texas vineyard & smokehaus

Another small start up winery with a bright future if handled properly. Tasting fee was nominal, the wines exceptional! We had a hard time finding this winery. The GPS would not take his address and the website was disfunctional having the wrong coordinates and a map location somewhere in Canada. Being the intrepid wine tasters that we are, we managed to find his location by finding an address nearby. That being said, we found all of his wines to be smooth and flavorful. Most important for a new winery is that the Zin tastes like Zin, The Pinot tastes like Pinot, and the Reisling tastes like Reisling. All of the wines had a clean crisp taste and finish. The wine looked and smelled like the grape it was made from and the undertone flavors were there but not overpowering. Rafael is a very friendly man and will talk your ear off about wine or anything else. If you are in the Flint area of Texas, be sure to visit. Call ahead though. I believe that he is only open one day on the weekend and the website does not list days and times. Also, there is no smokehaus. It is planned for the future.

Love this place. Raphael is a wonderful host. His stories are great and the food is good too. I have to say though, the best part about this place is Raphael.

This winery is what you expected from Ma and Pa in Napa in the 50's. There are only 2 tables inside and a half dozen outside. Please don't miss the owner, Raphael. He is worth the trip out of your way. The wines are actually very good. Most bottles are in the $16 range. Call ahead and Raphael will cook you a tender ribeye and tell you stories from his life that will inspire you. I intend to take every out of town visitor here. Plan to make a night of it.

Sangria is the best! Casto Dolce refreshing!Enjoyed the owners educational information on Texas Wines.Cheese/fruit tray available.Sirlion burger very tasty...

We decided to steer clear of 35 to get back to Austin one weekend and found this little gem. It was cute, country and fitting for its location. No Napa Valley here, we were in Palestine, Texas! This is the only winery we found in the area that was open on Sunday and as luck would have it, we dealt directly with the owner! He was funny, knowledgeable and had the best idea for a wine shake? ….More on that in a minute. It is an intimate setting that doesn’t make you feel like cattle going through the experience. You choose, you savor, you repeat! The tasting room had a nice, warm feeling to it that we loved. It was like stopping by a friend’s house  We listened as the owner spoke about the various wines we tasted and the food served on weekends. It was lovely and low key. We purchased the Rosa Linda, a delectable homemade sangria and a divine chocolate covered cherry wine (sweet dessert wine - the owner suggested we mix it with vanilla blue bell for an interesting take on a mud slide/wine shake). I want to personally thank the owner for a wonderful visit. This is the least pretentious, most delicious winery we have been to in a while. We will be back 

This was my first winery experience and it certainly didn't meet my expectations. We had a difficult time finding the venue as there were no signs on the major highways. The outside of the venue was cluttered. There was a front porch with several tables. The tasting room was more pleasing, but cheesy with the wine/grape decor. There was a layer of dust on everything that was very noticeable. The proprietor was very friendly and sociable. I felt like he paced the tastings a tad quickly though. We took pictures while we were chatting, but it still felt a little hurried.He did explain that he serves a meal (hence the Smokehaus part of the name) on Fridays and Saturdays with a reservation.The wine was average to better than average, depending on the variety. We did purchase a bottle of Posato Dolce, which is a delightful dessert wine with nice tones that chased the taste of the grapes.The really unfortunate part of our visit was paying for this wine. The owner kept swiping away with our card and charged $160 twice (price was $16). So in trying to credit the wrong, he did it wrong again. It was very stressful waiting to see if he could rectify the situation and the anxiety to get to an internet site to check to see what sort of damage was done to our card.