Today we’d like to introduce you to Kristina Tucker.
Kristina, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
While in school, I waited tables in both family and fine dining to pay my way. My early exposure to wine helped me learn about the wide range of flavors and artistry required to make fine wine. As I learned more about wine, I began to fall in love with it, the lifestyle and appreciate everything that goes into it.
Once I finished my Bachelors of Science in Biology at the University of Houston Downtown, I began looking for graduate programs and my boyfriend, Ron, suggested I look into Enology (the science of winemaking). I was accepted to schools in CA and in OR but was told I wouldn’t be able to start for a year and a half until they received another research grant. At that time, I met with a professor at Texas A&M, who was pushing to develop a graduate program in Enology and Viticulture. He encouraged me to meet with winemakers in the industry to determine what they believed to be relevant research. I liked the flexibility of that approach as opposed to coming in and being thrown into a given phase of an existing multi-part project. I could also start immediately.
In 2013, I began my Masters of Science in Horticulture at Texas A&M and started working in wineries and vineyards. While there, my chair taught me about the renaissance of urban wineries throughout the US. It was something I had never really thought about. I always liked the idea of being out in the country, working on a vineyard but the more I learned about urban wineries, the more it made sense. Prior to Prohibition, the grapes were grown outside of the city, but the majority of winemaking, storage, and wine trading all took place within the city, where the consumers and shipping operations were located. It wasn’t until after Prohibition that all the wineries were pushed outside the city to the vineyards. I saw that almost every major city now had an urban winery and particularly loved the urban wine scene up in Portland and Seattle. I knew Houston, being such a foodie city, was the perfect place.
Meanwhile, Ron and I got married in 2015, bought a house, and moved into Oak Forest. Ron worked in offshore oil and gas for a little over 20 years and about the same time, I was finishing my last semester of school, the oil and gas market took a downturn and he was laid off. We began interviewing for jobs on the west coast. Then, one Saturday, we were at the small local Farmer’s Market on Wakefield Dr., and we saw a “For Lease” sign on the building across the street. We called just to see and it turned out to be a great deal for us. The landlord was also excited about our idea of an urban winery so it helped affirm our belief that Houston was ripe for an urban winery.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The main challenge we faced was that the building we took over was an old auto body shop so it has required a significant amount of cleaning and conversion to make it suitable for wine production. We also took over the building in July of 2017, just two months before Hurricane Harvey hit. Although the building wasn’t affected by Harvey, the permitting process for our tasting room buildout was. Since we didn’t have a tasting room, we decided to start selling our wine at local markets, private parties, and corporate events. After a few months, we decided to convert a portion of our office space to a small tasting lounge that holds about 20 people. We are still waiting on the permits for the construction of our larger tasting room, but after 19 months of hard work, we now have an operational winery and a small tasting lounge open to the public.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
We are a family and friend owned winery. We feature a variety of artisanal small-batch wines handcrafted with grapes sourced from around the country (and eventually from around the world). We work with different grape growers, who ship the grapes to us here in Houston. We then crush, press, ferment, barrel, age, and bottle the wine all on-site.
We feel very strongly that wine has a sense of place and time. We don’t believe in over manipulation to try to make it consistently the same. You should be able to taste a wine and see how it changes from year to year and how a grape expresses itself differently depending on where it is grown. For this reason, we make our wines with 100% grapes sourced from a particular region, and often a specific vineyard. We also make a large number of our wines using a single grape varietal.
One of the most important things I’ve learned is to think intently about winemaking, to respect old world traditions, and to add beauty and artistry to each step in the process regardless of how time-consuming it may be. We take pride in this and that we pay attention to detail at every step. We use Nico Velo concrete tanks imported from Italy, which are the only ones in Texas; the viticulturist we work with to help us source grapes along the west coast has 50 years of experience and ensures the vineyards having farming practices we support; and our barrel maker is a Master Cooper with 20 years of experience. We have been fortunate enough to work with and make friends with talented and skilled individuals that take a great deal of care in their work. We trust them with us and this helps make our job a bit easier and more enjoyable.
Lastly, wine should be fun! It doesn’t have to be a big, formal, intimidating affair. Every winemaker I’ve met, even from prestigious wineries, are laid back and down to earth. The goal of a winemaker is simply to create a memorable wine that you’ll drink, enjoy, celebrate with, connect over with old friends, or make new friends with. We generally find everything is better with a great bottle of wine.
All of this together helps us to create the best wines possible and set us apart.
What were you like growing up?
I was born and raised in College Station, TX. I was a bit shy when I was little. My parents owned the Baskin Robbins in town though, and they put me to work scooping ice cream and decorating cakes. I also have a large extended family I grew up around so between that and scooping ice cream, I came out of my shell. By high school, I was personable and gregarious. I was also kind of a nerd, but I like to think in a cool way 🙂 I’ve loved science, art, and music for as long as I can remember. Growing up, I played science and anatomy and physiology quiz games, collected National Geographic cards about animals around the world, loved to draw, paint, and read, and played cello for 15 years. I also played softball, basketball, and tennis, and was in student council. I have always been a huge animal lover so we’re definitely puppy friendly at the winery. I am Catholic, which was an important part of my upbringing, and my family was always active in the church. I initially thought I’d go to art school in Chicago or New York and then realized science fascinated me more. When I started college I was set on being a doctor but then learned I didn’t really have the stomach for anything too graphic. I feel like I’ve found a happy balance with winemaking. To me, it is the perfect combination of science and art.
Contact Info:
- Address: 948 Wakefield Dr.
Houston, TX 77018 - Website: decantwinery.com
- Phone: 832-834-7960
- Email: kristina@decantwinery.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/decantwinery/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DecantWinery/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/decant-urban-winery-houston
Image Credit:
Pedigo Photography
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