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A winery from Central Texas' wine country is opening an outlet in Dallas. Baron's Creek Vineyards, dubbed one of the most Instagrammable wineries in Fredericksburg, will open a new tasting room and wine lounge in the Bishop Arts District.

The winery, which posted a help-wanted note on the door to the space at 418 N. Bishop Ave., was founded in Fredericksburg, and has three other locations in Georgetown, Granbury, and McKinney. This will be the fifth.

According to Meghan Delgado, who manages the Fredericksburg location, the vineyard aims to open Bishop Arts in mid-October.

A family-owned venture from a trio of businessmen brothers, Baron's Creek opened its first location in Fredericksburg in 2015.

Baron's Creek Vineyards make wines from Texas grapes — the unofficial litmus test for authenticity — but also use grapes from other districts in the U.S. and Spain, from vineyards owned by their winemaker Russell Smith, formerly of Becker Vineyards.

Baron's Creek is a big tourist attraction not only for their wine-tasting options, but also for their on-site villas where visitors can stay overnight. Two Italian-styled villas with six rooms each accommodate up to 24 guests. The vineyard rents out the property, which has a cool outdoor courtyard defined by an almost Alice-in-Wonderland checkerboard pattern of stone platforms, for weddings, corporate retreats, and other special events.

Its satellite locations, including Georgetown Square, Granbury, and McKinney, which opened in 2022, serve as lounge/tasting rooms with flights, tastings, and tapas.

Delgado says that Bishop Arts will be most similar to the McKinney location. "It'll have two separate bar areas, and will definitely be serving food including charcuterie," she says.

Other menu items include a trio of pizzas that include pepperoni and artichoke & goat cheese. The tasting rooms offer mixed flights of five white and red wines or a flight of five red wines for $21/person, as well as wine by the glass.

beckervineyards.com

Hill Country winery harvests dinner series highlighting Texan James Beard Award winners and nominees

Great Texas Chefs

The vastness of Texas is one of its greatest qualities, and that extends to its cuisine. Sometimes we group foods by cooking style, ethnic group, or ingredients, but we are fortunate enough to have a wealth of great chefs in another category based on esteem: James Beard Award winners and nominees.

Instead of choosing a culinary theme for its next dinner series, Fredericksburg winery Becker Vineyards decided to just go for the cream of the crop, and reached out to chefs in the latter category to launch a new series starting on September 24, called 2023 Great Chefs of Texas.

The three-month series is kicking off with an attitude befitting such a lofty curation theme, promising via a press release a "holistic dining experience that cannot be replicated in quality and nature." Each week will feature new chef partners serving unique multi-course menus to up to 100 guests.

“All food and wine is theater,” said Becker Vineyards founder Dr. Richard Becker in the release. “The alternatives can be dim. We are now in rehearsal to be on stage with the great chefs of Texas.”

Of course, wine pairings will even further elevate the feast. More than just serving some delicious wines, the winery is interested in showing off its status as a group of wine and culinary experts, and educating visitors accordingly. Heading the culinary side will be new resident estate chef Jean-Claude Balek, who brings more than three decades of experience in fine dining to the Hill Country establishment (which sometimes hosts less intense events that emphasize its heritage as a farm).

2023 Great Chefs of Texas highlights four chefs on three dates this year:

  • September 24: James Beard Award Finalist, Chef John Russ, and Chef Elise Russ of Clementine
  • November: James Beard Award winner Tom Perini of Perini Ranch Steakhouse
  • December (holiday dinner): James Beard Award winner Dean Fearing of Fearing's

The series plays into Becker Vineyard’s industry campaign, "Ask for Texas Wines," which aims to bring Texas wines to the table, literally and figuratively, where people don't always think of them. Becker winemaker Jonathan Leahy spoke of the underrating of Texas wines on the Texas Wine Lover blog a few years ago: "It’s not the quality of the fruit or where the fruit comes from. It’s probably PR overall. People in Texas love Texas wines. They’ve discovered it; they know what’s going on. People outside of Texas on the other hand still need a lot of hand holding and convincing....”

Tickets ($160) to the inaugural event with chefs John Russ and Elise Russ of Clementine are available on Tock. Becker Vineyards is located at 464 Becker Farms Rd. in Fredericksburg.

Vinovium.wine

Hill Country festival uncorks weekend of music and Texas wine

OUR JAM

It’s an inescapable part of Central Texas’ fall. As soon as the “ber” months roll out, the social calendar quickly fills with festivals devoted to everything from books to indie films. It’s a lot to process — especially considering the ever-growing crowds at the season’s juggernauts.

