In the early 1990s, the Kuhlken family led by David’s parents Larry and Jeanine planted their first vineyard near Fredericksburg. These were pioneering years with only a handful of wineries operating in Texas. It was also a time for experiments with different grapes varieties and viticultural practices. Over time, with carefully managed yields, and as the vines matured, the vineyard started producing consistently high quality fruit with bold, intense flavours.
During these early years, David’s sister Julie met and married Fredrik while they were both studying in Paris and after several years together in Europe that included the birth of their two daughters, the family moved to Texas where Fredrik and David began to develop their plan for Pedernales Cellars. Inspired by the success of producing exceptional fruit at Kuhlken Vineyards and born out of a desire to produce wine from grapes of the highest quality, it was natural to start a boutique winery focused on making small lots of hand crafted wines.
Planning for the new 15,000 square foot state-of-the-art winemaking facility started in 2006 and groundbreaking took place in 2007. In July of 2008 the first phase consisting of the underground barrel room was completed in time for 2008 crush. In May of 2010 phase two was completed creating the second story on the winery and establishing or geothermally cooled case storage facility and co-op winery space.
The estate vineyard was expanded over the years and today consists of 17 acres mostly planted with hot weather varieties such as Tempranillo, Touriga Nacional, Albarino, Monastrell (known as Mourvedre in French), Garnacha (Grenache in French) and small amounts of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.
Pedernales Cellars is truly a family affair, with David and Fredrik in their day-to-day roles at the winery while Larry and Jeanine continue to oversee the family vineyards. Meanwhile, Julie has drawn on her artistic experience to develop the labels, while David’s wife Heather not only has spent many of the past years helping in the vineyard, but has helped to provide everything from photography to guidance on the tasting room design. So when David’s and Fredrik’s respective children help out during harvest or in the winery, they are not only seventh generation Texans, but also the third generation directly involved with the wine industry.
Our Sustainability Commitment
We are not just about making the highest quality wines in Texas. It is also important to us to build a business and operation that is sustainable and a positive part of our community. When you look at how we operate you can see many of the positive ways we have worked to realize this vision.
In the Winery
It starts with the building itself. Our cellar is built into the landscape for a reason. The limestone hills south of Stonewall provide the ideal natural insulation for making wine. There under the hill we let Hill Country soil do much of the cooling and even provide the humidity we need for storing barrels. When we do need to provide direct cooling, we again let the soil beneath our feet do the work. Our cellar and case storage facility are all cooled using a ground loop geothermal cooling system that cuts in half our energy consumption for maintaining the climate in our production space.
You also can see our mission to increase sustainability in our winemaking practices. For one, we emphasize open bin fermentation which requires less active cooling and relies primarily on manual management. Meanwhile, we work to re-use much of the bi-products of our winemaking. Our press pomace and stems all go to a compost pile mixed with local manure and grass cuttings to be returned to the vineyard floor in the Spring. As for our barrels, we have begun using an increasing number of "Re-coopered" refurbished barrels that provide new barrel quality without sourcing new wood. Additionally, we are putting many of our fully used barrels to good use in furniture and woodworked products that are now available in our tasting room.
In the Vineyard
Here we work to find as many ways as possible to avoid waste. This means minimizing water use through good ground cover management. We also work to promote natural pest management through the use of local species such as Purple Martins for insects. We also recycle our own compost from the winery operation back to the vineyard.
In the Tasting Room
We also work to find as many local and sustainable products as we can. These include local foods such as Bella Vista's Texas Olive Oil or Cathy Locke's amazing chocolate truffles. You'll also find sustainable products ranging from barrel stave furnishes made by our own Jim Brown, and our logo shirts made from renewable Bamboo. We additionally work to minimize the waste from our tasting room operation by recycling the majority of our glass and carboard waste as well as simple steps like using CFL and solar lighting in and around the building.
Looking Forward
We are always looking for ways to do a better job, and we have many projects in the works that will ideally make us more efficient, while improving the Hill Country we share. This land has enabled us to make these incredible wines, and we have a responsibility to be good stewards. Heather Kuhlken has been working to revitalize the landscape of our 150 acre winery estate by removing cedar overgrowth and invasive plant species. These steps have led to the re-establishment of seeps and springs that had previously been lost and help to make a better habitat for the native Hill Country wildlife on our property. By no means have we done everything we can, and we are working on more ways to improve what we do in every part of our business. We hope that in the months and years to come we have new projects to share and we always encourage ideas from our customers that can help us to do more.