Meet Mel Carter, Assistant Tasting Room Manager
Before joining our team at Pedernales Cellars, Mel Carter was a stay-at-home mom, and her family owned a peach stand in Fredericksburg. It was her role as a mom that led her to us. As fate would have it, two other moms in her children’s friend group both worked at Pedernales Cellars.
“They asked if I wanted to have adult time, says Mel. “I joined Pedernales Cellars as a tasting room associate on the weekends in May of 2013 and have loved every minute of it ever since.”
She loves working at our smaller, family-owned winery, where she can focus on customer service. Mel likes having time to talk with our customers to understand why they are here and how she can make their visit enjoyable.
Focused on Wine Education
Mel is a natural in the tasting room. She has a knack for sharing her passion for wine education with guests in a fun and engaging way. Over the years, Mel has not only shared the history of the vineyards and the winery with countless guests, but she has also helped shape the tasting room with her ability to get people excited about wine.
“When I first started, I didn’t drink wine at all,” says Mel. “As soon as I started, I wanted to learn everything I could about wine from what ‘terroir’ means and how it impacts the wine, to the differences between grapes grown in the Texas High Plains vs. the Hill Country to every aspect of what leads to the final flavor of each wine. It was eye-opening to learn how wine tastes different when aged in stainless steel, versus French oak barrels, versus American oak. Everything about how the wine is made plays a role in creating the flavor. There are a lot of factors that impact the flavor of a wine.”
Mel continues, “I love helping people get excited about not only enjoying wine but also learning more about it so they have an even richer experience. It is fun for people to explore the difference between the nose and palate of a wine, and how we can taste different aspects of the wine in different parts of our mouth. There is an art to tasting wine. It is not like going to a bar and having a shot of liquor. I walk our guests through the three phases of tasting: the first sip is to cleanse your palate, the second is to set your palate, and finally, the third sip lets us truly taste the wine. The most fun is meeting people who are new to wine and helping them learn about it. It is really rewarding to see them pick up nuances of the wine.”
Mel has been with the winery through several growth phases in the past eight years and has grown right along with us. She is adept at managing the changes in the industry and the curveballs that the pandemic has thrown at us. She has jumped right in to assist with our tasting room remodel and continual enhancements to ensure we offer the best possible experience for guests.
Mel's Favorite Sips
Mel readily admits that she feels spoiled to work at a winery where she loves the wine.
“I love our Tempranillo Reserve and our GSM Mélange. It pairs well with everything. I’m definitely a fan of red wines. When a non-wine drinker comes to the tasting room, I like to compare red wines to whiskey. Our heavier more oaked reds like the Newseaux and Family Reserve wines that are aged longer in oak can relate well to whiskey aged in oak barrels. These are my kind of wines.”
We invite you to visit our tasting room, meet Mel, and taste some of her favorite wines. Cheers!