause it was a surprise, but
it was the way that I did thewhole thing and I was like, okay
, you know, let's just try this.
Let's see what just showed uphere today.
Speaker 3 (34:59):
Let's just see how good it is and then go from
there.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
And then I took a drink and I was like holy
pickles, it is.
What is this?
Speaker 3 (35:06):
It's a totally different experience and we felt
that that market was lacking.
And since we have done it andlaunched the Jim Blossom Wines,
our kind of intuition wascorrect.
People are coming in andthey're trying our wines and
they're committing right away tojoining one of our wine clubs.
But then they're like but we'realso looking for something else
(35:27):
.
Like what else do you have inaddition to?
And that is really kind ofwhere the exploration is coming.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
Another big reason why I love Grape Creek because
I've got stuff that shows upevery quarter.
It's all organized deliveries,but yes, but the surprise factor
of how y'all did that and itwas the whole.
It's like Santa came in July.
Speaker 3 (35:54):
It was Christmas and it was.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
you know it was a lot of thought behind that.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
It was a slow.
We wanted to.
You did it right.
We wanted to do somethingdifferent than what we've had.
We didn't want to put a bigbillboard out there, build a big
building and then say, hey,come, try this.
Absolutely didn't.
It was a slow introduction ofthose wines, sort of an
indoctrination, if you will, of,hey, we know what you like from
us, but give this a try.
Like, hey, try this one.
(36:19):
And you know, when you have areally good friend who you've
been drinking wine with for along time and you all know each
other really well, and they justslide a glass to you and are
like, hey, try this.
And they kind of give you thatlook, that's what it was with
the Jim Bloss Boston wines is.
We would have people here andwe'd be like hey, we know you
love bellissimo, but like buthey, why don't you try?
This.
That's exactly what it was seetheir faces light up and it's
(36:42):
just you've blown their mind andthey don't know what it is.
And then you explain to themwhat it is and it's just like a
craving it's so never saw itcoming.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
It's so never saw it coming.
No, was not ready for it, whichis the best surprise ever.
And to one, the labeling, theeverything, was a full-on twist.
Yes, it was totally different,totally different.
Which was like, which was why Inever expected which is maybe
another.
I mean, they, we all have ourbrands.
My brand is unpredictable andthat was an unpredictable move
(37:19):
and it was by far brilliant.
Speaker 3 (37:20):
It was and it's uh, there was a lot of.
There was a lot of people andthose conversations, um on what
do.
But I think one of the one ofthe driver driving factors of
that label, um, is going to beJennifer herself, brian's wife,
and she had a family member whoactually had drawn a picture of
a butterfly and sort of giftedit to her, and so when we
(37:43):
decided, like okay, we're goingto put something on the label,
it was really easy for us to go.
Actually, we want to do thisbutterfly, but there's something
to be said about subtlety anddetails and the fact that if you
actually looked at each of themaybe seven or eight different
lines in that portfolio, each ofthe butterflies are a slightly
different color, designating aseparate AVA.
(38:03):
So we have everything from sortof kind of like a really soft,
kind of like magenta, all theway up to this kind of like dark
purple, almost blue color, justspanning in that range, which
might drive you to believe thatJennifer's favorite color is
purple, which would be correct,which is why it's on the label
(38:24):
of the wine that's named afterher, which is fitting and people
love it and they have theirfavorites.
Some of them have a favoritebecause of the color of the
butterfly because, it remindsthem of a birthstone.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
Some of them I don't care what color that butterfly
is, it's so good, I don't reallyhave any.
Speaker 3 (38:38):
I I don't know I can't pick a favorite.
Um I you know a lot of peopleyou know love scary good.
We wrote it on the bottle foryou.
We made it easy, I think butthere's so many of those wines
that are excellent and we'rejust really in the infantile
stage which is scary good itreally is you know, we're only
(39:01):
on like as far as producingbottles, we've only released, um
, you know, the first vintagewas the 2016, then there was a
couple of non-vintage yearsbecause of the fires out in
california, right, and we're nowup to as far as, like,
releasing maybe like vintagethree or four for some of these
wines, and some of them it'sjust vintage number one because
of when we were able to securethe contract.
