Rodeo Uncorked!

Rodeo Uncorked!

The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo 2019 is in full swing. It has everything you could ever hope for in a Rodeo and much more. If you haven’t been yet, you still have 11 chances left- including tonight’s show, so you better hustle. If you can, go every night. Wow, just kidding. That would be so exhausting. Just try and go a time or two at least- really at least. Our favorite day of the week at the rodeo is Saturday because we essentially spend all day on the grounds. (More specifically most of our time is spent hanging out in the Champion Wine Garden). Rodeo only comes once a year and for Houston, it’s our biggest event. Everyone you know is going at least once and most are going multiple times. We like to say that El Tiempo on Washington is “the place to see and be seen on a Friday night” and we believe that the Rodeo Wine garden is the “place to see and be seen at the HLSR”.  

Here in the Wine garden there are over 70 different wines to choose from by the glass or by the bottle. They have all competed in the Rodeo’s international wine competition and are all winners in at least one category. The prices are great too! Most bottles are in the $24- $38 range and the markup from retail pricing is truly not that bad. With this pricing, it is so easy to rotate who buys the next bottle for the table. We all know that with the great atmosphere there and the live music that one bottle won’t be enough. If you’re like us you’ll start with a bottle of Rosé for the group (somehow we convinced the men to join in on the pink wine) and then move on to a bottle of Cab. Houston has some pretty dang hot weather, so one thing we always love is that they serve their reds slightly more chilled than we would typically enjoy.  Our favorite Rosé this year on their menu is the Monte Stella Rosé by Llano Estacado and our favorite Cab is the LangeTwins Family Winery and Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon. Of the two, we were really digging the Rosé.

As for food, you can bring whatever you want from the grounds into the wine garden. Out there is like a Disneyland of fried foods and southern goodness. Everything is amazing and some things are shocking. Shocking might seem dramatic, but there are things like Fruity Pebble Fried Shrimp and I’m sure many other crazy things that make that look tame. Once getting to the grounds, we walk straight to grab food. If we’ve already eaten a meal before we arrived we walk straight to get fried oreos. Everyone has their favorite fried delicacies, but the fried oreos are TO DIE FOR. For you it might be the Fruity Pebble Fried Shrimp or Hot Cheetos Cotton Candy. We wait all year for the Oreos and year after year they live up to the hype. After ordering and walking around some of the food options to see what the new creations are, we head over to grab our vino. If you’re looking for food inside the Wine Garden, they do have a cheese plate and Charcuterie platter. We have ordered the cheese plate out of pure curiosity and our opinion is to go grab food elsewhere. It’s not bad, but we just don’t think it is worth the $18. If you are looking for snacks for the table there are plenty of homemade kettle chips and loaded fry options out in the carnival.

After you’ve gone to see the best rodeo in the world followed by a great concert, don’t forget to head back out to uncork some more fun. The live music continues out in the garden and the bands are always great. We also love to walk around and look at all of the booths inside NRG center. The shops are so cute (especially after the wine) and walking through them all is a blast.

We will never get tired of the HLSR and never get tired of the Champion Wine Garden. We will for sure be there next week on Friday and Saturday. If you see us there, flag us down and we’ll make room for you at our table. If you don’t have tickets into the rodeo, you can always purchase tickets to the grounds for $15 or a season pass for $35.

Peace & Pinot,

The Perfectly Paired Pals