Today we’d like to introduce you to Lisa Lange.
Hi Lisa, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Well, I am a Native Houstonian, I grew up in the Oak Forest area and graduated from S.P. Waltrip many years ago. I am a UH Alum, a wife and I have two amazing sons, both married to great women, and I have three precious grandsons!
For years my husband and I dreamed of different ways we could make a living, that would get us out of our careers, (me as an educator and him as an engineer) and move out to the country full time. This land has been in my family since the late 1840’s. It holds so much love, history and memories for my family for generations. Growing up I enjoyed coming out here with my grandmother (who grew up on the farm) and my parents. I have fond memories of chasing fireflies, going to her school reunions every year and sitting around the large kitchen table with the cast iron pipe stove to keep us warm when it was cold out. Our own two sons grew up coming out on weekends, holidays and school breaks. As they got older, bringing their own friends along with them. Often Kevin would come out on weekends and work the cattle with my father. My father passed away suddenly in 2011 and we were put in a very different position, one where we had to spend even more time here, tending to the cattle and property. The mood was more of responsibility and urgency than carefree fun.
A few years went by, and I had either a weak moment, or an epiphany, during Spring Break 2019. I often joke that I blame the wine I was drinking at the time. We were sitting in our rocking chairs just before sunset, sipping on wine and as we gazed out at the gorgeous field of Bluebonnets and Indian Paintbrush I simply said “this would be a wonderful place for people to get married”.
Kevin immediately replied with “Yes. And what goes perfectly with weddings? Wine! Just imagine the vineyard on the sloping hills in amongst the bluebonnets.” And, just like that, our dream was cemented into a plan. We immediately put together a timeline of five years to start our business and we converted our son’s old bedroom into the home “winery”.
When COVID hit, our house was under remodeling construction and there was only one room where we could work on our laptops. We spent several months in that room working our jobs online and realized how much we enjoyed working together like that. This only sped up our timeline a bit and I quit my job as a teacher in May of 2022. We worked together making wine for several years in preparation for our move to a commercial facility.
By the end of 2022 it was time to start advertising the venue and planning out the vineyard and building. We wanted this beautiful place to be a haven that we can share with others and we wanted our business to also be a ministry of sorts. We decided to focus on smaller micro-weddings only and be a place that looked holistically at bridal budgets and worked with couples to help them have a gorgeous wedding in a beautiful setting on a very reasonable budget.
We wanted to open the doors of our family property the way my 5-times great uncle Marcus Amsler did here back in the 1850’s. Our price point and micro-wedding offerings reach those in the market that may be neglected by the larger “wedding businesses” in Houston. We have been so blessed, in just the two years we’ve been open, by the 47 couples that have gotten married here.
Our wine-making continues to improve and evolve as Kevin strives to make wine with amazing flavors using the grapes grown here in this region, juice from other parts of Texas, and juice from California. We follow a similar strategy with our wine as we do with our weddings. We keep things niche and specialize with batches that only make 25 cases at a time. We currently offer 18 different wines and they all have one thing in common – bold, creative flavors, using techniques that make our wines specialty in nature and unique in the market.
Kevin lost his entire sense of smell and taste due to COVID in 2022 and he has been forced to learn to trust and rely on my palette, our employees and friends’ feedback, and his brother who flies in from Virginia several times a year to assist with the blend selection. His sister also recently retired and moved here from Napa to help us. This truly is a family business and a team effort.
The amount the work involved in this business feel overwhelming at times. But when we have couples that hug us and say “we couldn’t have gotten married if it wasn’t for you guys”, it all seems worth it. It also feels good when winery guests tell us our wines are spectacular and that we need to somehow find a way to share this hidden gem with more people. This fills our tank and gives us energy to move forward and keep going with our passion.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Kevin called me one day in late 2022 while I was baby-sitting our grandson and told me that the winery business wasn’t going to work due to the need for a “public water supply”. We thought that the dream was over, but after a few more days of calling and research, we found a way to get water from the existing water supply company out in the country.
Another huge hurdle was that our building was delayed by 5-6 months. Halfway through construction we were informed that they could NOT build the building that was promised in the contract. We were trying to be the first winery in Texas with a fully “rammed earth” facility, but it turns out the humidity is too high in this region for that to work. So, we ended up with a fully concrete building instead and it has actually turned-out way better than our first plan anyway.
We have learned significant commercial lessons as well, like buying bad wine from a manufacturer to help us get started our first year, or booking weddings without a building being finished. Although they were costly for a time, we learned from them and do not see ourselves having to do that again.
Right now, our biggest struggles are balancing work and our personal life. We may be good about blocking out days on our calendar, but if someone calls and wants to book a tour or talk about doing a tasting on a day we are closed, my husband will open for them. He hasn’t been very good at protecting his/our personal time just yet, it’s a work in progress.
We are grateful that you are doing this article on hidden gems because we also feel like we are the “Who’s” in Horton Hears A Who shouting “We Are Here!!!!” all of the time. Even locals in our area tell us they had no idea we were here, but pass by us almost daily.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Of course, the obvious one is that Kevin being an engineer is able to use his knowledge and skills in his wine making process. He is super talented in taking what mother nature has done to the grapes each year and work his vintner magic to make sure the bold and amazing flavors still come through.
I believe we both work well with talking to and meeting new people, finding out what they like to drink or what they look for in a wine and helping them discover new flavors or broadening their pallets when it comes to wine.
What sets us apart from others is the “micro” nature of our work:
1) Micro weddings with a lower price point, we have done weddings for as few as 12 people and our maximum capacity is 98. This means we have different price points for the number of people at a wedding. We also do all rentals “a la carte” meaning that couples do not have to pay for anything they do not want.
2) Small batch wine making with amazing flavors, because Kevin makes smaller batches he can control the flavors, oak, and tannins more carefully.
What do you like and dislike about the city?
It is the same answer for both. We LOVE being out in the country, but that means we have to do a lot of marketing to let people know that we are here.
Pricing:
- $1250 – $2100 for a wedding/reception
- $25 – $29 for 16 of our wines
- One of our wines is more expensive, Private Reserve being $49/bottle
Contact Info:
- Website: https://amslerhillswinery.com
- Instagram: @amslerhillswinery
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100088815961573
Image Credits
Prudence Photography (the two of us at the bar)
