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Bella Vista Ranch
Categories: Food Specialty Food Arts & Entertainment Wineries Food Wineries Hotels & Travel Tours Specialty Food, Wineries, Tours [Edit]
3101 Mt Sharp RdWimberley, TX 78676
(512) 847-6514
- Hours:
Thu-Sat 10 am - 5 pm
Sun 12 pm - 4 pm
- Price Range:
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$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Private Lot
- Good for Kids:
- No
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
9 reviews for Bella Vista Ranch
9 reviews in English
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Review from Trista C.
Liberty Hill, TX
5/14/2011
First time there with my Meetup group and The owners did the tour and husband Jack was very talkative. He told us the whole story of olive oil. All 6 thousand years of it. Well maybe not all of it. The couple have been growing olives in Texas for 13 years and his stories are full of the ups and downs of being the first commercially produced olive oil in Texas.
While I purchased my typical bottles of olive oil - some for myself - I did also indulge in some olive oil based soaps.
The olives and oil are fabulous. I am not as great a fan of their wines. They are not awful, just not with the properties I care for, typically.
The tour is still $10 and includes the wine tasting, which is a good deal. Bottles of oil range from $16-$27 each, depending on size. Soap is $6.99 a bar. They also feature balsamic vinegars (not made there) and jars of olives, which are delightful as well. -
Review from Christine A.
Austin, TX
10/31/2010
A hidden mecca of olives. In central Texas. The Bella Vista Ranch was designed as a traditional Italian family farm and features the first commercially grown olives in Texas. And the olives I sampled are Texas size and Texas good. Apparently the crowd favorite is the bleu cheese stuffed olive. We sampled a garlic stuffed olive that was really good.
The ranch also offers delicious balsamic vinegars and olive oils which go for around $17 a bottle. My lips slurped the Fig Vanilla Balsamic over and over again. I am sure I was sample cheating but that stuff is incredible.
This is also a working winery that produces several red and white varieties plus a Natural Blackberry Wine! Yum. Wine tastings are $5/per person. I think the owner has a great thing going for him and a beauty of a property. Tours of the orchard happen on the weekend and include a wine tasting for $10/per person.Listed in: Wonderful Welcoming Wimberley
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Review from Jim L.
Updated - 11/28/2010 4 photos
I can't believe only 5 people have reviewed this ranch. I have been back four times now and each time come away with a little more understanding of the narrative that is offered. While I purchased my typical bottles of olive oil - some for myself, some for holiday gifts - I did also indulge in some olive oil based soaps.
The olives and oil are fabulous. I am not as great a fan of their wines. They are not awful, just not with the properties I care for, typically. The in-laws found a favorite to take home, though.
The tour is still $10 and includes the wine tasting, which is a good deal. Bottles of oil range from $16-$27 each, depending on size. Soap is $6.99 a bar. They also feature balsamic vinegars (not made there) and jars of olives, which are delightful as well.1 Previous Review: Show all »
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12/7/2008
What? Olives in Texas? Yes indeed! Stop going to those silly wineries where you need to be looped to… Read more »
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Review from Laura M.
Austin, TX
2/11/2011
This ranch boasts not only a flourishing olive orchard rivaling those in Tuscany, but a winery as well. That's a double bonus in the tasting room! Owner Jack has been growing olives for 13 years, and has a good-sized orchard of 1,200 trees. He harvests by hand, then presses them in the frantoio (Italian for olive press), producing a lush, slightly peppery oil with a fantastic grassy aroma. On weekends, they give $15 tours of the orchard, winery and the frantoio.
A tasting of the old-world style wines is $5. Selection varies as they are a boutique winery with small production, so vintages come and go. Definitely taste the Cab if you get a chance. There are free tastings of the olive oils and aged balsamic vinegars. The flavored oils, such as roasted garlic or blood orange, are infused with the actual herbs or fruits during the pressing process for a more intense flavor. Good stuff!
If you want to grow your own, Jack has olive trees of all sizes for sale. But be prepared to wait. The little 3' ones are five years old, so it's going to take a while to get trees his size. -
Review from Leigh M.
Austin, TX
4/23/2008
The couple who own this place are fantastic characters. The wife is sweet and talkative. She was delighted to hear that we moved out here from San Francisco (that's where she grew up but couldn't stand the fog). The husband is an old curmudgeon, but delightfully so. He worked in high-tech in Silicon Valley and moved out his last company to Austin in the early 90s, eventually leaving to grow olives and make wine.
it's not always the case that you visit a winery and the owners pour for you, so that was a treat. They are a very small production and a bit off the beaten path, so it was pretty quiet there too. A small group arrived just as we were leaving, but it was nothing like the bustling tasting rooms at nearby Driftwood Cellars.
The blackberry wine is actually good--you wouldn't necessarily guess that it's made of blackberry not grapes. And the other three reds we tasted were also nice. -
Review from Sarah I.
Tucson, AZ
2/23/2008
There are tours of the olive orchard on Saturdays (10am and 1pm) and Sundays (noon). Tours are $10 per person and include wine tasting. I don't know if it was worth it--if you have good weather, it probably is, though be prepared to listen a LOT.
Unfortunately, I visited on a foggy day that turned to drizzle. I was excited to walk among the olive trees and get some nice photographs, but the owner talked his way all through the foggy-good-picture-taking time (at least twenty minutes) and then it started pouring.
He likes to talk.
Disappointingly, we didn't get to see much of the orchard.
In hopes that the rain would stop, we went inside to see where the olives were processed and then spent some time in the tasting room. The wine was nothing special, but the olive oil was delicious; I purchased a bottle. There are also items from California (where the owners are from) and a range of other products made on the farm: jam, preserves and sauces.
The rain tapered off, but our tour guide showed no inclination to take us back outside; I left feeling disappointed, but with some excellent olive oil. -
Review from Andrew H.
Columbia, MO
1/25/2011
Well, I never did the tour, so nothing about this a factor in my review. Besides, the tour is really beside the point since the real reason for going to Bella Vista Ranch is the olive oil. It is all about the oil and everything else is secondary.
The best time of year to visit Bella Vista is when they have fresh pressed olive oil. The owners explained to us that even the best olive oil loses a large amount of it's flavor withing a couple of months of being bottled. We have always hit this place when there has been fresh oil, and it is absolutely amazing then. -
Review from Anne B.
Cedar Park, TX
4/3/2011
Today I went with a Meetup group to Bella Vista Ranch. The owners did the tour and husband Jack was very talkative. He told us the whole story of olive oil. All 6 thousand years of it. Well maybe not all of it. The couple have been growing olives in Texas for 13 years and his stories are full of the ups and downs of being the first commercially produced olive oil in Texas. After the tour we got to taste the oil, which was awesome. Some of the best I have ever had. Better than the tastings I did in Italy. They also had some wines that were not that great. If you are just interested in the wine, I wouldn't bother. They also had some stuffed olives and balsamic vinegars from where they were from near San Francisco. Their fig vanilla balsamic and raspberry balsamic vinegars were wonderful. They had infused oils which were nice but I am the type who wants to add my own flavors, but others in my group really liked them. If you are a fan of really good olive oil, this is the place for you.
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Review from Chris B.
Austin, TX
4/24/2008
Favorite winery so far in Texas, in large part due to the couple who own the place. They're both originally from the SF Bay Area, which made it fun for us to talk to them about their time there, and they both seemed really passionate about what they were doing. Always an enjoyable experience when you get to speak directly with the folks making the wine.
