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Cork This! Winery Review

Cork This! Winery Review

Address: 21123 Eva Street, Suite 100 Montgomery,Texas 77356.
Phone Number: 936-597-4030
Tasting Hours: Wed-Thurs 11:00-6:00, Fri-Sat 11:00-7:00, Sun 1:00-5:00 and by appt.

Region: Texas
Reviewer: Becky Parr
Review Date: 2/7/2015
Reviewer: Becky Parr
Rating: 4

The Review

Ok, ladies. Get your wine glasses ready. This is your kind of place!

That’s not to say that Cork This! isn’t a fun place for guys too. It definitely is. When we visited, I’d say the clientele was pretty evenly split between the genders. But Cork This! is run by two lovely ladies, and it definitely has a fun girls’ night out vibe. It also sells every wine-themed T-shirt, cocktail napkin, bag, glass, and kitchen towel you could ever hope to have.

The Place: &nbspAs I mentioned, inside Cork This! has a great vibe. There’s a lot of room to sit outside, too, which could really expand the facility’s capacity to host a great party. A large room opens up to smaller areas, which can presumably be closed off for tasting groups or private parties. Saying Cork This! has a gift shop is a bit of a misnomer – there is no separate shop, the swag is distributed throughout the tasting room area, so drinking and browsing can happen simultaneously! Wine and shopping together – how great is that?

The Wines: &nbspCork This! has a great approach to wine tasting. A tasting can be done anywhere in the room, not just at the bar; a winery representative brings a menu and a small order slip and asks you to mark the four wines you want to taste. Make sure you read the menu, not only for descriptions of the wines, but for the cheeky humor and the highly creative way the wines are named. Our server returned with four carafes, nestled into a tasting board (shaped a bit like a paddle) in the recommended order of tasting. Each carafe held a nice pour, plenty for an ample tasting – and we could go at our own pace. That was a plus since we had someplace to be later on in the afternoon. (I could have spent significant time in this place, so it’s too bad we had another engagement!)

Between the two of us, we tasted eight wines; sharing is highly encouraged at Cork This!. We only tried one dry white, the Overly Committed, which is a nice Pinot Grigio with just a hint of the bite that Pinot Grigio often has; I got apple, but it’s not overwhelmingly apple.

There are a lot of reds to choose from. Irreconcilable Differences is the Syrah; it’s peppery, but not terribly big, which is probably why the server suggested we start our red adventure with this wine. RUB, or Rich Urban Biker (ha!), is the Merlot; it has a little chocolate on the nose and is very soft on the palate. It’s good, but the finish is very short – it’s just gone. (And you have to drink more.) The One Night Stand is a Cabernet Sauvignon, a smooth, easy drinker. It’s earthy and fruit forward; my husband, who is better at picking out wine flavors than I am, detected tobacco and currant. It’s a tad tannic on the finish, but overall quite good.

Boot Leg, the Pinot Noir, has a nose of smoke and is on the peppery side. I found it a bit acidic on the first sip, but that’s why you have to give it two or three sips, because it mellowed as I drank it. The Signature Wine, or Cabernet Franc, has a slightly sweet nose (crème brulée?) but don’t be fooled, it’s not sweet at all, it’s a lovely dry wine. My favorite was the Zinfandel, or Party on Your Palate. It’s smooth, with flavors of strawberry and red fruits.

We tried one sweet wine just for balance – the Redneck Retreat, a Riesling. It’s sweet in a pleasant, not syrupy, way, almost like apple juice. It’s a delicate choice for sweet wine drinkers.

The People: &nbspThis is the down side of the practice of bringing carafes of wine to the table; I’m sure it allows the staff to serve more people at once, which is great, but we didn’t really get to talk to anyone at any length, which was too bad. I did ask about the owners and the staff, since everyone on hand seemed to be female – I learned that there is one solitary man on staff, and the server I asked indicated that he’s a very patient fellow!

The Experience: &nbspIf I lived nearby, I’d hang out here a lot, and probably throw parties here. Alas, I don’t. It’s a completely fun place to visit; more a wine bar vibe than a winery vibe, but a great place to sit, sip and shop. Well done, ladies!