Sandstone Cellars Winery – Mason, Texas

Founded 2004, proprietors Scott Haupert and Manny Silerio have established a great wine jewel in this small hill country town.  They source grapes only from the vineyards of Mason County, so you’re getting some local wine, in the truest sense of the “buy local” movement.  The ~1600 feet elevation out there makes for a great cool night environment for the vines.  Don Pullum is the wine magician that turns these grapes into great tasting Texas wines.  There are no whites in the tasting selection, but seriously….we drove all the way out here for their famous reds!  Where to start and where to end is hard, because they are all so good. You should definitely try the Touriga blend – bold, full bodied and dry, but not overwhelming on the tannins.  The Zinfandel blend is a lighter red with a nice garnet color. The Syrah blend is simply wonderful and will surely make all Syrah wine lovers smile with joy!  One of the more unique and odd wines is their Cider Dessert wine or “apple-cider-port” wine, as they refer to it. This unique addition to the lineup was due in part to the severe Texas drought of 2011. With fewer local grapes available that year, the idea came to try something completely new, using a different Texas fruit.  Sourced from apples in the Texas Panhandle, it is quite smooth and sweet, and would compliment your apple pie dessert or make a lovely cooking wine. The two port style wines available, Touriga and Touriga/Mourvedre blends are lovely sweet red dessert wines.  They impart flavors from their dry wine cousins plus the “punch” you get with a well fortified port.  The winery also offers many other Texas wines for sale. The proprietors choose to focus on Texas art in the form of wine and paintings, pottery, sculpture and jewelry by featured artist Bill Worrell, making this an interesting gem in Mason worth checking out.  Mr. Worrell’s work is featured on many of their wine labels, too. Next door is a wine bar that was opened for visitors who wish to rest a while and stick around to enjoy the wine and atmosphere while visiting. The wine bar is located in the second oldest building of Mason.  On the other side of the winery, is the town’s famous Santos Taqueria restaurant, founded prior to the winery. Do try!  Scott also chatted with us about more wineries opening up in the Mason area. These additional wineries will surely draw an ever increasing mass of oenophiles to the area. We look forward to more great wine visits to Mason in the future and additional updates on how the region progresses and grows. Did we mention that we have a 2005 Sandstone Cellars red in our wine library?  We got that one from our “early” wine traveling days.  We’ll save that one for a special edition posting

www.sandstonecellarswinery.com