-
Merlot Thursday: Siboney Cellars “Storm Breaker” Texas High Plains Merlot (2024)
In September 2019, an epic thunderstorm tore through the Texas High Plains, sending growers and winemakers scrambling into the vineyards to grab up their grapes. Those who waited for the rains to pass risked muddy fields and watery fruit. Those who rushed in got some excellent raw materials (and a story to tell). Such was…
-
Six Texas food and wine pairings that will make you go, “Yeehaw!”
One of the best things about bringing home a bottle from a local winery is opening it with friends at the dinner table. But Texas wines can be quirky little buggers, and conventional wine-pairing advice doesn’t always apply to the unique wine of the Lone Star State. In this article, we look at six of…
-
A visit to Siboney Cellars (Johnson City, TX)
Just off Texas Highway 290, a long driveway curves off the highway and climbs gently up to a limestone plateau. Vineyards spread out to the east towards Johnson City, a small town best known as the boyhood home of President Lyndon B. Johnson. Arid plants and clusters of old live oaks dot the property, and…
-
Can you buy wine on Sundays? And other Texas drinking questions, answered
Texas has some old liquor laws that are just plain weird. If you’ve lived here a while, you’ve probably already encountered them. If you just moved to Texas, welcome! I hope you enjoy the BBQ and the free chips and salsa. Also, please stop honking your car horn at red lights. We don’t do that…
-
An afternoon at Lost Draw Wines (Johnson City, TX)
It looks, perhaps, like AI trickery. But the summer skies in rural Texas really are that shade of robin’s egg blue. The lolling clouds really are that white and fluffy. And the sparkling rosé, poured by a hostess and handed to you as soon as you’ve closed your car door, really is that perfectly pink…
-
Becoming a Texas Wine Ambassador (Hill Country Wine Academy review)
I walked into the classroom as a Texas wine fan, and walked out as the leveled-up version: A Certified Texas Wine Ambassador! My reward for a day of attentive tasting and discussion was a snazzy certificate and a pin. Also: A permanent sense of responsibility for representing Texas wine in an industry where it’s constantly…
-
Our heart is with the Hill Country
Like many Texans, I was glued to my phone and laptop over this Fourth of July weekend as floodwater overtook Kerr County. I was fervently hoping that more people would be pulled alive from the river and re-united with their families. At the same time–aware of the deadly power of flash flooding–I knew that rescues…
-
Texas Wine News Roundup: Summer 2025
Welcome to our seasonal wine news roundup, where we trot out all of our best water-cooler wine chat from the last few months. New wineries, million-dollar deals, and silly numbers, oh my! Here are five of the juiciest wine-related stories from the second quarter of 2025. Story #1: Grape stomp season…kicks off! In Texas, the…
-
Don’t Napa my Fredericksburg: Can Texas wineries stay affordable?
The Californication will continue until morale improves! Yes, it’s true: Tech and finance dollars–combined with voracious agrotourism–are coming for Texas’s wine industry. The great relocation of California residents to Texas has kept up its pace, remaining the largest state-to-state migration pattern every single year since 2020. We’re all feeling anxious about it. “Don’t California My…