The Wineries of Fredericksburg, TX

We had the pleasure of visiting several wineries and tasting rooms on our recent visit to Fredericksburg, TX. For the most part, each winery had some positive traits - either in the wine, the friendliness of the proprietor, the ambiance, or the people we met. Unfortunately, most are quite pricey whehn it comes to tasting fees. They also close early, so don't plan on wine tasting into the evening. Here are some insights to some of the FBG wineries...

Our first stop was at Pontatoc Vineyard &Weingarten, which is on the main drag in FBG and which we totally tripped over. The owner was sitting on the sidewalk with his laptop when we walked by. I said to Chuck "Look, a winery!" At which point the man looked up from his laptop and said "Would you like to taste some wine?"  Not only did we get a tasting, but we got to see the annuals he had been keeping and learned of the history of the winery. They use 100% Hill Country grapes in 100% of their wines.

We loved their Estate Tempranillo, but also enjoyed their blends - Smoothing Iron Mountain and San Fernando Academy. We enjoyed them enough that we joined their wine club :)

We also enjoyed the company and the wonderful courtyard. As a bonus, we learned that one of Chuck's self preps this fall worked there, and when we stopped by to meet him later in the day, we enjoyed a nice Sangria de Tempranillo.

Our next winery - Andreucci Wines - is a small, Italian tasting room. The gentleman who poured our tasting of Donna Alma (an amazing Pinot Grigio), shared a lot of information about the owners and their vineyard in Italy. We only tasted the one wine, but we had a very nice visit, and he gave us some recommendations for some local wineries to visit.

Pedernales Cellars came highly recommended, and we enjoyed our visit - and the wine. Our favorites were the Texas Dry Rose and Texas Moscato. We're not generally huge moscato fans, but it was very nice. They had some other wines we really enjoyed - but they were priced outside of our budget. Beautiful location - even if they did have the unfortunate taste of placing their mail box directly in front of this wonderful sign. They have several vineyards in the Hill Country, and the names of the wines often reflect the origin of the grapes. Cool stop. Glad we went.

Pedernales has another label - one geared more towards the American palate (whatever that is). Besides having a fun name, Armadillo Leap Winery has some nice wines. Their Pinot Grigio took us off guard, as it was slightly sweet. Their '14 Mourvedre was light and quite nice. We also enjoyed their '15 Viognier, which was aged in steel and then oaked at the end. We didn't enjoy any enough to purchase, but we were being a bit picky on the purchasing end.

Santa Maria Cellars is another that came highly recommended. Off the beaten path, Santa Maria serves up Argentinian-style wines - which probably has something to do with the fact that the proprietor is from Argentina. They are enlarging their tasting room - it was quite cozy and had some areas where Chuck had to duck to avoid lower areas. We had a wonderful tasting experience there! Our favorite wines were the '14 Pinot Noir (fabulous nose, very smooth & fruity, and absolutely delicious!), the '14 Merlot (not much on the nose, but very fruity and tasty), the '14 Malbec (smooth, fruity, and very nice)and the '14 Sauvignon Blanc (perfect for hot weather). This is one we will definitely keep on our "Must Visit" list.

1851 is close to Santa Maria and was another great stop. It was quite crowded, but it sure was fun during the rain storm, and the noise level did not get ridiculous, in spite of the crowds. Our favorites were '14 St. Jorge Alicante Bouschet (a varietal originally from France, with a fabulous nose, smooth start and a bit tannic on the finish) and '14 Grace Tempranillo (nice nose and tasted fabulous). Another great stop.

We have been members of the Grape Creek Wine Club since we visited Fredericksburg several years earlier and stopped in their in-town tasting room. The obnoxious storms that year kept us in town, but we were glad to have discovered this winery - and we were excited to be able to visit in person.

The tasting room at Grape Creek includes a well-stocked gift shop. They have several tasting bars scattered around the room, which keeps any one area from getting too crowded. It was a good tasting experience. Our favorite wines were the Rose, Merlot, Riesling (semi-sweet, and very nice) and Cabernet Blanc, which was a nice porch wine.

A reminder of the proliferation of wineries in the area.

Members of the Grape Creek Wine Club have access to the covered patio. However, that area was quite noisy when we were there, so we opted for a shaded patio surrounded by these beautiful flowers. It was much quieter - much more to our liking.

We had lunch at the tratorria at Grape Creek - and it was not a positive experience. We ordered a simple cheese and sausage board, and people who were seated well after us who ordered wood-fired pizza were served well before us. The view was fabulous, but the noise level quickly escalated to the point where a casual conversation was a challenge. We won't bother eating there again. It just wasn't our cup of tea.

Late one day we stopped at Six Shooter Cellars, and for us it fell into the "don't bother" category. Of the 11 or so wines we tasted, we really only enjoyed the Minstrel Mead from Texas Mead Works. The Clear Creek Viognier and Sauv Blanc were nice, but not horribly exciting.

Another disappointment from a wine persepctive was Rancho Ponte Vineyard. The two times we have visited FBG, we stayed in a camping cabin at the KOA and could see this winery. We finally made it during their open hours. They have a nice gift shop, and the woman running the tasting room was very nice. They do not use Texas grapes - we were told they get theirs from Luna Rossa in Deming, NM. All of their wines are handmade, but they just didn't appeal to us.

Our last Fredericksburg Winery this go-round was Fiesta Wines 290. We tasted 10 different wines (5 each), and our favorites were the White Merlot (which we found to be quite nice) and Texas Well Water (which is a light, tasty wine that will work well as a porch drink.

We ended up returning through FBG and had time to stop at one winery. We selected
Barron's Creek because it is close to the KOA where we stayed and we drove past it so many times we decided we just had to stop. Overall, it was not a wonderful experience. It seems this place is one of the more popular on the wine trail (there is a van that runs continually, plus some groups rent limos). There were several groups of 20-something ladies, apparently some kind of bachelorette parties. While the winery did have a couple of private rooms, this one party ended up in the loft area, and their occasional screams as well as their chant of "shot, shot, shot" were enough to give me a headache. We will go back, though - but we will buy a bottle of their FABULOUS '15 Rose, which we will take outside and share on their beautiful grounds.