Santa Maria Cellars :: A Micro-Vintner

Raise your hand if you’ve ever heard of a “micro-vintner”. Yeah, ME EITHER! My father and I stumbled across the micro-vintner of Santa Maria Wine Cellars the other weekend and were pleasantly surprised at what we found! Angela and Martin run Santa Maria Cellars out of their backyard. They have a small tasting room and a backyard patio that is perfect for sipping wine on a slow Sunday afternoon. Micro-vintners make small batches of wine and usually outsource their grapes – hence the term “micro-vintner”. Martin buys his grapes from Texas vineyards and is able to carefully craft the varietals and flavors he wants (without having to keep up an entire vineyard). A native of Argentina, Martin studied Environmental Engineering in his home country before hopping over to Italy to study the art of wine making (#goals). And SOMEHOW he made it to the Texas Hill Country!

My father (forever my wine tasting buddy) and I arrived at the tasting room and called the phone number listed on the door. Angela hurried right over from her house just steps away! (LOCAL TIP: Call to make reservations in advance)! She and Martin were gracious hosts and let us try a number of different wine samplings. Dad and I are partial to red wines, so we were thrilled to see an extensive list of red wines! WE. LOVED. EVERYTHING.

Because the tasting room had such an intimate feel to it and Angela and Martin were so friendly, it almost felt like we were having wine over dinner at an old friend’s house. I truly did enjoy all of the wines, but we particularly liked their Pinot Noir (light bodied with hints of raspberry, spice and vanilla with a toasty finish), Merlot (medium bodied with hints blueberry, coffee, and a nutty finish) and their Cabernet/Petite Syrah Blend (full bodied with notes of black pepper, currants, rhubarb and flavors of vanilla/pecan/walnut). We ended up buying a couple of bottles and enjoying the sunshine out on the patio!

I love the idea of supporting smaller (talented) wineries. Santa Maria is located on the Kerrville side of Fredericksburg, so it would be a little bit out of the way of your normal “wine trail” on 290; however, I would 10/10 recommend if you’re a wine lover in search of something truly unique.