The Oswald family has been well-known throughout the Texas wine industry if not for the grapes from their vineyard that was founded in 2008, but for their large family with John and Dina-Marie Oswald and their ten children. Now they are making wine from their estate vineyard and becoming well-known for that.

On a recent trip to the Texas High Plains, I made a point to visit Oswald Vineyard. I first visited the vineyard and winery in 2020 when they were just starting to make wine. Their tasting room then opened in 2021.

The Oswald vineyard with the winery in the rear

I arrived at the tasting room and Christoph Oswald soon met me. The tasting room is in the front of the production room where the stainless-steel tanks and barrels are. Christoph said they recently received some new tanks and the ones with cooling jackets are used for their white ones.

A tasting includes six wines and a small cheese plate. It was nice doing the tasting having the cheese plate to cleanse my palate and enjoy while tasting the wine. One interesting point was each of the wines was poured from kegs. Christoph said they only use the kegs to make it easier to do the tastings.

These are the wines that were available at the time of my visit:

• 2023 Vermentino. Aged it in neutral barrels for a few months.
• 2022 Albariño
• 2019 Moscato (Moscato Giallo), semi-dry
• 2019 Roussanne. Barrel aged in neutral oak barrels for two years.
• 2018 Montepulciano. Barrel aged in neutral oak for two years.
• 2019 Aglianico. Barrel aged in neutral oak barrels for nearly three years.

If you visit the High Plains, an appointment should be made to do a tasting of their wines although people to drive up. The other option is you can purchase their wines online from their website. Also available for purchase at the vineyard is whole wheat bread, cinnamon rolls, and a dozen farm eggs.

Christoph Oswald

Visiting the winery lets you enjoy the Oswald’s 43 1/3 acre vineyard right next to the winery. Christoph said the vineyard is a popular location for Harvest Hosts, so if you have an RV, be sure to stay at the vineyard and enjoy the hospitality of the Oswald family.