2020 Wine Lovers Celebration Trip to the Texas Hill Country

This is the continuation. Be sure you read Part 1.

We began our Tuesday at Old German Bakery & Restaurant to pick up some pastries for later in the day. Pastries for lunch is totally fine when on vacation. Our first tasting room stop was at Bingham Family Vineyards – Fredericksburg. Bingham has become a must stop for us. The quality of the wines is excellent and are some of the better values among the wineries in the area. While Bingham Vineyards wasn’t part of the Wine Lovers Celebration Passport, they will be participating in the Wine & Wildflower Journey Passport. Bingham offers several tasting flight options. My wife and I split two flights.

Bingham Family Vineyards

The first was the Red Wine Tasting flight, which includes:

2018 Turnrow (Mourvèdre and Dolcetto blend)
2016 Dolcetto
2017 Dolcetto
2017 Tempranillo
2017 Dirt Farmer (Tempranillo, Merlot, Carignan, Petit Verdot, and Cabernet Sauvignon blend)

We also tried the Taste of Gold flight which includes all Gold Award winning wines. This flight included:

2018 Cloudburst (Trebbiano, Albariño, Vermentino, and Roussanne blend)
2017 Windmill (Roussanne and Viognier blend)
2016 Dolcetto
2017 Dugout (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot blend)
2018 Reserve Moscato Giallo

Texas Heritage Vineyards

After concluding our visit to Bingham Vineyards, we made our first visit to Texas Heritage Vineyard.

During our visit we got to meet Jessica Allen, tasting room manager and daughter of owners Billy and Susan Johnson. Jessica shared that their family has over 12 acres of vines planted at their nearby vineyard, the partnerships they have formed with Hill Country and High Plains vineyards, and her family’s long history in the area. Be sure to check out the view from Texas Heritage’s back patio.

We had the opportunity to try:

2018 Time Traveler (blend of Roussanne and Viognier)
2018 Trebbiano
2017 Troubadour’s Edge (red blend)
2017 Cabernet Sauvignon
2017 Tempranillo
2017 Gotneaux Creek Alicante Bouschet (from the Gotneaux Creek vineyard in the Hill Country)

Ron Yates

Later in the afternoon we headed towards Johnson City with a stop at Ron Yates. I hadn’t had Ron Yates’ wines in a while, and I was happy to be able to try his latest wines. I like that Yates seems to explore the full winemaker toolkit, like using some new French Oak on the Viognier and taking the risk to use native yeast fermentation on the Tempranillo. Ron Yates did offer a special tasting flight for Passport participants.

The Ron Yates Passport flight featured:

2017 Viognier
2017 Sangiovese
2016 Amalgamation (red blend)
2017 Tempranillo

We also got to try the 2015 Acre Zinfandel and the 2016 Mourvèdre (Bingham Family Vineyards).

We had an early dinner at Bryan’s on 290, and everything was delicious. My wife had the Bryan’s half chicken with Gruyere Mac & Cheese. The Bryan’s half chicken is one of the best chicken dishes I’ve tried in years. I had the duck empanadas with a side of the grilled mushrooms. Our daughter, a connoisseur of French fries, ate most of an order of fries for dinner.

We spent some time on Wednesday morning driving around Fredericksburg looking at a lot of the pretty historic homes, then went to lunch at Emma and Ollie. We started with an order of the soft pretzels with pimento cheese dip, sort of like a Fredericksburg take on chips and queso. For our main course we had the pulled pork on a house made beignet. Being from New Orleans, even I pause at the idea of a savory beignet dish, but it was excellent. One can’t stop at Emma and Ollie without baked goods, so we got a few of those giant cookies to go.

Wedding Oak Winery

Wednesday was turning into a slow day, and we needed it since we were on the move so much since beginning our trip. We still wanted to make at least one wine stop, so it was off to Wedding Oak Winery at Fredericksburg tasting room later in the afternoon. Wedding Oak offers four different tasting flight options, covering red and white wines, all dry reds, all dry whites, and an option that includes some of their off-dry and semi-sweet wines.

I opted for the all dry red wine flight which included:

2015 Terre Rouge (a Rhone-style red blend)
2017 Sangiovese
2017 Tioja (Tempranillo and Grenache blend)
2017 Tempranillo Reserva
2016 Texedo Red (100% Dolcetto).

I continue to have a soft spot for their Tioja. Texas Wine Lover recently featured an interview with Wedding Oak winemaker Seth Urbanek. Check it out here.

On Thursday morning it was time to pack up and head back to Houston. We hadn’t made our stop in Hye yet, so we timed things to get to Hye Market for lunch. We really like their sandwiches which are made from top-notch ingredients, and the old Hye Post Office is such a cool setting.

Hye Meadow Winery

We had time for one last winery visit, so we went right next door to Hye Meadow Winery. My wife has an affinity for wines made from Italian grape varieties, and Hye Meadow does great things with these grapes. Hye Meadow has a beautiful outdoor space, but we were stuck with a cold and dreary day. We hope to visit again when there is better weather and when we have more time.

Hye Meadow’s tasting flight included: