When you think of Texas, do you think of wine? Probably not. Most people think of California, France or Italy first. Fun fact: Texas has a beautiful wine country that makes delicious wines. If you live in Texas or a neighboring state and haven’t visited yet, I highly recommend it. Wine tours in the Texas Hill Country are laid back and fun. I’ve been many times with wonderful experiences each time!
To celebrate my friend Meena’s dwindling days as a “single” lady, we road tripped to New Braunfels, TX which is in the Texas Hill Country wine region! (Check out the map above for my non-Texan readers.) Meena’s family friend owns a house not far from the river, and they let us stay for free. It was such a cute house and perfectly accommodated the 9 girls in our party.
Winding Road Hill Country Wine Tours
For our Saturday festivities, we booked a wine tour with an awesome company that we found online and I HIGHLY recommend: Winding Road Hill Country Wine Tours. Billy Martin is the owner of this wine tour company and was our very own driver and guide for the day! The majority of Texas wine country tours operate out of Fredericksburg, TX which is where most would call the heart of Texas wine country. Luckily for us, Billy with Winding Road (that’s what I’m going to shorten it to) operates out of the New Braunfels region. Perfect for our bachelorette adventure!
Billy picked us up at our house at 10:00am in an awesome limo bus full equipped with comfy seats, a table, cup holders and wine glasses! No plastic cups needed y’all. Billy comes prepared.
I cannot stress enough how convenient it is to be picked up and dropped off at your house. A day of wine tastings definitely goes to your head and not having to worry about anyone driving is the best.
You’re free to bring your own wine along on bus, so naturally we had some mimosas to toast to the bride to be and kick off our day!
A little more about our Texas Hill Country wine tour. Included in the cost is pick up and drop off, tastings at 3 different wineries and a charcuterie board from a local restaurant for lunch. Billy handles all the arrangements, tasting fees once in the wineries and even serves you lunch! He’s a very amiable man and so easy to talk to. He gave us tips, made wine recommendations and helped us with anything we needed including taking group pictures.
Driftwood Vineyards
We started the day at our first winery as soon as it opened, Driftwood Vineyards. The vineyards at this winery are gorgeous! Even on a cold, rainy day, you just wanted to stay outside and take in the beauty. It was an unseasonably chilly 40 degree day, but we still snapped a few shots before heading into the warmth indoors.
Our first tasting allowed us to choose 6 samples from their list of wines. I loved that this winery provided a note card to check off the wines you selected. This allowed us to note the ones that we liked the best for future reference. Driftwood Vineyards also includes a complimentary wine glass for you to take home.
Pros and Cons of Driftwood Vineyard
Pros
- Beautiful views
- Note card with wines to note your favorites
- Wine glass souvenir
- First winery of the day and wines were delicious
Cons
- First winery so I didn’t know how it would compare to others as far as purchasing wine goes
- No private area
- Since we were there as soon as they opened, this wasn’t a problem!
Fall Creek Vineyards
The next winery we visited was a short distance away called Fall Creek Vineyards. It’s right by the famous Salt Lick Barbeque! When we arrived we were ushered into this cute little tasting room that we had all to ourselves. A list of the tastings offered was on the table for us to review and we had our own Fall Creek employee serving us and answering any questions we had.
Lunch was served at this stop! Included in the tour, Billy provides you a delicious charcuterie board from Huishace Grill in New Braunfels. It goes perfectly with wine tasting if I do say so myself.
Pros and Cons of Fall Creek
Pros
- Private room for tasting and dining
- Delicious wine
- Gorgeous grounds and entry to the winery
Cons
- No choices for tasting
- Not much opportunity to explore the winery since we were just brought to our room
Above is from the entry to the winery! It was so gorgeous. I wish the weather had been better so we could explore more outside.
Dutchman Family Winery
Our third and final winery was Duchman Family Winery. Little did we know, but this winery was the place to be! Billy had mentioned that we may need to fight our way up to get a spot at the bar and he wasn’t wrong. There was definitely a energetic atmosphere different from the others that was fun for our final stop.
Funny story: Emily and I had to pump between wineries and were finishing up as we arrived. #breastfeedingmomproblems We were the last ones off the bus and weren’t quite sure where to go as there were a few different buildings on the property. We decided to go with the biggest because it made the most sense to us, but nope. We stumbled right into a restaurant where the hostess was sweet enough to direct us to the winery. My favorite part of the interaction is when she said, “You were so close!” Like she didn’t want us to feel stupid and was pumping us up. So naturally, we decided to snap a quick selfie and be on our way.
Once we finally made it to Duchman, our friends had already scored a nice spot at the bar for all of us! We chose 6 different samples from any of their wines. The lady serving my end of the bar was incredibly helpful. I asked quite a few questions that she answered with ease. The wine here was delicious, and I’m not just saying that because it was our third stop. It was different and I loved the reds which is interesting because I’m usually more of a white and rose kind of girl.
There were lots of bachelorette parties to come through Duchman. Like I said, it had more of a fun, party atmosphere. Some of the girls were definitely having a grand ole time and it’s safe to say that we were the most tame of the groups that came through! I guess I say that because none of us fell on the floor at any point in time.
Pros and Cons of Duchman
Pros
- Great wine
- Fun atmosphere (especially for the final stop)
- Helpful attendants
Cons
- Really loud
- Not much to explore or see
- Final winery, we were sad to be done! (But it’s probably a good thing)
All in all, our Texas Hill Country wine tour and each winery we visited was fantastic. They were beautiful with delicious wines and helpful people along the way. I loved every minute of our tour with Winding Road Hill Country Wine Tours. I highly recommend them if you’re ever in the New Braunfels or Gruene area. Billy was incredibly helpful and knowledgeable. He even set up dinner reservations for us after the tour when we realized the place we wanted to go to dinner was a bit too far and we’d rather Uber!
This past weekend, was my first 48 hours away from both babies! (Yes, I’ve been away from Chloe many times, but this was my first time away from Brody and JP’s first overnight with both kids solo.) Even though Brody is only 5 months old, it was a needed and rejuvenating weekend away for this momma of two. It was the perfect amount of time and distance away for JP to get the hang of handling both kiddos 24/7. It was also a solid practice run for him before my Disney Princess girls trip when I’ll be gone for 5 days!
Happy bachelorette weekend to my girl Meens! It was amazing, now just 10 days until wedding day. The countdown is on!
Have you ever been on a Texas Hill Country wine tour? Or visited Texas Wine Country? What’s your favorite winery?
If not, have you ever done a wine tour? I highly recommend it!
Be sure to check out more of my travel adventures!
