McReynolds Winery is family owned and operated by Gerald (Mac) and Maureen McReynolds in the small Texas Hill Country community of Cypress Mill, Texas, 40 miles West of Austin.

We began our winemaking careers while living in California in the early 1970's. While we were both employed full-time doing scientific research at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, we began to enjoy the pleasures of visiting local wineries and learning about winemaking styles and techniques. We were given the opportunity to work at two Santa Clara County wineries, Mirassou and Ridge, on a part time basis. As our knowledge and interest grew, we joined with several friends to begin buying grapes and making wine as amateur wine-makers.

After returning to Austin, we became active in the Texas Wine and Grape Growers Association and watched the Texas wine industry grow and prosper. In 1989, we purchased 5 acres in the Texas Hill Country which included a small house and a large metal frame building that had formerly housed a winery.

Although we hoped to eventually have our own winery, we were not quite ready. Cypress Mill was a place for us to get away from city life. We again began buying wine grapes and making wine as home winemakers.

Our 1995 Texas Shiraz was awarded gold medals at both the Texas Wine and Grape Growers competition and the Lone Star Wine Competition at the 1997 Texas State Fair. After several subsequent successful non-commercial vintages, we decided to convert our Hill country "retreat" into a commercial winery.

We opened our doors with our first wines for sale in April 2000.

Our tasting room is small and informal. We enjoy the opportunity to sit down and talk about with our visitors while giving them a taste of the wines. If the weather is suitable, we may gather at a picnic table under one of our magnificent oak trees to pour and discuss our wines.

There are now three other members of our winemaking family. Sangria is our official “dog bell”. Her barking lets us know when visitors have arrived! Our other dog, Blanca de blanc looks like a small version of Sangria. She loves visitors, especially children. Earl Grey is the official winery cat. His job is to keep unwanted critters out of the winery and vineyard.

A few years ago we cleared out some of the abundant “cedar” (juniper) trees on our land and began planting a vineyard to grow some of our own grapes. We’ve had some problems with Pierce’s Disease and raccoons, but we hope to produce wine from our own grapes in a few years.