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Wineries in Hye Texas

March 5, 2017 by Jill 4 Comments

I like wine and I cannot lie. If you like wine and you’re in (or planning to visit) the Lone Star State, you need to know about the wineries in  a little town called Hye Texas.

My husband and I lived in England for four years, and while the Brits aren’t exactly known for their winemaking skills, we made some friends who were knowledgeable about wines and spent some of our leisure time going to wine education and wine tasting events. We learned about the different varietals of grapes and what kinds of wines paired the best with what types of foods, and so on.

All you need to know about wineries in Hye Texas

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We went from drinking Shiraz or (gasp) White Zinfandel with everything and expanded our palates. Some might call us “wine snobs” but I prefer to say our palates have just been refined a little.

Wineries in Hye Texas|Ripped Jeans and Bifocals

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When we moved to the San Antonio area, we were pleasantly surprised to learn there were wineries nearby. If you ever visit Fredericksburg, Texas (and you should for many reasons) there are a plethora of wineries featuring locally grown grapes. The Fredericksburg area is an easy day trip from San Antonio or Austin but there’s plenty to do if you want to do an extended trip.

Hye, Texas is located in Western Blanco County on Highway 290 (also known as the 290 Wine Trail) and it’s a lovely little gem of a town to visit if you like wine. It’s about an hour and a half’s drive from San Antonio so totally doable for a day trip, although there are many places in nearby Fredericksburg to stay if you want to make a weekend of it.

Here are some of our favorite spots to hang out in Hye:

William Chris

We’ve been coming to William Chris since 2014. We’re members of two of their wine clubs. We get four bottles of reds once a quarter and we just signed up for their new white and rose club – we get six bottles of white and rose twice a year.

Wineries in Hye Texas|Ripped Jeans and Bifocals

Obligitory snap in this fun photo frame…because of course!

This is one of our favorite places to hang out. As members, we come on the club Sundays when the winery is closed for regular business…but the members are quite the crowd. One of the perks of membership is the intimate seated tastings in the Hye Society Lounge – it’s a converted farmhouse with lots of cute and quirky details.

Wineries in Hye Texas|Ripped Jeans and Bifocals

Our awesome ride for the week, courtesy of our friends at DriveShop USA and Huyndai. This is the 2017 Santa Fe and our 1 hour+ ride from San Antonio to Hye was amazingly comfortable!

If you’re hungry you can purchase a cheese plate or a pizza from the Stout’s Pizza truck – I recommend the Chicken Bacon Ranch.

You can also bring your own munchies in…there are plenty of places to picnic. We’ve never taken our kids but we’ve seen plenty of kids and dogs during our visits. I feel like the grounds of William Chris are family friendly. Inside the Hye Society Lounge and inside the tasting room are definitely adults only hangouts.

My favorite is the Blanc Dubois with Mary Ruth being a close second.

Wineries in Hye Texas|Ripped Jeans and Bifocals

Hye Meadow

Hye Meadow is just across the road from William Chris. They have a small but comfortable indoor tasting area and a spacious outdoor patio area.

They also have cheese, which is always a win for me.

Wineries in Hye Texas|Ripped Jeans and Bifocals

Hye Meadow is THE place for weddings. I’ve never actually been to a wedding here, but their online photo gallery makes me want to crash one really bad. Their grounds are really beautiful. It was hot on the day we visited so we stayed inside and enjoyed the air conditioning.

The outdoor area is family friendly.

Wineries in Hye Texas|Ripped Jeans and Bifocals

My pick: Junkyard White.

Wineries in Hye Texas|Ripped Jeans and Bifocals

Calais

We stumbled upon this boutique winery by accident. We spent a weekend in Fredericksburg last fall with some of our friends who’d come down from Abilene and we hired a private driver to take us around to the different wineries for the day.

Side note: there are a lot of businesses that offer this service but Stagecoach Tours is TOP KNOTCH. We had an idea of which wineries we wanted to visit and our wonderful guide and driver made some great recommendations. When he said “let me call Benjamin and see if we can get into Calais” we thought “well, that sounds good.”  We may never have discovered Calais otherwise and we’ll definitely go back.

