Y’all know we’re not your average winery. We don’t hold our pinkies in the air and drone on about the “bouquet” of a particular wine. At Bar Z Winery, we believe you only have to know two things about wine: Whether you like it, or whether you don’t….and you’re never wrong! We aren’t located on a wine trail where a bus can drop you and a bunch of tourists off for a scheduled tour. You may have also noticed that you don’t often see our names on store shelves when you’re out purchasing wine.
And we like it that way. Here’s why:
I could bore you with history and laws about the three-tier system under which all alcohol sales operate, or you can read an excellent article by Wine Folly here. Most restaurants and retailers work with distributors to purchase their beer/wine/liquor. At Bar Z, we self-distribute, meaning that we load up the VW Beetle (you might’ve seen it) and deliver wine straight to the retailer. When you purchase a wine at a restaurant or retailer, you’re putting money in the pockets of that establishment and the distributor, while the hardworking winery takes a pay cut. Working with a distributor means that you (the winery) follow their (the distributor’s) rules. They tell you how much wine to produce, in what time frame, and so on.
Essentially, in order to be on shelves everywhere, we would have to make wine in a way that we don’t want to. (e.g. buying cheap grapes, shortening the aging time, etc.) We pride ourselves on the quality of the grapes and the integrity of our process, and we don’t want to “brand” anything that isn’t the absolute best we have to offer. We hope that you’ll continue to support local, and come have a glass with us on the porch. We’ll make it worth your drive.
Making wine the way we do, taking our time in the barrel, has resulted in many awards and accolades, most recently from the Texas Wine Journal:
To celebrate our accolades, purchase our Cab Bundle for $40, using code BARZCAB and receive FREE SHIPPING! We appreciate your support of the Northern Outpost of Texas Wine, and we hope you’ll come up and see us sometime!
Cheers!