
Drink like a Texan


Chip Tate built Balcones into one of the country’s most innovative whiskey distilleries. But last year he lost the company in a bitter clash with his investors. Now he’s starting from scratch—again.

A decade and a half after I wrote about the poor quality of Texas wines for this magazine, Lone Star vintners are starting to turn heads.


These eight breweries—as scenic as they are savory—are creating quite the buzz.

Alba Huerta, arguably the best bartender in Texas, chats about serving cocktails in Houston.

Inspired by Texas’s new array of homegrown hard alcohols, some of the state’s most innovative bartenders create five bold new cocktails.
Comfort Bending Branch Winery’s Tannat grapes, a dark, inky variety from Southwest France and Uruguay, make for innovative wines with rich fruit concentration and grippy tannin. 2012 Estate Tannat, CM, $60. Del Rio Val Verde Winery, founded in this sleepy border city in 1883, is the state’s…

Texans are a thirsty bunch, and our drinks package has everything you need to imbibe like Sam Houston's watching.