Texas wine country map
Sheet TX-30 · 8 federal AVAs · 2 growing regions that matter · est. 1986–2005
Texas wine happens in two places that are 350 miles apart. Most of the grapes are grown on the High Plains around Lubbock, at 3,000 to 4,000 feet; most of the tasting rooms are in the Hill Country west of Austin. The eight approved viticultural areas below cover both, plus three outliers.
The two clusters are obvious once you know where to look: the Llano Estacado around Lubbock in the northwest, and the Edwards Plateau around Fredericksburg in the center.
The eight Texas AVAs
| AVA | Established | Counties | Main town | What grows there |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Texas Hill Country | 1991 | Some 22 counties including Gillespie, Blanco, Kerr, Llano, Mason, Comal, Hays, Burnet | Fredericksburg | Tempranillo, Mourvèdre, Grenache, Syrah, Viognier, Sangiovese; Blanc du Bois in the wetter eastern edge |
| Bell Mountain | 1986 | Gillespie | North of Fredericksburg off US-87 | Cabernet Sauvignon and other Bordeaux varieties on granite-derived soils |
| Fredericksburg in the Texas Hill Country | 1988 | Gillespie | Fredericksburg | Tempranillo, Viognier, Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon |
| Texas High Plains | 1993 | Lubbock, Terry, Gaines, Hale, Lynn, Hockley, Floyd, Swisher, Bailey, Castro, Lamb, Parmer and neighbors | Lubbock | Tempranillo, Viognier, Roussanne, Mourvèdre, Cabernet Sauvignon, Sangiovese, Muscat Canelli, Tannat |
| Escondido Valley | 1992 | Pecos | East of Fort Stockton | Irrigated vineyard land in the Trans-Pecos desert; Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon plantings |
| Texas Davis Mountains | 1998 | Jeff Davis | Fort Davis | High-elevation plantings above 4,500 ft; the coolest nights of any Texas AVA |
| Texoma | 2005 | Grayson, Cooke, Fannin, Montague | Sherman and Denison | Hybrids and native-rooted varieties in the country where T.V. Munson worked |
| Mesilla Valley | 1985 | El Paso (mostly in New Mexico) | Anthony, on the state line | Rio Grande valley floor; the only Texas AVA shared with another state |
Why the grapes are on the High Plains
The Llano Estacado is flat, dry and high. Vineyards there sit between roughly 3,000 and 4,000 feet, which gives a 25–30°F swing between afternoon and night in the growing season — the diurnal shift that keeps acid in the fruit while the sugar climbs. Rainfall is low enough that disease pressure is small, and irrigation comes from the Ogallala Aquifer, the same water that grows the cotton around it. Vineyards are often planted on land that was cotton a decade earlier, which is why they appear in square blocks along the section roads north and west of Lubbock.
The risks are spring frost and hail. A late freeze on the plains can take most of a vintage across several counties at once, and Texas wineries buy from multiple regions to insure against it. Growers also have to reckon with herbicide drift from neighboring row-crop fields, which has shaped where new vineyards go.
Why the tasting rooms are in the Hill Country
The Texas Hill Country AVA is one of the largest viticultural areas in the United States by acreage — roughly nine million acres across the Edwards Plateau — but only a small fraction of it is planted. What it has instead is limestone hills, a two-lane road network and weekend traffic driving out from Austin and San Antonio, both within a two-hour drive. The concentration is along US-290 between Fredericksburg and Johnson City, with a second cluster on SH-16 and RR 1623 toward Stonewall and Blanco.
Two smaller AVAs sit inside it, both entirely within Gillespie County. Bell Mountain, approved in 1986, was the first AVA in Texas; it covers the granite slopes north of Fredericksburg. Fredericksburg in the Texas Hill Country followed in 1988 and covers the valley around the town itself. A great deal of Hill Country wine is made from High Plains fruit trucked south, so the AVA on a label describes where the grapes were grown, not where the tasting room is.
Driving the two regions
- US-290 – Austin to Johnson City, Stonewall and Fredericksburg; the densest stretch of Hill Country tasting rooms.
- SH-16 – Fredericksburg north to Llano and south to Kerrville, through granite country.
- US-281 – the north–south route through Johnson City and Marble Falls, crossing US-290 at the middle of the AVA.
- US-87 / US-84 – Lubbock to Brownfield and Slaton, the spine of the High Plains vineyard country.
- I-27 – Lubbock north to Plainview and Amarillo, past the northern High Plains vineyards.
- US-82 / US-75 – Sherman and Denison for the Texoma AVA on the Red River.
Tasting rooms open and close and hours vary by season; this page maps appellations, not businesses.