Original Cellar Rat, Winemaker
Certified Wine Sommelier (International Wine & Spirits Guild)
Clint Thomas started in the Texas wine industry in the summer of 2010. He began his wine career at William Chris Vineyards as a cellar rat. cleaning tanks, scrubbing drains, and doing general labor at the Hye property and at Granite Hills Vineyards. With no experience in farming or fermentation science, Clint got 100% of his training from Bill Blackmon and Chris Brundrett. From there, Clint started doing contract labor for some other wineries in the Texas Hill country including Stonehouse, Lewis Wines, Grape Creek Vineyards, Pedernales Cellars and others.
During this time of contract labor Clint was contacted by Fredericksburg Limo and Wine Tours where he began working a few tours here and there. Clint’s production experience lends itself perfectly to wine touring. Clint’s good friend George Burns started his tour company Georges 290 Wine Tours during this time. George helped Clint in the early stages to put together Cellar Rat Wine Tours. Cellar Rat Wine Tours was born in may of 2013. Clint still helps wineries as often as possible and has started producing his own wine under the Cellar Rat label.
The first vintage of Cellar Rat Wine was in 2015. Clint secured 1 ton of grapes from Reddy Vineyards with the help of the Bateks from Hye Meadow Winery. From this ton, 57 cases of sangiovese were produced.
Clint found winemaking to be his favorite part of the industry and will continue to make wine as a hobby in the future.
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