Every month is a great wine for Texas wine. The Texas Department of Agriculture has specifically declared October as Texas Wine Month. The grapes has been harvested with the weather in the optimum temperature range. There is so much to experience during Texas Wine Month. This Sunday marks the Annual Non-Commercial Wine Competition at the Austin County Fair in Bellville. This is the only State-wide Non-commercial Wine Competition in Texas with several wines last year being very impressive. I will have a great time sipping, smelling, swishing, seeing, and spitting this Sunday while judging. Each year the wines are improving in quality with some of these non-commercial weekend winemakers going fulltime commercial. This is unadulterated fun!
During the month of October, the 19 Texas Wine Trails welcome you to enjoy special wine tastings, concerts, overnight stays, and more. Those wine trails include:
• Bay Breeze Wine Trail – Gulf Coast
• Cross Timbers Wine Trail – North Texas
• Dallas Town and Country Wine Trail – North Texas
• Driftwood Wine Trail – Driftwood, TX
• Dripping Wine Trail – In and Around Dripping Springs, TX
• Grapevine Wine Trail – Grapevine, TX
• Guadalupe Valley Wine Country – Central Texas
• Piney Woods Wine Trail – East Texas
• Red River Wine Trail – North Texas
• Sam Houston Wine Trail – East Texas
• Texas Bluebonnet Wine Trail – Southeast Texas
• Texas Coast Wine Trail
• Texas High Plains Wine and Vine Trail – Lubbock Area
• Texas Hill Country Wineries – Fredericksburg Area
• Texas Independence Wine Trail – South and Central Texas
• Thirsty Oaks Wine Trail – Texas Hill Country
• Top of the Hill Country Wine Trail – Texas Hill Country
• Way Out Wineries – Southwest Texas
• Wine Road 290 – Fredericksburg Area
The oldest wine trail is the Texas Hill Country Wineries which started in 1999 has grown to 65 wineries in 2022. There are over 120 wineries in the Texas Hill Country, but only 65 wineries have qualified to become a member of the Texas Hill Country Wineries. This wine trail experiences over 2,020,000 tourism visitors during the last calendar year and that was at the end of the pandemic. These wineries provided jobs for over 141,000 with annual wages approaching seven billion dollars. These economic numbers are very impressive, but what is impressive is what happens during the entire month of October at these 65 wineries.
The Texas Wine Month Passport event runs from October 1 – 31 in the picturesque Texas Hill Country. Your Wine Trail Passport provides complimentary tastings, exclusive discounts and award winning wines at 45+ unique Hill Country Wineries. Savor all that passion the Texas Wine Country has to offer this October and drink it all in for one day or all 31 on this fantastic self-guided tour!!
All of these benefits will be yours for a trail ticket price of $120 per adult couple or $85 per adult. During a regular tasting room visit, the average tasting fee is $15 per adult, making the total value of your passport over $750! You will cover the cost of your passport, couple or individual, by just visiting and tasting at 5 wineries. Each order will include a custom barcode that serves as your Digital Texas Wine Month Passport ticket. This barcode will be emailed to you upon completing your online purchase which will be scanned at each participating winery you visit. Each day you can experience up to four wineries on the trail, with a limit of visiting each winery once during the event. You have 31 days to enjoy multiple wineries in the beautiful Texas Wine Country. BTW, wine tastings when done properly should run about an hour and a half so you should have six hours of tasting enjoyment plus travel which will fill up your day fast. I suggest taking a picnic lunch and/or dinner with you on the run consisting of cheeses, deli meats, and assorted breads. Your wine steward will help you in your food and wine pairing.
