The Nice Winery

Want a fantastic wine and taste bud experience? Try combining two Le Cordon Bleu chefs who are also sommeliers. Who else knows how to pair for incredible culinary results? NICE Winery has evolved into a one-​stop delight including education.
You will NOT be disappointed!

What a great experience! One of our group put together a wine dinner at this unassuming «winery» in an industrial park on the West Sam Houston Parkway, and it was a fantastic surprise.
Our evening started with charcuterie and cheeses, along with the $ 20 Nice Santa Julia Brut Rose Pinot Noir from Mendoza, Argentina, a pleasant sparkling wine, which carried over to the first course of crispy blue-​cheese stuffed olives, presented on toothpicks to form a tree. While a little salty to my taste, they were a big hit at the tables.
The next course was a lemon-​barley risotto with summer squash, paired with the $ 22 2012 Nice Sauvignon Blanc, also from Mendoza. This Sauvignon Blanc had a more subtle aroma and taste than most others we’ve tasted, and paired beautifully with the food.
We moved on to a pan-​seared steelhead trout with tarragon butter, served with asparagus, paired with a $ 26 2011 Les Heritiers du Comte Lafon, a Chardonnay which matched very well with the fish.
The fourth course was a chicken cassoulet with fresh fava beans, paired with the $ 33.99 2010 Nice Malbec Reserve, another Mendoza wine, possibly the hit of the evening.
Next up was a roughly 4-​oz prime beef tenderloin with shitake-​gorgonzola sauce, served with two cabs: the $ 22 Nice Testamento, a lighter wine from Mendoza, and then the $ 60 Napa Valley 2011 Nice «Notorious», a noseful and mouthful of wine.
Our dessert was a delicious Alsatian plum tart, served with almond ice cream, and paired with the 2012 Nice Demi-​Sec Muscat of Alexandria of Mendoza. Frankly, this wine was not well-​received at our table, as it had an off-​putting flavor.
The cost of the entire dinner – $ 110 per person, all-​inclusive. Our group plans to do this on a roughy quarterly basis. Requirement is that you have a minimum of 16 and a maximum of 28 people, and that payment is in advance. As I understand it, the menu changes, based on what ingredients are freshest and available.
All wine prices quoted above are full retail. They have a wine club which offers members AT LEAST a 20% discount on bottle prices – in the case of the Malbec, the discount was 35% on the 750 ml bottles.

Ryan and Ian make great wines from specific varietals in the places where those particular varietals grow best and bring them to Houston. Take their Malbec, for example. They make it in Argentina where Malbecs are known to be excellent. Their Melbec is great year in and year out and made a Malbec drinker out of this non-​Malbec drinker. They also make a number of other wines from Cab to Sauvignon Blanc so there is something for every palette.
On top of the wines that they make, they have a carefully-​chosen array of wines from all over the world that they both sell and distribute in their wine club. I’m almost always thinking of what I’m going to eat with the wine that I drink and while Nice does offer some straight-​up «drinking» wines, I think the variety of great food wines they have is one place where they really shine.
They do offer some in-​house classes and do events at restaurants but the easiest way to taste their wines is at their «wine bar» events which they run at the winery on Friday nights. I will definitely be spending a few more Friday nights going these!