Every day is a “grape” day at Bar Z Winery!
Meet Anna McVey, operations manager at Bar Z Winery in Canyon, TX. For her, it all started in the Finger Lakes region of New York.
“It started out as a hobby; my friends and I would load up in the car and go wine tasting until one day it just became a passion,” says Anna. “When I moved back to Texas and heard about this job, I just had to take it. This is my dream.”
No day is ever the same for Anna- one day she is in the cellar making the wine, and the next day she is meeting with brides to discuss the perfect venue for their special day. During fermentation season, Anna stays busy harvesting the grapes from the Texas High Plains AVA (American viticulture area on the Llano Estacado), crushing, de-stemming, fermenting, pressing, and putting the grapes into clean tanks.
Monty Dixon, our founder, and vintner actually makes the wine but I get to help and that’s my favorite part!” says Anna.
When talking to Anna, we learned that Bar Z does not grow their own grapes but rather gets them from the Texas High Plains AVA. This is due to soil PH in our region being too high and the composition of the soil not being as desirable as the sandy soil they have in the Texas High Plains AVA area.
“It’s really not conducive up here to growing good grapes and we only want the best grapes.” says Anna.
Fun Fact (because wine not?): Bar Z Winery has one of the only Pinot Noir programs in the state of Texas!
“With the hard work of our vineyard owners and the perfect spot where the grapes grow, we’ve been able to produce Pinot Noir since 2012 and our recently bottled 2016 Pinot just won gold at San Francisco Chronicle International wine competition. It is the first Texas grown Pinot Noir to ever win gold in the Nation’s largest wine competition!” says Anna.
Head on over to Bar Z Winery, located on 19290 FM 1541, Canyon, TX, Wednesday-Sunday 3-9pm and “wine a bit, you’ll feel better!”
You can learn more about founder Monty Dixon and the Bar Z story at their website, join the wine club or email them at barzwines@gmail.com.
Sip Sip Hooray!
