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barrel room bar z

A Texas Winery that will Rock Your World

After an evening with Monty I’m not sure which is more compelling: The man himself, or his statements…“Wine is the world’s only resurrected beverage” or “A 100% Texas grown, barreled, and bottled Pinot Noir that will knock your socks off”.

west texas wine

To be perfectly honest when we saw Bar Z Winery on the Harvest Hosts website I thought “Looks like a decent place to park but the wines will likely be rocket fuel!”  I’m happy to say I was wrong on both accounts!

When we arrived to the Winery in Canyon, TX Monty told us to park it right up by the winery entrance so we could enjoy the beautiful view, he also offered up a 50A plug, fresh well water, and a sewer connection!

bar z winery

A few minutes later he brought out an absolutely yummy sherry and said “take a load off, but you better get your camera ready, you’ve got about 10 minutes before the show”. Well, that show lasted about an hour and I can honestly say it’s hard to beat a West Texas Sunset, you can’t argue with these photos.

west texas rv sunset

sunset at bar z winery

bar z sunset

Once the Mother Nature’s show came to an end we made our way into the tasting room and found some very heavy tasting pours. Monty says he may charge $10 for a tasting but he absolutely hates those “wimpy pours where the wine doesn’t even have a chance to open up”.  At the first sip I could tell this wasn’t your average Texas wine.  Monty focuses his energy on creating red wines, barrel aging, and in true monk tradition he only bottles on a waning moon.  All his grapes are from Texas and the entire wine making process is completed in his very cool, eco friendly building.

bar z wine

All 3 wines we tasted are great, I’d go so far as to say better than 90% of what you’d find at the store, but then Monty pulled out the trump card…

“once you finish those glasses I’ll give you something to blog about”.

We made our way up the stairs to a large stainless barrel with a little faucet tap. “100% Texas Pinot Noir done in the delicate French style, whaddya think?”

bar z wine

Damn, that’s tasty is what I think! Smooth, light, full of delicate flavors…can we buy a bottle, or two?  This is when he drops the bomb “No. I’m bottling it in 10 days when the full moon turns to a waning moon.”  Seriously?!?  “Hey if it worked for the monks for the past few thousand years it works for me!”

Monty is our kinda wine guy, he’s friendly, laid back, and full of great stories to be told over an open bottle. He grew up in Texas (not too far from where Nikki grew up in Hart, TX), learned how to make wine at school in the 4th grade, began making his own wine from wild grapes that very summer, and obviously became very popular with his schoolmates! We discussed important life facts like how the acronym S.H.I.T became a curse word, how one should never start drinking good coffee, how GMO’s are affecting the TX grape industry, how one should never order two beers in London while gesturing with a sideways hand, and most importantly how wine is the only “resurrected beverage”.  I’d never heard that statement before and Monty said “cause I made it up…but think about it; the fruit is cut off the vine and revived into a living drink that continues to grow over time”.  At this point I was nearly 2 bottles in so it made perfect sense to me!

barrel room bar z

So this overnight stay introduced us to a whole new side of TX wine, a super cool new friend, and some killer sunset photo opps, and that’s the beauty of the Harvest Hosts program. If you want to try Bar Z wine, stop by when you’re in the Texas Panhandle, or Monty does sell it on Amazon so here’s the link: Bar Z Wines.  We ended up taking home the 2006 Quattro, the 2007 Sassy S, and the 2007 Enigmatic.  Needless to say Harvest Hosts is an inexpensive way to camp…but not so much when the wine is tasty! Cheers everyone!

Have you been to Bar Z? Are you a member of Harvest Hosts? Share with us in the comments below.

Disclaimer: All of our opinions are our own and we were not compensated in any way, we paid for our wines and enjoyed every drop!

Famous for my "how-not-to" videos, and typically the man behind the camera, sometimes I’m forced to be here in the “spotlight”. When you see my face you’re probably reading something more technical than adventurous, but either way I do my best to tell it like it is and infuse my opinions into the commentary…after all this is a blog and not MSN.

Comments (11)

  • Merry

    We are Harvest Host members and have just checked in with Monty. Got Several reds for the road. My favorite is a nice smooth Pinot noir! What a view!

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  • Eric Baugh

    Cool places to check out in Texas if you have the time.

    Alpine – http://www.reata.net

    White Sands -http://www.nps.gov/whsa/index.htm

    Big Bend – http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2227

    Fort Davis -http://mcdonaldobservatory.org/visitors (Star Party if you can)

    Enjoy. Awesome vineyards in the Austin area too. I enjoy reading your blog.

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  • mary

    I can’t wait to get down and pay Monty a visit!

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  • Pam

    We will be going on the road full time in March and were considering joining Harvest Hosts…this posts sounds like a good endorsement. Have you two been members long?

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  • GR & Janny Dempsey

    We saw the sign as we traveled south from Colorado to winter in S Texas. We should have turned! Thanks for the story.

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  • Awesome post guys! We’ve heard lots about Bar Z from friends and family but have yet to make it there ourselves. Thanks for sharing!

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    • For Native Texans and world travelers you need to pack up your van and head North! Just make sure you bring your camera, Monty is full of interesting stories and great wines…plus the more he drinks the more you drink 🙂

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