About Us
About Whisper Path Cellars
Whisper Path Cellars is an urban winery located in San Antonio, where we perform every step of the wine production process. From freshly harvested grapes, we crush, destem, press, age and bottle our award-winning wines on-site. Family owned and operated since 2017, our goal has been to produce premium Texas wines from 100% Texas grapes. From the very beginning, our focus has been on the quality of the wine... working with outstanding grape growers throughout the state to secure the finest grapes available. The results have been amazing, exceeding even our most ambitious expectations. The wines we produce are winning awards and becoming the favorites of tasting rooms throughout the Texas Hill Country and beyond.
What has surprised us most, however, has been the wonderful people we have met in this, The Texas Wine Industry. From grape growers, fellow winemakers to tasting room servers and Texas wine lovers such as yourself, the people that we've met and the new friends we've made have made us love what we do all the more.
We would love for you to follow our journey by joining our mailing list, allowing us to keep you updated on the progress of the wines, tasting room locations, launch of our Pathfinders Wine Club, and new product releases. Simply fill out the information below, allowing us to add your email address to the list.
Looking forward to hearing from you soon.
Jesse G. Villarreal, Proprietor/Winemaker
Beginnings
Beginning in 1999, before the thought of becoming a commercial winery was ever considered, we traveled throughout the state of Texas to the various grape growing regions to harvest small quantities of grapes for our family wines. From vineyards in the High Plains to Bell Mountain and the Texas Hill Country, we hand harvested varietals such as Primitivo, Aglianico, Cabernet Sauvignon, Tannat, Merlot, Viognier, Chenin Blanc and more. We also spent a number of years importing quality fresh grapes from California. Through a lot of trial and error, the quality of our homemade wines improved with every vintage, winning awards along the way.
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In addition to making wine, our family always enjoyed visiting Texas wineries and vineyards in the Hill Country. In the early years, there were only a couple of dozen wineries statewide. Now with over 600 wineries, the volume and quality of grapes produced, and the wines crafted from these grapes are gaining national and international recognition, winning awards in prestigious events from San Francisco to Paris. In 2017, as we witnessed more and more Texans falling in love with Texas wines, we felt the time was right to follow our passion on a commercial scale. Though we will always think of ourselves as a small craft winery, our hope is to share our passion for crafting premium quality Texas wines with wine enthusiasts everywhere.
"Wine is sunlight,
held together by water"
-Galileo
Texas Winegrowing Regions
WHERE OUR GRAPES ARE GROWN
The State of Texas is currently home to eight American Viticulture Areas (AVA)'s, with at least two more in development. Since 2017, we've worked with what we feel are some of the best grape growers in the state. This includes Reddy Vineyards, Bingham Vineyards, Crooked Post Vineyards, Oswald Vineyards, Diamonte Doble Vineyards, and beginning in 2024, Farmhouse Vineyards. All these are located in the Texas High Plains AVA. This region, home to 85% of the wine grapes grown in the state, is known for its dry, warm days and cool nights, generally considered prime grape growing conditions.
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We're also excited to be working with Parr Vineyards located near Mason Texas in the soon to be designated Hickory Sands AVA. This new AVA, along with the Llano Uplift AVA will be carved out of the north and northwest corner of the current Texas Hill Country AVA. This beautiful region, north of San Antonio and west of Austin, is home to many award-winning wineries and quality vineyards. This area is widely regarded as one of the top wine country destinations in the US.
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For more information on Texas AVA's and other Texas Wine Industry Facts, please visit the Texas Wine and Grape Growers website at TXwines.org or click here.
