Rebecca Caroline

Texas-grown, traditional-method sparkling wine, poured inside the 1904 Hye Post Office on US-290

Drive about 25 minutes west of Dripping Springs on 290 and you'll hit Hye — blink-and-you-miss-it, but home to one of the more interesting pours in Texas wine country right now. Rebecca Caroline, the new sparkling-wine label from William Chris Wine Company, has turned the town's century-old post office into a dedicated tasting room, and it's been open since late June.

The story. William Chris Wine Company opened Rebecca Caroline, a tasting room dedicated entirely to Texas-grown traditional method sparkling wine, located within the historic Hye Post Office in the heart of Texas Wine Country. It's the first tasting room on the Highway 290 Wine Trail devoted exclusively to Texas-grown traditional method sparkling wine. The building itself has history worth knowing: Hiram "Hye" Brown, the town's namesake, built the structure in 1904 from designs he scouted in a catalogue. It's also the spot where President Lyndon B. Johnson swore in Postmaster Gen. Lawrence F. O'Brien on its front steps in 1965, placing Hye in the national spotlight. The Rebecca Caroline program is led by Sparkling Winemaker Seth Urbanek, who oversees production of the winery's traditional method sparkling wines from vineyard to disgorgement. The label itself is a family affair — Rebecca Caroline sparkling wine now calls the 1904 Hye Post Office home, the same building where LBJ mailed his first letter.

The vibe. Walk in and you're standing in what used to be the retail counter of a working post office — Hiram Brown's original 1904 store building, with its pressed-metal ornament and the word HYE spelled across the pediment out front. Inside, the renovation kept the bones: original pine floors, the pressed-tin ceiling, and a wall of old P.O. boxes still mounted behind the bar. The old postal counter now serves as the tasting bar itself. Fair warning if you're hoping to kill two errands at once: the tasting room is separate from the still-operating Hye Post Office, a cordoned-off federal section with its own entrance round back, open weekday mornings and Saturday till noon — not reachable through the tasting room.

What to order. The tasting room keeps it simple and focused — there's really one menu here, and it's all bubbles. The flagship is the R.C. Sparkling Tasting, a seated, hosted flight: a guided tasting of four Rebecca Caroline wines, exploring the world of Texas sparkling wine, hosted by a Texas Wine Ambassador, for $35 per guest (complimentary for wine club members). Every pour is 100% Texas fruit — the label is named for the combined middle names of co-founders Chris and Katharine Brundrett's daughters, and maintains the winery's commitment to solely using Texas-grown grapes. Members get an additional option, the R.C. Community Table, a shared seasonal pour in the member's lounge. If you want the full rundown of what's in the bottle, the method itself is worth asking your host about — it's the same labor- and time-intensive style used to produce Champagne in France, still uncommon in Texas.

Good to know. Walk-ins are welcome, but a reservation is a good idea on Saturdays when the small room fills up fast. Tastings run Thursday through Sunday, and reservations are capped at six guests — bigger groups should call ahead. There's also a wine club, the R.C. Express, built around limited sparkling releases for members who want first access to new disgorgements.