Hill Country Archives

Santamaria Cellars

Published on December 23, 2011 | Updated on July 14, 2026 by Jeff Cope 4 Comments

Santamaria Cellars is owned by Martin and Angela Santamaria and opened in October 2011. Martin is the winemaker of their Texas wine. Read More

Day 4 – Hill Country and Fredericksburg Road Trip

Published on December 9, 2011 | Updated on July 11, 2025 by Jeff Cope Leave a Comment

Our final day in the Hill Country arrived and we woke up to pouring rain and cold weather. The initial plan was to visit Garrison Brothers Distillery, the first and oldest legal distillery in Texas, on the way back home, but since we started taking photos of owners and winemakers in addition to getting autographsRead More

Day 3 – Hill Country and Fredericksburg Road Trip

Published on December 8, 2011 | Updated on January 27, 2018 by Jeff Cope Leave a Comment

Saturday came and it was one of the days I was looking forward to. We were going to take a break from visiting wineries and go to a reenactment of World War II Marines combating in the Pacific. If you have any interest in military history, the National Museum of the Pacific War in FredericksburgRead More

Day 2 – Hill Country and Fredericksburg Road Trip

Published on December 7, 2011 | Updated on July 14, 2026 by Jeff Cope 2 Comments

Day 2 arrived in Fredericksburg and the weather was rainy and a little cold. The weather couldn’t decide what to do while we were there. One morning it was near 70 and the next it would be in the 40’s and rain in between. I had previously made an appointment with Don Pullum (@akashicvineyard), winemakerRead More

Day 1 – Hill Country and Fredericksburg Road Trip

Published on December 6, 2011 | Updated on January 27, 2018 by Jeff Cope 2 Comments

Last year we went to Hill Country and Fredericksburg wineries three times. Unfortunately this was before we decided to start a blog and so we had no specific information about the wineries other than our memories. We started taking photos of the outside of a winery in the last trip just to help us rememberRead More

Red Caboose Winery

Published on November 3, 2011 | Updated on August 13, 2026 by Jeff Cope 6 Comments

Red Caboose Winery and Vineyards is located in Meridian and Clifton. The winery’s vineyards started in 2002 and the winery opened in 2004. Read More

Driftwood Estate Winery

Published on September 6, 2011 | Updated on July 14, 2026 by Jeff Cope Leave a Comment

Driftwood Estate Winery is located in Driftwood and is owned by Gary Elliott. Today they produce over 4,500 cases of Texas wine. Read More

Road Trip to Driftwood Texas Wineries – Part 2

Published on August 2, 2011 | Updated on January 27, 2018 by Jeff Cope 1 Comment

We had previously visited Duchman Family Winery on our road trip to Driftwood Texas wineries and continued our journey to Driftwood Estate Winery. As we ascended the dirt road leading to Driftwood Estate Winery, our guests were wondering where we were going since they aren’t used to driving on too many dirt roads. Welcome toRead More

Road Trip to Driftwood Texas Wineries – Part 1

Published on July 31, 2011 | Updated on July 14, 2026 by Jeff Cope 1 Comment

Sometimes a day just doesn’t go as expected and you just have to deal with it. That’s how our road trip to some Texas wineries in Driftwood went this past weekend. We attended a Texas Winery Passport reward for a private tasting for six people at Duchman Family Winery including Gloria’s brother and sister-in-law, andRead More

Pilot Knob Vineyard

Published on July 3, 2011 | Updated on August 13, 2026 by Jeff Cope 9 Comments

Pilot Knob Vineyard is a new winery located in Bertram whose tasting room just opened June 18th. They are already making great Texas wine. Read More