Visiting Wineries in Central Texas on a Road Trip – Part 1

The Texas Hill Country gets the majority of the news regarding Texas wineries, and it is understandable with a large concentration of wineries and tasting rooms there. However, there is a collection of wineries located above the Hill Country. What is this area called? I wondered the same thing, so I posed that question to the wine aficionados in Texas Wine Lover’s Facebook group called Texas Wine Friends.

There were multiple answers, but the consensus was the area is called Central Texas. Hence, my next road trip was to visit wineries in Central Texas that I either had not visited before or hadn’t visited in years. The first step was to determine what those wineries were. I keep track of the wineries I have visited since 2010 which is when I started visiting Texas wineries. That list also came in handy once I started the Texas Wine Lover blog in 2011 to determine what wineries we needed to write about.

Once I had the list of wineries I wanted to visit, the next step was determining how many of those I could visit in the amount of days I had. I described the technique I use in my winery planning in my previous blog post How to Plan a Winery Trip Using the Texas Wine Lover Guide and Mobile App. I have always used the same process in previous years, but once the Guide and mobile app were available, the planning has been much easier.

One issue I discovered with the Central Texas wineries is not everyone is open during the week like wineries in the Hill Country. Because of this, I had to limit the number of wineries I could visit and concentrate mostly on weekend hours. By using the Days Open filter in the Guide and mobile app to see who was open during the week, I learned there were some wineries in the area open on a Thursday though. This changed my original plan of a three-day road trip to a four-day trip.

The trip was then planned, and on an early Thursday morning, I left Houston for the furthest winery that was due to open at 11:00 a.m. for my initial leg of almost a five-hour drive. I am an early bird anyway, but I thought it would be easier to go to the furthest first and then work my way back toward Houston.

I arrived in Cisco, Texas, in the downtown area a little later than I anticipated at around 11:55 a.m. due to traffic, needing to fill up with gas on the way, and a very slow train crossing where I lost over 10 minutes. You can’t plan for everything.

Downtown Cisco is a nice place to visit because there are two wineries literally across the street from each other: Broken X Winery and Blue Duck Winery. Broken X is the winery open earlier, so I kept to the plan and visited them first.

Broken X Winery

Broken X Winery had previously been visited by Laurinda Thomas where she had an enjoyable time, so I knew I was going to enjoy my visit. I was not disappointed. Broken X Winery is owned by Ben and Niki Bundick, and I was first greeted by Steffanie Hernandez and Jake Bundick. Laurinda explained the history of Broken X Winery in her blog post, so I won’t repeat everything, but Steffanie has been a longtime worker at Broken X as she was once Jake’s teacher. Niki was in the back working, but I then got to meet her before I started on a tasting flight. These were the wines available at the time of my visit:

• Snow Day (Viognier and Riesling), Texas
• Just Peachy (sweet), Texas
• Moscato (sweet), Texas
• 2018 Merlot, Washington
• 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon, Texas
• Mourvèdre (sweet), Texas
• F.O.M. Sangria (sweet)
• Big Dam Sparkler (dry white sparkling), Lodi
• Shenanigans (dry Pinot Noir Rosé sparkling), Lodi

I tried another dry red wine called Norma Jeanne which was a Tempranillo plus field blend from Reddy Vineyards, but their website shows that is now sold out.

Ben Bundick came in during my tasting to pick up some lunch, so I was able to meet him too and snapped this photo of the Broken X Winery wonderful extended family.

Blue Duck Winery

I made the long journey to the other side of the street to Blue Duck Winery where owner Adrian Allen was waiting for me. I knew he was there because when I was crossing the street to Broken X Winery after I arrived in Cisco, Adrian had just arrived at his winery and shouted my name as we had met previously a couple of times. Since Blue Duck Winery had relocated from Albany where I first met Adrian, I wrote a blog post on my visit to the Blue Duck Winery’s Cisco location. Please check that out and come on back.

10 Mile Productions Tasting Room & Craft Kitchen

I next headed south to visit 10 Mile Productions Tasting Room & Craft Kitchen located in the heart of Brownwood. The corner tasting room was easy to find and I first met co-owner/winemaker Hayley Fowler.

This was another winery that Laurinda Thomas had previously visited to write her blog post. I didn’t need to get a lot of information, so I started a tasting with Hayley. These were the wines I tried:

• Orange Muscat (dry), Farmhouse Vineyards
• 2021 Mourvèdre, Seminole, Texas
• 2021 Tempranillo, Dublin, Texas
• 2022 Black Spanish
• 2023 Mourvèdre (sweet)
• Late Harvest Roussanne (sweet), Lahey Vineyards

The Late Harvest Roussanne was sweet, very sweet. It was surprising when Hayley said that was the grape itself causing the sweetness. The wine was wonderful, and if you like a sipping dessert wine, this is it. The other wine that really surprised me was the Black Spanish. I have tasted my share of dry Black Spanish wines over my time of visiting Texas wineries, and Hayley has produced one of the best ones I have ever tasted. I told her I hope she took notes on how she made it! Overall, I had a fantastic visit with Hayley and tasting her wines.

Skies Over Texas Winery

The next winery I visited is Skies Over Texas Winery, one of those wineries I have visited before, but a favorite I need to visit every time I am in the area since it is not near Houston. Unfortunately, co-owner Brian McCue was under the weather and not there, but his lovely wife and co-owner Moira McCue was.

I had an enjoyable time talking to Moira and tasting their new wines. The tasting room was definitely busier on a Thursday night than I expected, but that just shows how they are serving good Texas wines, and the clientele is enjoying them. There was also a painting event happening which also helps to bring in wine lovers.

It had been a long day since I first started my trip, so it was time to retire at my hotel in Brownwood. I will not mention it since it was one of the worse hotel stays I have ever had.

Read the continuation of my trip in Part 2 or the finish in Part 3.