Pedernales Cellars
The Aletheia rosé is mourvèdre and grenache off certified organic acreage in Seminole. Paula Forbes says it beats the same winery's rosé made from non-organic fruit.1
Why go
Larry and Jeanine Kuhlken planted the vineyard in the nineties, and their children David and Julie turned it into a winery. Julie runs it now.1 They cool the cellar with a geothermal system that uses half the energy that electric cooling units do. They buy from organic growers where they can.1 The tasting room sits on 145 acres at more than 1,600 feet, looking down the Pedernales river valley. Three separate employees told Forbes about that patio before she got to the wine.31 Lauren Larson wrote up the 290 corridor for the same magazine. She calls this a seventeen-year-old boutique winery, eighteen miles east of Fredericksburg, making Spanish and Rhône styles from Texas fruit.2
Order this / avoid
- The Aletheia rosé. Mourvèdre and grenache from certified organic acreage at Desert Willow Vineyard in Seminole, 85 miles southwest of Lubbock. Julie Kuhlken is careful to call it wine made from organic grapes: a US label reading organic wine bars added sulfites.1
- Far Side of the Moon, the juicy chillable red, which Forbes took home.1
- The Cellar Tour and Tasting, $45 a head and capped at eight, if you want to see the geothermal cellar instead of hearing about it.3
- Avoid: the non-organic rosé when the Aletheia is open. They pour side by side and Forbes is unambiguous about which one wins.1
What locals & experts say
- Paula Forbes, Texas Monthly, September 2025, on the Aletheia:
Structured, delicate, and a little earthy, this is rosé for grown-ups.
1 - Julie Kuhlken, to Forbes, on why a family winery plants for the long run:
One of the advantages of the wine industry is that it's mostly family owned. You have a long-term vision to what you're doing, and so it's worth making these long-term investments. They eventually pay off.
1
Good to know
- Open seven days, morning through late afternoon, with a later close on Friday and Saturday.3
- Getting there: 2916 Upper Albert Road in Stonewall, off US-290 between Johnson City and Fredericksburg.2
Verdict
should-visit — Book ahead, because the tasting room takes a card and charges half the price plus gratuity for a cancellation inside three days. Bring the dog and keep it on the lawn, which is the only part of the estate that takes one. I have not found a published tasting note on the flagship tempranillo, and that is the wine the fifty-dollar flight is built around.