Texas Hill Country, USA
Everything really is bigger in Texas: It’s the No. 5 wine-producing state in the U.S., the Texas Hill Country AVA is the second largest in the nation and its most promising wines boast supersized flavors. But the explosion of new wineries and tasting rooms along scenic Highway 290 west of Austin hasn’t lessened Hill Country’s old-fashioned country charm. It’s still a sea of cowboy hats and pickup trucks, a place where you can sip award-winning wines in a landscape dotted with as many cacti as vines. Visitors may flock to Hill Country to sip wine, but they end up drinking in the romance of the Old West, too. —Alexis Korman
