Red Rock Vineyards

Red Rock Vineyards is a new winery that opened its tasting room in July 2024 located in Red Rock, Texas. However, the vineyard part of the winery was started long ago. Owners Angela and Audelio “Sonny” Rivera started a test plot of the vineyard in 2009 on their land south of Bastrop. Things worked well and in 2013, they planted more vines and today they have four acres of vineyard growing Blanc du Bois, Lenoir, Camminare Noir, and Ambulo Blanc. If you do not recognize those last two grapes, they are two of the new Walker varieties that help wine growers in their fight against Pierce’s Disease. That makes these new grapes a good fit for the Gulf Coast region. In addition to the vineyard, Red Rock Vineyards also has a large olive grove.

Even though the tasting room didn’t open until this year, they have been hosting weddings since 2015. Since Sonny Rivera is also the winemaker, that time over the years helped him to perfect his art of winemaking.

When one has a successful vineyard growing, it is common to think of issues with animals like birds, deer, rodents, etc. In Red Rock Vineyards’ case, they had a large problem with wild feral hogs. There were so many hogs causing damage in the vineyard tearing up the watering system and more, that they had to install a fence around the vineyard. They eventually were able to curtail the feral hog issue.

I made a recent trip to Red Rock Vineyards after seeing them active on social media. After a nice drive through the vineyard, I arrived at the cozy tasting room. Owners Angela and Sonny Rivera were expecting me, and after introductions and them describing the mini-tornado that had just come through the property the day before, they explained the history of Red Rock Vineyards.

We talked about the vineyard first since it was noticeable driving through it. They believe in a sustainably grown vineyard and spray copper sulfate and copper hydroxide to manage the vineyard with no pesticides. They realize their estate vineyard does not currently produce enough fruit, so they need to look elsewhere too. They only want fruit from a hand-harvested vineyard, so fruit from the Texas High Plains will not work since most of those vineyards are machine-harvested. Texas Hill Country fruit does not work either because the vineyards there use pesticides. Because of these requirements, Red Rock Vineyards must go out of state to get fruit from organic vineyards that hand harvest. They found these vineyards in Washington state.

Regarding the wines, they produce natural wines. One of the reasons they chose to produce natural wines is because Sonny is allergic to sulfites, so no sulfites are added to the wines. The small batch wines (about 80 gallons at a time) are also unfiltered and since Sonny doesn’t care for oak, the wines are also unoaked. They became friends with Lewis Dickinson, owner of La Cruz de Comal Wines, who also produces natural wines, and they learned from him too. In regard to the Washington fruit, the vineyards they work with make the wine in Washington and then ship it to Red Rock Vineyards. The logistics problem of shipping fruit that far away is then avoided.

I then got set up to do a tasting, and these are the wines that were available at the time of my visit:

• 2022 Chardonnay – Columbia Valley, WA
• 2023 Albariño – Yakima Valley, WA
• 2023 Sauvignon Blanc – Columbia Valley, WA
• 2023 Blanc du Bois – Estate vineyard (dry)
• 2023 Ambulo Blanc – Estate vineyard (dry). White wine.
• 2022 Carménère – Columbia Valley, WA
• 2022 Grenache – Columbia Valley, WA
• 2022 Syrah – Columbia Valley, WA
• 2022 Red Wine Blend – Columbia Valley, WA
• 2023 Lenoir – Estate vineyard (dry)
• 2023 Camminare Noir – Estate vineyard. Red wine.

Here are some of my comments on the estate wines. I have had natural wines before, but if Sonny had not told me, I do not think I would have realized that. I enjoy Blanc du Bois and this one was very nice. He explained that natural wines will last about four years before getting oxidized, so he also adds some carbon dioxide to the natural wines to help them last longer. This can result in some effervescence in the wine.

The dry Lenoir was also very good. Finding a very well-done dry Lenoir over the years has been rare for wine lovers, but the Red Rock Vineyards Lenoir can be added to the short list of good dry Lenoir wines.

I really like the future of the five new Walker varieties. Earlier this year while I was a judge at the Lone Star International Wine Competition, my panel was given a Paseante Noir to judge which is another of the new Walker varieties. None of the judges had experience with how it should taste, but it was a very well-made wine and won a Gold medal. We had no idea who produced it because wine judging is done blind, but after the results came out, it turned out to be a wine from Cicada Ridge Vineyard. Cicada Ridge also received a Bronze for their Ambulo Blanc.

The Red Rock Vineyards estate Ambulo Blanc and Camminare Noir were very good, and I could see them being awarded medals too if they entered their wines.

Pizza is available to have made to order and a nice pavilion is next to the tasting room where you can enjoy your wine and pizza. With food and natural wines, Red Rock Vineyards is the perfect place to add to your custom trip in the Texas Wine Lover mobile app.

1455 Watterson Rd, Red Rock, TX 78662