The Texas Wine Auction was going to be a two-day event this year, and I could think of nothing better than visiting Texas wineries on both days during the day and the Texas Wine Auction at night. I was looking forward to a fun two days visiting wineries with Brenda, and the last thing I wanted to do was sip just a little bit of wine at each winery because I then needed to drive safely to the next winery. I then made the decision that I was going to use some of the tour companies and private drivers in the Texas Hill Country to alleviate that concern.
I had ridden before with Hill Country Wine Tours and Dave Love handling the driving, and since I had such a great time that day, he was the first choice to contact for my upcoming plans. Now, usually tour companies like Hill Country Wine Tours handle all your logistics (winery appointments, lunches, and more) so you can just sit back and enjoy. This time, I knew the wineries I wanted to visit, and since I did have the contact information and previous experience with planning those visits, I took charge of planning the day and tastings. Dave took control of the driving.
Once you book with Hill Country Wine Tours, they provide a convenient payment system on their website. They even created a cool graphic design just for our trip, complete with a Texas Wine Lover logo on the cooler.
On day one of our weekend on Friday, we drove up to Carter Creek, and as always, Dave Love was prompt to pick us up in their Lincoln Navigator that they affectionately call Malbec, and we headed out on a slightly rainy day.
Brenda and Dave Love
Lost Draw
The first winery I had planned to visit was Lost Draw at Johnson City. They opened at 10:00 a.m. on Fridays, so it was a close drive for an early tasting. I had visited the new Johnson City location before, but at that time, the tasting was held in the barrel room. Since they are always planning on changes, it was time to revisit.
This time, the tasting was held in the main tasting room, and Angie led our tasting. We had the option of where to sit and chose to sit at the tasting bar, and do the signature tasting.
These were the wines tasted during our visit:
2023 Gemütlichkeit (Riesling), Twin T Vineyard. This was the welcome wine.
2024 High Plains Blanc (60% Picpoul Blanc, 32% Marsanne, 8% Viognier), Texas High Plains AVA
2023 Cinsault Rosé, La Pradera Vineyard, Texas High Plains AVA
2021 Cinsault, La Pradera Vineyard, Texas High Plains AVA
2021 Sangiovese, Alta Loma Vineyard, Texas High Plains AVA
2022 Tempranillo, Lost Draw Vineyard, Texas High Plains AVA
The Sangiovese was rated at 92 points by Jonathan Cristaldi of Cristaldi & Co., and the Tempranillo was also rated 92 points by Cristaldi.
There were also other available white, rosé, and red wines available to purchase, plus some limited selection wines. If you are in the Lost Draw wine club, even more wines are available. Charcuterie boards are available, but since we were just starting out, we weren’t hungry at that time.
It was a fun moment when Brenda noticed the different rock formations in the yard outside and commented on how nice they were. We then happened to meet Michael Sides, father of owner Andrew Sides, who came into the tasting room. I asked what he did at the winery, and was told he does everything no one else wants to do. Brenda mentioned that she admired the rock formations, and Michael said they had created those from the rocks in the vineyard when they planted the vineyard. He said at the time how they were going to turn all those rocks into yard art.
While tasting, we noticed a sign about being able to do preview barrel tastings of the upcoming Friesen Franc Off wines that will happen on August 1st. The preview tastings were that weekend at the five individual participating wineries. Lost Draw is one of those wineries, so we were able to get a preview-preview of Lost Draw’s barrel tasting in the barrel room. It gave us a taste (no pun intended) of things to come, and we look forward to seeing you at Ron Yates for the Friesen Franc Off. Coincidentally, we were at Ron Yates on Sunday and also got a taste of their Cabernet Franc from their barrel for the event.
While we were in the barrel room, which was next to the production area, I was fortunate to see winemaker Brad Buckelew again.
Perissos Vineyard and Winery
It was time to jump back into the Lincoln Navigator and have Dave Love drive us to our next winery, Perissos Vineyard and Winery.
I had previously mentioned to Perissos’s owner Seth Martin when we did his Grower Profile, that we would be stopping by that day. It was a nice surprise when we pulled up to the winery and Seth was there to greet Brenda and me.
Seth was excited to give us a tour of the production facility along with some tank samples of the wines currently being made. These were the wines we are able to sample from the tanks:
2025 Viognier
2025 Estate Picpoul Blanc
2024 Italian Stallion (2023 vintage was Aglianico, Montepulciano, Sangiovese, Dolcetto)
Seth Martin at Perissos Vineyard and Winery
We were having such a great time with Seth explaining the wines, the winery, and the vineyard, and then I happened to look at my watch. Unfortunately, we were on a schedule because of the Texas Wine Auction event happening that night, so we went to the tasting room to try some of Perissos’ finished wines. Brenda had not visited Perissos before, so we wanted to make sure she tasted some of their excellent wines.
Since it was now lunch time, Perissos Vineyard and Winery offered different food options such as spreads like goat cheese & fig, different flatbread pizzas, the common charcuterie, or even a simple chicken salad sandwich. We enjoyed snacking while doing a wine tasting.
These were the wines we tasted in the tasting room:
It was another excellent visit to Perissos Vineyard and Winery, and we look forward to returning another time.
Texas Exits Winery
One major part of owning Texas Wine Lover is visiting new Texas wineries to learn more about them, and hence helping others learn about them. Our last winery visit of the day was exactly that: Texas Exits Winery.
They are located in the northern part of the Texas Hill Country in Bertram. Hill Country Wine Tours had not had the chance to visit them yet since they had recently opened, so Dave was excited to meet them, too.
They are easily found in downtown Bertram, and we had a fun visit with them. Instead of repeating everything here, you can read my previous post about our visit.
Texas Wine Auction
It was time to return to Carter Creek Winery Resort & Spa for the first night of the Texas Wine Auction. Dave Love returned us safely to the resort, and we thanked him for a wonderful day of just enjoying wine tasting and not having to worry about the other things. I look forward to using Hill Country Wine Tours again.
The concert event that evening at Carter Creek was fun, and we didn’t happen to venture too much out of the VIP area we had paid for. The Carter Creek Winery Sparkling Tempranillo Rosé was incredible! All evening, we heard people saying how much they enjoyed that wine. That was not surprising since it was a Gold medal wine at different wine competitions.
We love being with you Jeff and it was a fun day for us as well.