Barelle Vineyards Offers Texas Wines by Female Winemakers in a Luxurious Hill Country Tasting Room

If you’re a regular on the 290 Wine Trail in central Texas, you’ve undoubtedly noticed construction and new tasting rooms dappled here and there along the highway. One of the newest is Barelle Vineyards, just 10 minutes east of Fredericksburg, near Altstadt Brewery. In a small complex of buildings that once made up the Rocky Hill community, you’ll find Fiesta Winery, Six Shooter Cellars, a handful of bed and breakfast units, and now, Barelle Vineyards.

Brandon Owens is an Austinite and self-proclaimed serial entrepreneur with businesses including software, boating, and hospitality. He saw an opportunity to represent minority winemakers and spent some time in California to further research the wine industry. Once back in Texas, he settled on a focus on female winemakers and stumbled upon a vacant tasting room once used by Vintner’s Cellar.

He was able to form relationships with five female winemakers and a brewmaster—all with great bottles to share. With a new coat of paint and some artistic decorative touches, Barelle was ready to open in May. Brandon expects to have wines on the list rotate throughout the year and hopes to have events where the winemakers come by to talk about their wines and their personal stories. On the menu today, you’ll see wines by Rae Wilson of Wine for the People, Sarah Garrett of Serrano Wine, Elisa Jones of Elisa Christopher Wines, Tiffany Farrell of Haak Vineyards & Winery, and Brooke Hester of C.L Butaud.

Of the events you can expect in the future, make plans to attend the monthly wine book club, organized in conjunction with the Texas Hill Country chapter of Women for WineSense. Meetups will be on the last Thursday of each month, with doors opening at 6 p.m. July 27th, make plans to discuss Cabernet to Zinfandel by Shea Sanderson and enjoy tasting six wines mentioned in the book. Buy your ticket now.

Not only will new wines and winemakers rotate onto the list at Barelle Vineyards, but the team is also experimenting with menu items, and I recommend the pimento cheese. There are great things coming at this new tasting spot.