Texas Wine- a voyage across the state

I have always been a proponent of all things Texas. Hell, when I lived in Madrid, Spain in a former life, I introduced myself as a Texan first. So I will Go Texan whenever possible, and these days, that pertains to Texas wine. Drinking Texas wine is nothing new to me. I use a Ste. Genevieve red, usually their Texas Red, to make sangría for my friends and family. And that has been the case way before the proliferation of Texas wineries that one sees nowadays.

Our first foray into Texas wineries were visits back in July with a stop at Becker Vineyards, Pedernales Cellars, and Sister Creek Vineyards. My hope is to visit as many of them as possible, as often as possible. The next ones on the list will be DFW locales, with McKinney's Mitas Hill Vineyard first, and maybe a slightly longer trip to the Red River valley to Arché in Saint Jo.

Check out my Twitter feed, @pacojavi712 when you get a chance, to find my latest #TXWine selection, if you can get past my Rangers tweets and related obscenities. Oh...my current twitter avi was taken in front of the Sister Creek's sign and my header from the gorgeous vista at Pedernales.

See you at the winery!

Today's the Day: Adiós Nellie?

MLB's announcement on player suspensions to those linked to the Biogenesis lab is supposed to happen today with Texas Rangers right-fielder Nelson Cruz as one of the implicated. With this said, I am disappointed to see any Rangers player connected to this PED scandal, but even more so with Cruz. He became a Ranger favorite of mine not too long after his arrival. Call it a vibe, but I knew he'd be more than a flash in the pan when he arrived in Arlington several years ago.

His on-field performance could be called bipolar or somewhat schizophrenic, with his outfield play. Thank goodness he is blessed with speed to make up for making the wrong reads on balls hit his way. Yes yes, Game 6. It's the prime example. But what I've always like about him was that he played the game with a smile on his face and had no prima donna about him. One could tell he was a good guy and a great teammate, who could hit a ball for miles, gun a guy down on the base-paths, but whose ball-getting-to made you dizzy.

But here is the gist this posting and what has been in my head since I heard Nellie's name linked to those Biogensis reports. I do not know him and I have no evidence that he took PEDs, but who is to say that amazing Game 6 misplay played heavily on his decision to help his team get back and reclaim the championship that was in their grasp, but was not because that line-drive over his head was not within his. I'm not saying he used PEDs. He could have. How many times did he go on the DL in 2012? But in the end, even if he had the best of intentions, he might have let down his teammates again.