A new winery has opened in Johnson City with some unique features at a Texas winery that I have never seen before. Considering I have visited over 540 Texas wineries in the last 15 years, that’s saying something.
The Grand Opening for Charleston Taylor Estate is May 3, 2025. The winery was having a soft opening, so I arranged for a visit. We arrived, and co-owner Jared Broach greeted us at the door. Later, we were to meet his wife, Whitney, and their children, Charleston “Charlie” and Taylor. As you can tell, the winery is named after their children.
Entering the tasting room, Jared poured the first wine, a 2023 Sparkling Blanc du Bois. Jared explained they will eventually have the equipment onsite to make it themselves, but until then, they are using Sages Vintage for this wine. It was done very well, and while sipping on the sparkling wine, we gazed around the tasting room. One side of the tasting room has couches and tables on one side, and Jared directed us to a set of couches with a coffee table in the middle.
The coffee tables between the couches were really decorative with what we called “sand art” initially, reminiscent of our childhoods, and the three coffee tables each had a different design created in the sand. We sat down on the opposite couch from where Jared was going to sit, and we noticed the coffee table design there was changing because a ball was rolling around in the sand by itself and creating a drawing. That was fascinating to watch, and the top word of “Welcome” was written. What a neat way to welcome visitors. But then the ball moved to the bottom of the circle of sand and started writing more. I couldn’t read it clearly because it was sideways from my view, but when the ball moved to the center and started writing, I could see it was writing “Jeff.” How very cool! A group later came in for a birthday celebration, and another table was writing Happy Birthday to that person. The table concept was the start of realizing we weren’t in “Kansas” anymore, and we were going to be involved in an experiential winery.
Jared explained how the winery will be producing primarily sparkling wines and reds, all 100% Texas wines. His wife, Whitney, loves sparkling wines while he enjoys dry red wines. They will have a Pinot Gris sparkling wine coming soon because it is being bottled, but the next wine he poured was their only sweet wine, a 2023 Sparkling Rosé (Sangiovese) from Boxing Rabbit Vineyard in the High Plains. That wine was produced with the help of another winery. While Charleston Taylor Estate gets its facilities set up, they are using different producers for their wines while Jared oversees the winemaking operations.
We started talking about the adjacent building, which will be the brewery Black Chapel Brewing Co., along with a restaurant. That discussion meant it was time to take a tour. Glass in hand, we walked to the other side of the tasting room, past a conference room, and exited the building. The brewery was still under construction, with a lot of woodworking being done at the time of our visit. The building had a tasting bar in the middle and a set of open windows that can be closed during harsh weather, which also provides seating inside and out. The brewery taproom will have big screens showing the current games. The beer production area will be in the far corner of the building and will be installed soon.
The brewery will make about 14 beers and is also designed to be an experience. The craft beers will be accompanied by pizza made in the restaurant for which they claim will be the best pizza in the Hill Country. The beer, when made, will go straight to serving tanks, so there will be no kegging. That allows the beer lover to enjoy a very fresh beer as the beer is poured from the taps right off the serving tanks.
Some beers planned are a prickly pear Mexican lager, which will be made from prickly pear cactus located on the 30-acre property. There will also be IPAs and lagers, and a Neapolitan beer that will be an experience as it is served on nitro and tastes like strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate. The current thinking is that the brewery should be able to open in June.
There will also be an experience available in the restaurant where Italian cooking classes will be held. Attendees will make fresh pasta from scratch, make sauces, and, of course, pair everything with their Texas wines the entire time.
Picnic and kids’ area
We walked by a large pavilion with picnic tables and a kids’ area on the way to a geodesic dome. I mistook the purpose of the dome because when we walked in, there was a well right in the middle. The Broaches discovered the abandoned 1800s water well when they bought the property and are using it for another unique experience at the winery called the Well Aged Tasting. A crane has a cable going down the well, and at the bottom of the well is a full barrel of 2023 Sangiovese Reserve. Since the well is kept at a colder temperature below the ground, roughly 67 degrees, the barrel is stored there, and tasting parties will be held. When those happen, the barrel is lifted up, and tastings can be done from the barrel. The dome will be insulated soon, making the experience even more enjoyable. When referring to the winery, wine lovers will then be able to say that Charleston Taylor Estate has a well, and perhaps it is a haunted well.
On the way back to the tasting room, Jared explained the vineyard in view. Right now, they are growing one acre of Cabernet Sauvignon that was planted in 2021. This year will be the first harvest of the estate grapes. Next year, they will be planting four acres of Sangiovese.
Once in the tasting room, we were poured the 2023 Sangiovese Reserve with fruit from Newsom Vineyards. This was also the wine in the barrel at the bottom of the well. The next wines tasted were:
- 2023 Malbec
- 2022 Merlot
- 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon
All these non-sparkling wines are what Jared calls their bases, the base wines. He explained he loves blends and that is the education they will be giving customers, a Blenducation. Wine lovers can taste the base wines and then determine the percentages of them to use in making their own custom blend. The equipment Charleston Taylor has available lets them pour a glass of wine by specifying exact milliliters, making the blending even easier.
Most likely, the group will then want to purchase their special blend. That is perfect because that is the wine-buying experience Charleston Taylor Estate has designed. Eventually, you’ll find the blend you like, and then Charleston Taylor will make it. If you want to buy any wines, including the base wines, you will place an order, and they will ship them to you in about two weeks. The winery will bottle every two weeks, so at that time, they will bottle all that was sold during the previous two weeks and then ship it out. The custom blends can also have special labels added, for example, for a corporate group that has its team visit the winery.
We then went into the winery’s barrel room, which is adjacent to the tasting room. There, we tried a couple of wines from the barrel, including the same Sangiovese Reserve, but this time from a different barrel. Besides barrels, there are some stainless-steel tanks in the room that allow them to put the base wines in there and then easily pour the wines for blending. The tanks will be using nitrogen gas, similar to how a wine bottle is filled, so there will be no aging issues, and this will allow Charleston Taylor Estate to blend wines year-round.
At the end of the tour, we learned we had just done the Bubbles or Barrels tasting experience. The only difference is that the tasting would normally include a sweet red wine. Jared said there will always be a barrel tasting included.
He finished by saying, “We’d love to become that small kind of cult winery that wine drinkers seek out our stuff.”
1st row L-R: Taylor, Charlie. 2nd row: Whitney & Jared Broach
I can definitely tell you will enjoy your visit to Charleston Taylor Estate with its unique winery experiences. The winery was designed to feel relaxed and loungy, but still full of fun energy. With plenty of comfortable seating, it’s the perfect place to sip and savor the wines, where you can also make your custom blend.