Luckily, one autumn event is giving locals a little breathing room. Held on the bucolic Hill Country grounds of Vinovium winery, Texas Wine Jam returns to Johnson City on November 4-5. The music and wine-filled weekend allows guests to stretch out while supporting two local nonprofits.

More than 22 wineries will participate (that's 7 more than last year), including Farmhouse Vineyards, Lewis Wines, Lost Draw Cellars, Ron Yates, and Westcave Cellars. In addition to offering samples, the participants will be offering exclusive deals to attendees. Each bottle purchased comes with a raffle ticket for mixed wine cases and other prizes.

The jam will be handled via live sets by Classic Rewind, The Anthony Garcia Band, Josh Klaus, and Bubba Coltrane and the Train Wrecks. The music will cover a wide array of crowd-pleasing genres, from Spanish guitar-tinged Americana to raucous, horn-filled rock.

While bopping to the tunes, guests can also listen in on a winemaker panel or check out a cooking demo. And, of course, no festival is complete without street food — this year delivered by Rex’s Creole Kitchen, Rex’s Smokehouse, Oro Bianco, River Whey Creamery, and more.

Proceeds benefit the Texas Wine Community Scholarship program and the SIMS Foundation, an Austin organization providing mental health and recovery services for music industry professionals and their dependents.

General admission tickets are available online now, ranging from a $45 single-day pass to a $75 two-day pass. The $55-$95 VIP tickets include early entrance, five additional raffle tickets, and a branded wine bottle koozie. The festival takes place noon-5 pm each day, and alternate dates on November 11-12 have been set aside in case of inclement weather.

Photo by Courtney Warden

Splashy seafood pop-up docks at St. Mary's Strip wine bar, plus more top stories

Hot Headlines

Editor's note: It’s that time again — time to check in with our top stories. From the sea to the Hill Country and lots in between, here are five articles that captured our collective attention over the past seven days.

1. Splashy seafood pop-up docks at St. Mary's Strip wine bar. This pop-up has come and gone, and made a big splash. It's back on August 12 for one more pop-up before it starts a residency.

2. Best places to view Perseid meteor shower's peak in Central Texas and beyond. The biggest meteor shower of the year will be most visible the night of Saturday, August 12, until the early morning of Sunday, August 13.

3. A punchy event at one of the world's best vineyards lets travelers make Hill Country wine. At Grape Punch Day, William Chris Vineyards will guide guests on a wine-making journey.

4. San Antonio logs on as 6th best U.S. city for remote workers, Forbes says. The study ranked cities based on the earning potential of remote workers, internet access, living costs, and more.

5. 9 essential things to know about Texas' tax-free weekend 2023. For kids, stocking up on school supplies is one of the only joys of going back to school. For parents who have to pay for them, not so much.

Photo courtesy of Becker Vineyards

Wake up and smell the lavender at a Hill Country vineyard's decades-old festival

Lavender? I barely know her

There's a lot of talk about flowers springing up with the seasonal blooms around Texas, but visitors are generally discouraged from picking and eating them. Fans of floral flavors can look forward to the Lavender Festival at Becker Vineyards in Fredericksburg, which will serve wine pairings with the unmistakeable aroma on April 15 and 16.

This festival is 24 years running, and still hasn't run out of ideas for the timeless flavor. Over two days, visitors can explore the vineyard, shop for goods like soap and lotion from artisan vendors, enjoy live music, and most importantly, taste the lavender. It's more than a shortbread cookie, too.

Becker's executive chef Michael Lockhart and winemaker Jonathan Leahy invite guests to "Lavender Luncheons" ($125) in the Lavender Haus Reception Hall, a "replica of a barn at the Lyndon B. Johnson Settlement." There's no menu so far, but it will be a meal inspired by the 500 lavender plants in the vineyard. There will also be four "wine and lavender bite pairing sessions" ($60) on Saturday. Less formally, or for those who would rather see the lavender than taste it, there will be three local food vendors on both days: Mac’n Wag’n, Conchita’s, and Garbo’s Seafood.

The history of the festival stretches back almost as long as the vineyard has been producing lavender. The first plants were sown in June of 1998 — that's just one year longer. Although the family struggled to find a healthy variety for the area and lost huge swathes of the three-acre crop, they kept pushing on. Eventually, they discovered that the Stoechas (Spanish) varietal does best in the region.

