Outside cities like Austin and San Antonio, Texas highways and byways cut through expanses of open land, rolling beneath a big sky, sending metal ranch gates whizzing past car windows, one after another. But on U.S. 290 heading to Fredericksburg, markers of a different sort dot the roadside. Signs announcing “tastings and tours” and fields striped with rows of verdant vines signal arrival in a slice of the Hill Country that could also be called wine country. While most grapes for Texas wines are grown in the higher elevations of the High Plains region around Lubbock, Fredericksburg and the surrounding areas boast the majority of Texas’ wineries.
Texas wine is nothing new. Texans have been tending vineyards for years, markedly since the 1970s, turning the fruits of their labor into wine. But the pace of the industry’s expansion is new. Currently, wine contributes more than $24.39 billion of economic value to the state, with more than 700 wineries across eight American Viticultural Areas—federally recognized grape-growing regions—with three more areas pending designation.
But before this current wave of progress and for most of the Texas wine industry’s existence, many wine experts, committed connoisseurs, and everyday enthusiasts accepted that West Coast wineries produced the only really good New World wines. Now, tides are changing in America’s wine scene, and Texas is making some of the biggest waves.
In the last few years, thanks to the Lone Star State’s success in leveling up its wine quality alongside the quantity, Texas wine is being taken seriously. In 2025, James Suckling and other vino authorities bestowed ratings in the mid- to upper 90s on multiple vintages from multiple wineries; 108 Texas wineries won 586 top awards (gold medal or higher) in international wine competitions; and William Chris Vineyards made the “World’s 50 Best Vineyards” list, while the vineyard’s Enchanté wine landed on Decanter magazine’s roundup of the “Top 50 U.S. Wines in 2025.”
While high ratings and superlative designations point to a bright future for Texas wine, its distinctly Texan identity remains the industry’s defining characteristic—at least according to Texans. That’s according to Shelly Wilfong, whose “This Is Texas Wine” podcast helps listeners better understand and appreciate Texas wines.
“Here, people are so proud of state-grown, state-made products,” she says. “And that includes wine.”
At one time, some Texas wines were made with both Texas-grown grapes and fruit brought in from outside the state, but that’s shifting, too. “There’s so much happening now; it’s really dynamic, and using nonlocal grapes is really part of Texas wine’s past,” Wilfong says. “More and more wineries make—because people want—wines crafted with 100% Texas-grown grapes.” These wines best showcase the state’s distinct terroir—the characteristics derived from Texas soil, Texas weather, and Texas waters. To ensure consumers get what they want, new state laws mandate transparency on Texas wine labels.
Today, as Texas viticulturists, vintners, and winemakers focus on creating undeniably Texas wines, they’re spurring even more growth. “With the dramatic increase in quality that we’ve seen year over year in the past decade, our wine continues to generate a lot of enthusiasm and investment,” Wilfong says. They’re also defining what true Texas wine tastes like.
“There’s such an abundance of variety in our grapes and styles, if you don’t find Texas wine you like, you’re not trying hard enough,” Wilfong says. And while she stresses Texas wines can stand up to the best in the world, she warns against straight-line comparisons: “Don’t expect our wines to taste just like those from other regions. They are uniquely Texan, and that’s the point.”
Kalasi Cellars
When she bought land in the Texas High Plains and planted her first grapevines in 2013, Kalasi Cellars founder and co-owner Nikhila Narra Davis rekindled a family tradition. For generations, her relatives had farmed in India, and she wanted to tap into that heritage. She initially sold the crop she grew on her Narra Vineyards’ 140 acres to other Texas winemakers, keeping her focus on viniculture. Then, one harvest season working with California’s Cakebread Cellars as part of her hands-on education inspired her to think bigger. “I didn’t want to make wine mainly because I didn’t want to deal with the business side of it,” she says. “But I caught the making bug while in California, and then, when I met my husband, Greg, it made sense because he wanted to do the parts I wasn’t interested in.”
When the couple founded their winery, blending their Texas and Indian origins, they chose a name soaked in significance. “We wanted it to be about us, and Kalasi means ‘together’ in Telugu, the language of my family’s region of India,” Narra Davis says. Other nods to India adorn the bottles, like the sari border on their labels and their jewel-tone colors. “Purple represents reincarnation, so any wine with a purple label is something unique we’ve crafted,” Narra Davis says. And Kalasi’s bottles banded in emerald honor their son: “That’s our Raj wine. Raj means king, and it’s the best of the best of our barrels.”
Today, while they have employees helping run the tasting room, Narra Davis and her husband, Greg, run a grape-to-glass operation, overseeing every aspect of grape cultivation and then making, bottling, and labeling their small-batch wines themselves. They craft every drop of every Kalasi Cellars wine exclusively from fruit harvested in their vineyards, placing them in a small group of Texas estate-grown wineries and providing the control essential to achieve the caliber of wine they’re after.
While Narra Davis enjoys the chemistry and art of winemaking, her heart remains rooted in her vineyards. She knows that all great wine starts with great grapes and believes that organic practices and low-yield farming methods, including thinning vines to produce fewer grapes, foster the necessary conditions. “The more fruit you have, the more each grape is diluted,” she says. “Fewer grape clusters means more concentration, and it’s healthier for the vine, too.”
