Diamonds in My Wine

Have you ever had a bottle of white wine, perfectly chilled, only to find a diamond in it?!?!
 

 

Not... sadly not that kind of diamond....
 

 

We are talking about the diamonds that look to be sediment in the bottom of your bottle or glass. 
 

 

These particles could be tartaric crystals, what we in the industry affectionately refer to as Wine Diamonds. People tend to notice the particles more towards the end of the bottle and they will only appear after the wine has been chilled. The formation of tartaric crystals in wine is common and has nothing to do with the quality of the wine. However, we do take extra steps to try and prevent their formation because a lot of people might see these particles and assume that the wine has gone bad. This is not the case. 
 

 

So, what is happening in your wine? Tartaric acid occurs naturally in many fruits including grapes. In most cases the tartaric acid stays in its liquid from in the wine and can add citrus-y notes to it. However, we tend to chill white wine, and when the wine is chilled to temperatures around  40°F  the tartaric acid compounds will naturally combine with potassium to form a crystal. Like I said previously, we do what we can to prevent this from happening. Our one big defense against wine diamonds is to have the wine undergo cold stabilization before we bottle. We lower the temperature of the wine to force the crystals to form and then filter them off. However, this doesn't always prevent the crystals form forming. 

If they do form, rest assured that drinking them will not hurt you, but if you don't want them, pouring the wine slowly will keep the crystals in the bottle and out of your glass.  
 

 

Cheers!

- Written by Angela Chapman, WSET III

 

Edited by fellow wino Mariam Copeland

 

04/10/18

 

 

 

Mar 4, 2019 at 8:51 AM

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Baby Emerson is One Year Old

Here is a sweet post by her mother Aly.  It truly has taken a village to raise this sweet little girl.  And yes, we still have more Emerson wine for sale in the Tasting Room! 

Mar 4, 2019 at 8:50 AM

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The Holidays: Impress with Food & Wine

Holiday food preparations can be daunting even to the most seasoned of home chefs.

Should I put cranberries in the stuffing this year? Would anyone notice if I made box mashed potatoes? Is macaroni and cheese an acceptable side dish? I think aunt Carol is gluten free now, how do I even make a gluten free pie?

Once you get all that settled you are STILL NOT FINISHED, you have drinks to think about!
And, if your family is anything like ours, wine will be involved.

A good hostess always has the perfect wine parings to complement their lovingly crafted food. After all, you didn’t just spend the week leading up to Thanksgiving and Christmas fretting over which gravy is the best to serve to simply ignore wine parings, right?

Worry not, the Lost Oak Family is here to help! Here are some tips from our little family:

From Gene: Stock up on Lost Oak Wine and have a lot of verity, your friends and family will find the pairing that they like the most.

From Judy: It’s about the presentation!  Bring out fancy glasses and serve red and white Lost Oak Wine to make the place settings pop.

From Roxanne: If you are going to someone else’s house, be sure to bring a bottle or two of your favorite Lost Oak Wine. It makes a great hostess gift and you are guaranteed to have something you like to drink.

From Angela: A lighter red, like our Montepulciano, is a great compliment to both turkey and ham, but you can never go wrong with our Sauvignon Blanc either. The subtle flavor won’t overpower the turkey and the citrus notes can stands up to the fats in the ham. For those with a little bit more of a sweet tooth, go for the Orange Muscat. The slight orange zest flavor will complement everything form the Turkey to that strange Jell-O thing with the fruit that Aunt Carol always insists on bringing.

From Mariam: I’m serving a bottle of everything Lost Oak – red, white, sweet, dry, bubbly.  But back off that extra bottle of Cabernet… is mine.  I need it to make it through the day!

From Jim: Get two bottles of every Lost Oak red!  Drink one now, then drink one a year from now to compare how the flavors evolved.  You won't be sorry!

From Our table to yours, Cheers!

Mar 4, 2019 at 8:48 AM

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Get Out Your Pruning Shears

Mar 4, 2019 at 8:47 AM

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Gene Estes wins Lifetime Achievement Award

We are thrilled to announce that Gene Estes has been awarded the John E. Crosby, Jr. Award which recognizes lifetime achievement in the Texas wine and grape industry the Texas Wine and Grape Grower’s Association convention in February, 2018.  

 

 

The award was presented to him at the beautiful gala on Saturday night.  Gene is humbled, thrilled and was caught quite speechless at the announcement on gala night!

 

 

Gene was born and raised in Abilene, Texas - home of three religious universities, designated a dry precinct, and a 150 mile drive to buy an alcoholic beverage. 

 

 

 

This probably had something to do with his decision to start making wines from Concord grape juice at the age of 23. Gene made his first wine in 1963 in his parent’s garage from Concord grape juice. It exploded. 
 

 

 

 

 

After serving in the Army in Vietnam, Gene returned to the United States in 1966.  He began graduate school at Texas Tech University and earned a Masters of Science degree in Microbiology.  
 

