MeLinda and me on the tour truck at Uplift Vineyard, July 2026.
Uplift ships the club wines out automatically, so there’s no direct impetus to get up there. At William Chris we can get a tasting for free every time we go. At Uplift we’re members of the Uplift Viticultural Society, and our membership comes with two tour and tastings a year. Members can just show up and order bottles as well.
This summer we were planning a Fourth of July camping trip with some friends up at Inks Lake. I picked Inks Lake because it was right next to Uplift, and I figured we could get a tour and tasting for everybody. We did, and our club visit covered all six of us. It was such a great experience.
Because of how rural the area is, Uplift feels further out than it really is. It’s smaller than I would have thought. The building is extremely nice. They bring you in and give you a welcome glass, and you hang out for a second.
The tour truck
Then they take you outside and you get on this custom tour truck. It’s basically a pickup truck with a second deck up top, and the tour guide can drive it from the deck.
They drive you around and tell you about the history of the vineyard and the land, and the Llano Uplift and how it makes the grapes special there. All the time you’re tasting these fantastic wines. The tour has a planned stop at the back of the vineyard, and you get to eat a couple of grapes off the vine if they’re ripe.
The vineyard takes its name from that geological region. It’s 55 acres with 13 varieties, and every bottle with the Uplift label is made only from grapes grown on the estate (Uplift Vineyard).
The barrel room
After the tour we went back to the vineyard house and the tasting room. They sat us down and brought out some really delicious dips and a few little snack items to try while we capped off with a couple of the really nice wines.
Inside the tasting room there’s a barrel room, and they let us draw our own taste straight from the barrel with a wine thief. Ours was chalked 2024 ULPS, their Petite Sirah. It was well balanced and flavorful, a complex mix of rich earthy flavors and dark berries.
What we drank and what came home
The Roussanne was the welcome glass. It was a very complex white that drank almost like a red, and you could really taste the terroir. It was surprising in the best kind of way. On the tasting we had the Sangiovese. I love a Sangiovese, and this was spectacular. The Badu is one of the best wines I’ve ever had in my entire life. It’s rich, full and very complex, and it earned every bit of its bottle price and beat out many I’ve tried in Napa at twice the price.
We went home with some Founder’s Club, which is a red, and some Badu. The Founder’s Club won’t show up on their wine list. They told us it was for the original wine club members, but they still had some bottles left and let us buy some. My note on it in Dram+Vine reads: “This is an absolutely gorgeous wine: dark stone fruits, almost no tannins, just very solid.” Five stars.
The 2023 Badu is 40% Aglianico, 38% Sangiovese, 10% Montepulciano and 12% Merlot, and it’s $125 a bottle as of September 2026. My app, Dram+Vine, estimates the drinking window for our 2023 Founder’s Club at 2025 to 2031 and for our 2023 Badu at 2026 to 2033.
Planning a visit
1000% worth it. We plan to go back in December after everything winds down with polka season, and we’ll definitely be making two visits a year.
Uplift is at 1411 Co Rd 119 in Burnet, and tastings are by reservation only, Thursday through Sunday. The tour and tasting runs 90 minutes for 1 to 6 guests at $50 a person, as of September 2026. Book through their visit page or call 512-399-5350.
Doug