Visiting Wineries in Central Texas on a Road Trip – Part 3

In Part 1 and Part 2, I described how I was going to visit some new to me and some of my favorite wineries in Central Texas. This is the last part of the series as I conclude my four day trip.

Stone Trough Winery

I woke up in Stephensville thinking about the day ahead of me with the plan to visit four wineries. I headed to Cleburne for the first winery, Stone Trough Winery, open earlier in the day with their winter hours.

For some reason, I didn’t pay attention to my GPS and I turned on the road by the winery and eventually wondered why I wasn’t seeing the winery yet. I turned around and discovered my mistake as I parked in front of the winery with the sign Stone Trough Mercantile.

Texas Wine Lover writer Neal Addy did a wonderful job in his blog post of explaining the concept of Stone Trough Winery with their retail store, vineyard, and winery. I met co-owner Stephanie Maxwell and she graciously offered to do a tasting for me even though she was about to be picked up by her husband Kevin. These were the wines I tasted during my visit:

• 2021 Bianco Alzato (dry Marsanne and Muscat Canelli)
• 2021 Dolcetto – Texas High Plains
• 2020 Chenin Blanc (sweet)
• 2021 Tempranillo – Texas High Plains
• 2021 Negro Amaro – Texas High Plains
• 2022 Sangiovese (only in stainless tanks) – Texas High Plains

Currently they are having a custom crush facility make their wines, and being familiar with that business, they do have excellent wines.

Stephanie briefly showed me around the tasting room with their lounge area, private tasting room with barrel tables, and upcoming VinoPhiles which is a collection of great Texas wines from all across the state available for purchase. The VinoPhiles room itself is really cool because it is based on the previous business’s file system with rolling file cabinets housing the wines. Neal Addy will be doing a blog post soon about VinoPhiles so keep an eye out for that.

While viewing their private room which has multiple barrels for tables, I mentioned how I have a barrel head from a Texas winery that we couldn’t fit in our remodeled bar. Stephanie said they would be happy to display it. Later Neal Addy presented it to Kevin and Stephanie.

Kevin & Stephanie Maxwell

Lost Oak Winery

It was time to visit one of my favorite wineries when I’m in the area and that was Lost Oak Winery in Burleson. Unfortunately, the people I knew were out of town, so I enjoyed a quiet tasting with the staff. There are multiple tasting menus from which to select, and I chose the Dry Reds. This is what I tasted while at Lost Oak:

• 2021 Cabernet Franc (90% Cabernet Franc from Burning Daylight Vineyard and 10% Petit Verdot from Sprayberry Vineyards)
• NV Red Blend (39% Petit Verdot from California, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon from California, 19% Petit Verdot from Texas High Plains, 12% field blend from Texas High Plains)
• 2021 Merlot (78% Merlot from Bingham Family Vineyards, 15% Merlot from Diamonte Doble Vineyard, 7% Petit Verdot from Sprayberry Vineyards)
• Holiday NV (46% Petite Sirah from California, 26% field blend from Texas High Plains, 11% Cabernet Sauvignon from California, 11% Petit Verdot from California, 6% Petit Verdot from Texas High Plains)

Just like the last time I was at the winery, they were having a sale on some library wines in the tasting room. I don’t know if this is a common practice, but I took advantage of it and bought a mini-vertical of Gewürztraminer.

Lost Oak Winery

Whiskey Road Winery

I arrived at Whiskey Road Winery soon after they opened and met Bob & Kristi Rowe and Jessica Lynn. We introduced ourselves and I started on a tasting. This is what I tasted while I was there:

• 2023 Blanc du Bois – 15:5 Vineyard (Bobby Alston)
• 2020 Tempranillo – estate vineyard
• 2022 Syrah – estate vineyard
• 2021 Black Spanish – Barking Rocks Vineyard
• 2021 Ole Red. (2020 Tempranillo, 2021 Black Spanish, 2021 Syrah)

They will be having a Chardonel available soon made with fruit from Bobby Alston. During the tasting, I learned that Jessica and her husband Ben Rowe are the winemakers.

The estate vineyard has Tempranillo that was planted in 2015 and Syrah planted in 2019. They are also growing Viognier and Mourvèdre which will be producing in a couple of years.

It had been a fun visit at Whiskey Road Winery, and I said my goodbyes to go to the next winery.

Kristi Rowe, Jessica Lynn, and Bob Rowe

Juniper Cove Winery

Before Neal Addy wrote a blog post about Juniper Cove Winery and owner/winemaker Anne Chastain last year, I had the chance to taste some of her wines previously at a wine competition. I hadn’t been able to meet Anne before, so I was looking forward to meeting her at her winery. I found Juniper Cove Winery easily in downtown Whitney and there were quite a few people drinking wine in the tasting room. Unfortunately, Anne wasn’t there as I learned she was home bottling wine. But all is good because I finally met Anne at the Hill Country Wine Symposium later.

These were the wines I tasted:

• Petals (Viognier, Roussanne, Marsanne)
• 4 Friends (Sangiovese, Mourvèdre, Alicante Bouschet, Montepulciano)
• Zinfandel
• 2014 Tempranillo

I cannot tell you any more about the wine because the tasting menu nor tasting guide had any more information. There are other dry whites plus dry and sweet reds available. There are also specialty wines including Peachy Keen, Wine Cocktails, Beso de Chocolate, Serendipity (sparkling), and Midnight Moon.

Juniper Cove Winery

I stayed Saturday night in the nearby town of Hillsboro and enjoyed a good Mexican meal.

Wintergrass Vineyard and Winery

On Sunday morning, I headed to the only winery visit of the day which was Wintergrass Vineyard and Winery. Wintergrass is only open on Sundays, and I had to make sure I saw them before I left Central Texas.

I arrived soon after co-owner/winemaker Tyler Bower arrived at 11:00 a.m. He was setting up the winery for opening but started me on a tasting. These were the wines I tasted while there:

• 2021 Vermentino, Burning Daylight Vineyard
• 2019 Tempranillo, two different vineyards
• 2021 Sangiovese
• 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon, Burleson vineyard

There is also a rosé, other red wines, and two dessert wines. Under specialty wines there is a piquette white and red, along with a piquette sparkler that uses the piquette as a base mixed with fruit infusions and served over ice. Also available is a semi-sweet mead and dry sparkling mead. Tyler said he made all the wines except the Red Trend which is a red blend aged in whiskey barrels. I told Tyler I was impressed with all his wines especially since 2019 was the first year he made wines commercially.

I thanked Tyler and I will definitely be back when I am in the area.

Wintergrass Vineyard and Winery

I started my drive back to Houston and thought it had been a very nice trip to Central Texas wineries over the four days. I also realized since I started visiting Texas wineries 14 years ago, I was now up to having visited 505 Texas wineries over the years hitting every corner of this HUGE state. Unfortunately, some of those wineries have closed over the years, but new ones are always opening keeping me busy along with the rest of the writers at Texas Wine Lover.