Driftwood — Really? On the Sangiovese?” Bill Elsey asks his brother Miles as Miles trudges in, dirty and dripping sweat from a few hours work in the vineyard.

“On the Montepulciano. There’s a lot of color to it already,” Miles replies.

It’s midmorning on a Wednesday, but the summer heat has already arrived for the day. And the Elsey brothers are already hard at work at the otherwise quiet Duchman Family Vineyards in Driftwood.

Because of the heat, the Elsey brothers are witnessing an early ripening period of the grapes that are growing in their  vineyard.

“Throughout the course of the year, of course, they start to develop color as they ripen. We’re probably a couple of weeks ahead of schedule from last year,” Bill said.

The San Marcos brothers spend most of their waking hours at Duchman Vineyards; and when they begin harvesting grapes in a couple of months, it’ll be time to roll the cots into the warehouse and spend nights there, too. But the Elseys have both fallen hard for their love of wine, and their dedication has made them two of the major players in the operations at Duchman.

Bill, 27, started out in the tasting room five years ago and has worked his way up to become the director of wine sales.  After graduating with a history degree from Monmouth College in 2006, he planned to take a year off before beginning graduate school at Texas State University. On a whim, he took a job in the tasting room and never looked back.

“I loved the job. It was relaxing talking to people and pouring wine all day. How much of a better situation could you ask for,” Bill said. “I just developed a passion for it all.”

He developed a strong relationship with former Duchman winemaker Mark Penna and current one Dave Reilly, developing his palette in open tastings and taking notes from his mentors. Bill is now a certified sommelier and certified specialist of wine.

Miles graduated with a degree in Anthropology from Southwestern University, and was doing field work in Idaho in the spring and summer and coming home in the winter when snow began falling there. He moved back to Texas and in with Bill when a cellar hand had to take a hiatus.

Miles started out as the “cellar rat” doing everything from cleaning tanks to changing light bulbs. But he too has taken with the wine business, and is now a wine technician and works side by side with Reilly on a weekly basis.

“It’s a dream come true,” Miles says later, walking back out into the sun and toward the rows of vineyards he tends to on a daily basis.

Duchman Family Winery was co-founded in 2004 by Drs. Lisa and Stan Duchman and their neighbors the Mandolas. The winery and next-door restaurant remained under the Mandola name until last year, when the Duchmans bought the winery outright.

From the beginning, the focus of the Driftwood winery has been in Italy. That’s where the Duchmans say they shared some of their most thrilling food and wine experiences and their eventual inspiration to open a winery. As such,  the wines here at the Duchman aren’t usually commercially recognizable varietals people are familiar with. One won’t find pinot noir or merlot or cabernet here, because the grapes don’t do well in the Texas heat, Bill says.

The philosophy being to make wines produced only from Texas grapes, they found those that have adapted well in similarly warm climates: grapes like Dolcetto, Aglianico and Vermentino.

Most people, Bill says, are open minded to wines they’ve never tried.

“Thankfully in the tasting room you can put the wine in front of somebody, it’s $5 to try six wines and most people are very pleasantly surprised,” Bill said.  “Dave and Miles do a great job of focusing on clean, high quality wines that are balanced.”

One hundred percent of the wines at Duchman come from Texas grapes. Though it varies year to year, more than half the grapes come from the high plains region in Texas, where the high elevation and cool nights make for a better grape climate.

And in a Texas wine industry that has as a whole worked to improve quality in recent years, executing nicely balanced wines is of utmost importance to the Duchman team.

“Some of the wines from the better known grape varietals haven’t been of the highest standards (in Texas),” Bill said. “That gives us an opportunity to say well look where these grapes are coming from originally.. cab coming from Bordeaux, chardonnay from burgundy... Let’s get something you may have never heard of before, and see what we’re doing with it in Texas. People in Central Texas are open to supporting the industry if the quality is there.”

And the quality is there at Duchman. Recently the Duchman Vermentino was named the Texas Monthly “wine of the month” and the Duchman Dolcetto brought home a double-gold medal from the San Francisco International Wine competition.

The trio of Reilly and the Elsey brothers, along with a team of vineyard hands have remained the backbone of the daily wine production. Last year, Reilly and the Elseys processed 330 tons of fruit. During last year’s harvesting period, they worked 90 straight days, working 18-hour shifts and sleeping between shipments of grapes from the high plains.

Bill and Miles put up a calendar in the warehouse, keeping a tally of the number of consecutive days working.

“I heard some others saying they did 60 tons last year with four people, and they almost died,” Bill said.

The two brothers, who share a house in San Marcos, say they have a great working relationship.

It’s a lot of work. But they’re both doing what they love.

“Like brothers do, we butt heads from time to time, but for the most part it’s great. I know he’s accountable and he knows the same for me,” Bill said. “Besides, if he doesn’t show up for work, I know where he lives.”