The Wine Cellar at Spicewood Vineyards.

Wine tasting weekends in the Texas Hill Country are always fun. We hear all about it, for many wine tasters lodge in Hill Country Texas Bed and Breakfasts.

At the wineries, couples sit elbow to elbow sniffing, swilling, and searching for the most accurate description of the wines.  Friends turn wine tasting weekends into more social events, but still enjoy the tasting. Wine tasting can even be interesting and fun for solo travelers.

Yet in truth, wine tasting can become a bit tiring if too much of it is crammed into one weekend. While anyone can appreciate wine at one Texas Hill Country Winery, it takes a certain endurance to be able to appreciate the contents of the glass at, say, the fifth winery of the day.

The solution? Spread out the wine tasting.

October is Texas Wine Month Trail in the Hill Country. For $15/person, budding and seasoned oenophiles may taste wines at 27 wineries. In addition, participants will receive discounts on purchases. It’s worth the price of admission, and it’s worth visiting as many wineries as possible. It’s also worth taking your time.

There are 45 Texas Hill Country Bed and Breakfasts in our Texas B&B Association, scattered throughout the region from Kerrville to Dripping Springs, Brownwood to Boerne. Many of them are close to wineries. Take your time. Visit a winery, relax at a nearby Hill Country Texas Bed and Breakfast, and after a sumptuous meal the next morning, visit another winery.

Hopping from one winery to the next, one B&B to another – what a delightful way to spend the rest of October.

Additional information about Texas Wine Month Trail may be found at Texas Wine Trail.

Celebrate the grape harvest in the Texas Hill Country.

The end of the grape growing season in the Texas Hill Country is celebrated the weekends of August 5-7 and August 12-14 with the 2011 Harvest Wine Trail. This is a great time to tour vineyards, meet vintners, and taste wine. Hill Country Texas Bed and Breakfasts welcome oenophiles!

The grape harvest is traditionally a celebratory event. It’s hard work, to be sure, and it needs to be completed in a timely manner. Everyone lends a hand, from farm hands to farm owners. This is when the most exciting aspect of wine making occurs – the crush – and folks on the 2011 Harvest Wine Trail will be well placed to witness it.

Each winery visit includes 1 to 3 complimentary tastes of wine and a 15% discount on certain purchases of three bottles or more. When you purchase your ticket, you’ll also receive a gift of Kerrygold cheeses. Pick it up at the winery of your choice and bring it with you as you taste, for nothing compliments wine quite like smooth, flavorful cheese.

There are nine Texas wineries in and around Fredericksburg, making Fredericksburg an ideal choice of lodging while you enjoy the 2011 Harvest Wine Trail. Yet there are Hill Country Texas Bed and Breakfasts throughout the area, in Comfort, Boerne, Marble Falls, Dripping Springs, Wimberley, and elsewhere. Many are close to at least one of the wineries on the trail. Use one as a base, or wander from one Texas Bed and Breakfast to the next.

Additional information about the Harvest Wine Trail is available at Texas Hill Country Wineries.

27 wineries participate in the Harvest Wine Trail. Please pace yourself or have a designated driver.

Saddlehorn Winery is located on 360-acre ranch in Burton, Texas. Wines are poured in a renovated horse barn overlooking the working winery. Their wines range from semi-sweet Muscats (perfect on a hot Texas afternoon) to big Cabernet Sauvignons.

Windy Winery is situated on top of a hill outside Brenham. Wines crafted at Windy Hill are made from grapes grown only in Texas.

Pleasant Hill Winery offers tours that follow the grape from the vine to the glass. Located in Brenham, the winery offers commanding views of the surrounding Central Texas countryside.

The 2011 Lavender & Wine Fest is a good time for a Brenham Texas Bed and Breakfast getaway. Stand among fragrant fields of lavender at Chappell Hill Lavender Farm, then head to Windy Winery for a grape stomp, live music, and wine tasting. The Lavender & Wine Fest is August 13, 2011.

There are ten wineries along the Texas Bluebonnet Wine Trail. Take your time and visit them all.

Yet Grapevine, Texas, is worth a look in and of itself. Its lovely, historic downtown area is home to numerous shops, restaurants, and art galleries. Guests of Grapevine TX Bed and Breakfasts will find there is so much to do here, they may not want or need to head into one of the neighboring big cities.

As the name suggests, Grapevine is home to more than one Texas Winery. The Grapevine Wine Trail leads to wineries year round, but is particularly fun to tour during special events such as the upcoming Fourth of July Wine Trail on Saturday, July 2, 2011. Please visit Grapevine Wine Trail for more details and additional events.

The next time your business or pleasure brings you to North Texas, swing by Grapevine. You’ll be happy you did.

Guests of Georgetown TX Bed and Breakfasts are close to Inner Space Cavern, an astonishing limestone cavern on the edge of the Texas Hill Country.

Nature has outdone herself in these caverns. Check out “The Flowing Stone of Time”, the “Lake of the Moon”, and the “Soda Straw Balcony”. Tours of the cavern reveal one masterpiece after another. It’s as if the world’s finest sculptors – from Michelangelo to Rodin to Calder – left some of their best work in this subterranean space.

In addition to remarkable limestone formations, Inner Space Cavern is also home to Pleistocene-age fossils. Visitors can still see bones from mammoths and saber-toothed cats. It’s extraordinary.

Inner Space Cavern isn’t the only reason to visit Georgetown Texas. The town has a beautiful downtown district, with many restored Victorian buildings. Southwestern University is in Georgetown, and there are many Texas Wineries nearby. Spend a few days at a Georgetown TX Bed and Breakfast, and explore above and below ground. You’ll be delightfully surprised.

A variety of cavern tours are offered daily. Find up-to-date information at Inner Space Cavern.

San Antonio, Texas Hill Country Vineyards, originally uploaded by VisitSanAntonio.

Wineries are a joy to visit no matter who you are. Couples find it romantic to linger in tasting rooms. Friends have fun deciding which wine has the better legs and nose. Gaggles of girlfriends reminisce old times as they make their way from one winery to another. This is true whether you are in the Napa Valley or the Texas Hill Country.

The Texas Hill Country has many excellent wineries. Plan a week or a weekend to travel the Texas Wine Trail, staying at Texas b&bs as you go.

From Cat Spring to Gonzales, Round Top to La Grange, you’ll find miles of scenic country roads and out-of-the-way antique shops. Stop by the Phansie Pherret Antique Shop in New Ulm. Gonzales offers several good shops, like Discovery Architectural Antiques and Laurel Ridge Antiques. Cat Spring has a quirky shop that is a particularly good spot to find cowhide – Mustang Alley Antiques. While Round Top is an area known for it’s fantastic annual antique shows in the fall and spring, it is good to remember that antiques are to be found here year round.

It may well be too late for you to travel to Central Texas before the holidays. If so, keep an antiquing trip in mind. What better way to start off 2010 than browsing through history in Central Texas?