The “tasting in the cave” experience was fun and unqiue. We look forward to going back and trying the more extensive tasting at The Winemaker’s Table. Doesn’t THAT sound fun?

Wineries in Hye Texas|Ripped Jeans and Bifocals

I didn’t ask and I don’t see anything on the website but I’d call this an “adults only” venue – leave the kids at home.

My pick: 2015 Cuvee de Gaston Rose. According to their website, it’s sold out. I just happen to have a bottle…lucky me.

Zero 815

This is our new favorite place. We decided to stop kind of on the spur of the moment and really enjoyed ourself. Zer0 815 is the wedding anniversary of the owners – August 2015, get it?

Wineries in Hye Texas|Ripped Jeans and Bifocals

Zero 815 opened in December 2016 and currently serves five wines with the addition of two more whites (yay!) coming soon. This is one to watch…I have a good feeling about this one.

Wineries in Hye Texas|Ripped Jeans and Bifocals

My favorite was the Muscat Blend with the Mourvedre a close second.

Kuhlman Cellars

Kuhlman Cellars is an intimate, casual winery in a lovely garden setting. We haven’t spent a ton of time at Kuhlman – we stopped off for a quick look and a tasting on our way back to Fredericksburg – and we definitely look foward to going back. Their website lists some fun food pairings and wine classes under the name of Vina Vita University. We’ll definitely be visiting again.

Wineries in Hye Texas|Ripped Jeans and Bifocals

My pick:  The 2015 Viognier.

Wineries in Hye Texas|Ripped Jeans and Bifocals

Hye, Texas (or nearby Fredericksburg) is an absolute gem of a place to visit. We’re having an almost non-existent winter/early spring in South/Central Texas, so the early March weather was perfect for our visit.

Thanks to our friends at DriveShop USA and Hyundai for giving us the Santa Fe to drive for the week. This was the pefect, smooth, comfortable ride for our trip…and there’s plenty of room in the back to bring home all of our goodies!

Wineries in Hye Texas|Ripped Jeans and Bifocals

Wineries in Hye Texas|Ripped Jeans and Bifocals

The 2017 Huyndai Santa Fe has a smooth ride and a ton of room. We loved driving it on our trip to the Hill Country but it’s a great small family car, too. The back seat has plenty of room for two booster seats. Click the image to learn more.

I hope you get the chance to check out some of these great wines for yourself! Thanks for reading!


4 Comments

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Our week in pictures – March 5-11 »

Comments

  1. Cannon Law says

    October 7, 2018 at 2:57 pm

    Nice, I’d call it “A typical Texan weekend”. Love your adventures!

    Reply
  2. Tyler Flood says

    October 14, 2018 at 10:11 am

    I thought beer and whiskey are more popular in TX than wine, how wrong I really was

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Out Of The Way, But Worth the Trip! - Texas Travel Talk says:
    August 21, 2017 at 2:39 pm

    […] wine, especially in the Fredericksburg area, but if you want an out of the way wine tasting, come hang out in Hye with Jill Robbins and her husband as they tour the wineries and sample the products in this area of Blanco County. It will make […]

    Reply
  2. Texas Road Trip Worth Stopping to See in Hye, Granbury, Hill Country says:
    August 22, 2017 at 1:40 pm

    […] in the Fredericksburg area, but if you want to undertake a Texas road trip for wine tasting, come hang out in Hye with Jill Robbins and her husband as they tour the wineries and sample the products in this area of Blanco County. It will make […]

    Reply

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All About Jill

I'm a digital content creator and essayist who copes with parenting and most other situations with humor and snark. Just so you know, if this weren't the internet, I'd be smiling awkwardly and answering simple questions like "How are you today" with gems like "I like pockets."

I really do love pockets, though.

I spent 26 years in the USAF, which went by really, really fast. I'm very proud of my service but I'm loving my second act even more. Writing gives me the opportunity to flex my creative muscles and that's what makes me happy. Welcome.