If readers have struggled with lavender (an extremely likely circumstance), they may find that gardening tips at the festival help this year or next year's blooms. Lavender, unlike the many wildflowers that make the Hill Country famous, does not naturally grow in the region, and instead prefers its native conditions in the Mediterranean. It's starting to make sense that in Texas it thrives in the vineyard, no?

The Lavender Festival at Becker Vineyards is located at 464 Becker Farms Rd., Fredericksburg, Texas. Tickets ($15 general admission, plus add-ons for tastings) are available at beckervineyards.com. The festival is open on April 15 and 16 from 10 am to 5 pm.

Dried lavender at Becker Vineyards

Photo courtesy of Becker Vineyards

Becker Vineyards invites Texans to see the fields and try lavender foods and wine pairings.

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San Antonio sparkles and shines as No. 5 most festive city in the U.S. for 2023

on the nice list

San Antonio homes, businesses, and special events that go all out to deck their halls for the holidays have not gone unnoticed. San Antonio has been named No. 5 most festive city in the United States.

A new study by home services provider Thumbtack puts San Antonio at the top of the nice list this year. The report compiled data from millions of Christmas-related home projects across all 50 states between October 2022 to November 2023 to reveal their list of the most festive cities in the nation.

San Antonio is on the rise, after the city previously ranked No. 10 in the 2022 report. And while Thumbtack specifically focuses on home holiday projects, San Antonio residents certainly can glean inspiration from the city's many festive displays, and several surrounding Hill Country winter wonderlands.

Texas cities dominated the top 10, with Austin (No. 1), Dallas-Fort Worth (No. 2), and Houston (No. 3) ranking just ahead of San Antonio to claim the top three most festive U.S. cities. Rounding out the top five is Seattle, Washington in the No. 4 spot.

The average cost to hire a holiday lighting specialist, Thumbtack says, is between $168-$300, with other requests like wrapping outdoor trees tacking on an additional cost. If San Antonians are looking to outsource their exterior home decorating to a specialist, they're already past the peak time to hire one, Thumbtack says. Americans most frequently hang their holiday lights and Christmas decorations during the Thanksgiving weekend, according to the report.

"Whether you’re looking to make your home a brightly lit winter wonderland or simply looking to add a few festive touches to your home’s exterior — sprucing up your home’s exterior with lights is an exciting part of getting into the holiday spirit," said Thumbtack design expert Morgan Olsen in the report. "Hiring a holiday lighting specialist can help you avoid stress (and unwanted injuries) so you can focus on enjoying the season."

Thumbtack's top 10 most festive cities in the U.S. for 2023 are:

  • No. 1 – Austin, Texas
  • No. 2 – Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas
  • No. 3 – Houston, Texas
  • No. 4 – Seattle, Washington
  • No. 5 – San Antonio, Texas
  • No. 6 – Atlanta, Georgia
  • No. 7 – Phoenix, Arizona
  • No. 8 – Tampa, Florida
  • No. 9 – Denver, Colorado
  • No. 10 – Orlando, Florida

Director Todd Haynes tackles inappropriate relationships in May December

Movie Review

Director Todd Haynes has pushed buttons throughout his career, starting with his acclaimed short film, Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, which used Barbie dolls to illustrate the late singer’s anorexia battle. He’s at it again with his latest, May December, which tackles the idea of highly inappropriate relationships through a lens that itself has the potential to be upsetting.

Elizabeth (Natalie Portman), an acclaimed actress, has traveled to Savannah, Georgia to shadow Gracie (Julianne Moore) in preparation for a movie in which Elizabeth will play Gracie. That movie tackles the beginnings of Gracie’s relationship with Joe (Charles Melton), when he was a 13-year-old seventh grader and she was a 36-year-old pet shop worker. The shocking tryst resulted in much controversy, a child, and a jail stint for Gracie, but the couple professed their love for each other through it all.

Twenty years later, they’re still together, having added two more kids to their family, children who happen to be the same age as Gracie’s grandkids from her previous relationship. Elizabeth wants to experience it all, bouncing from person to person to try to understand exactly who Gracie is and was. Striving for authenticity in her performance, however, soon takes her down a Method acting rabbit hole.

Directed by Haynes from a script by Samy Burch, and loosely based on the story of teacher Mary Kay Letourneau and her 12-year-old student, Vili Fualaau, the film treats Gracie and Joe’s relationship in a relatively straightforward manner. It details a benign life in which they have the love of their kids and some neighbors, even if they occasionally get a box full of poop on their doorstep.

