Les Constable is one of Texas’s more infamous wine characters. A retired nuclear engineer, he’s an inveterate tinkerer, a closet inventor and has been known to plant crazy varietals, always searching for what will grow best in Texas. As a sign of his dedication, consider this: when Les found out about Rkatsiteli grapes, he decided Texas might be the place to grow them. To make sure, he hired a Greek Orthodox monk with a PhD in plant biology, who was living on the Black Sea at the time, to come over and help him decide.

That kind of wild dedication has landed him on the Board of Directors for the Texas Wine and Grape Growers Association. He has also represented his fellow winemakers on several legislative committees. Perhaps most interesting for a think piece in Appellation America, he doesn’t want to see his area turned into an appellation, at least not just yet.

Nonetheless he still believes his area of Texas , the Cross Timbers area, is a very special wine growing region. As we rode in his golf cart all over the vineyard, he pointed out dozens of different grapes, and multiple clones of the grapes we all know best.

I spoke with Les, the winemaker at Brushy Creek Winery recently and he proved to have a lot on his mind about AVAs, winemaking, and their place in Texas. So let the Les and Wes Show begin: