Taking a Local Houston Road Trip

We had a free Saturday and had the urge to visit some wineries. Strange, huh? Since we only had one day, that meant we needed to visit some local wineries around Houston. There was a new winery which we hadn’t visited and a recently relocated one, so our plans were set for the day.

First we headed to Anahuac to visit Frascone Winery. We were going to visit there a few months ago, but we heard owner/winemaker Jim Frascone was out of the state so we planned to come back when he was at the winery. I didn’t check ahead of time, but we took the gamble and it paid off. We had a fun visit with Jim Frascone and Kathy Tran, and enjoyed learning about the background of the winery and the Texas wine and mead that is made.

Heading down to Kemah brought us to Clear Creek Winery. We made the trip to the third floor where the tasting room is located and a lot of tables were already full. Fortunately, there were a couple options and we were able to be seated at a small table to enjoy a glass of wine. We heard owner David Skinner was in the front restaurant eculent prepping for dinner that night so we had to say hello. We talked with David about some plans for our upcoming Discover Wine Festival on June 25 in Houston. Our joint venture of the first year wine festival last year was a success and it will be even better this year.

It was starting to get a little late but we went to Haak Vineyards & Winery. We arrived at 4:30 p.m. and they told us a wedding was going to take place at 5:00 p.m. and the outside seating and inside tasting room was going to be closed at that time. We quickly enjoyed a glass of wine each, briefly saw owners Raymond and Gladys Haak, and left before the closing time.

One popular winery in Houston has been Dionisio Winery that was located downtown. They recently relocated to Pearland so we had to stop by to visit the new location. The winery is located in a warehouse complex and there is definitely more space than the previous location. There are a number of tables where people can enjoy the wine or sit at the tasting bar. We opted for the tasting bar and had a glass of wine. Talking with owner/winemaker Jimmy Aranda, he said how things have been great with the city of Pearland welcoming the winery and told us about the big plans that are underway already for the winery.

Even though it was late, our last stop of the day was coming up which was Houston Winery and they close later, so it worked out well. Houston Winery was new to us but we learned the difference between Houston Winery and Water 2 Wine from co-owner Jon Burger. We tried some good Texas wines and will be sure to visit again.

Whew! We only had a day, but we certainly accomplished visiting quite a few wineries in the Houston area. If you are around Houston, these are just some of the wineries you can visit.