Untamed Wine Estates

It's been a while, so let's go over some updates! Update #1: After a couple hiccups, we have purchased a 16 acre property on Highway 290. We're also in the process of purchasing 11 acres behind our property to ensure our view from our tasting room is not compromised by "creative" neighbors. We are in talks with a contractor and his group of architects to design our winery and tasting room. We will hopefully have those plans to share in the next month. View from the pad on our 16 acres. Update #2: We reached out to an assistant professor at The University of Texas at Austin to help with our label and logo design. He put together a dynamic team including himself, his wife, and a student from UT. We recently met with the team for a branding work session to define our brand and direction. The results from the work session will be reviewed this week and we'll proceed with the design of Untamed. They are a powerhouse of a team, cannot wait to see the complet...

5 Days... 4 States...                   1 Goal... After a busy holiday season, Dane and I left for Fredericksburg, Texas. We were blessed to see so many cities throughout the Southwest and arrive in one piece (including our winery equipment that traveled with us). We took a few detours including the Grand Canyon,  Santa Fe,   Roswell,  and, of course, the famous Mckenzie Street.  I say famous because it was photographed almost 20 years ago- same Mckenzie, different shoulder seat. We hit the ground running once we arrived in Fredericksburg in terms of the business(es)- too busy to officially unpack into our new residence. In terms of the winery property, we are currently in escrow with a parcel on Highway 290 and completing the due diligence. We have an idea of the design and can't wait to start building, as long as everything checks out. The Lab Pros is looking for an office space and will o...

Untamed Update ***************** This is our last full weekend living in Carmel, before we trade the sea for the hills (Texas Hill Country). We couldn’t be more excited! We placed an offer on a 16-acre parcel in Hye. A lot smaller than we had originally planned but this property is everything we have been looking for, and the price also gives us room to expand in the near future. More updates to follow regarding the property and the Untamed brand. In the meantime, we’ll be spending time with family for Christmas. Have a very Merry Christmas Season and enjoy your holidays!

How bad do you want this? ****** Sorry for the absence of Untamed Updates recently, we have been busy debating the question above. A couple of things have happened since the last post: our property fell out of escrow (we changed our minds due to flooding issues and a 290 relief route planned to be constructed directly through the property), and additionally, we were offered amazing job opportunities. We originally applied for these jobs at the beginning of the year. We would  have accepted the positions in a heartbeat, but after working on developing our own winery for a number of months, we had to ask ourselves: “How bad do we want this?” After visiting the winery who offered us these positions, we were inspired- not for the job positions, but for the potential of one day building a winery of similar caliber. The answer was easy: we are dedicated to pursuing the entrepreneurial dream. Some days are extremely challenging to stay focused on this path, but the amount we hav...

Special Update ***** It has been an exceptionally busy October: it’s the middle of our California harvest and we’re packing to move, watching over our injured dog (Howie goes in for surgery this week), opening escrow on our property in Hill Country, and road tripping to Reno for a day to accept a special award.  We’re very excited to be going forward with the property in Fredericksburg; although,  lately we’ve hit some road blocks. We recently found out that there is an alternative route for 290 in the works. One proposed route unfortunately would travel right through our property. Not ideal when we have a huge vineyard planned! We are waiting for the survey results before going forward with the rest of our due diligence. Keep your fingers crossed for us! In regards to the quick trip to Reno: Mckenzie was recently recognized as an Alumni of the year for the College of Science at the University of Reno Nevada for her accomplishments as an undergraduate student and beyond. S...

Why winemaking?  **** As winemakers, we hop e you taste the love and hard work we put behind each glass of wine. One of the reasons we chose a career in winemaking is that it incorporates a little bit of everything: customer service, manual labor, laboratory analysis, mechanical engineering, farming, production work, analytics, and accounting. There is never a boring day. It is far from the romantic lifestyle that you would envision, but the challenges we overcome in crafting a bottle of wine make each vintage unique and extremely rewarding.  Cheers!  🥂  

What’s it going to look like? **** We never realized how much design is involved in the production of wine: bottles, labels, corks, winery, tasting room, crush pad, interior, exterior, websites. We also never realized the cost involved in design (we were recently quoted $10,000 for just a label design). To avoid large designer fees we are being forced to get creative. Our main focus now is developing architectural plans of the winery and tasting room. But where do we start? O ne building or two buildings? Sloped roof? How tall? What materials? We want a building that is elegant but efficient, sophisticated but relaxed, and rustic with a modern twist. Large enough to accommodate all visitors and hold up to 200 barrels, but small enough to stay within budget. Sounds simple, right? But this is a lot easier said than done! Since we obviously don’t have a building design to show you yet, enjoy this picture of our dog, Howie, trying to drive a forklift. What winery design would...