 

 

 

He entered the pharmaceutical world with jobs in North Carolina, and at Alcon Labs in Fort Worth, Texas. His favorite assignment was spending two years in Alsace to get FDA approval of the ophthalmic solutions that Alcon produced there for sale in the US market. 

 

Of course, he spent his weekends touring and learning the wine industry of perhaps the premier white wine region of the world.  While he was there, he earned a medallion of distinction with the Confrérie Saint-Etienne for his keen tasting skills as a connoisseur of wine after undertaking a formal and vinous admission test.
 

 

 

 

When Gene returned to the U.S., he bought property in Burleson, purchased wine grape vines and put them in pots until he could plant them.  And thus Lost Oak Winery was born.  Lost Oak has gotten to where it is today with a great labor of love.

 

 

 

Gene served as president of the Texas Wine & Grape Growers Association (TWGGA) in 2008, has served on their Board for numerous years and chaired their Education and Research Committee.  In 2018 Gene was awarded the John E. Crosby, Jr. Award which recognizes lifetime achievement in the Texas wine and grape industry.  
 

 

 

 

Anyone who meets Gene senses his passion, enthusiasm and energy to grow wine grapes and produce excellent wines in Texas - perhaps the most hostile environment in the world to do so - but as Gene claims, it is a testament to the Texas mentality of doing the impossible.

 

 

The Lost Oak Family

 

But then....  in keeping with Tall In Texas Award Tradition...
Mariam & Angela were entrusted to take the award home, and took it on a tour of Las Colinas, Texas!

 

 

The Mustangs of Las Colinas and Marilyn Monroe approve...

 

Written by Mariam Copeland
 

Mar 4, 2019 at 8:46 AM

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Four Weddings and a Great Winery Wedding

On January 6, 2018 Lost Oak Winery was featured as a wedding venue on 

TLC's Four Weddings. 

We could not be more thrilled to report we scored a 9 out of 10 for venue! 

WeddingWire Couples' Choice Award

Mar 4, 2019 at 8:46 AM

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A Look at Bottling

Mar 4, 2019 at 8:45 AM

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A Chill is in the Air but Not in My Red

Mar 4, 2019 at 8:44 AM

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Emerson Update

For those of you who have purchased Sweet Emerson wine, we THANK YOU!
Here is an update on baby Emerson, the daughter of Aly Lockhart and niece of our Winemaker Jim Evans.  She is eight months old and doing so well!  She has a very long road of hospital stays behind her, and a long road ahead of her, but we could not be more overjoyed to tell you news is good!

Emerson is now five months post-heart surgery. She has routine checks at her cardiologist, gastroenterologist, and nutritionist in Dallas and they are all very happy with her progress. She has one of the best post-surgical outcomes with her type of heart defect and is right on track to have her next heart surgery between the ages of 2 and 3. One in one hundred children are born with some form of heart defect or malformation, and her particular defects required her to have both a heart surgery and stomach surgery at the age of three months.

Having spent so much time in the hospital at such an early age, her oral development has been very slow. She receives most of her nutrition and medications from a feeding tube connected to her stomach. However, she continues to reach milestones and is working very hard at becoming more independent of the feeding tube, relying more on eating solid food and receiving some medicines by mouth. She has spent the last three months wearing a helmet to correct plagiocephaly, flat head syndrome, as a direct result of her lying on her back in the hospital. As much as she hates to wear it, the helmet is easily decorated with bows and has been the perfect accessory to every outfit she wears.

Her personality flourishes and she is such a bright light in this world.

For every bottle of Emerson wine purchased, Lost Oak will donate $5 to the GoFundMe account for Emerson's ever-growing medical expenses.

Please help give little Emerson the start in life she needs.

Thank you for your generosity.

- The Lost Oak Family

https://www.gofundme.com/baby-emersons-medical-fund

 

Mar 4, 2019 at 8:43 AM

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How we

Lost Oak winery didn’t start off as Lost Oak, in fact it didn’t start off as a winery at all!

Gene Estes started out as a grape grower here in Burleson, Texas back in 1989. He sold his grapes to a small winery in Denton called Lone Oak. In 2003 the owners of Lone Oak decided to try their hand at the restaurant scene and bought a little bar-b-que place called Rudy’s. By 2005 they had opened multiple locations and decided to get out of the wine business. Gene leaped at the opportunity to own his own winery, and bought Lone Oak Winery and moved it from Denton to Burleson.   In August of 2006 Loan Oak Winery was officially opened.

The new Winery in Burleson was a big hit, garnering awards and acclaim from all over, but none as prestigious as the Double Gold Medal from the prestigious San Francisco Chronicle International Wine Competition we won with our Viognier in 2010!  We were so proud!

However, all this attention also had its downside. Amongst all the hubbub of winning such a huge award we also received a cease and dissent letter stating that another winery in California owned the trademark to the name Lone Oak Winery. Oopsie!

So, Lone Oak Winery in Burleson, Texas bowed out graciously and changed its name to Lost Oak Winery in 2012.

And that... is how we "Lost" our Lone!"

See the story of Lost Oak Winery over the past 10 years by clicking here. 

Mar 4, 2019 at 8:42 AM

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