Category: Lake Conroe Area News

The birth of the Texas wine industry after the end of Prohibition in 1933 took place in 1976 on the Texas High Plains.
“Doc” McPherson tried growing grapes in his backyard and found success so he decided to start a winery in Lubbock, Texas. As a Texas Tech University Professor, he knew all about teaching and found some challenges since there had been three generations of personnel at the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) who had never permitted a winery. He taught them well and started Llano Estacado Winery south of Lubbock in an area designated by local voters years earlier as a “wet area” where alcohol could be sold. It was several years later that State Laws were changed to allow wineries in “dry areas” or areas that chose not sell alcohol beverages. This initial start by the Texas Wine Industry was slow with three new wineries in 1980 and 50 wineries in 2005. “Doc” McPherson took me through a personal tour of his winery and showed me the original twelve-inch thick walls surrounding the initial fermentation tanks. He told me these walls were thick since he was afraid of people shooting his tanks. Llano Estacado Winery is located at what called the “Hub of the Bible Belt.”
The Texas wine Industry relies heavily on “Doc’s” early grape growing because he found the perfect niche to grow grapes. The Texas High Plains is above 3,500 feet above mean sea level which provides cool night temperatures in the 50’s in the growing season and has few bugs and fungus/mold. In addition, there are less allergens on the Texas High Plains which means that people with allergies can enjoy red wines made from Texas High Plains’ grapes without the side effects of those red wines from California. As a result, vineyards have sprouted up throughout the Texas High Plains, producing about 85% of Texas’ wine grape crop. These vineyards have been selling their grapes to various Texas wineries. As time progressed, these grape growers started to make wine with some of the grapes they grow. Since these grape growers know which of their grapes are the best, they save those grapes for their own wineries. These wineries are evolving to be known as some of Texas’ best wineries since they use Texas’ best grapes. The number of these Texas High Plains Wineries has grown over the years.
In April of this year, 14 Texas High Plains wineries and one meadery banded together to launch the Texas High Plains Wine Trail. These wineries include:
•    Adelphos Cellars in Lorenzo•    Bingham Family Vineyards in Meadow•    Bolen Vineyards in Smyer•    English Newsom Cellars in Lubbock•    Happy Bear Meadery in Wilson•    Idalou Harvest in Idalou•    Llano Estacado in Lubbock•    Oswald Vineyards in Brownfield•    Prairie Chick Winery and Milieu in Levelland•    Reddy Vineyards in Brownfield•    Triple D Winery and Event Center in Brownfield•    Whitehouse Parker, Farm House in Brownfield•    Williams Ranch Vineyards in Plains•    Y Knot Vineyards in Seagraves•    Yellow House Cellars in Tahoka
The Texas High Plains Wine Trail is not located in what many call rolling hills or valleys or a forest. The land is flat, but the people are wholesome with most of these wineries being family-owned which means you are assured of the best hospitality. During the day, the wind blows, but the nights are adorned with some of the best nightscapes of stars you will find anywhere. The Texas High Plains might not be the most romantic place in the world, but the wines, people, and night skies make up for that providing you numerous opportunities to make memories!
Ron Saikowski may be reached at rsaikowski@comcast.net. 

Despicable Me 4
Rated PG for action and rude humorRotten Tomatoes Score: 55%In Theaters
It’s been seven years since the last Despicable Me film (for which I honestly can’t remember anything about), and Gru (voiced again by Steve Carrell) and family are forced into witness protection when a supervillain named Maxime (voiced by Will Ferrell) who Gru put in prison, escapes with an intent to seek a brutal revenge. While trying to live inconspicuously in his new home and community, Gru gets bored and attempts to do some side missions, while some of his minions are subjected to a treatment which turns them into a cross between the X-Men and The Fantastic Four.  When Maxime eventually discovers where Gru’s new location is, a Battle Royale commences.  There’s not a lot of great storytelling on display here, just as in the other films.  The plot is weak and old, and the dialog is neither funny nor clever.  In fact it is quite the opposite.  They think they are being clever which makes many moments rather painful, at least for adults.  For kids, it should still be a fun time, filled with lots of loud action, silly minion humor and enough familiarity to bring smiles to faces.  I just wish Universal was ambitious enough to create a good four-quadrant addition to their franchise.  Making the film great for kids but only nearly tolerable for adults, is just disappointing and frustrating.  Pixar did a great job of this with their recent sequel Inside Out 2 – and look how it is paying off.  I’m sure that Despicable Me 4 will make a decent box office, but much of its business is going to be from audience members who wish they were in another room while watching.  So once again, we get a film that falls short when it really doesn’t have to.  C
Fly Me to the Moon
Rated PG-13 for some strong language and smokingRotten Tomatoes Score: 69%In TheatersI always thought The Shining was a decent movie in my younger years, with some good scares and fantastic acting, but it wasn’t until years later, after I saw the documentary Room 237, that I truly started to put together what a crazy genius film it might be, and what I knew about the moon landing was potentially untrue.  I’m not one to jump into conspiracy theories at all, but the theory laid out in this documentary contends that Stanley Kubrick all but admitted through the film’s imagery that he filmed the moon landing as a contingency in case we couldn’t get good footage, or in case they didn’t make it at all.  In this way we could prove to the world, and more importantly to the Russians, that we were indeed first.
In Fly Me to the Moon, a similar story is laid out where Scarlett Johansson plays a slick New York PR guru who is hired by Woody Harrelson, a government shadow ops character who needs her to give NASA the much-needed PR they require to become the center of the world’s attention, rather than just an unnecessary bureaucracy.  Once in Florida, she goes to work with NASA launch director Cole Davis (a fictional character played by Channing Tatum) who tries hard not to fall in love with her but just can’t seem to resist.  But once crunch time kicks in, the decision is made to secretly film the moon landing so that the world will see that the Americans hold space superiority.  But being a romantic comedy, lots of things go wrong and hilarity ensues throughout.  While the film does have its slow moments and the NASA scenes aren’t nearly technical enough to be taken seriously, the movie is so damn cute that you hardly care.  I love a good rom com and there are so few of them nowadays, so I was thrilled that this one came along, even if not perfect.  
The chemistry between Johansson and Tatum is solid and the film comes off as really sweet, without being sappy in the least.  And I love that someone had the idea to turn such a crazy (or not so crazy) conspiracy into a feel-good romance.  I really appreciated that it is almost a family-friendly movie as well.  It feels like a genuine PG movie until Woody throws out an F-bomb at the end, which I can only guess was put in to get a 13 added to the PG.  But overall, it’s a highly enjoyable film with largely forgivable faults.  B+
Danny Minton may be reached at danny@dannyminton.com.