Texas winery beats Napa elites with small-town savvy and top-notch taste
Texas winemaker Bob Landon's tempranillo won first place internationally, beating out scores of other wineries. Here's why Texas tastes are gaining traction across the nation.
Bob Landon didn't seem destined to become a Texas winemaker.
Born in Kansas City, he was raised in a small Missouri town near Hannibal – "Mark Twain country" – with a childhood shaped by a schoolteacher mother and a Southern Baptist preacher father. But a seventh-grade class experiment changed everything.
"Our science teacher taught us how to ferment grape juice into wine," Landon told Fox News Digital.
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"And I'm sure that's illegal today, but I remember tasting my experiment. I loved it. It's like, 'Oh, I love wine.' I went home and I asked my parents, 'Can I make wine at the house?' And they said, 'You can make it in the garage.'"
He was 12 years old.
That early itch carried through to college, graduate school and a corporate career in accounting.
Landon became a certified public accountant (CPA) and spent years in the finance world, making beer and wine as hobbies.
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A job transfer brought him and his wife – also a CPA – to Texas for what was "supposed to be a one-year stint." Thirty years later, they're still calling the Lone Star State home.
When the job threatened to pull them back to Kansas City, Landon and his wife balked. They didn't want to leave Texas. Instead, Landon made his own change by stepping away from corporate life.
"We'd saved some money, made some good investments and started the winery," he said.
Landon Winery opened 20 years ago in McKinney, Texas. It's still going.
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"I just don't do what causes you to lose money," Landon said. "I know that sounds silly and stupid, but it's true. I look at the ways that wineries lose money – and I just don't do that."
For instance, Landon said each wine barrel costs $1,000 – and that's before the wine is even made. He has 700 of them.
Next, take the grapes. "You better have enough money to live on for a long time because you're not going to get a harvest of grapes for four years," he said.
Meanwhile, Landon said, the expenses continue to pile up, from labor and equipment to facilities. "All that costs money," he said.
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Financial planning has made the difference between survival and growth for the Texas winemaker, he said — and his wife used to require him to submit business cases before every big expense.
"She's always back here in the back of my head," Landon said.
Although Americans mostly associate California with wine country, Texas deserves credit, Landon said.
Texas is now the third-largest wine-producing state, Landon said, and it's "on the way to being No. 2."
The climate mirrors Spain's Rioja region, home to the tempranillo grape.
"A lot of people think of Texas as being hot, which it is during the day, but it gets really cool at night," Landon said. "Pinot [Noir] loves that."
Landon's 2019 tempranillo took first place in its category at an international competition, a feat that landed him on the cover of Forbes magazine.
"I think a lot of people were surprised that a Texas wine would take No. 1 in the world," he said.
Landon produces an exclusive tempranillo for the Fox News Wine Shop under the "Legacy" label. It's also featured in the introductory case to Fox News American Wine Club members.
"I would say if you haven't tried [Texas wines] in a while, you need to try them again," Landon said. "We've really come a long way on what grows well."
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