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rippedjeansandbifocals

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Jill Robbins
Here’s something you’ve probably never seen be Here’s something you’ve probably never seen before: my bottom teeth.
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I always hide my crooked bottom teeth in pictures and I’m super self-conscious when I talk. So I did something about it.
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I wore braces as a kid and my top teeth are straight but my bottom teeth are shifting and one tooth is traveling into the back of my mouth and I have some crowding. My orthodontist said it’s very unusual to put braces on just half your mouth but my bite is still aligned so they didn’t have to put them on my top teeth - my wallet is thankful.
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Questions I’ve already been asked:
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1️⃣ At your age? Yes, at my age. I still care about my smile. 
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3️⃣ How long do you have to wear them?
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6-9 months.
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3️⃣ Do they hurt? 
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My teeth are sore and my mouth is tender but not to the Tylenol level so I guess the answer is “Not too much.”
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Other questions? Advice?
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#braceface #adultbraces
Little things can really be big - do you agree? M Little things can really be big - do you agree?

My husband gets up with our kids twice a week and does their breakfast and morning routine and takes them to school so I can sleep in. I don't laze away the morning in bed - it usually amounts to about an extra hour of sleep for me and a little more peace and quiet as I start my day. 

This probably seems like a little thing but this is huge for me. The mental benefits of not having to set my alarm on a schoolday is truly my love language. I would rather have sleep than flowers or presents. 

On those morning where my husband takes my kids to school, I will inevitably find the kitchen not "just so." There will be spills on the table or something that didn't get put away. I resist the urge to be sarcastic or to ask "Um, is there a reason we have four boxes of cereal just sitting on the counter?" or point out that it would take less than 30 seconds to wipe a tabletop or put a box back on the shelf. I resist saying stuff like "I guess if I want it done a certain way, I have to do it myself." I don't even say that to myself. 

My husband isn't "doing me a favor" by taking care of our kids. When I talked about being stressed and tired during an argument last year, he offered to take some things off my plate and giving me two mornings where I don't have to set an alarm was one of his ideas. It's part of the give and take of marriage and even though it makes me clench a little when I see spilled milk or stuff that hasn't put away, I appreciate having a partner who shares the load with me. 

My marriage definitely is not perfect and I'm in no position to give relationship advice. But for us, this one little thing is a really big deal. 

And, as I've recently discovered, a cereal box can sit on the counter for several days and the world doesn't explode. Who knew.

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2020 started out so fine. We extended our kids’ winter break to take them on a Disney Cruise- no better reason than that, amiright- and I was excited about all the Disney Cruise blog posts I was going to write. Disney Cruises are (errr...were?) one of the most searched terms on my website and how a lot of people found me.
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We got our first Raddish Kids box right before the We got our first Raddish Kids box right before the holidays and finally dug into it this weekend. Our box had a cold-weather theme which was perfect for this cold weather we're having (flurries in San Antonio can you believe it?!)

Each box contains three recipe cards, a culinary tool, an iron-on patch and Table Talk conversation starter cards. A shopping list is included and also emailed to you in advance in case you want to be ready to cook as soon as your box arrives. You buy all the groceries yourself. 

We made homemade chicken and dumplings this weekend and they turned out amazing. If you need modifications (i.e. gluten or dairy free) you can hop on to the @raddishkids website and go to the "Bonus Bites" section. You'll find modifications, food videos, extra recipes, parent info and more fun stuff. 

The price ranges from $20-$24 per box depending on what type of subscription you choose. Boxes are designed for kids 4-14+ with varying degrees of supervision needed depending on your child's skills and age. Kyle and i have done two meals from this box - we still have cookies left to make - and worked together about 50-50. It was a lot of fun. 

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I think today would be better if I could hang out I think today would be better if I could hang out with donkeys all day. 

There's a reason animals are used in therapy - they are both comforting and fun. This picture was from our October outing to Wassermann's Wranch outside of Alpine (in West Texas.) I love my beautiful state and the landscape of West Texas fascinates me because it's so different than what I see every day here near San Antonio.

Wassermann's Wranch is located just a few miles outside the city. It's a private hobby farm that sees visitors by reservation. It's absolutely worth planning your day around and you can check out more in my blog post linked in my bio.

I didn't realize I liked donkeys until I got to know these guys. The owner, Heidi, told me "I think you might be a donkey chick."

I think I'm OK with that. 

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