Touring Fredericksburg's TX Wine Country with - Regina Cross / Wineshare Club

I recently had a wonderful Birthday trip to our Texas Wine Country in Fredericksburg, TX!
 
And I would like to initially share that if you haven’t been to Fredericksburg then it’s worth noting that there are many more activities and things to do in this beautiful area of TX than just drink wine.  For instance, Friday we toured and climbed Enchanted Rock and experienced a great hike and breathtaking views while imagining what it must have been like when the American Indians lived in the area. We also toured the National Museum of the Pacific War – Nimitz which was educational and informative in addition to being well designed and laid out for tourists and novices to enjoy the experience.
 
Luchenbach, TX is always a “must see and do” on any trip to Fredericksburg and they do have their own wines now.  I didn’t get the opportunity to taste the wines but I look forward to experiencing them on a future visit.  We had also hoped to join one of the 3 different music options Friday but were not able to attend any of the events.  I have seen previous music events and concerts in Luchenbach and I loved the talent as well as the venue for the music and dancing.
 
We wanted to experience the countryside while visiting Fredericksburg and stayed at a cottage, just a few miles outside of town, that was a refurbished barn with a hot tub, beautiful view of the ranch and the many visiting deer as well as farm animals like chickens and roosters.
 
Prior to our trip I researched wine tour companies and I settled on Keidel Wine Tours because they were very responsive and communicative and they allowed us to schedule our own tour schedule of wineries.  Keidel also provided a box lunch, water and snacks as well as a fantastic tour guide who was engaging and educational and knew the area extremely well.
 
We chose the 4 Winery / six hour tour that included going to Calais Winery, Pedernales Cellars, Becker Vineyards and Barrons Creek Vineyards. They were all great wine tours and each provided a completely different experience for our small group of four.
 
Calais Winery was our first stop of the day as well as it was our favorite winery in regards to presentation, taste, experience and knowledge.  We all agreed that Benjamin Calais is truly an artist within the wine industry and that we’re lucky that he’s chosen Texas as his home and to share his wine making craft with us in our beautiful Texas Wine Country.  Calais has chosen to build a unique boutique winery, that’s somewhat cave-like, located in Hye, TX (just outside of Fredericksburg) where he creates high quality wines, influenced by his French heritage, from Texas grapes.

The Pedernales Cellars was our next stop on the tour and we fell in love with the beautiful country side where the winery sits at the top of the hill and overlooks the vineyard, pastures and a lovely B & B called Rose Hill.  The winery itself is lovely and quaint with knowledgeable and personable staff.  We truly enjoyed the wine tastings and each of us bought our favorite wine from the tasting and had a glass out in the warm and inviting patio area.

Becker Vineyards was our third winery to visit for the day.  Becker is one of my favorites as it has a wonderful and vibrant feel to the entire vineyard which is quite vast and perfect if you’re a small touring group like ours or one of the larger groups that visited while we were tasting wines. Becker is well known and I haven’t had a Becker wine that I didn’t like.  I recommend their wines for casual drinking as well as to accompany many different types of meals and both their red and white wines are quite nice.  And as many already know you can normally find a Becker wine in your local retail stores.
 
Our fourth and final stop on our tour was at Barons Creek Vineyards, which as a group, was our 2nd favorite winery / vineyard of the day.  Baron’s provides a boutique Italian Villa winery experience with a warm and inviting feel with wines for all level of wine lovers.  We were very lucky, thanks to Keidel Wine Tours, to conduct our wine tasting with Baron’s Winemaker, Dr. Russel Smith, who’s pervious and tremendous background with Becker Vineyards and his passion for Texas, Italian, Spanish and all wines provided our group with a truly wonderful experience.
 
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Blog written by:  Regina Cross / reginacross@wineshareclub.com