Kiepersol Texas Podcast

Emily Nance gives bartending tips for making cocktails at home ep 18 - Kiepersol Texas Podcast

We are in the Distillery at Kiepersol where the Lead Bartendering, Emily, runs things and gives us some insight into making cocktails. 

Emily has been in the service industry since 2012, starting off as a server. She would watch these mixologists at the bar make these crazy green and sour drinks that were served in martini glasses and tasted amazing. So she got a job at a Mexican restaurant where she started serving margaritas. She didn't learn much because it was a premixing margarita machine, but she got her foot in the door. After a little while, she managed to get a job at The Grove - Tyler where they taught mixology and bartending edict. Emily started there about 4 years ago, where she worked the speed bar and worked her way into the cocktail bar at The Grove. 

The speed bar is designed for call drinks that servers can pick up or customer can walk up to and grab quickly mixed drinks. Such as Jack and Coke or a Screwdriver. Whereas the cocktail bar is designed to make specially crafted drinks that aesthetically are appealing and taste great with a complex experience. People who go to a cocktail bar expect that drinks take a little longer to make because it is about the experience. Most mixologists will take a few extra steps to give a presentation during the construction of the cocktail. 

Emily gives some tips on constructing your own cocktail at home:

1) There are 4 basic elements or tastes you will experience when consuming a drink: Sweet, Salty, Sour & Savory (Bitter).

     - When constructing a cocktail you want to balance the drink with at least 3 of these tasting experiences. 

          - The goal isn't to cancel certain flavors out, but rather to enhance each characteristic through the addition of another ingredient.  Example - Sweet & Sour elements are commonly mixed together, but they can easily overpower one another. Adding salt to the rim helps enhance each of the 3 elements. 

    - Example Cocktails: The Salty Dog - Vodka, Grapefruit juice & Salt Rim. 

        - Grapefruit is very citrusy and sour, the Vodka is often used straight, but can be blended with a sweet liqueur or flavor. Then you can use a simple syrup on the rim of the glass, then dip it into salt. So you have the sour, sweet and salty, which helps no one element overpowers the other. 

2) When constructing a cocktail it is important to know which base spirit you're going to use and it's own natural characteristics. Not all cocktail recipes would be good if you change the base spirit. 

- Bourbon or whiskey often have very distinct flavors that you don't always want to overpower or hide with a lot of ingredients, rather you want to enhance each flavor. 

- Rum is often made from sugar, which makes a lot of rums tend to be sweeter. Playing to its natural sweetness can help create a well balanced and delicious cocktail. 

- Vodka is pure alcohol that is diluted with water. It shouldn't have an odor or taste before it is cut with water. This is why most people prefer using vodka for mixed drinks. It allows you to have the most room to be creative and rely on other ingredients to add flavor and taste. 

- We mentioned the Salty Dog earlier, if we were to replace vodka with rum, we would have a completely different drink and most people would think it tastes weird. The sweetness might overload the experience. 

- Understanding the base spirit on its own, allows you to create experiences or experiment

At the end of January 2019, we canned Flight for the second time! This second run is a smaller size than our first. We improved our design and got approval for distribution throughout Texas! This should be hitting store shelves soon and we can't be more excited! They will be sold in 4-packs or you might see them offered as some restaurants as a single can! 

With a younger generation coming into the wine world market, we saw a trend and desire for canned wine for convenience. It's not every situation that you can take a bottle, corkscrew, and glasses with you. Now we're fully aware that many traditionalists prefer this method and that is perfectly fine! We will continue to bottle a lot most of our wine. However, this emerging market showed us there is a lot of interest in this product. So we looked at this market and saw that there is a great lack of quality wine in a can. Flight is our solution for people opening the finer moments in life! 

We got our inspiration for the design from our local residents, the South African Guinea Fowl! We have a symbiotic relationship with these wonderful creatures, where they provide protection for our fruit and we, in turn, provide food and shelter for them! While they patrol our vineyard, they leave beautiful feathers for us to find, which provides a perfect logo for our can of Flight Sparkling Rosé. Let go of yesterday and take flight! 

Kiepersol's motto is Love, Grow, Do! We believe in Loving our families, friends and guests. We grow as much as we possibly can and do our best to succeed! We were "green" before green was ever considered cool. This includes being debt-free as a company. We don't buy what we actually need, we only purchase what we simply can't live without. 

This "Can-paign" is one of our first major projects at Kiepersol since the Founder, Pierre de Wet passed away. The other major project is a beautiful venue that overlooks our vineyard. Perfect for wedding, parties, and meetings at Kiepersol! This venue will be available later this year! 

We recently collaborated with Spoetzl Brewery, Home of Shiner Beers to create a Shiner Beer Rosé Pale Ale! Spoetzl has been around for over 100 years and it's very iconic of Texas! They took 100 Kiepersol Barrels and aged their beer in them, giving that nice rosé taste. We then took Spoetzl Brewery's yeast and fermented our Vit Wine with it! We will be releasing a canned Kiepersol Fizzy Vit in stores throughout Texas in March! If you don't see the beer or the wine in stores, please ask for it. We want everyone to have the chance to buy both! 

