1211 County Road 273
Weimar, TX 78962
Land For Sale · 14.50 AC

Whistling Duck Vineyards & Winery began operations in 2007 with the planting of 50 test vines at our 17 acre family farm in Weimar, Texas, and so began our labor of love. Our owners, Stan & Mary Beth Johnson and John & Kari Cooke realized a dream that began after visiting the beautiful vineyards and wineries in the Washington and California wine country regions. Stan’s lifelong background in horticulture and John’s keen interest in winemaking and business sparked the dream into a reality. Kari and Mary Beth were two willing souls whose love of gardening, wine, and people, spurred the dream even further. Stan grew up in Louisiana and majored in Horticulture in college. With more than 35 years in the landscaping and landscape management business, he has planted and maintained thousands of trees and shrubs. He always wanted to utilize his horticultural skills by growing crops, so Whistling Duck Vineyards and Winery is the realization of a long-term dream of his. Mary Beth always loved gardening which has been a perfect complement to Stan’s horticulture background and vineyard operation and her infectious personality has contributed to the ongoing success of the winery. John and Mary Beth are siblings and have deep family roots in the area, having both been born in Weimar. Several family members, including their mom, grew up in neighboring Schulenburg where their grandparents lived for most of their lives. After planting their first grapes, John began experimenting with making wine and eventually enrolled at Grayson College majoring in Enology (winemaking) and Viticulture (grape growing). His Bachelors and Masters degrees in Business Management from Texas A&M University and The University of Denver were instrumental in the ongoing success of Whistling Duck. Kari also has deep roots in growing and harvesting activities, having been raised in Amarillo where her parents had a 10 acre orchard and vegetable farm. Her outgoing personality and genuine love for people has endeared her to our large customer base. Due to specific growing conditions in South Texas that can result in reduced fruit production and, on occasion, vine death, we chose to plant non- viniferous, or non-European grapevines as our test vines. These grapes, Blanc du Bois and Lenoir (also commonly known as Black Spanish) are more resistant to specific challenges presented by growing conditions in Southeast Texas — mainly Pierce’s Disease. This southern site of our vineyard operation is a former hay field with well drained sandy loam soil which provides excellent soil for grape crop production. Since those humble beginnings, we have increased our Weimar vineyard operation and now have almost 4 acres of vines. After 15 years of growing our Blanc du Bois grapes, we decided it was time to “renovate” these vines to help increase our future grape production. These renovated vines are currently being trained and will be producing again within 2 years. During the first quarter of 2013, we received our State and Federal winery permits and began converting the red country barn at our vineyard location in Weimar into our “Uniquely Texas” country tasting room and winery. From our 2013 harvest, we produced 8 different wines and opened our tasting room in February 2014. Our wines proved to be much more popular than we forecasted and by October 2014, we had sold out of 5 of our 8 wines. During this time we also entered some of our wines in competitions and were thrilled when we were awarded 1 Silver medal (for our 2013 Pura Vida) and 3 bronze medals (for our 2013 Blanc du Bois – Dry, Blanc du Bois – Semisweet, and Viognier) at the 2014 Lonestar International Wine Competition. We completed our 2014 wine production from the grapes we harvested and had all 8 wines back on the shelf in November 2014. We also entered 3 of our wines in the prestigious 2015 Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo International Wine Competition and in the first round of competition we won a Bronze medal for our 2010 Tempranillo and 2013 Viognier wines and a Silver medal for our 2013 Pura Vida (Muscat Canelli) wine. In the second round of competition, our 2013 Pura Vida was named the Texas Class Champion wine. In subsequent years, our wines have been awarded many medals in multiple International Wine Competitions.