June 11, 2025: Texas Wine on the Road

Over the last week, Nikhila and I have been on the road. We’ve visited six wineries across three regions (Paso Robles, Napa Valley, and Livermore Valley), and tasted wines from countless more wineries and regions at Cab Franc-a-Palooza. So what did we learn on this trip?

For one, there’s a lot of amazing wine being made in a lot of different places. Many of the stigmas about different regions that have existed over the years are a thing of the past. Wineries are innovating in a number of ways and offering varying experiences, club benefits, and more. As winery owners, it makes visiting other regions very interesting and always pushes us to expand our thoughts about where the Texas wine industry stands today, where it is going, what we want our role to be in that future, and how Kalasi Cellars fits in amongst countless other thoughts.

Second, this industry feels like it is getting smaller and smaller. Not because of the number of wineries, but because of how interconnected everyone is. Everywhere we went, we were one or two connections away from knowing people. At both wineries we visited in Paso Robles, the teams knew people in the Texas wine industry and had consumed Texas wine. In Napa we had a server whose brother works in the Texas wine industry. Livermore also has ties to Texas. Our Hill Country Wineries association has a few team members going out to Livermore Valley shortly, and later some of the Livermore Valley association will visit the Texas Hill Country and its wineries.

So what’s my big takeaway from those two points? Texas wine has arrived. There are producers here crafting wines that are on par with wines made all over in highly respected regions. There are experiences that you can enjoy in Texas that are on par or more compelling than what you find in other regions. Texas wineries have been quickly closing the gap on other regions, and I think we’ll see over the next ~5 years that more and more of the Texas wine industry moves toward closing the gap in wine and experience quality. Please do not take that as a criticism of our industry. I think we’re doing an amazing job at improving quality (from all aspects – not just wine) in a remarkably short time period. There’s a lot of heavy lifting (education, investment…quality winemaking is VERY expensive, time…many changes in quality can take 2-3 years to hit the market) needed to close the gap with established regions, and that work cannot be completed overnight but we’re seeing a concerted effort from many of our peers to achieve that goal. There are already many wineries here that I believe are on par with other regions. As our industry stands today, I believe we’re largely offering great value in the wines and experiences today, so any improvements will truly be monumental.

Nestled in my statement that “Texas wine has arrived” is a comment that people in the wine industry are more and more acutely aware of what’s happening out here. Sometimes their statements lag behind a few years or don’t quite understand the scale of the current Texas wine industry, but I see people outside our region as a lot more inclusive and optimistic about Texas wine’s future.