Come celebrate the new season at Kiepersol with us! We have our Waking of the Vines event coming up in March of 2019 and we invite you all to come to visit us as we see bud break! 

If you have questions, comment below or visit our website or email us at [email protected] 

Hosted by Michael Roth

 Ron Martin is a Texas Wine Specialist and a Texas Wine Lover!

Ron didn't really start drinking wine until around 2010 when his doctor told him he needed to stop drinking beer. So Ron started his wine journey drinking Pinot Noirs, which is the lightest structure wine that he could tolerate at that time. Ron and his wife took a trip from in 2011 from Texas to Napa Valley and went to find the best Napa Pinot Noir. They enjoyed that trip so much they returned in 2012, however this time, Ron was introduced to Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah. This began his understanding and appreciation for different styles of wines.

In 2014, Ron and his wife downsized from their dream house to something much more comfortable for two people. Since he and his wife had begun this wine journey, they were introduced to Kiepersol Estates, which is surrounded by the vineyards of Kiepersol. The idea of living next to a winery, vineyard, restaurant and the neighborhood at Kiepersol helped influence their decision to move here! The morning of this podcast, Ron mentions that he saw everyone pruning the vines, which gives a sense of being emerged into the process. Once they were living at Kiepersol, it helped open Ron's eyes to the quality and variety to the Texas Wine Industry!

Ron talks about how he and his wife, find some of the best Texas wines or wineries through a website Texas Wine Lover by Jeff Cope. Where they highlight some of the best Texas-specific wines, wineries, and destinations. This website is where you can see an interactive map of some of the best wineries, any Texas Winer Lover blog posts made about them, that winery's website and hours. This helps Ron to plan for 3-4 wineries a day when he goes to visit, to maximize opportunity and enjoyment. Ron visits the 290 corridor often, where there are Texas wineries between Johnson City, Tx and Fredericksburg, Tx. Which is how Ron has found some of the best wines in Texas.

The other cool community and tool that Texas Wine Lover created that Ron uses to find Texas Wine is the Facebook Group - "Texas Wine Lover Website", which is meant for any Texan who loves wine can join! This group is dedicated sharing any great wine your enjoying or ask questions that don't necessarily have to be Texas-specific. This provides a lot of education as people share pictures of videos of their wine. This is how Ron and his wife have found out about a lot of wines or wineries that they didn't' even know existed. Some of the people in the group are well connected or know exactly who you need to talk to, in order to have the best experience while visiting some wineries. In many cases, because of people in the group giving suggestions to Ron and are connected to the winemakers, Ron has shown up to wineries with the winery staff is anticipating his arrival. These experiences are unlike anything else out there! 

Café 1948 is a local mobile European style coffee bar that is perfect for special events. They focus on making specialty coffee with class and style with a completely renovated 1948 Boles Aero travel trailer. Sam and Amber Richmann are the owners who had put a lot of hard work into restoring to the trailer so that everyone can enjoy a great cup of coffee, tea or shave ice during the hotter months! They really believe in having conversations with people and investing in the community. This is done through the design of the cafe, to mimic what you might see in European countries; with limited menu items and small seating areas, you can go to the cafe and have a conversation with the barista or other visitors!

If you've been to any major city in Texas, you've probably seen or even purchased a meal from a food truck, which provides more options for meals. Cafe 1948 is one of a handful of food trucks in East Texas that have paved the way for food trucks in Smith County and

El Guapo Records | Ian Power Music ep 14 - Kiepersol Texas Podcast

El Guapo Records located in the same building as Alex & Afton Vintedge in Tyler, Texas has some of the best vinyl, 8-track and cassettes in East Texas! Ian Power has been running the shop since November 2018, loves listening to music, however, he is a local East Texas Musician.

Ian talks about the resurgence in the vinyl industry and how this medium of listening to music has become quite popular again, especially in the younger generations. Some Indie bands have released new music straight to cassette or vinyl because there is nothing like the sound you get going to those vintage mediums of music. With digital downloads, CDs are almost unthought of any more. Which has created a nostalgia and appreciate for Vinyl once again. There is something special about getting newly pressed or old vinyl records because they often come with pictographs or booklets that tell more of the story the musicians intended.

Ian Power likes most music, however, he is a big fan of 60's and 70's psych rock, which you can see a lot of in his collection at the shop. Led Zeppelin, Beatles, Dr. John & the Nite Trippers, The Grateful Dead and some other weirder, but awesome bands as you go more into it! El Guapo has a lot of classics as well such as Ozzy Osbourne, Prince, David Bowie and just about every genre of music, including movie soundtracks on vinyl.

El Guapo Records sells turntables, amps, vintage systems that will allow you to listen to these records or even your collection that might need a little dust wiped off! Not to mention local artist's CDs, El Guapo Records swag and other great merch as well! Whether you like vintage clothing or old vinyl, this is a one-stop opportunity!

You can visit El Guapo Records 5304 Old Bullard Rd, Tyler, Texas

You can find El Guapo Records on Facebook or @elguaporecordsco on Instagram. 

