Celebrating the Harvest at Messina Hof

It’s always a pleasure visiting Messina Hof in College Station (just northwest of Houston). I’ve been a huge fan of Texas wine for over a decade since I started my wine journey driving around the Texas Hill Country with printed maps from Yahoo and a car full of my college friends. Though my mode of transportation and taste have matured ever so slightly, I still get a special feeling whenever I pull into the parking lot of a Texas winery.

Messina Hof is wrapping up their 41st harvest celebration, a tradition dating back generations to Messina, Sicily, and my husband and I had the pleasure of celebrating with them last Friday evening during an exclusive event. Before the event even started I squealed to find their canned wine for sale and promptly sent Jerome back out to the car with two 4 packs of the dry Rose. I need to add this wine to my canned wine post!

In the barrel room, we enjoyed light appetizers and wine tasting and visited with old friends and the Messina Hof family. We tasted their new Grenache Rose both in a can and bottle, 2017 Chenin Blanc, 2016 Paulo Cabernet Sauvignon, and 2016 Sagrantino Reserva (which I LOVED).

Paul and Karen Bonarrigo took us on a tour of the immediate facilities, including up to the catwalk to see the gorgeous vineyard views and smell the fermenting Riesling and Tempranillo in the tanks.

For the truly brave, grapes were available for stomping and fermenting wine available for tasting. Of course I tasted both the fermenting Riesling and the fermenting Sagrantino but no one wants my runner’s feet in their grapes so I passed on getting in the bin.

It was such a lovely evening and my sincerest thank you to the Messina Hof family (Paul, Merrill, Paul, Karen, and Savannah) and team for having us. Cheers to another 41+ successful harvests!