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Well, we went back to Fall Creek Vineyards earlier than we thought we would! The weather was so beautiful, and we were anxious not to get the house ready for all the company coming on Tuesday, so we "played hooky" and took the trip out to Tow, TX again. On the way, we stopped by the Christmas Cafe in Burnet TX (on the square in the middle of town, and VERY popular place to eat and shop for Christmas gifts and ornaments). After lunch we got there about 45 minutes before closing, and the gates were open!We got there in plenty of time for a tour of the winery operations, and a wine tasting to pick which ones we'd be taking home. There weren't any operations going on, since the grapes are pretty much done production by August, but the machinery was mighty impressive. We learned a couple of things about the winery that I thought were interesting. Fall Creek Vineyards is the third largest in the state of Texas. (St Genevieve is No. 1 and Llano Estacado is No. 2) And, the Falls that the vineyards are named for are only viewable by boat! The Vanishing Texas River Cruise is the most popular way to see the falls, and we decided that would be our next excursion. If we see and get to photograph any of the Bald Eagles that roost and live along the cruise route, that would be a big bonus.
When we visited Fall Creek before, I was only able to get photos from the gate and fence surrounding the vineyards. This time the light was better and we were able to get photos from many different vantage points. But we were lucky, believe it or not, to make that last trip. A couple of days ago, a front came through Central Texas (I mentioned the quick weather change in Poppa's Window entry) and brought very high winds to this area. The high winds blew most of the red leaves right off the trees, leaving very few to capture with the camera. Only the trees on the side away from the wind had many leaves at all.
We tasted several wines at Fall Creek, 3 whites dry to sweet, and 3 reds dry to sweet. Jan is a white wine person and of the whites she liked the desert wine called Muscat Canelli. It is in a beautiful blue bottle that I associate with Reislings, but this isn't a Reisling. My fave was the dry Cabernet Sauvignon, the Granite Reserve. The red sweet wine, named after the owner of the winery, Ed, was WAY too sweet for either Jan or me.
On the way out I spotted a very cold cat sitting on a post in the patio of the wine-tasting room. She looked so miserable trying to keep warm! I snapped a photo, and hoped she'd have sense enough to go out in the sun before it got too low in the sky.
I include a photo that is not strictly from Fall Creek but is from the shore of Lake Buchanan near the winery. I wanted to get the ducks closer to the shore, but by the time I stopped the car and walked the few yards to where they were, they were getting pretty far away. I snapped the photo anyway, just for the water and sky.
Thanks for stopping by!
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