Day-Tripping to William Chris and Its New Sparkling Room inside an Early 1900’s Post Office

William Chris Vineyards has spent close to two decades arguing that Texas can grow serious wine, and the winery’s newest project makes the case louder than ever. In the historic Hye Post Office, a few steps across the road from the main estate, Rebecca Caroline pours only Texas-grown traditional method sparkling wine, made the same painstaking way Champagne is. I spent a day at the property on a recent press visit hosted by Di Moda PR, and the sparkling program is the reason to plan the drive from Austin.

Hye might qualify as a “One-Horse” kind of small town to outsiders. There’s a blinking light, a historic post office, and William Chris Estate, which has quietly become one of the reasons people from established wine regions have started paying attention to what Texas is doing in the inustry. It sits about an hour and a half west of Austin, deep enough into the Hill Country that the peach stands outnumber the stoplights.

Co-founder Chris Brundrett met our group in a William Chris ballcap and an embroidered Howler Bros shirt, looking less like a CEO, and more like a guy who spends real time in a vineyard, which he does. He talks about Texas fruit like someone who spent years being told it couldn’t be done, because he was. It started with a trip to Fredericksburg when he was a younger man attending Texas A&M. The road from there ran through waiting tables before it reached the winery he co-founded in 2008 with Bill Blackmon. The house philosophy is “grown, not made,” which means the wine should taste like the dirt it came from and not like anywhere else.

Our day opened with the Chef’s Table pairing, $95 a person, in a room of pine ceilings and polished concrete, glass on every side, pendant lights cut from wine barrels hanging over faded rugs. Four courses. Ahi crudo with grapefruit and fennel to start, poured next to the Moonlight Vineyard Blend. Then smoked Texas quail on almond romesco with a Syrah, which is exactly as good as it sounds and required no explanation from anyone at the table.

Then the lamb porterhouse arrived and the room went quiet. Perfect dark crust, herb salsa verde, and Tannat from the estate vineyard poured alongside. Tannat usually shows up and starts a fight with whatever’s on the plate. The lamb hit back. Dessert was a strawberry crumble with a black tuille on top, paired with a glass of their immensly popular Pét-Nat.

A tour followed, which is a smarter order than it sounds. You’ve already tasted what the place makes, so walking through the tasting rooms and the working winery means something. The barrel room is the highlight, a low space where the barrels rest in cradles painted pink, purple, yellow, and blue, with a long communal table set underneath for private tastings and Mexican blankets thrown over the chairs. Nobody’s whispering in there. We passed the Farmhouse too, the 1905 building that serves as shop and wine pickup.

Then across the street to Rebecca Caroline. The new space marks the first destination on the Highway 290 Wine Trail exclusively dedicated to Texas-grown sparkling wine. The plaque out front does the storytelling. Hiram “Hye” Brown founded the store in 1880, the post office followed in 1886, and the present building with its Bavarian metalwork went up in 1904. A four-year-old Lyndon Johnson mailed his first letter here. Decades later he swore in his postmaster general on the same floor.

Named for the middle names of Brundrett’s two daughters the wines certainly earn the room. The flight ran a 2023 Blanc du Bois Ultra Brut aged 30 months, a Dell Valley Cuvée Brut, a Boxing Rabbit Cuvée Extra Brut, and a 2024 Pinot Meunier Extra Brut. It came with oysters, caviar, and popcorn. The popcorn isn’t just a bit either. Salt and neutrality give the bubbles somewhere to land, and it’s the only place I’ve been where the snack budget and the wine list are both being taken this seriously.

ALSO SEE: Rebecca Caroline Opens in the Historic Hye Post Office

For anyone who wants the sparkling to keep coming, the R.C. Express Wine Club offers membership levels, which leans all the way into the post office bit. Two releases a year, disgorged and dispatched from Hye, arriving in May and October, with member tastings back at the post office. The sign-up card is done up like a vintage airmail envelope, the kind of detail that tells you the people here are having fun with it.

We closed the day back at the Farmhouse, picking out a hat and a bottle to take home. I took two, a Pét-Nat and a 2023 Rose Thorn Seed, a blend of Mourvèdre, Petite Sirah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot, and Carignan. Then the van back to Austin, everyone quieter than they’d been that morning.

Plan your visit

William Chris Vineyards
10352 US Highway 290, Hye, Texas 78635
Chef’s Table pairing: $95 per person, reservation required.

Rebecca Caroline Tasting Room
Inside the historic Hye Post Office, 10261 US Highway 290, Hye, Texas 78635
$35 per person for a 60-minute tasting, with oysters and caviar available. Thursday through Saturday, 11am to 6pm. Sunday, noon to 5pm.