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Fredericksburg Wine Country
Dawn breaks over a dew-crystallized vineyard. Nearby,
the vintner arrives for an early start to the day. In the distance,
pickup trucks meander down the ranch-to-market road, greeted by
the calls of onlooking cattle and goats.
It’s another day in Texas wine country.
Much of the Lone Star State’s fast-growing wine
industry is centered in the Hill Country near Fredericksburg, founded
by German settlers who planted the Vitis vinifera grapes that thrived
in the Mediterranean climate of their new home. It would be a century
before production would begin on a serious scale but the roots of
the Texas wine industry had been planted.
This community remembers its Old World heritage with
German-style buildings, shops and restaurants. Those roots are also
evident at the downtown Fredericksburg Winery (247 West Main
Street, 830-990-8747, www.fbgwinery.com),
where signature labels like the Texas Chardonnay “Adelsverein”
(named for the Society of Noblemen formed by German princes to help
emigrants to the newly-formed Republic of Texas) feature artwork
and a little history.
Like many local wineries, this is a family-run operation,
headed by no-nonsense Cord Switzer (look for the man in the gimme
cap), along with his wife Sandy, brothers Jene and Burt, and mother
“Oma,” charged with labeling each bottle by hand.
Fourteen miles north of Fredericksburg, you’ll
find Bell Mountain Vineyards (463 Bell Mountain Road, 830-685-3297,
www.bellmountainwine.com),
located in Texas’s first designated winegrowing area, or head
east where “bouquet” describes not only wine but wildflowers.
Further east stands Stonewall, home to Lyndon Baines
Johnson’s “Texas White House,” and also home to Grape
Creek Vineyards (4 miles west of Stonewall on US 290, 830-644-2710,
www.grapecreek.com), where
acres of climbing vines yield the prize-winning Cabernet Trois.
Nearby, Becker Vineyards (10 miles east of
Fredericksburg off US 290, 830-644-2681, www.beckervineyards.com),
with 46 acres of French Vinifera vines, boasts Texas’s largest
underground wine cellar. It’s filled with specialties such
as the 2002 Viognier, an elegant wine with a hint of violets and
peach, served at a dinner for Australia’s Prime Minister at
President Bush’s Prairie Chapel Ranch, and the 2002 Cabernet
Sauvignon Reserve, poured at a White House dinner.
Return to Fredericksburg
Travel Guide
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