History Thru 2006

It has been a very long road from the beginning to the release of these one-of-a-kind
wines. Dan Gatlin grew up in the retail beverage trade as his family was the owners &
operators of the Hasty chain of wine, spirits and convenience stores in Dallas, Texas.
His father, Vernon Gatlin, had worked his way up from Depression Era beginnings
after Prohibition. After service in WWII, Vernon Gatlin returned to Dallas and
established himself as an astute businessman building the A&A Company to 28
stores, and then Hasty to 15 convenience and 11 wine & spirits stores under his
ownership. Vernon Gatlin died in 1981 and his wife Virginia passed away in 1988.

Dan Gatlin built his wine skills as a buyer and eventually vice-president of the
company. When Hasty was sold, he turned his interest to vineyard research. His
close contact in the 1970s with the California wine industry had allowed him to
directly witness the coming-of-age of that industry in a way that not many people were
allowed to see in those days. He therefore began the long process of researching
whether Texas held any possilibilities for fine wine production by establishing one of
the first vineyards in the state in 1981 sampling 22 all-vinifera varieties in Denton
County, Texas.

The First Vineyard
This first vineyard, one of only 5 or 6 in the state at that time, proved to be an
invaluable source of information, although its commercial production was limited.
One of the first realizations that became evident from this planting was that Texas
wines, unlike California, were destined to be heavily influenced by the terroir. This
term, which literally means the "soil" or "land", is more widely taken in the wine
industry to mean the flavors conveyed from all of the soil and site elements to the
wine.

Of the many terroir factors available for discussion, the most prevalent in Texas is the
high mineral content where particularly high calcium levels play a crucial role. This
role varies from a welcome one to an adverse factor depending which grape variety
is grown there and how it is vinified. Varieties that may have been thought to be dull
in mineral neutral soils like the U.S. West Coast sometimes become "bright" and
complex wine producers, while some respected varieties, like Cabernet for example,
which has a high capacity to transfer mineral compounds into its juice, become harsh
as varietal wines and need to be blended, like in Europe.

Although California relies heavily on its excellent climate to produce perfect
sugar/acid balances, Texas relies mainly on its terroir and secondarily on its climate
in one important regard: different grape varieties have different minimum respiration
requirements which were also defined in the first vineyard block. Respiration can be
thought of as similar to the process in humans, where the vine "breathes in" during
the day and "breathes out" at night. The limiting factor here is that each variety has a
different minimum overnight temperature and corresponding number of hours needed
at that temperature to respire completely. Therefore, if a grape like Tempranillo for
example, needs a minimum of 8 hours per night at a temperature of 65 degrees or
less to respire completely each night during the summer/fall ripening cycle, then this
requirement rules out areas where the overnight lows barely touch 70 degrees like
most of Texas at that time of year.

The Discovery of the Palomino
Finally, one of the early bright spots in this first group was the lowly Palomino, once
the most widely planted grape in Spain and primarily used for Sherry production. In
the early wine trials from 1984 to 1988, its unique nectar-like fragrance and dense
concentration made it a stand-out, but its shy production of less than one ton per acre
was below economic feasibility to support a winery operation by itself. Therefore the
search continued for companion varieties. Although a number of grapes made
drinkable wines, none of the others were deemed to be capable of premium wines by
Mr. Gatlin and the vineyard was abandoned. However, one thing was clear: the
varieties that were the best candidates were those found in southern regions of
Europe, especially tracing down the Italian and Iberian peninsulas and this became
the focus of his future plantings.

The Inwood Estates Vineyard
In 1997, Dan and Rose Mary Gatlin bought a large lot in a then-undervalued part of
Dallas where they remodeled the house for their residence and established a
245-vine completely "urban" vineyard. This became a local point of interest and
some early Palomino-Chardonnays were produced from there non-commercially as
the yield was less than 50 gallons per year. In late 2005, the Gatlins moved from there
but the name stuck as the winery was being built in another part of the city. Today the
current owner of the Inwood Road property has taken an interest in continuing the
urban vineyard and the 2006 grapes contributed to one barrel of "Urban Dallas"
Palomino-Chardonnay which will be available by Christmas 2007.

The Tempranillo-Cabernet
The hunt for other wines continued and after a total of 5 vineyards, Dan Gatlin put in a
block of Tempranillo at Newsom Vineyards in Yoakum County, Texas. Newsom
Vineyards is now the grower of both the Tempranillo and Cabernet which go into the
Inwood Estates flagship wine. This location was chosen by Mr. Gatlin for its ability to
meet the Tempranillo's respiration requirement which is a function of the elevation at
over 4000'. However, being almost 400 miles from the winery, the grapes are
field-crushed within minutes of begin taken from the vine. This captures 100% of the
flavors instantly as harvesting takes place at night in the cold desert air around 58-60
degrees. The must can then be transported while on cold soak with zero degradation.
Inwood Estates is the only winery in Texas which field-crushes and Mr. Gatlin learned
this technique from a famous Napa-Valley winemaker in 1978.

Inwood Estates Today
The business was established in 2004 and the winery built in 2005 which housed the
first in-house crush. The 2003 and 2004 wines were custom crushed at Wales Manor
Winery in McKinney, Texas where Mr. Gatlin served as winemaker for both vintages
of Tempranillo-Cabernet. The 2003 Temp-Cab and the 2005 Palo-Chard were
released August 1, 2006 to a great reception of restaurant customers in Texas' four
largest cities: Dallas, Houston, Austin, San Antonio.

2004 Tempranillo-Cabernet (64% Tempranillo - 36% Cabernet)
The 2004 Temp-Cab is still in French Oak cooperage and will be bottled after a
minimum of 26 months total, sometime in early 2007. This vintage was the type of
year every winery desires as harvest came around the middle of the season with
perfect chemistry. The wine is closing in on an excellent maturation cycle in wood and
has the powerful "Red-Fruit" charactersitics (Cherries, Raspberries) that Inwood
Estates will always be known for.

2005 Tempranillo-Cabernet (65% Tempranillo - 35% Cabernet)
The 2005 vintage was a very long season and unusually cool year with harvest in
October. Such long hangtimes on high-mineral soils result in high-structure wines that
need longer aging in oak and become great lay-down wines that develop lots of
complexity (like most Bordeaux, for example). 2005 may be the best year yet seen in
Texas.

2006 Tempranillo-Cabernet
2006 was a drought year, the diametrical opposite of 2005. The berries came in
small due to some dehydration and the crop was reduced. The must was so thick the
pumps were having trouble. The logistics of dealing with must this thick was a
challenge at every turn, however, the resulting wine will be one of uncommon
concentration and power. This type of year will be analogous to what happened in
Bordeaux in 2003 and the result will be the same: less elegance than 2005 but a big,
in-your-face kind of wine that is a high-attention getter; the kind that always stands out
in competition and ratings.