Producer Profile: Elisa Christopher Wines

Texas a credible source of fresh sparkling wine? It's no joke, as James Lawrence discovers.

Region: Texas Hill Country, USA
Founded: 2022
Owner: Elisa and Chris Jones
Estate Size: 43 acres near Johnson City, Texas
Winemaker: Elisa Jones
Annual production: Not publicly disclosed

Here's a surprising fact: Texas is home to more indigenous grapevine species than anywhere else on earth. It has eight American Viticultural Areas (AVAs), and a growing band of extremely ambitious wineries helping to establish its reputation as a serious winegrowing region.

Chief among them is Elisa Christopher Wines. Founded by husband-and-wife team Elisa and Chris Jones in the Texas Hill Country, the project has become a byword for trailblazing innovation in the state. Yet Elisa's connection to viticulture is longstanding. Her ancestors arrived in Texas in 1855 as farmers, and in 2007 she helped her father plant a vineyard in Burleson County. A longstanding passion for wine eventually led the former Department of Defense intelligence officer to enrol on a winemaking certificate programme at Texas Tech University.

In 2020, the couple took the plunge. After two years learning on the job through an incubator programme run by Kerrville Hills Winery, they purchased a 43-acre property in 2022 and began developing their own winery and tasting room. Initially, Elisa Christopher Wines focused on red wine production; in recent years, however, traditional method sparkling has become its calling card.

Is Jones attempting to replicate Champagne? Absolutely not - the winery is based in a state whose climate, grape varieties, and sheer geographical scale differ markedly from those of northeastern France. Instead, she is passionately committed to expressing a unique Texan identity, producing sparkling wines from Blanc du Bois - a hybrid with Muscat and Semillon heritage - alongside white aromatics such as Picpoul Blanc. Even Sangiovese and Mourvèdre have found their way into the winery's sparkling programme.

Today, the portfolio spans white, rosé, red and sparkling, all made from Texas-grown grapes. A key source of fruit is the Texas High Plains AVA, where pronounced diurnal temperature variation helps preserve acidity. Meanwhile, a late-season freeze in 2026 damaged much of the Hill Country fruit intended for Jones' sparkling production. This is not simply the land of eternal sunshine.

Yet the wines are, for the most part, balanced and fresh. That is achieved via judicious harvesting and careful, intuitive winemaking – berries are often picked at around 17° Brix, with freshness and acidity taking precedence over maximum sugar accumulation. Meanwhile, one acre of Chardonnay was planted in 2026 on calcareous soils; as the property develops, the balance between estate-grown fruit and grapes sourced from growers should move towards the former. Jones would also like to hold back stock for longer periods before disgorgement and sale, hoping to build a reputation as a leading source of premium sparkling wine in the state.

This ambitious venture has travelled a considerable distance from its early focus on still reds. Texas may still be carving out its vinous identity, but Elisa Christopher Wines has already forged an intriguing niche.

Q&A: Elisa Jones, Winemaker, Elisa Christopher Wines



Texas is still defining its identity as a wine region. How does making sparkling wine force you to rethink conventional assumptions about ripeness, acidity, harvest timing and terroir here?

We have to watch the grapes closely and make decisions based on more than sugar alone. If we see acidity beginning to fall but the phenolic development we want is already there, we may choose to harvest at around 17° Brix rather than wait for additional ripeness. For us, it is a balancing act between sugar, acidity, flavour and phenolic maturity.

One challenge we have to be particularly mindful of is pH. In warmer conditions, acidity can decline quickly while pH rises. This matters not only for the wine's freshness and balance, but also for its microbiological stability and how we manage it in the cellar.

We cannot take a model developed in Champagne and expect it to work here without adaptation. We need to understand our growing conditions, our varieties and how they respond to the Texas climate. That means being prepared to harvest earlier, paying close attention to pH as well as total acidity, and allowing the character of the fruit and the site to guide our decisions.

It might surprise people to learn that we began our 2026 sparkling-wine harvest on 24 June and had finished by the end of July.

The challenges of warmer conditions are not unique to Texas. Winemakers in Champagne and Italy's sparkling-wine regions are also having to rethink harvest timing as warmer growing seasons accelerate ripening and make it more difficult to preserve acidity.

What has surprised you most since working with sparkling wine in Texas - whether about the climate, grapes, winemaking process or market?

I think the biggest challenge is the early harvest. The weather is a little unpredictable every year. This year, an intense heat dome pushed our entire harvest forward by several weeks, and I found myself having to overnight some yeast. I generally plan ahead, but I thought I had at least a few more days!

Another challenge is the sheer size of Texas. We source locally, but we also work with grapes from the Texas High Plains, which is about a five-hour drive from the winery. Finding good crews to hand-harvest the grapes, as well as facilities near our vineyards with presses capable of whole-cluster pressing and cold settling, is essential.

We now work with several people who understand the timing involved and communicate brilliantly about when the grapes are being picked. We then load totes of juice onto refrigerated trucks and transport them back to the winery to finish the process. There is a significant logistical component to making it all work.

We also had a late-season freeze this year that wiped out much of the Texas Hill Country fruit intended for sparkling wine. Fortunately, we have access to other growing areas in the state that can produce incredible fruit.

From a market perspective, the most encouraging sign is that we sell out of everything we make. We produce red wines too, but our sparkling wines consistently sell through more quickly, which speaks to the growing demand for our sparkling programme.

With our next harvest, we intend to increase sparkling production significantly, giving us more flexibility to allow the wines to age for longer. Ideally, we would love to age some of them for five years. As a young winery, however, we are still investing in equipment and building the business, so we must balance our desire for extended ageing against the realities of production and cash flow. We are excited to keep working towards that goal and give our wines the time they deserve.

What needs to happen for Texas to earn a place in the conversation about serious sparkling-wine regions?

In five or ten years, I would love to see Texas sparkling wine recognised as a serious category in its own right, with a distinct identity and a reputation for quality. I think we have the fruit, the diversity of growing conditions and the curiosity from consumers to make something really special here. What we need now is a willingness to keep learning.

Sparkling wine requires patience, both in the vineyard and in the cellar. We would love to give our wines more time to age, but that takes investment, planning and the confidence to hold back wine that we could otherwise sell today. As more Texas producers commit to sparkling wine for the long term, I think we will see greater depth, complexity and consistency across the category.

Collaboration will also be key. We need to share knowledge, experiment with different grapes and techniques, and work out what performs best in our unique growing conditions. I am fortunate to work closely with a friend at another Texas winery who also makes traditional-method sparkling wine. We continue to share what we learn, and we both want to do everything we can to elevate sparkling wine in Texas.

Ultimately, I want people to reach for a bottle of Texas sparkling wine not just because they want to support local wine, but because they genuinely believe it is delicious and want to drink it. I want people to realise that our sparkling wines can stand alongside the best food served in a Michelin-starred restaurant.

If, in ten years, Texas sparkling wine can stand on its own merits alongside wines from established regions, and people are genuinely excited about drinking it, I think we will have accomplished something meaningful.