This week I visited Pedernales Cellars in the Texas wine country on a media trip to Fredericksburg. This was my first time to visit Fredericksburg (despite being passionate about wine and fluent in German) and I absolutely loved the rolling hills, gorgeous scenery, and outstanding wine.

Location

Pedernales Cellars is located on the famous Hwy 290 Wine Trail overlooking the Pedernales River Valley. There are no grapevines on the property but the deck has views of tree-lined hills as far as the eye can see.

Estate Tasting

We thoroughly enjoyed an Estate Tasting of seven different wines: the 2016 Texas Albariño, 2016 Texas Roussanne, 2018 Over the Moon, 2016 Texas High Plains Tempranillo, 2016 Tempranillo Reserve, 2016 Newsom vineyards North Block, plus a bonus sip of 2017 Viognier Reserve.

These are not just “good for Texas” wines. Pedernales Cellars makes damn good wine, period. I was very impressed and bought several bottles to bring back to Dallas with me.

The Wine

The Over the Moon Rosé is a dry rosé that tastes like summer strawberries but isn’t too sweet and it has the cutest story! The owners of Pedernales Cellars met while working at Nasa and created this lovely rosé for their anniversary, naming it Over the Moon as a tribute to their days at Nasa. I love that!

Pedernales Cellars is known for Viognier, even winning the title of world’s best Viognier in France in 2014. My die-hard readers know that I am a red wine girl through and through but I love a good glass of chilled white wine in the sweltering summer heat and this, darlings, is a great glass of wine.

My favorite of the reds was the 2016 Tempranillo Reserve, which is the red Pedernales is known for. It has a rich, full mouth feel with notes of cherry and vanilla.

In addition to the wine tasting, we toured the grounds and learned that Pedernales is home to the largest underground wine cellar in the state of Texas. It’s quite pleasant inside, as it’s kept at a cool 64 degrees for the wine.

Winemaking Process

We learned all about the wine making process from the barrels to the de-stemming to the bottling. We learned that the stems are composted and put right back into the vineyard soil, which my green mama would approve of!

Pedernales offers special harvest events such as grape stomping as well as food and wine pairing dinners. Not close enough to visit? You can have their wine shipped to your door. See all of their upcoming events and more information on their website, https://www.pedernalescellars.com. Happy sipping!

Thank you to Pedernales Cellars for hosting me!