C.L. Butaud Wines -- Two Reds from Texas High Plains

With a few nits to pick.

When hopeful farmers started planting vines in the Texas High Plains in the 1980s, they soon found out that the chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon and pinot noir vines they ambitiously planted didn’t flourish in that vast, flat, dry windswept region of hot Summers and cold Winters. They did, however, notice that the climate there resembled the conditions of such Mediterranean regions as southern France and Spain. The general transitioning to grapes like marsanne and roussanne for white wines and tempranillo, mourvèdre and grenache for reds paid off. When I visited the High Plains in June 2014 — hot during the day and chilly at night — I tasted many fine wines fashioned from those Mediterranean grapes.