Ed and Susan Auler enjoying a little wine

Thursday, March 31 marks the kickoff of the 26th Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival.

What better way to celebrate the beginning of the festival than by having lunch with the folks who started it?

Ed and Susan Auler were instrumental in starting the original Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival in 1986. Most years since, they’ve helped start the festival by offering a delightful lunch prepared by Texas’s top chefs with matching wine from our best vineyards.

This year, Fall Creek Vineyards is offering food from Josh Watkins of the Carillon in Austin, Kent Rathbun of Abacus in Dallas and Jasper’s in Austin, and Issac Cantu of Francesca’s at Sunset in San Antonio.

To match up, they’ll offer wines from Llano Estacado in Lubbock, Spicewood Vineyards in Spicewood and Fall Creek Vineyards own wines. The lunch is on Thursday, March 31 from Noon-2pm and cost a bargain basement $65.

These luncheons usually sell out quickly, so take advantage of this fun opportunity. Tickets are available at www.texaswineandfood.org.

This article appears in March 18 • 2011.

A note to readers: Bold and uncensored, The Austin Chronicle has been Austin’s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community’s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands.

SUPPORT US

Wes Marshall is the author of What's a Wine Lover To Do? (Artisan) and The Wine Roads of Texas (Maverick), as well as the Executive Producer of the PBS television series of the same name. Wes has written for The Austin Chronicle since 1999, covering wine, cocktails, food, and travel.