Visiting Wineries in Central Texas on a Road Trip – Part 2

In Part 1 of my three-part series, I described how I was going to visit some new to me and some of my favorite wineries in Central Texas.

Brennan Vineyards

On Friday, I drove from my hotel in Brownwood to Comanche where I was going to spend most of the day. The first winery on tap was Brennan Vineyards when they opened at noon. I love visiting wineries, but sometimes visiting them alone isn’t as much fun. This day was going to be the exception though as Laurinda Thomas, one of Texas Wine Lover’s writers and good friend, was going to join me. We arrived separately at Brennan Vineyards about the same time.

Since Laurinda lives closer to Comanche, she has had more recent visits to Brennan’s, and everyone knew her. General Manager Christa Halliburton had known we were coming, so she greeted us in the tasting room and then took us to the winery. It’s always fun trying some tank samples and this was going to be fun when we found winemaker Kevin Spivey already in the tank room.

These were some tank samples we tried:

• 2023 Semillon. I thought it was ready to bottle now and Kevin said they would be bottling it soon.
• 2023 Viognier, Reddy Vineyards
• Three White Chicks (blend of three white grapes). The wine is usually an off-dry wine but what we tasted was before any sweetening.

We then went to the center of the winery where they had two barrels. They had used these at a previous wine club event to show the difference a vineyard can make. The barrels both had 2023 Tempranillo from Newburg Vineyard. However, one barrel was from the west side of the vineyard and the other from the east side, harvested two days apart. It was amazing the difference of taste, showing how even sides of a vineyard can make a difference. There was not much oak influence yet on the wines, as the Tempranillo was very fruit forward, but very tasty.

After saying goodbye to Kevin, we returned to the tasting room where we tasted some finished wines, then thanked Christa for her hospitality before heading to our next winery.

Cockrell Vineyards

Since Cockrell Vineyards is out of town, we stopped in front of J W Hardin Wine Co where I parked my car, and we took Laurinda’s car to Cockrell Vineyards. We arrived at the winery and again, everyone knew Laurinda since she is a regular, and I was introduced to Craig and Tammy Cockrell. Since it was after lunchtime and I had heard so much about their pizza oven, I was hoping to enjoy a pizza, but I learned differently. It is a wood-fired pizza oven, so it takes a few hours to heat up to the high heat needed for cooking great pizza. That’s when I learned they don’t serve their pizza until after 4:00 p.m.

We started a tasting, and these were the wines I tried at the time of our visit:

• 2018 Riesling (dry)
• 2022 Stella (dry white blend of Viognier, Roussanne, Riesling)
• 2019 Dolcetto
• 2021 Missy Mae (Sangiovese and Grenache plus a Reddy Vineyards field blend)
• 2019 Malbec
• 2020 Tempranillo Reserve
• 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon
• 2018 Mourvèdre
• 2018 Tannat

I learned that the wine names of Stella and Missy Mae are named after their dogs. Craig explained how he makes the Tempranillo and Tannat wines, and you’ll hear more about Craig Cockrell in an upcoming winemaker profile.

It had been a nice visit to Cockrell Vineyards, so we said goodbye and headed back to downtown Comanche.

J W Hardin Wine Co

The remodeling of J W Hardin Wine Co was done very nicely as Laurinda described recently in her post. The outside is attractive, and I loved the patches of exposed brick on the inside walls. As Laurinda had commented, it was reminiscent of a saloon from the past.

I have known co-owner Rebecca Conley for years, and it was nice seeing her again. She started us on a wine tasting of her wines, and these were the wines that were available at the time of our visit:

• 2022 Saracen (Muscat of Alexandria), Comanche County
• 2022 M’Rose (dry Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Grigio), Comanche County
• 2020 .44 (Cabernet Franc), Reddy Vineyards.
• 2020 Mourvèdre, Veraison Hills Vineyards
• 2020 Malbec, Veraison Hills Vineyards
• NV Among the Willows – Chapter One (Aglianico, Syrah, Tannat)

We were also able to try the 2023 Little Sure Shot which is a piquette wine made of Syrah. This wine had not been released yet. When asked about Chapter One on the Among the Willows wine, Rebecca explained how there are different chapters planned for J W Hardin Wine Co:

• Chapter One. Used to designate blends. These will tell historical stories and consider outlaw history.
• Chapter Two. Texas history.
• Chapter Three. Women in Texas.
• Chapter Four. Wild West.

Rebecca loves telling local history or Texas history, and this is one way she is planning on doing it.

It had been a wonderful tasting at J W Hardin Wine Co, but I had another winery to visit that day. I said goodbye to everyone, and Laurinda stayed for a glass of wine. I believe she later went back to Cockrell Vineyards to enjoy their pizza since the oven was now hot enough. It had been nice to have Laurinda accompany me on some winery visits.

Lucky Vines Vineyard & Winery

My last winery visit was at Lucky Vines Vineyard & Winery in Dublin. I had visited Lucky Vines before, but since that time they now have a brewery on site, Lucky Brewing Co. I was hoping to have a little taste of some beer during my visit, but I was told the brewery tasting room had just closed before I arrived even though the tasting menu said it was open from 4-8 p.m. So, I opted for just Texas wine instead. The owners Jeff and Kimberly Hutchins were unfortunately out of town on vacation, so I missed seeing them again on this visit.

These are the wines that were available at the time of my visit:

• 2018 Bene Velle Blend (Grenache, Cabernet Sauvignon, Mourvèdre, Tannat)
• 2021 Beginner’s Luck (Syrah)
• 2021 Montepulciano
• 2022 Syrah Rosé
• Cordelia (carbonated light and sweet wine)
• Lucky Lass (Moscato with peach flavoring)

When I inquired about dry white wines on the tasting menu, the tasting guides explained they were running out of white wines. I also learned that the wine labels for Lucky Vines are green if they are estate wines and white labels indicate the grapes came from the High Plains.

After my visit to Lucky Vines Vineyard & Winery, I headed to my hotel destination in nearby Stephenville. I asked the hotel clerk for a recommended restaurant and was directed to a Japanese and sushi restaurant. The recommendation was spot on as the sushi was fantastic while talking to the chef behind the sushi bar.

Read the concluding Part 3 of my trip.