The Best Wineries in Johnson City, Texas

Doug Lewis and Duncan McNabb founded Lewis Wines in 2010 with one rule that has not moved since, only Texas grapes. Most of the fruit comes from the High Plains, including Newsom Vineyards, Bingham Family Vineyards and the Lost Draw plantings, and the pair manage Round Mountain and Parr fruit themselves rather than buying it at arm's length.

In 2014 they planted an estate block at the winery in Portuguese and Iberian varieties, Touriga Nacional, Tinto Cao, Alicante Bouschet, Tannat and Arinto. Those are the grapes that handle a Texas summer, and tasting them side by side here is the clearest lesson in Texas wine you can get in one stop.

A small family operation on the Dixon Ranch run by Reagan and Kristina Sivadon with Bryan and Adrienne Chagoly, making 100 percent Texas wine in small lots with Reagan as winemaker. The 2023 Chardonnay took a gold at the TEXSOM International Wine Awards and has collected medals at the Fort Worth and San Francisco competitions as well, which is the sort of record that settles arguments about whether Texas can grow white wine.

The tasting choice here is the point. You can sit in the tasting room or book the treehouse above the vines, which is a better use of a clear afternoon than another counter pour.

Lost Draw was founded in 2012 by Andrew Sides, Troy Ottmers and Andy Timmons, whose family farms on the Texas High Plains supply a long list of the state's better wineries. That makes this one of the few tasting rooms where the people pouring also grew the fruit.

The Johnson City room opened on 8 December 2022 alongside seven acres of vineyard planted at the site, and the company has since consolidated around this location rather than its older downtown Fredericksburg space. Tastings run about 25 dollars per person.

A small producer working in an airy storefront near the courthouse, focused on single vineyard bottlings that show where the fruit came from rather than blending the differences away. The sources are named, among them Salt Lick Vineyards, Uplift Vineyard, La Pradera Vineyard, Spicewood Vineyards and Desert Willow Vineyard.

Texas Monthly's Johnson City guide singles this room out, and the late hours matter. Most of the estates on the highway close at five or six, so this is where a wine day turns into a wine evening.

Gary and Kathy Gilstrap closed on the land in October 1994, planted in 1995 and opened the winery in 1999, which makes this the senior operation in Johnson City. The rammed earth tasting room sits into the hillside above 25 acres of organically farmed vines, and the Gilstraps helped start the Texas Wine Trail in 2000.

Be aware of what changed. Brothers Jim and John Mueller bought the winery in early 2024 and the business now markets itself as the Napa Collective at Texas Hills Vineyard, with a California focused portfolio alongside the estate wines, plus a Red Room speakeasy. The vineyard is still the draw, so ask which pours are estate grown.

Margaret and Allan Fetty planted three acres of Cabernet on Hamilton Pool Road in 1999, sold fruit to other wineries for years, then opened their own winery in 2011. They closed on the Hamilton Pool property at the end of 2019 and moved the operation to the Hye Moon Ranch just off the 290 wine road in January 2020, where it sits now.

The wine is 100 percent Texas, with roughly half from their own vines, and Allan added a brewery working to the same all Texas standard. The Austin Chronicle has covered the place through the move.

One of the newer wineries on this stretch, run by former Texas A and M bonfire redpots and veterans making 100 percent Texas wine. The tasting room looks west over the vines, which is the whole argument for arriving late in the afternoon rather than at noon.

There are glamping tents on the property, so this is one of the few Johnson City wineries where the answer to who is driving home can be nobody.

The farming end of this business is in Brownfield, out on the Texas High Plains, where the family has grown grapes that end up in bottles all over the state. Texas Highways has written about the strength of that fruit. The Johnson City end is a renovated farmhouse with a marketplace and a 1978 Airstream set up for tastings.

It is the first Wine Road 290 stop coming from Austin and one of the handful of rooms you can reach on foot from the middle of town, which is a rare combination here.

Daniel Kelada started Vinovium in 2012 as a Texas negociant, working with growers and winemaking partners across the state instead of a single vineyard, and opened this tasting room downtown in 2016. The name is Latin for wine road.

They were early to Texas wine on tap and now pour what they describe as central Texas' largest tap selection, alongside wine cocktails, a rotating bottle program from other Texas winemakers, growler refills and a menu of tapas and sandwiches.

A resort built around a winery rather than the other way round, with 78 villas, two tasting rooms, a spa, a pool, an outdoor music venue and the Old 290 Brewery and restaurant on the property. The wine list runs to Roussanne, Viognier, Tempranillo, Gewurztraminer, Riesling and Counoise.

Ranking it tenth is not a knock on the wine. It is a note that you are paying for a resort, and the smaller producers above put more of your money into the glass.