Daily, 12 - 5 p.m.

Franklin and Bonnie Houser purchased 103 acres of land just outside of New Braunfels in the 1970's as a get-away home for their young family. The Dry Comal Creek was full of wild mustang grapes and dewberries.

In 1992, the first vines were planted as a 'retirement project' for the retired attorney, Franklin Houser. The following year, after a successful inaugural growing season, Dry Comal Creek Vineyards planted 4,000 vines of Vitus vinifera.

Two catastrophic floods in 1998 and 2002, washed out the vineyards and the winery. In 2000 an entire crop of diseased plants had to be ripped out.

Instead of folding up shop, the owners got creative and developed a series of core wines that no other Texas or California winery, for that matter, was making based on the Black Spanish grape. The Black Spanish based vineyard has been a great success and the winery is known as the 'pioneer' in Texas of Black Spanish wine.