OFF THE RECORD

Winning Wine Advocate:
Vianei Lopez Robinson

By Julie Barry

In vino veritas. "In wine there is truth." Vianei Lopez Robinson has certainly found this to be the case. Here are two truisms from one of Vianei's past wine articles:

"Parties are reputed to be good opportunities for wine research. The idea is to assemble a lot of sophisticated palates and benefit from their collective wisdom. With that idea in mind, I decided to pour a variety of different white wines during a recent gathering.

Lesson No. 1:
At a party, no one really wants to talk about wine.

Lesson No. 2:
Everyone has taste preferences, even if he or she professes otherwise."

When this wine connoisseur extraordinaire is not practicing labor and employment law at Buck Keenan LLP, or singing and dancing in the HBA's Night Court, Vianei Lopez Robinson is enjoying her favorite pastime, savoring a good bottle of wine. Houston is once again graced with Vianei's presence, after she spent the past fifteen years practicing labor and employment law in Abilene. From 1999 through 2009, she also wrote a weekly wine column under contract with the newspaper group, E.W. Scripps Company, which publishes the Abilene Reporter-News and the San Angelo Standard-Times, among others. Her wine column has been picked up in newspapers across the country.

Vianei, a Houston native, first developed her love of wine in the summer of '84 when she studied in Paris, France. As a student, she entered the Texas French Symposium contest and won first prize, which was an all expense paid trip to Paris. There, she enjoyed the finest of what France has to offer. After her Paris experience, she continued her wine education by reading Kevin Zraly's, Windows on the World Complete Wine Course, an excellent introduction into wines and wine regions around the world. Zraly was the Wine Director of Windows on the World Restaurant, which was located in the World Trade Center until September 11, 2001.

Vianei says that the best way to learn about wine is to travel to wine regions and talk to the people who make wine. While she is partial to the wines from the South of France, Vianei says she loves all wines. Her tastes vary, though, with the change of the seasons. She often speaks to this truism in her columns. One autumn she wrote, "Now that fall weather has officially arrived, I am stocking up on red zinfandel. Good zinfandel is dark and intensely flavored—a perfect foil for a chilly evening."

When asked if she maintains a large wine cellar, she said she recently sold her collection when she moved from Abilene to Houston and is in the process of building a new one. "I think the one mistake people make is keeping wine too long," says Vianei. "The vast majority of wine on the market is not intended for aging."

While Vianei is no longer writing her column for the Abilene Reporter-News, she says she would love to pick up her freelance writing again in the future. One of the perks of her part-time job that she misses the most? All the free samples, of course! For now, Vianei is content to build her Houston law practice and her new wine collection. Her advice for Houston wine lovers?
"Learn more about Texas wines. The Texas wine industry has come a long way and has some really wonderful wines to offer."

Julie Barry is an attorney with Theodore J. Lee, focusing on U.S. and international commercial transactional law. She is a member of The Houston Lawyer editorial board.

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