texas

I often come across passionate, enthusiastic characters in my travels. More often than not they have something to do food and drinks. I love learning about their passion for what they create and I love sharing my finds with you, so you can visit too.

At Barking Rocks Winery in Granbury, Texas, each grape crushing reveals a different path. The winemaker, Tiberia, is not interested in recreating the same bottle of wine again and again, but instead lets the grapes lead him through each barrelling. The journey of Barking Rocks Winery began ten years ago with an early retirement and a career change that led Tiberia to reinvent himself, dropping his first name and returning to his Italian heritage through winemaking. For the past decade, he and his wife Sissy have been sticking to their motto “making wine, friends and events happen.”

Beginning in 1971, with the opening of the Rothko Chapel, the de Menil family had big plans for this neighborhood in Houston, Texas. The Chapel is a structure designed to house the paintings of Abstract Expressionist artist, Mark Rothko and a place for reflection and spirituality, regardless of your god. It set the tone for what was to come. A few years later, in 1987, the Menil Collection opened its doors and over the years has become more than just the art collection of a family housed in a museum. While, it does refer to a building of such expression, it is just one of many in a campus of art, architecture, and sculpture collected by the de Menil family displayed in the Montrose neighborhood. In addition to the Rothko Chapel, there is outdoor sculpture, galleries dedicated to the work of Cy Twombly and Dan Flavin, and until this year a re-imagined Byzantine Chapel to house frescos saved from Cyprus. (After 15 years, the frescos were returned to Cyprus in March 2012. You can learn more and see video and photography of the former installation, at Byzantine Fresco Chapel website.) All-in-all, the Menil collection and its environs is a place to be inspired, to feel, and to interact with art in a way that’s uncommon in today’s wall-text driven art experience.