Blue Lotus Winery – Hye

I first visited Blue Lotus Winery and Texas Mead Works five years ago in Seguin when I met co-owner Melissa Poole. Tastings were being held then in their production area. We went back to the winery three years ago when we visited to see their impressive new tasting room at the winery. At that time, co-owner Michael Poole was the one to show us around. Earlier this year, Michael came to Houston to help Texas Wine Lover judge in the Battle of the Texas Sangiovese.

In September, the second tasting room of Blue Lotus Winery and Texas Mead Works opened in Hye right on U.S. 290. We visited recently to see the new tasting room and of course, taste their latest wines.

The tasting room is not visible from the main road, and so you do not really know what you are in store for when you finally make it around the winding road to get to the tasting room. My first thought after seeing a couple other wineries with the same shape was a Quonset hut. But then Gloria picked it out – it’s a wine barrel! After realizing that, I can only imagine what the Pooles might do with the building the next time we see it.

The inside of the building is spacious with a long tasting bar on the right side, and a lot of tables with wine and other merchandise for sale on the left. The tasting room is not yet 100% complete, and it will be nice to see the finished product later.

We were with Gloria’s brother and sister-in-law, Lucho and Patricia, and Lucho and I were representing the group in doing a tasting. The ladies in the meantime spotted an unfinished jigsaw puzzle on the other side of the tasting room and set to work on helping add some pieces to it. Soon, Texas Wine Lover writer Laurie Ware and her husband Shelly arrived, and Laurie joined Lucho and me while Shelly helped with the puzzle.

Tastings are done at the long tasting bar and the tastings are poured with a measured pourer. There is a fee for your selection of five wines, and you can combine the selection from both the wines of Blue Lotus Winery and the meads from Texas Mead Works. Tastings include a logo wine glass. Besides tasting, glasses can be purchased from all, including some limited wines, specialty meads, and even on tap meads in both 32 and 64 ounce growlers. All the wines are 100% Texas and there is a large selection of both wines and meads.

These are some of the wines that were available during our visit:

• Grand Blanc 2012 (Oaked Chenin Blanc, Viognier, Blanc du Bois, Lake Emerald)
• Vermentino 2015
• Primitivo 2014
• Tempranillo 2015
• Dos Uvas 2015 (50% Cinsault, 50% Aglianico)
• Merlot 2015
• Left Bank 2015 (Bordeaux Blend) (50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot, 10% Petit Verdot)
• Mourvèdre 2016
• Muscat 2015

Here are some of the meads available at the time:

• Traditional Mead – Dry
• Minstrel’s – Sweet Mead
• Cyser – Semi-sweet mead
• Jalapeno – Semi-sweet mead
• Raspberry – Semi-sweet mead
• Blueberry Jasmine – Semi-sweet mead
• Pecan Praline – Semi-sweet mead
• Necromancer (16.9% ABV) – Sweet mead

As you can see, there is a large selection of wine and mead for everybody to enjoy.

Inside the tasting room, besides the large selection of wines, there is also merchandise for sale like clothing and bath salts. Wine club memberships are available for both wines and meads, or a combination of the two.

U.S. 290 is starting to get busier with more wineries and tasting rooms, and Blue Lotus Winery and Texas Mead Works makes a great addition to the area.