My wife and I attended the July 4th grand opening of the Poteet Country Winery in Poteet, Texas, about 11 miles from our home in Pleasanton. Jim Collums and Bob Denson were excellent hosts and provided a generous spread of chuckwagon cooking (from three working chuckwagons), hors d'oeuvres, strawberry shortcake, and, of course, tastings of their wines. There were auctions of their first 30 or so cases of Strawberry and Blackberry Wines, a western art show featuring Clinton Baermann, team-pulled wagon rides, and live music later in the day. I don't know how many people attended, but I'd reckon it was several hundred before the day was done.
Poteet is the birthplace of country singing legend George Strait and has been home of the Poteet Strawberry Festival for over 50 years. This is the largest agricultural festival in Texas, with around 200,000 attendees during the second weekend each April. Early settlers noticed that wild Mustang grapes and dewberries abounded along the Atascosa River and figured that Poteet's well-drained sandy-loam soil and weather were just about perfect for growing berries. They were right. They've raised strawberries, blackberries and dewberries in Poteet for close to a century.
Jim Collums has been picking or raising strawberries in Poteet all his life. In 1980 he became a member of the board of directors of the Poteet Strawberry Festival Association and in 1981 was elected its president. As PSFA president he negotiated with other wineries to produce Poteet Strawberry Festival Wine. In 1985 he launched a strawberry processing plant after studying a similar operation in Idaho. The winery was almost a natural evolutionary step for him.
Bob Denson and his wife Alice have been volunteers at the Poteet Strawberry Festival Association's ice cream booth every year since 1986. He is not only thoroughly familiar with the crop itself, but has been making homemade wine for over two decades. If he can't make wine, nobody can.
Poteet Country Winery is located in an old dairy barn. In memory of the way things were before Prohibition, the General Store was rebuilt and furnished in period decor. It houses the tasting room and store, with the offices, winery and stockroom located beside it. The old windmill and water tower beside the winery mark the location. A large, vintage fruit chopper and press sits outside to remind us of the way it once was done. In the winery itself, stainless steel vats of must gurgle away as yeasts attack the fruit pulp, converting its sugar and nutrients into alcohol and carbon dioxide. Large carboys hold strawberry, blackberry and Mustang grape wine undergoing anaerobic fermentation. Cases of bottled wine are stacked in the stockroom, gaining age, character and finish. Later, when the harvests come in, the vats and carboys will be filled with peaches, apples and other regional fruit for a variety of country wines. The must is pasturized at 150 degrees Fahrenheit to ensure that no unwanted bacteria populate it, then is innoculated with Pasques yeast from California. After that, it's just a matter of time, monitoring progress, a couple of rackings, and bottling.
Bob Denson told me that the San Antonio Regional Wine Guild (SARWG) inquired about having a future meeting at the winery, since it is more centrally located for a membership spread out from the Hill Country to the Gulf Coast. Greg Howard of SARWG was there at the opening and coordinating this, but we missed each other. Bob also said they'll be stocking winemaking supplies in the General Store for those of us who'd rather make it than buy it.
As for Jim and Bob's wine, it's very good right now but should improve considerably with age -- a couple of months for the strawberry and a few more for the blackberry. Donna really liked the strawberry so we bought some, but then again, this is Poteet and strawberry is its middle name. If you visit the winery, buy whatever you can and put it aside for the winter and beyond. But by all means store it in a dark place. These wines have such rich color -- especially the blackberry -- that it would be a sin to allow light to bleach it.
For those who won't or can't tolerate alcohol, the winery is producing a non-alcoholic Poteet strawberry fruit juice that is really superior. Jams, jellies and other products are also on sale.
Poteet Country Winery is at 400 Tank Hollow Road, Poteet. It's open for tours, tastings and general business weekends from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on weekdays and evenings by appointment. From San Antonio, take Highway 16 south to Poteet. Turn right on Highway 476, then left on FM 2146. Turn right on Tank Hollow and the winery is about a third of a mile up on the right. Just look for the windmills. If you get turned around, you can always call Jim or Bob at (830) 276-8085 for directions.
