Solaro Estate Winery

Reviews 3

AL

Alain Harvey

Robert Hugh Fritz III founded the Solaro Estate in Dripping Springs on the same property his family bought in 1909 of which he is now a co-owner. One hundred years later Solaro Estate Winery produced its first vintage and today grows the Montepulciano and Barbera varietals on the winerys eight acres and sources grapes from other parts of Texas to make nine additional wines including Tempranillo and an orange Muscat dessert wine, none of which are worth the stellar prices demanded in light of their mediocre to horribly undrinkable quality. Theres not a wide division between the two extremes. We participated in a tasting conducted by the co-owner, Robert Hugh Fritz III who describes himself as a federal prosecutor (not), winery owner (co-owner), wine industry expert (not based on what we tasted on our visit) and Solaros winemaker (hire someone who knows what theyre doing Robert!) The tasting was not worth the $15/person (or even had it been complimentary) and surreal with Fritz claiming to be a federal prosecutor with a "big case" coming up soon in which he bragged he was the governments lead counsel. I found his continual references to his legal prowess (unsupported by the media or attorney rating services) as being odd for a wine tasting. In fact, while an attorney, Robert Fritz is not associated with the U.S. Attorneys Office but rather is an attorney in private practice (Fritz Law Form) in Houston, Texas. Fritz also touted the winerys awards derived from little-known "international" and local events held exclusively within the U.S. only. Taste these poor-quality wines and wonder if the judges were dishonest, inept or all the competing wines were just that bad. For the $15/person the tasting we each received parsimonious few drops of five wines representative of Solero Estates best efforts. Fritz struggles with the pronunciation of foreign words and the names of grape varietals, taking great pride in carefully enunciating "Montepulciano" which he had obviously practiced repeatedly. The wines themselves are unbalanced, uniformly mediocre to actually, horribly undrinkable. Bring mouthwash. Fritz claims he creates his wines using superior techniques to those used in Europe. Regardless, the Montepulciano we purchased upon opening later that evening for a group of French oenophiles displayed an overwhelming aroma reminiscent of cheap nail polish and was extremely acidic on the palate, unbalanced, with no indication of any tannins whatsoever in spite of the winerys claim that this wine is aged in oak casks for twenty-four months. Fritz is apparently not a winemaker extraordinaire after all and should frankly be ashamed to market these wines at all, much less at the stellar prices demanded. No wonder no price list is evident at the winery. Surprise! As the saying goes, theres a fool born every minute and apparently Fritz counts on his overhyped presentations to impress the gullible and separate them from their hard-earned cash. No crackers or other palate-clearing bites were offered between the wines tasted. One wine was poured (sloshed) directly into the same glass as the wine just sampled without so much as a rinse beforehand. Upon purchasing a bottle of the Solaros wine we discovered that Solero offers no discount on the its already overpriced wines for those participating in a tasting. Once fooled shame on me.... Bottom line, skip this mediocre winery and its blowhard co-owner. Spend your time instead visiting a few of the other nearby wineries, distilleries or breweries. Youll be glad you did and so will your wallet.

LE

Leila Rahil

Color me bewildered and confused...I came here last Sunday afternoon after a beautiful hike at Westcave Preserve and thought what a great way to spend a leisurely Sunday afternoon and chose this winery because of the Yelp rating and rave reviews and the close proximity to Westcave. I have to say...not impressed does not even begin to express my dismay and disappointment about my experience here. Firstly, it is a HUGE turn off for me with any business when it is made immediately apparent that they are just money hungry. This is very obvious in their pathetic tasting where for $10 you only sample 4 wines and the pours they give you are maybe enough to constitute a single sip, so when you do the math, you are paying $2.50 for less than an ounce of wine and Texas winery of the year notwithstanding, these guys are not Napa quality to demand such pricing, but seem to think more highly of their wines than maybe they should imho. The other issue is the tasting list does not have the bottle pricing so you honestly do not know how much a bottle of anything is going for. They do make an effort to upsell their wine club membership which would entitle you to potentially taste the other 4 wines on the tasting menu. However, my biggest issue and what really upset me the most about my experience here was when I got my bill for $60 for a bottle of wine and 2 tastings, I almost fell over! I am a sommelier and have been to many wineries all over the country, let alone several here in Texas, and I have NEVER had a winery still charge me for a tasting fee AFTER I bought a bottle; to add insult to injury after purchasing a very overpriced $38 bottle of their Tempranillo, I would think for $38 they could at least comp me one of their measly tastings, but again, money grubbing attitude was made very apparent. Also, the guy that did our tasting was very robotic and distant and sounded like a broken recording when regurgitating the "tasting profiles" of the four wines. In all honesty, the Tempranillo was the only palatable wine of the four. When we went we were the only people in the tasting room and granted it was 40 or so mins before they were supposed to close. The grounds were also not impressive and in my opinion looked nothing like the pics here on Yelp or on their website, so what is supposed to induce me to return here if not for the wine or the view? Needless to say, I will never be back and have told several of my friends to avoid visiting this highly overpriced and disappointing winery. If this was the Texas Winery of the year, the TX wine industry needs to raise its standards as I have been to several other Hill Country wineries that far exceeds this debacle!

KA

Katheryn Rivet

This place is staffed by the rudest, most inattentive people I have dealt with at any winery in the hill country. My husband and I usually do the wine trails, and I know that in itself probably gives the employees the impression that we are "cheap". Coupled with the fact that were younger, Im sure they assume we arent spending any money. (Not true- we try to at least buy a few glasses at wineries we think are just good, and purchase bottles and merchandise from the ones that are awesome! We fully support Texas wineries.) So we arrive on a fairly busy Saturday afternoon, and find a spot at the tasting bar. There are several pourers helping people, and we patiently wait for someone to acknowledge us. That. Never. Happens. Not a smile, not a nod, certainly not an "Ill be right with you!" One of the servers standing a few feet from us even looked blankly our direction, as though we were invisible, and turns the other way to wordlessly open a bottle for another couple. Awesome! How polite! After wasting ten minutes standing there, we walked out. Yes, they were busy. But not so busy they couldnt greet us and assure we would be helped shortly. There is no excuse for that at any establishment. Needless to say, we will never return to this winery. I would rather spend my money on vino bought from a grocery store than support this vineyard.

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