(39:21):
So we really are in thebeginning stages of something
which I think is really amazing.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
Not only is the whole process of how you guys did
that, but the fact that you havethis very um, soft, subtle
blend of a butterfly on thefront and then you labeled one
of the wines scary good is sucha twist on totally, which I mean
(39:47):
if that doesn't intrigue you itis and it um it's.
Speaker 3 (39:53):
it's one of those things that I think a creative
mind has to be behind.
And.
I don't know that I'm quite oneof those creative minds, but
somebody saw that and go andsaid this wine is scary good,
but then let's put a butterfly.
Let's put this beautiful littlebutterfly.
And I think that's so amazingfrom a marketing perspective,
(40:23):
from a conversation perspective,from an imagination perspective
to have kind of those powerfulof words being scary, good and
you put just the most regalbutterfly you could find with.
It is really part of the story.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
Marketing is so huge in the wine industry story.
Marketing is so huge in thewine industry and there is um I
am, if you could get in here,and it's you want to talk about
scary.
Yeah, I was gonna say yeah,yeah, I have um, yes, it's,
there's not too many people thatI allow to get because I am
such a different, strange, butit absolutely is 100% okay.
(40:55):
But taking the risk of doingthat and realizing that you
would not believe how importantmarketing and labels are in wine
.
If you think about consumersthat go into your total wine
stores.
You go into my little tinythree liquor stores Gypsy
(41:17):
Liquors and Canyon Lake.
You know it's this small townand from your larger grocery
stores to people are not gonnago and they're not gonna read
that little label that says it'sgot a hint of cherry and a
little black pepper and a littlethis and a little of that, says
it's got a hint of cherry and alittle black pepper, and a
little this and a little that,and no, they are.
(41:38):
It is label, label, label it'salmost like location, location,
location.
But in the wine it is label isso crucial?
Speaker 3 (41:47):
it absolutely is, and there's that process actually
for label approval you have tobe brave.
Speaker 2 (41:50):
It's quite have to be strenuous to get a label
approved.
Speaker 3 (41:51):
Yes, not only get a name approved, but now youuous
to get a label approved.
Yes, not only get a nameapproved, but now you have to
get a label approved.
And there are certain ways youcan do things, and I think we're
fortunate in the fact that wedon't compete on the shelf with
everybody else.
You know, if you think aboutwalking into an average liquor
store and there's maybe ahundred to 200 bottles and for a
(42:12):
consumer, let's say, you say Iwant a bold red wine, so you're
instantly think Cabernet.
Okay, now you've narrowed itdown to 50 wines.
How do you?
Know, do you want the?
one, you know, that has apicture of this on it.
Do you want the one that isvery minimalist?
Do you want one that's over thetop?
So that just kind of thatsensory overload of what's on a
(42:34):
label can be quite challenging,and so that is one of the
reasons, one of the otherfactors that says hey, come
visit us.
We got a really cool, reallynice, simple, easy label for you
.
But I'm also going to walk youthrough the wines, so we're
going to take a lot of theguesswork out of it for you and
explain why we do what we do.
And there's little nuances.
(42:54):
So even on the bottle we havehere, we're talking about this
bottle from invention vineyards,which is our conflation line.
You know you can't see it, butthose those little lines in the
eye and the V are actually kindof reminiscent of eye beams.
The reason we did that, we madeit textured, is because that
location is what we callindustrial chic, and when you go
to that location, the tastingroom has eye beams everywhere
that are painted black.
(43:14):
I love it.
So you get a little hint ofokay, what makes this label
different than the other ones?
Oh, you know what I rememberwhen I was at Invention and I
saw those eye beams that framedin the tasting room, framed in
the red brick walls that we haveat that location.
I'm getting it in the label too.
Like that takes some stayingpower to do and some creativity
(43:35):
to make happen, and that's oneof those things.
Speaker 2 (43:38):
when you make 60 something different wines and
they're between five differentlabels, four different labels,
you get a lot of experience atdoing and that's something that
we really put a lot of effortinto that is one thing that I
would love to and and I can'treiterate enough, is for Grape
Creek and Heath and Inventionand the Gin Blossom is that it
(44:00):
is as much as you would love totrust the label when you are out
and about and you are at thesewine stores and liquor stores
and grocery stores and anywherethat you can purchase wine, you
find yourself trusting the label.
Speaker 3 (44:18):
You do and you have to put a lot of trust into it,
and then you go home and you'relike, okay, this is shit.
Absolutely, and I think youfeel let down.
Speaker 2 (44:24):
You absolutely do.
It's so disappointing becauseI'm so excited about the label
and you don't know what wentwrong with the wine.
Speaker 3 (44:32):
Was it potentially a winemaking thing that happened
over time?
Was it the wine not storedproperly?
Huge deal so there's a coupleof different factors and when
you buy direct from a winery youknow a couple things peace of
mind, storage is utmost takencare of.
Speaker 2 (44:53):
Let me tell you guys, and this is something that I
want to, and I'm so glad youbrought this up, and I don't
mean to interrupt you, no,you're good, this is so big for
me because you guys are thatpersonable and that involved and
you pay attention to texasweather.
If you guys do not know texasweather, it can go from what
were we at 33?
(45:13):
this in the middle of the night,like two days ago, is in the
80s and we had a massive fire inglasgow today from 33, 33
degrees to 80 degrees is what weare doing in less than 24 hours
in fredericksburg, in newbrunfels, texas, in, in in texas
, so that can happen.
You guys will pick up the phoneor you will send an email.
You, you will let every one ofyour members know.
(45:35):
By the way, this is whathappened in Texas, in case you
guys were in.
Wherever your, your uh wine'sgoing to be delayed, or it's
going to, because you're notgoing to ship it in the heat.
You are not going to take therisk of ruining your wine.
It is not going to show up on110 degree weather in August the
(45:57):
5th, not if you can help it Now.
You know.
No, yes, but you guys are.
So.
Speaker 3 (46:02):
We do.
We used to do a June wine clubshipment for those like yourself
that have been in the wine clubwith us for a while.
We used to do an early June,mid to June shipment and over
the last I guess six years westarted moving that shipment
more and more into.
May, and the reason was is wewant to get people their wine,
but we don't want it at the costof the quality of wine.
(46:23):
We don't want to risk thequality of the wine by waiting
and believe it or not, as we'vegotten hotter over the years.
Um, we've realized okay, we gotto get that shipment in May to
get people out so they have,especially for those visitors
who aren't close to us.
They can't always come try thewines, they can't always do a
pickup of the wines and we havea pretty big following of people
(46:43):
that live outside of kind ofthat three hour driving radius,
who can only maybe get heretwice a year.
So they rely on us to handlethe wines properly.
Speaker 2 (46:51):
I can get here and I rely on y'all us to handle the
lines properly.
I can get here and I rely ony'all.
I can get here and I still rely.
Yes, you don't even know if thestruggle is real.
Like I said, I stopped intotown, I stopped main street, I
stopped out of town and then Ihead back home and then I'm
waiting for it on my porch.
Speaker 3 (47:07):
We try climate control, all of our facilities
do climate control shipping asbest as we possibly can and that
is part of our dedication tothe quality of the wine making
and the quality and care of thewine from basically us to your
doorstep.
So we we fully encompass thedirect to consumer along the
(47:28):
direct route to the consumer.
Speaker 2 (47:30):
We are monitoring everything and we stand behind
you absolutely do, and becauseI've been a member from way back
when I remember when that wasthey?
Everybody has growing pains,everybody figures out everything
.
And, yeah, we had I don't knowif there's a couple bottles,
whatever come and was like hey,I just want you guys to know
(47:51):
this is the heat really got ahold of this one, and oh my gosh
.
So epic, and they're like youknow what, and the heat really
got ahold of this one, and oh mygosh.
Speaker 3 (47:56):
So epic, and they're like you know what?
And now that we do a Mayshipment and we don't do a June,
we get people calling us inJuly or August and they're like
um when is our wine?
Speaker 2 (48:05):
When's my next shipment?
When can I get more wine and umyou know?
Speaker 3 (48:09):
if we, if somebody needs wine, we will get it out
to you the absolute best.
But If we, if somebody, needswine we will get it out to you
the absolute best we can.
But it's one of those thingslike when you're in high demand
and you're a hot ticket item um,people want the wine they do,
and so we can't get enough tothem sometimes and I know you're
one of them I am absolutely oneof them, and I'm not that far,
and you need more wine in Julyand August.
