If you are a wine lover, you may have already collected a number of good quality wines in your home. Whether to enjoy yourself or to entertain friends, it is a pleasure to increase your collection with a wide variety that are available today. If you do not have a wine cellar, then you may be considering having one or two wine cabinets to store your collection.

They have other functions than just providing space for storing; wine cabinets can also keep your wines at the right temperature to preserve their flavor and quality and make an excellent showcase for your collection. You can have your cabinet custom-made for your purpose, and to match the design and available space in your home. There are cabinet makers who can design and build the type you want. You can have a small cabinet just enough for a few bottles, or very large wine cabinets that can accommodate the number that you would otherwise have stored in the cellar — a veritable wine cellar within easy reach anytime you need a drink or anytime friends come over for dinner.

The tradition of having wine with dinner has come to be regarded not only as socially desirable, but also a healthy practice. Wine infuses a certain kind of relaxing atmosphere, a happy mood into any occasion. After-dinner conversations become more interesting and engaging, and parties become a little livelier. It is always good to have a selection of various wines that you can serve on any occasion. Your wine cabinet will make this all very convenient for you. It can even be a conversation piece during the gatherings that you host in your home. You will therefore have to take into consideration a few things to make your wine cabinet serve all these purposes.

These are a few points to consider for your wine cabinet:

Temperature control to preserve the quality of your wines.
Storage capacity — it should be big enough to accommodate your present collection as well as future additions.
Convenience of maintenance and durability of material.
Compatibility with the size and design of your home.

So whether you have a wine cellar or cabinet, you can store your wine collection with peace of mind knowing they will be stored the best way possible and maintain their quality and flavor. You can also build your collection with good quality wines very inexpensively if you know where to look!

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Although Texans have made wine since the frontier days, they have always had trouble getting any respect for their craft. One visitor from the 19th century complained that the handcrafted local wines made from wild grapes were too sour.

More recently, when the state’s wineries began modern production, unappreciative outsiders labeled the Texas wine and wineries “Chateau Bubba” as a derision.

Although this probably had some truth to it in the past, it hides much of the reality. The very same Spanish priests who introduced vineyards and wine to California, also cultivated grapes in Texas by the 18th century. Although little is known about the quality of the mission wines, there is evidence that some later European settlers (particularly Germans and Czechs) were accomplished vintners. They developed ways to make good wine from native mustang grapes, and they passed their knowledge to several generations up to the present.

At the turn of the century, these same poor wild grapes actually played a large part in turning around and saving the French wine industry from disaster. When a plant louse epidemic called phylioxera attacked vineyards everywhere, a Texas vintner named T. V. Munson found a solution by grafting French vines onto the more disease-resistant Texas grape vines. Munson is still a hero in France and the Napa Valley of California.

Before Prohibition started in 1920, there were at least 16 commercial wineries in Texas. The only one to survive Prohibition was Val Verde in Del Rio. They closed until the end of Prohibition in 1933, but rep-opened after it was repealed. Val Verde remained the only commercial winery in Texas, until the 1970’s, when a national wine boom started a revival of production in the state.

The very first bottles from these new commercial wineries may not have been very good, but they improved at a rapid pace. Starting in the 1980’s, Texas wines were and continue to be regular winners in wine competitions throughout the country, taking metals in many categories.

Some of the larger wineries of Texas today include Llano Estacado, Pheasant Ridge, Sainte Genevieve, Fall Creek, Sister Creek, Messina Hof, Moyer, Slaughter Leftwich, Grape Creek, and a growing number of other wine producers.

Texas wine today is truly an international treasure, and is no longer labeled as the “Chateau Bubba” of wine making. It can now stand up with the great wines of the rest of the world, and continues to grow in quality and reputation.