Ian is in the process of getting an online shop set up, so that you can add to your collection. In the meantime, you can come to visit the shop, if you want to see what he has available.

Ian Power talks about the music scene in East Texas and Tyler. Ian Power Music just released a new album, which he has been playing around at a few different shows. Ian is also apart of a Tyler band, Gorgeous Jetsons. At the end of 2018, all four Tyler bands put on a show that was the first of it's kind in East Texas. Gorgeous Jetsons, Road Keepers,

Who likes boutique shopping? Who likes vintage clothing? Who likes denim!? Tyler Texas has a lot to offer people visiting and some of these places are hiding in plain sight!

We are visiting Alex & Afton Vintedge off Old Bullard Rd.

Caitlin a.k.a. "Denim Whisperer" runs things around here, where she offers some of the best vintage clothing she can get her hands on, plus they hand make some of the other clothes they offer as well! They've been established and located in the same building since 2013.

Caitlin's mother handmakes a lot of different clothes that are stylistically reconstructed; Caftans, kimonos, bell bottoms and fun bohemian pieces.

Alex & Afton's building was built in the 1940s and use to be a house that they've renovated for their business and adds to the overall bohemian feel of vintage clothing.

If you head over to Alex & Afton's social media pages, you can see a lot of the modeling, photography, and collaborations they've been doing! They really step up their game when it comes to highlighting their products and tell the story of each product.

Caitlin likes to take advantage of her strengths and passions to stage and decorate for photography shoots. The end product creates results of more foot traffic and discussion of what vintage clothing they have on hand! Caitlin utilizes Instagram and Facebook stories to highlight products and add value to her customers, as they get new products in or having exclusive opportunities.

Alex & Afton is typically opened Wed - Saturday 12 - 5 pm

Caitlin's Favorite Tyler Local Eats:

Alex & Afton collaborates a lot with local business. In fact,

 Happy 2019 everyone! 

Marnelle reflects on growing with Kiepersol during the 20 years and making. We started growing and tending to crepe myrtles and how much they've grown. When Pierre established the Restaurant and Winery at Kiepersol, he didn't want to create a manufactured feel.  So we have a lot of natural plants grown in the area, along with strategically planted trees, to give a very beautiful view. 

We have a lot of events coming up to celebrate our 20 years in the making, so be on the lookout for those events. One of the first events we will be doing is a collaboration with High Hill Farms in a wine pairing dinner event.

High Hill Farm is a wonderful place where you can go and exhale. Whether you're going to stay for a corporate retreat or dine at their destination, it is nice to be able to go somewhere and unplug. The people at High Hill Farms care about providing for people and giving excellent service to their guests. 

Valentine's Day is around the corner! Kiepersol is a nice little date destination that keeps growing in popularity. Our Restaurant at Kiepersol was booked for Valentine's Day back in November of 2018. So we've had to direct reservations to other dates. However, before or after lunch or dinner, you can still enjoy a lot of things at Kiepersol. One of the best things to do while visiting it so sit out on the deck of the Distillery or Wine Tasting Room of Kiepersol just before sunset. In fact, it is quite romantic to sit out and enjoy our view of the East Texas skies, while drinking wine or a cocktail.  Sharon Tasting Room Manager has put together some limited seating date night opportunities for Valentine's Day. Called an "Amuse Bouche" & "Wine Know" Class, where you will get a few bites of cheese and meats, while you're getting the chance to taste 5 different wines guided by Sharon. If there is enough interest, we will host more events through Valentine's Day weekend. 

Amuse Bouche & Wine Know Valentine's Day Class

6:30 PM Valentines Day by Reservation/Pre-pay ONLY

Location: Wine Tasting Room at Kiepersol

Only 15 couples of 30 spots available.

903.894.8995

If you're interested in celebrating with your loved one on any other date, other than Valentine's Day, there are reservation slots available. However, you must call and get a confirmed reservation from the restaurant while spots are available. 

Restaurant at Kiepersol 

Call for Reservation: 903.894.3300

There is NO night like TONIGHT to say "I love you" to your Valentine. Don't wait until Valentine's Day. :) 

Brookshire's has had some events at various locations recently where we've had the chance to collaborate with them by doing wine tasting. 

We are constantly trying to give people more reason to come to Tyler, Tx by highlighting and collaborating with local business to give people a better understanding of all of the amazing little places in the area. We're not as big as Dallas, but we've got plenty to do in Tyler and we want to highlight those gems in future podcasts. We're also going to start talking more about other Texas Wineries and Texas Wines, as well as more about Kiepersol. 

Our delicately sparkling canned Rosé called Flight has been a hit since the summer of 2018 release! We are grateful for everyone who has purchased Flight from our Wine Tasting Room at Kiepersol. Many people have been asking when we're going to make Flight available at all of the grocery stores and wine shops throughout Texas. At the time of this of this podcast, we're about to can our second round of Flight, which we hope to then distribute as quickly as feasible! This can of Flight will be a 175mL and perfect for BBQs, on a boat, out at the pool or while eating dinner. We look forward to hearing fro