Speaker 2 (48:28):
I need more May 1st and 15th and the 30th.
Speaker 3 (48:31):
My next one is October, that's not going to
work.
Speaker 2 (48:33):
No, it doesn't.
No, it doesn't.
So anybody that is watchingfollowing and you guys need me
to do a stop and drop.
I've come through, fred, allthe time.
Yeah, it's just a personal shopfor you.
Absolutely, I know exactly whatyou guys need.
In fact, I'm not even going toask, I'm just going to show up
with a couple of butterflies anda couple of hot ticket items
(48:57):
and you guys will thank me later.
Grape Creek, Fredericksburg,Texas.
You've got Heath SparklingWines on this property.
Here there's the Grape CreekTasting Room on Main Street.
Speaker 3 (49:15):
Georgetown is.
Grape Creek as well, and then wehave the Invention location on
Highway 16 South.
It's two and a half miles,three miles off of Main Street.
So Venture to say it's probablythe closest full production
facility that you can get fromthe grape to the bottle process
that you're going to get to mainstreet is right there at
(49:36):
invention vineyards on highway16.
It's so good and then so good,coming online with a completion
of the renovations here.
This may still open now if youdon't mind walking through a
construction zone, but we'reopen.
We have our coleman estatesproperty.
So, a little different, we'regoing to do farmhouse modern,
we're going to paint the wallswhite, we're going to give black
(49:57):
trim, we're going to go withneutral earth tones and we're
going to do an open concept.
And then a whole new line ofwines to support it.
So, wines you haven't heard fromus.
I can give a sneak peek, Iguess, and kind of tell you
what's coming down the pipelineGo Great Creek.
(50:18):
Hasn line go a great creekhasn't done a traditional style
malbec as a red wine.
We've always done a rose ofmalbec, but we will be releasing
with the columbina states wine.
We are going to do a rose ofmalbec for that, or a
traditional malbec red wine forthe columbina states wine.
We're also going to accompanyit with a sprinkling of maybe
some California wines that wehaven't done before.
So possibly you're going to seea Sonoma County Pinot Noir on
(50:42):
the shelf, um, to come and taste.
And then I think, what is goingto be a fan favorite when you
release here in three weeks,we're going to do a rosé of
Syrah.
We're going to take big juicy,jammy Syrah and we're going to
make a rosé out of it and it'sgoing to be dry big juicy jammy,
syrah, and we're going to makea rosé out of it and it's going
to be dry.
Speaker 2 (51:00):
I literally cannot wait because I am everybody's
got their their, their tastesand their flavors.
I am not a sweet person.
I love.
I love my dry and yeah, you hadme at rosé all day and the dry
dry, dry, we, we do it.
Speaker 3 (51:13):
That's not to take anything away from this, no, not
at all like sweet wines.
Um, a lot of our sweet winedrinkers.
They buy those wines by thecases.
Our bread and butter for whatwe do is dry style wines.
A lot of our portfolio is goingto be dry reds.
We're going to tease you with acouple of dry rosés.
We do dry rosé of malbec, we'regoing to do a rosé of Nouveira
(51:34):
and now we're going to do a dryrosé of Syrah to go with it, and
then we have really crisp,really clean, what I would say
are elegant red wines or whitewines.
That's what we're going to havefor you too, on the white wine
profile.
So each tasting room has alittle bit of something
different from the white wineperspective.
Speaker 2 (51:55):
I, I am so excited if you come to Great Creek and you
don't find anything you need tostick to you need to stick to
Welch's Grape Droops we'll pointyou over to.
Speaker 3 (52:03):
We'll point you to our friends over at at Garrison
Brothers.
They do an excellent job.
Speaker 2 (52:09):
They do a great job of whiskey.
Speaker 3 (52:11):
They do a great job the other way, we will as long
as you support our industry andsupporting the alcohol industry
in the state of Texas, we loveit.
We will point you in thedirection of a local operation
for you to enjoy.
Great Creek doesn't have thewine for you, but I would be
shocked if we don't havesomething.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (52:30):
And yes, you were going to want to unfollow and
unlike and the whole thing's,because I am 1 million percent,
yeah, and Great Creek a hundredpercent.
