The setting sun gives the vineyard a glowing gold kiss. Underneath the shade of a nearby oak tree, people sit at a table and sip Riesling as Edison lights strung above turn on.
The scene doesn’t go with Sonoma, California, or even the Hill Country in Texas. People in Orange can now have a full vineyard experience at one of the oldest wineries in the state.
Free State Cellars is open at the former Piney Woods Winery on Tejas Drive. The extended local Swope family invested to make wine and create a place for people to relax and enjoy the products.
The Swopes have taken local history and lore as the signature for the winery. Free State Cellars comes from the historic nickname of The Free State of Sabine.
In the early 1800s after the U.S. made the Louisiana Purchase, the eastern border between Spain in Texas was in dispute. The neutral ground, also known as “No Man’s Land,” was between the Sabine and Calcasieu rivers. That area, along with the west side of the Sabine in what became Orange County, was a place where outlaws hid.
The pirate Jean Lafitte sailed the Gulf of Mexico between Galveston and New Orleans. Legend said he would run his ships up Sabine Lake and the Sabine River. For generations, people in Orange County searched for rumored buried treasure.
The Free State logo includes two crossed 18th Century pistols. The slogan is “Get Your Swagger On.”
The winery is open now on Thursdays from 1 to 7 p.m., Fridays from 1 to 8 p.m., and Sundays from 1 to 5 p.m. Wines are sold by the glass or the bottle. Free State also has daily sangrias that use the wines like a chilled watermelon. Two fruity flavors are frozen into adult slushees.
The winery also has a variety of sodas to keep it kid friendly. Kids and dogs are welcomed. Tejas Parkway is off Interstate 10 West and travelers stop by the winery.
“We don’t want kids or dogs to have to wait in the car,” said Mandy Swope Hernandez.
Sisters Dana Swope and Hernandez are running the business. They can arrange for tasting parties with guests sitting along the butcher block bar. The tastings include pairing the winery’s wines with the different meats and cheeses on the charcuterie. Even a bit of dark chocolate with caramel is included to pair with a red.
The whites are Viognier, Muscat Canelli, Riesling, and Moscato. The reds are Rubby Cabernet, Tempranillo, and Rio Dulce. They are making the wines from Texas-grown grapes.
They also are continuing to grow and harvest the muscadine grapes planted nearly 35 years ago.
Piney Woods Winery was started in 1985 by Alfred Flies, who planted the acres of muscadine vines and made old-fashioned fruit wines. Hernandez said the site is the 14th winery started in Texas, which now has a booming wine business. Flies won more than 70 awards through the years and surprised the wine world in 2009 when his Moon Magnolia won best in the state at the Houston Livestock Show international wine competition.
Flies died in 2015 at the age of 92 and his family did not continue the winery.
Dana Swope said their father made homemade wine and the sisters and brothers talked about buying the winery. Some of them had gone through school with Flies’ children.
When they bought it, the vineyards were unkempt and going wild. The family’s efforts to restore everything were ruined, though, when Harvey flooded the whole property in August 2017.
City of Orange building permits show the winery had a permit for $200,000 worth of construction after Harvey and recently another permit for work at $375,000.
They started again. Dana Swope is an architect and she designed the tasting room and the above-ground wine cellars. She and Hernandez also studied on the Internet and through courses at Texas Tech University on how to operate a winery.
Free State’s tasting room and patio are sleek with a rustic industrial look and Morrocan-style tiles. The tasting room also has a small gift selection including wine accessories and Free State T-shirts.
The long, covered patio has rustic wood tables and swing stools. Fans circulate the air on a summer’s evening as Edison lights illuminate. A variety of chairs and tables are spread throughout the outside. Hernandez said people like to walk across the vineyards to Adams Bayou and they plan to one day build a boardwalk.
Live entertainment will be coming and a pianist is scheduled for August 2 and 3.
-Margaret Toal, KOGT-
Social Media