Fifteen years ago today, on March 20, 2011, Texas Wine Lover (TWL) began as a blog with a simple goal: help people discover and enjoy Texas wine.
What started as a passion project has grown into something much bigger. Today, Texas Wine Lover is not only a blog, but also a statewide resource for wine lovers planning trips, discovering wineries, finding events, and connecting with the many businesses that help make Texas wine country such a great experience.
And after 15 years, we are still growing.
Texas Wine Lover continues to publish new stories from across the state, highlighting wineries, winemakers, vineyards, events, and the people behind Texas wine. We are proud to help tell those stories and to shine a light on an industry that keeps getting better, stronger, and more exciting.
This year brought another reminder that the work matters. FeedSpot currently ranks Texas Wine Lover as the No. 1 Texas Wine Blog, and the site is also included in its 100 Best Wine Blogs list. That’s wine blogs in the world! We started at 43rd in that list last year, and this year we are 33rd in the world. That kind of recognition is an honor, but more than that, it shows there is still a real appetite for thoughtful writing, useful travel information, and coverage dedicated specifically to Texas wine. Our entire team of writers is always excited to bring you the information.
Of course, Texas Wine Lover is about much more than blog posts.
Over the years, we have built the website Guide, trip-planning tools, events listings, and the Texas Wine Lover mobile app to make it easier for consumers to explore Texas wine country. Wine country means the entire state since there are wineries and vineyards in every corner of the state. Whether you are searching for a winery to visit, looking for a place to stay nearby, checking hours before heading out, or trying to find a festival (we have the largest Texas wine festival list) or special tasting, our goal is to help you find what you need in one place.
That mission only works when businesses participate.
For wineries, tasting rooms, wine trails, restaurants, lodging properties, tour companies, other wine industry services, wine bars, and other local businesses near wine destinations, Texas Wine Lover is designed to be more than a directory listing. It is a way to be discovered by people who are actively looking for where to go and what to do. Claimed listings allow businesses to keep their information updated, promote events, and make sure wine lovers have the most accurate details before they visit.
That means correct hours. Updated descriptions. Event promotions. Trip-planning details. Photos. Links. All the little things that help turn someone browsing online into someone walking through the door.
For wine lovers, that makes the experience better.
For businesses, it creates a stronger opportunity to connect with the audience already looking for Texas wine experiences.
One of my longtime goals has been to help make Texas Wine Lover a place where people can discover every winery in Texas and where every winery has the chance to tell its story. Look at the bottom of the winery listings in our website Guide and you’ll find a list of the blog posts that Texas Wine Lover has written about that winery over the years. Another goal is to continue expanding coverage so that readers do not just learn about wineries, but also about the vineyards, winemakers, events, trails, restaurants, lodging, and other stops that make a wine trip memorable.
Texas wine has always been about more than what is in the glass. It is about the experience.
That is also why events remain such an important part of what we do. When businesses add events to their listings, those events do not just live on a single page. They can also be discovered through the broader events listings and calendar, helping more wine lovers find reasons to visit. For wineries and related businesses, that is one more way Texas Wine Lover helps spread the word.
The same goes for local businesses surrounding our wine regions. Great wine weekends are built not only on tasting rooms, but also on where people stay, where they eat, how they get around, and what else they do while they are there. We even provide recommended Trips by our authors to help. That is why Texas Wine Lover continues working to include and promote the broader network of businesses that support Texas wine tourism.
None of this happens without support.
I am grateful to our readers, contributors, advertisers, claimed-listing members, paid members, and all the wineries and businesses that have worked with Texas Wine Lover through the years. Every person who reads a post, shares an article, follows on social media, subscribes to the newsletter, claims a listing, updates a profile, adds an event, comments in our Facebook group, or supports the platform in some other way helps us continue doing this work.
If you are a wine lover, thank you for reading, sharing, and supporting Texas wine.
If you are a winery or business, thank you for letting Texas Wine Lover help tell your story, advertise with us, and connect you with consumers.
And if you are a winery or local business that has not yet claimed your listing, updated your information, or added your events, this anniversary is a great time to do it. The more complete and current the information is, the more useful Texas Wine Lover becomes for everyone.
Fifteen years in, I am still excited about where Texas wine is headed and about the role Texas Wine Lover can play in supporting it.
Thank you for being part of the journey. After 15 years, the mission is still the same: help more people find and support Texas wine.
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