Dry Comal Creek Winery & Vineyards opened in the late ’90s at a location just northwest of New Braunfels. It was originally owned by Franklin Houser, who in 1992 turned a portion of the 103 acres he had purchased in the ‘70s into a plot called Bonnie’s Vineyard. By 1998, the first wine and tasting room was established on the land in what was to become Dry Comal Creek.In 2017, Houser sold the business to Ralphael Romero and his family. Romero, a first-generation Mexican immigrant and self-professed proud Texan, has shifted the vineyard and winery’s focus to exclusively Texas grapes.

Vineyard manager Sheila Laigle enthusiastically tells the story of Dry Comal Creek on a recent fall afternoon from its location on Herbelin Road, just off Hwy. 46.

“When they bought the winery, one of the things that Ralphael Sr. wanted to make sure we did was he wanted to pay back Texas, because it had been such a great state for him,” Laigle said.

She added that because of this, Romero wanted to switch from California grapes to all grapes from Texas and the winery did so in 2018.

Due to the expertise of Dry Comal’s winemaker, Seth Urbanek, Laigle said the vineyard has benefited from adding grapes from throughout Texas beyond the black Spanish grown on-site. Laigle said two of the most popular varietals at Dry Comal Creek right now are Tempranillo and Montepulciano, both reds, but the winery offers many more selections for customers.

Laigle said Dry Comal Creek has recently been putting on wine tastings that have been catered through an outside company. “If you do a tasting with us, you do a food and wine pairing [now],” she said, extolling the new educational bent of the winery’s food and wine pairings, which cost $25 per person. Laigle said Dry Comal Creek will be looking at adjusting its operational procedures in the coming weeks due to Gov. Greg Abbott’s latest order Oct. 7 allowing bars to reopen at limited capacity, but customers should still plan ahead for an outing at Dry Comal Creek.

A good rule of thumb, Laigle said, is to plan to be on the winery’s grounds for at least two hours.

“On Saturdays we always do live music, and sometimes we’ll even add a food truck as well,” she said. “So when we have that here, it’s awesome. People just don’t want to leave.”

Dry Comal Creek Winery & Vineyards

1741 Herbelin Rd, New Braunfels

830-500-3048

www.drycomalcreekvineyards.com