Few visitors expect it, but the flat cotton country around Lubbock is the engine room of Texas wine. The Texas High Plains AVA, established in 1993, covers a huge area of the Llano Estacado and is widely reported to grow roughly 80 percent of all the wine grapes in Texas. Elevations of 3,000–4,000 feet give hot, sunny days, cool nights, low humidity and good sandy-loam soils — conditions that suit Mediterranean varieties.
Much of the fruit is trucked to wineries in the Hill Country and elsewhere, but Lubbock has its own pioneering wineries and a growing scene of tasting rooms, especially in the Depot District. A wine afternoon here is one of the most surprising things to do in West Texas.
Top things to do: High Plains Wine Country
Llano Estacado Winery
Founded in 1976 by Texas Tech professors and local investors, Llano Estacado is one of the oldest and best-known wineries of the modern Texas wine industry. Its tasting room is just south of Lubbock; tastings and tours are usually offered daily — check current times.
Tasting rooms in the Depot District
Several wineries pour in walkable tasting rooms around Buddy Holly Avenue — McPherson Cellars, in a former Coca-Cola bottling plant, is the best known, and La Diosa Cellars pairs wine with tapas. It is easy to combine with the Buddy Holly Center and dinner.
Drive the vineyard country
Head southwest towards Brownfield and Terry County, where much of the High Plains vineyard acreage lies. Many vineyards are working farms without tasting rooms, but the landscape — vines between cotton fields under an enormous sky — is memorable, especially at harvest (roughly August to September).
Taste the grapes that suit the plains
Look for Tempranillo, Mourvèdre, Sangiovese, Aglianico, Viognier, Roussanne and Albariño — varieties that handle the heat. Ask which Hill Country bottles you have enjoyed were made from High Plains fruit; the answer is often “most of them”.
How to get there
- Depot District tasting rooms: just north of downtown Lubbock — walkable from each other, taxi or rideshare to your hotel.
- Llano Estacado Winery: a few miles south of the city limits, around 15–20 minutes’ drive from downtown.
- Vineyard country: Brownfield is about 40 miles (45 minutes) southwest of Lubbock on US-62/82.
Insider tips
- Don’t drink and drive — Texas enforces strictly. Use rideshare in town, or nominate a driver for the countryside.
- Tasting fees are modest and sometimes waived with a bottle purchase. Some tasting rooms close early in the week; weekends are the safest bet.
- Harvest season (late summer) is the most atmospheric time to visit, but spring wind and summer heat make midday vineyard walks tough — go in the late afternoon.
- In the Hill Country later in your trip? Book a Fredericksburg wine tour and taste the other half of the story.
Pair it with a tour
GetYourGuide has no bookable tours in Lubbock itself yet, so these are the best-rated experiences that fit naturally into a trip that includes High Plains Wine Country:
Day trip from $179 From San Antonio: Hill Country Wine Tour to Fredericksburg
Here is a secret of Texas wine: a large share of the grapes poured in the Hill Country are grown up on the High Plains around Lubbock. If your Texas trip also takes in San Antonio, this perfectly rated day trip lets you taste the other half of that story in Fredericksburg, with two winery stops and time to explore the historic town.
- Tastings at two Hill Country wineries
- Free time in German-founded Fredericksburg
- Transport from San Antonio included
Wine tour from $199 Fredericksburg: Classic Cowboy Wine Tour
Already in the Texas Hill Country? This small wine tour visits three Fredericksburg-area wineries with four or five tastings at each. Ask which wines are made from High Plains fruit — many Hill Country labels buy grapes from vineyards around Lubbock, Brownfield and the rest of the Texas High Plains AVA.
- Tastings at three Hill Country wineries
- 4–5 wines at each winery
- Transport between wineries so nobody has to drive