She reaps the positive results of all that care every time she meets a visitor in the tasting room. “You tend to the grapes, harvest them, make the wine, and then wait years as it ages,” Narra Davis says. “And when you finally hold a finished tangible product in your hands and then see someone else light up as they enjoy it, that’s incredibly rewarding.”
William Chris Vineyards
Ask Chris Brundrett, cofounder of William Chris Vineyards, what makes his company’s wines stand out. He’ll rattle off a quick geology lesson, praising the varied landscapes of the vineyards scattered around the state that give him and his winemaking team a diverse terroir portfolio to play with—from the ancient seabed under the High Plains and the millions-of-years-old river basin in the Hill Country to the decomposed granite layered over sandstone in the 2.5-billion-year-old soil of the Llano Uplift (in northern Hill Country). “When you visit our tasting room, you can taste it all,” he says. “It’s a bit daunting but exciting, too, as a winemaker that we get to explore the character of these different areas.”
In the next breath, Brundrett brags on his people, giving a shoutout to the winery team’s more than 100 years of winemaking experience and the dedication of 109 employees. “Every one of them brings a passion for wine and for doing their best to the table daily,” he says. “They are as vital to our wine as the grapes and the process.”
When it comes to essential figures at the winery, Brundrett is key among them. But if not for a casual conversation in college, he might have never entered the industry. While attending Texas A&M University, he worked in the restaurant business, where he fell in love with wine. One evening, a customer asked his thoughts on Texas wine. “I said, ‘They don’t make wine here,’” he says. “But, what did I know? Sure enough, they did.”
Curious about the wine right under his nose that he’d somehow overlooked, he began visiting Texas wineries, and something clicked. “I wanted in. I found my way to the office of the guy running A&M’s viticulture program and begged to join,” he says. After graduation, his bags were packed for the West Coast, until intuition about his home state’s future kept him in Texas. “I felt like there was something amazing starting to happen here with wine, and I didn’t want to miss it,” he says.
In 2010, Brundrett and his partner, William “Bill” Blackmon, opened the doors at William Chris. Fast forward 16 years, and William Chris produces a wide array of wines crafted from 100% Texas-grown grapes, as it has done from day one. Brundrett and Blackmon led the push for the recent passage of a state law that requires bottle labels to clearly state where the grapes were grown. “It’s a great step for the industry,” he says. “It helps Texas wine step up to become more of a major player in wine, and it builds trust with customers.”
Brundrett points to the community being built by the industry as a powerful positive, too. “We are testing a huge composting project to work more organic matter into the soil, and I can’t wait to share what we learn with our neighboring wineries,” he says. “But it’s not just us; we all share knowledge.”
Encouraging people to share more special moments motivates Brundrett, too. “God put me on this earth to help people slow down a bit, enjoy some wine, and connect with friends and family more,” he says. “That makes the world a better place, so if our brand can be a part of that, that’s very cool to me.”
Heath Family Brands
In 2006, Brian Heath and his wife, Jennifer, left demanding corporate jobs to buy an existing winery, Grape Creek, one of Fredericksburg’s oldest. They expanded it, and today, their Heath Family Brands includes Grape Creek Vineyards, Invention Vineyards, Heath Sparkling Wines, and K Estate, with six locations, including four vineyard tasting rooms and two urban tasting rooms, each boasting its own style and personality.
HFB’s scope and variety set it apart, as did its early entry into sparkling wines. “We were at the forefront of getting into sparkling and created a brand entirely focused on it,” Heath says. “We put big investment and commitment into it with commercial-grade equipment and now all production in-house, which allows us to use all-Texas grapes for our sparkling.”
Multiple brands and sites keep things interesting, which keeps the couple excited by their second careers. “It is never boring,” Heath says. “Our work includes agriculture, manufacturing, retail, and hospitality, so there’s always something new.”
But making wine others want fills them up. “We love looking at what’s going on in wine and wondering, ‘What can we do next that people will enjoy?’ And if it takes some figuring out, we’re ready to do that,” Heath says.
According to Heath, a similar creative approach exemplifies Texas wine overall. “I’m still learning, and I think we all are,” he says. “It’s really cool to see everyone trying new things and being open about what works. When lots of us are experimenting at the same time and sharing info, the learning curve happens faster.” Heath calls it “co-op-etition” and one of Texas wine’s biggest strengths. “We are in competition, but we want the others to do well because then more people want to know more about and drink more Texas wine. That’s good for all winemakers.”
Sip & Savor at Fredericksburg Food & Wine Festival
No matter where you fall on the spectrum of wine lovers—a curious social sipper or an all-in oenophile—the Fredericksburg Food & Wine Festival is for you. From October 22-25, the event offers a weekend overflowing with opportunities to eat, drink, dance, mingle, and meet some of the innovative folks elevating Texas wine.
This year, a party at Contigo Ranch uncorks the 2026 festival, followed the next night by a starlit Street Dinner, where five chefs and five wineries present dishes paired with generous pours on a long communal table in the middle of downtown’s Austin Street.
On Saturday, smart attendees approach the Grand Tasting like a marathon, not a sprint, considering that it has more than 75 Texas wines and culinary delights on offer, plus live music and mixology workshops. And Sunday’s waterside brunch ends the festival on a fun and filling note.
In between the official festival fetes, sampling a variety of vintages and styles amid area wineries’ stunning Hill Country scenery is a can’t-skip addition to the Food & Wine Festival experience, and the event’s location in the heart of Texas wine country makes it easy.