I am so excited about the, theColeman deal and the Rose.
(52:50):
Oh yes, so good, so good.
I cannot wait.
Speaker 3 (52:52):
Relaxing farmhouse vibes with the same quality of
wine.
Speaker 2 (52:57):
I love it, that's such a good, solid twist.
Once again, I love y'allsurprises, I love what y'all are
doing.
I am a huge supporter.
I am, yeah, one of the one ofthe first and foremost, and, and
you guys have y'all got meforever.
I love it forever, forever, yes.
Speaker 3 (53:15):
I tell everyone new.
Speaker 2 (53:16):
Absolutely not, please, thank you, yes, yes, if
not, it's nothing for me to zipover here in a, in a, in a road
trip, so yeah.
Speaker 3 (53:24):
And you just got to stop on by and maybe do some
shopping while you're there, yes, and everybody.
Speaker 2 (53:28):
When you guys get here you come to Great Creek,
tell them Gypsy Mama sent you.
They will know who I am.
Ask for Kim, go, shake her hand, give her a big hug.
She's a hugger, just like I amwhere I'm huge huggers, we love.
She loves big.
Yeah, she is a rock star, thisguy Richard, come have some
tastings.
Talk the talk.
Your knowledge is above andbeyond so appreciative.
Speaker 3 (53:52):
I just I love it.
I've been very fortunate.
I love it, it's a great programfrom an employee perspective,
from a consumer perspective.
Everything is going in theright direction for Heath Famous
Brands and if you want to be apart of it, come by, come visit
with us.
Come try the wine we will showyou.
Speaker 2 (54:10):
Yes, we will share all the links, all the locations
we'll show you.
Speaker 3 (54:17):
yes, we will share all the links all the locations
um hours, how to get to thetours, you name it.
We'll probably link everythingup for instagram as well
beautiful all of our socialmedia um, and that way, I know a
big portion of your followingis social media uh driven, so
we'll get you all used to that.
We have an excellent marketingteam.
They're updating daily.
Um, I actually just did a tvshow yesterday so that's awesome
.
So if you want to see me in,action.
Speaker 2 (54:40):
I can't even believe I'm sitting here doing a podcast
in great Creek knowing yeah,absolutely.
Speaker 3 (54:45):
And we cleared out the tasting room just for you.
Speaker 2 (54:47):
Hey, I have gone by here just to go walk and go to
the bathroom, having my glass ofBelissimo out in the patio and
there'd be like, look at them.
With that, they opened up theback room for there's 30, 40
people in there.
So good, I feel so special.
This is special.
This is what we do for all ofour members.
We roll out the red carpet.
I'm telling you, yeah, and ifyou guys are looking for any
(55:16):
type of decor and what have youfor your home, Drop Kim a little
note, Promise you she will findit.
Literally half of my livingroom is grape grape decor.
Oh my gosh, Wine presses thingsthat I'm going.
You're not going to really keepthis here, Are you?
And she's like Tiffany, like itwill just look so good in my
living room.
Speaker 3 (55:30):
You know, you do.
Speaker 2 (55:31):
You guys come visit.
I appreciate you.
Thank you, thank you so much.
Thank you for having us, thankyou for having me, thank you.
Such a gem it was great.
Speaker 3 (55:39):
Um, I'm glad we we got you to stop by.
Speaker 2 (55:42):
I just got me to stop by.
It's throwing me out.
It's the problem.
Yeah, it is, it is.
Speaker 3 (55:51):
I'm glad.
I hope all of your listenershave enjoyed it.
If you haven't been to GreatCreek, like I said, they will
trust me during the week, comeon the weekend, come to enjoy it
, schedule it schedule it, andif you can't hurry, don't be in
here, just come and really relax.
I promise you you're not goingto want to leave.
Speaker 2 (56:08):
Yeah, You're not going to leave.
You'll sit out here in theunderneath these huge trees.
Exactly, we do trees Exactly.
They're used to me, it's fine.
They're used to throwing me out, it's fine.
Yes, yeah.
And if you buy too much,they've got people with dollies.
They will take it and they willwheel it right to your car.
They've been doing that for mefor years and years.
Yes, yeah, it's good time.
(56:29):
Yep, thank you.
That's our favorite part, andcut.
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