Wine in Bloom

Get tastings at 46 Hill Country wineries with spring 'passport'

Wildseed Farms Vineyeard specifically ties together the two pleasures of wine and wildflowers.

A chance to see wildflowers blanketing the Texas Hill Country landscape is reason enough to drive south in the spring, but a wine passport gives nearly 50 reasons to extend the trip. Wineries across the region are joining together to offer complimentary tastings and discounts via the Wine & Wildflower Journey Passport, March 24-April 18.

The purpose of the passport program is to encourage visitors to split their time among numerous vineyards and come back for more. It covers a complimentary tasting at each venue for up to four visits a day; then it extends a 15 percent discount on purchases of at least three bottles.

The spring passport is timed perfectly for catching wildflowers; they'll be hard to miss as visitors drive through the area.

The passport is organized by Texas Hill Country Wineries, a nonprofit trade association that helps its member vineyards by promoting them and creating easy itineraries. It offers resources like an interactive wine map to narrow down venues according to their needs.

It also provides scholarships within the wine industry, and $5 from each passport sold will go toward helping Texas students get degrees in viticulture, enology, or hospitality.

Tickets are available for $65 per person or $100 per couple. The release calculates that the passport starts representing savings on tastings after five visits.

Participating wineries are as follows (with asterisks indicated required reservations):

Airis'Ele Vineyards*
Arch Ray Winery
Becker Vineyards
Bell Springs Winery
Bending Branch Winery
Bingham Family Vineyards
Blue Lotus Winery
Carter Creek Winery
Driftwood Estate Winery*Dry Comal Creek Vineyards*
Farmhouse Vineyards
Fiesta Winery at Bend
Fiesta Winery at Arch Ray
Flat Creek Estate*
Grape Creek Vineyards
Grape Creek / Heath Family Brands on Main
Hawk's Shadow Winery
Heath Sparkling Wine
Hilmy Cellars
Hye Meadow Winery
Invention Vineyards
Inwood Estates*
Kerrville Hills Winery
Kuhlman Cellars
Limestone Terrace
Longhorn Cellars*
Lost Draw*
Messina Hof Hill Country Winery
Pedernales Cellars*
Pontotoc Vineyard Picnic Table
Portree Cellars*
Ron Yates
Silver Dollar Hill Country
Sister Creek Vineyards
Spicewood Vineyards
Texas Heritage Vineyard
Texas Hills Vineyard
Texas Wine Collective
Torr Na Lochs Vineyard & Winery
Turtle Creek Vineyard *
Wedding Oak Winery San Saba*
Wedding Oak Winery Burnet*
Wedding Oak Winery Fredericksburg*
Westcave Cellars Winery
Wildseed Vineyards*
William Chris Vineyards*

hill country wildflowers wine wineries

RESTORING THE ALAMO

Texas' iconic Alamo unearths bronze cannonball used in historic battle

Photo by Daniel Schwen/ CC BY-SA 4.0

The Alamo has unearthed a cannonball likely used in the original battle.

Most tourists don't realize it, but in addition to being one of the most-visited sites in the United States, the Alamo is also an active archeological site. And during its newest excavation, it unearthed a doozy — a fully-intact cannonball that can be traced back to Texas' most famous battle.

The Alamo first broke the news on Stories Bigger Than Texas: The Alamo Podcast. The artillery shell was discovered on March 5, 2026, a day before the 190th anniversary of the Battle of the Alamo.

"I have chills now, just thinking about it," the Alamo's Director of Archaeology, Dr. Tiffany Lindley, told the podcast hosts. "March 5th is when we pulled it out of the ground. I don't think words can express the feelings that we all felt."

Alamo cannonball The cannonball is four pounds and made of solid bronze.Photo courtesy of the Alamo Trust

The four-pound, solid bronze cannonball was discovered approximately three feet below ground outside the Alamo Church. The dig’s layers of soil settled in a clearly visible pattern, allowing the archeologists to date the object with near certainty.“

"We can’t say with 100% certainty that it came from the Mexican Army, but I would say 99% because largely the Mexican Army is using bronze cannonballs and largely the Texans are using iron cannonballs," said Alamo's Senior Researcher and Historian Kolby Lanham. "Doesn’t mean they didn’t capture each other’s stuff and use it, but I would say with a fair amount of certainty that this is a Mexican Army cannonball and it was likely fired at the Battle of the Alamo — or it could have been during the 12-day siege.”

The cannonball isn’t the only Alamo artifact that was recently discovered. In January, the trust celebrated the return of one of the 1836 cannons. The weapon was found by a descendant of Samuel Maverick’s family, who said it was used as the base of a birdbath.

history artifacts archeaology texas history alamo