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Dan Gatlin
Pioneer Inwood Estates Vineyards was founded in 2004 by Dan
Gatlin, one of Texas‘ earliest pioneers in wine. Dan has now
completed 39 growing seasons in Texas viticulture and has 44
years total experience in the wine industry including his work as
a buyer in Europe and California. Inwood is most known for its
pioneering work with Tempranillo, but is primarily focused on
Cabernet and all Bordeaux varietals today. Dan is most known for
his pro-science views advocating genetics and plant physiology as
modern replacements for the traditional concept of terroir.
Let me suggest a rational approach!

Humans can be very quixotic creatures. „You can‘t grow Cabernet (and many others).“

Wine humans certainly as much as any. „You have to grow hot climate varieties.“ „You
Not that it‘s such a bad thing. We are passi- have to use wide and spreading trellis systems.“
onate, deeply committed financially and dedi- „You will have to shoot for high tonnage and
cated each to our philosphy. It‘s that last part cheap wine.“ You have to do this, you have to
which is rarely addressed but is responsible for do that. You can‘t do this, you can‘t do that.
so much of the direction that an industry and Today, Inwood Estates is mostly a Cabernet
those in it follow. house. We produce 8 different Cabernet pro-
For better or worse, most of what people do, ducts, using 9 of the fanciest Cabernet clones.
both in wine and in life, is based on some set All of the wines are produced at 1.5 tons per
of beliefs. I think it‘s fair to say that most ratio- acre or less. We use Vertical Shoot Positioning
nal people do not normally make meaningful trellis systems. Prices are high to very high by
decisions on beliefs they think are false, unless industry standards.
of course they are compelled or forced to. Pro- In short, we do everything we were told can-
blem is, beliefs can be wrong, and whether not be done. Sadly, we wasted 20-25 years
misguided or incorrect, can have devastating and millions of dollars trying to conform to the
consequences for valuable resources like mo- establishment concepts of terroir. Those are
ney, time or a person‘s life‘s work. It‘s crucially valuable resources I will never get back. Texas
important to question the underlying system today has over 500 wineries and tragically, I
of beliefs in every line of work to insure success. still see new entries into the market alleging
Winemaking and winegrowing require enor- to specialize in „hot climate varieties“, Rhone
mous infrastructure. We would know. Forty-one Valley and others. Their wines rarely sell for
years ago, we planted one of the first real wine 25-40% of Inwood prices. Why do this?
vineyards in Texas. Sure, there were a few pio- When did dogma replace rational thinking in
neers along with us, some even a few years out wine? When did the romance of terroir with it‘s
ahead, but it was a very small cluster of experi- underlying logical flaws replace scientific advan-
menters. In retrospect, I think it‘s fair to say that cement? I am deeply concerned about this
none of us really knew what we were doing. At worldwide. I would suggest that the conflicts
that point, we were on a mission of discovery. and failures have been sharply observed as Texas
The wine establishment was adamant. We went through the start-up phases of the last 30
were told, „It‘s too hot in Texas for fine wine.“ years. We have been a laboratory where no ru-
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