It’s the arrival of Elizabeth that sends things spiraling, as her various conversations trigger responses from both Gracie and Joe that they seem not to expect. Haynes alternates between being serious and being campy, with not enough of each for either for them to seem to be the goal. The score gives off a less-than-serious vibe, and an early scene in which a mundane thing is treated as if it were happening in a soap opera points in the campy direction, but those type of moments are few and far between.

In casting Portman as the obsessive actor, Haynes may have been trying to offer up echoes of her Oscar-winning role in Black Swan. It’s no small irony that the person who comes off as the most craven in such a sordid story is the actor who everybody wants to be around, not the woman who became a pariah because she is a sex offender. In that and other ways, Haynes upends expectations, keeping the film interesting even through its slower moments.

Portman and Moore are ideal for their respective roles, Portman because she has a knack for portraying confidence and guile, and Moore due to her ability to manipulate at will. Melton, best known for playing Reggie on Riverdale, pales in comparison due to his less showy role, but he complements the story well. Special notice goes to Elizabeth Yu as Gracie and Joe’s daughter Mary, who shines in her limited scenes.

The story of May December contains elements that will creep certain viewers out, whether it’s the subject matter itself or the performances of the two great lead actors. Haynes has a way of getting under the skin with his storytelling, and this film is yet another great example.

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May December is now available on Netflix.

Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore in May December

Photo by François Duhamel / Courtesy of Netflix

Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore in May December.

Tesla's electric Cybertrucks go home with first customers in Texas livestream event

delayed future

"This is really going to change the look of the roads," said "Technoking of Tesla" and co-founder Elon Musk on a live stream for the "Cybertruck delivery event" — the official rollout of the first futuristic electric Tesla trucks.

Announced in 2019, the all-electric truck with a very unique visual design made waves in the news, then was delayed for years as fulfilling the initial claims of vehicular superiority were tougher challenges than they seemed.

A few Texans and Californians may already be used to seeing the occasional Cybertruck out and about, but these were likely pre-production vehicles, and some sources speculate they were driven by employees and engineers in California. (The factory is here, in Central Texas.) They're not hard to spot — looking more like a Humvee from Mars than any earthly pickup truck, they certainly do make an impression.

"What we're aiming for here, is something that's more truck than truck," Musk stated, while standing in the covert bed of the truck, which is nearly invisible thanks to the sloped profile of the vehicle. But it is equally meant to outperform sports cars at their jobs. Musk listed toughness, towing capacity, and speed as its main three triumphs.

Demos included a sort-of-awkward, but technically successful redo of a notorious former experiment in which a baseball was, in fact, able to break two windows; a video of the vehicle being pelted with bullets and receiving dents, but seemingly no puncture wounds; a video of a towing test in which it out-performed a diesel-powered Ford F-350; and flashiest of all, a quarter-mile race against a 2023 Porsche 911, while towing a Porsche 911.

Musk claims that this truck is "smooth as silk" to drive, which this reporter can believe after taking a (much better-looking) Tesla Model Y — an SUV type — on a road trip from Austin to Houston and back. The vehicle, by Musk's description, also resists rollover with a low center of gravity, can tow more than 11,000 pounds, and dynamically adjusts steering intensity based on speed, among other off-roading perks.

After the video and stage demos, the first batch of Cybertrucks literally rolled out. Musk opened the handle-less door for some of the owners, and there was some confusion on how to operate the latch: The Tesla leader leaned in to instruct some of the drivers to put the vehicle in park before the door could be open, and guided some customers on how to find the latch to open the door themselves.

The short live stream (only about 35 minutes after 25 of semi-abstract animations) ended as Musk drove one of the vehicles off the line — either a real impromptu decision, or feigning a shrugging agreement to the invitation.

Anyone on the Internet at this point knows that Musk is as famous for his controversial opinions as for his company's accomplishments; but the livestreamed portion of this event was relatively free of bravado outside of this vehicle's capabilities.

"Even if I liked Elon that would still be one of the ugliest vehicles ever created," wrote one Reddit user, in what seems to be a recurring theme in the discourse.

"I like it and I’m tired of pretending I do not," wrote another, more vulnerable Redditor.

"It's an announcement of an announcement from 5 years ago," wrote an Instagram commenter.

The Cybertruck is available (starting at $49,890) at tesla.com. The website lists 2025 as the estimated delivery date.