Maren & Cal Hartline · Est. 2009
One vineyard.
One philosophy.
A stretch of land the locals said wouldn’t grow grapes.
Maren & Cal · South slope · 2023Cal Hartline grew up on his grandfather’s ranch outside Stonewall. His grandfather, Hart, ran beef cattle for sixty years on land that the family had held since 1873 — caliche, limestone, and live oak.
When Hart died in 2007, Cal walked the property for the first time with the question already in his head. Forty miles to the east, the 290 wine corridor was rewriting what Texas could do. The soil was the same.
He planted six hundred Tempranillo vines two years later. Three friends helped. The first commercial harvest came in 2013. Four hundred cases. He drove most of them himself, by hand, to restaurants in Austin and San Antonio.
In 2016, Maren walked into the tasting room. She had grown up on Albariño in northern Portugal, finished a winemaking degree in Lisbon, and was on a tour of American vineyards. She stayed.
— Maren Hartline
“We are not trying to make wine like Napa makes wine, or like the Douro makes wine. We are trying to make wine that could only be from here.”
Twenty-eight acres. Three soils.
The estate sits 1,640 feet above sea level on a south-facing slope. Caliche dominates — the chalky, calcium-rich crust that the Hill Country is known for — but the north pasture runs into sandy loam over a limestone shelf, and the lowest blocks drain through decomposed granite.
Each soil grows what it wants. Caliche for Tempranillo and Roussanne. Sandy loam for Cabernet. Granite for Mourvèdre. We listen.
- Elevation
- 1,640 ft
- Soil composition
- Caliche / sandy loam / granite
- Climate
- Continental, moderated
- Farming
- Dry-farmed, native cover crops
How the wines are made.
Native yeasts.
We do not inoculate. The yeasts on the skins and in the cellar do the work. Fermentations are slower, less linear, more honest.
Neutral oak.
Most wines age in barrels that have already given their oak. We want the fruit and the soil to be heard. New oak is a tool we use sparingly.
Hand picked. Dawn.
Every cluster is picked by hand at first light, before the fruit warms. We sort twice — once in the field, once on the destemmer table.
Whole cluster, sometimes.
For the Mourvèdre and the Cabernet, partial whole-cluster fermentation gives lifted aromatics and a finer tannin. Never as dogma — only when the vintage asks.
Minimal SO₂.
We add the smallest amount of sulfur necessary to protect the wine. Most bottles ship at 35 ppm total. Some less.
Patience.
The Tempranillo rests a year. The Tannat rests two. The Founders Reserve, thirty months. Time is the ingredient that costs nothing and means everything.
Fifteen years, in shorthand.
- 2007
Cal walks the property for the first time after his grandfather Hart's funeral.
- 2009
First 600 Tempranillo vines planted on the south-facing slope. Twenty acres of caliche.
- 2013
First commercial harvest. 400 cases.
- 2016
Maren joins from the Douro Valley. They plant Albariño the same week.
- 2019
The barn is restored, stone by stone, by the Hartlines and three friends. Three winters.
- 2021
First Estate Tannat released. 95 points.
- 2024
Founders Reserve 2020 named Best Reserve at TexSom. Cellar Club opens to 200 members.
Kind words.
- Wine Enthusiast — 92 to 96 points across the lineup, 2023–2024
- Texas Monthly — Top 10 Texas Wineries, 2023
- Decanter — 94 points for the 2022 Mourvèdre
- Vinous — “Old-world restraint, new-world fruit.”
- TexSom — Double Gold, Best of Class, Best Reserve, 2024