The Bella Vista Ranch / First Texas Olive Oil Co.

3101 Mt Sharp Rd, Wimberley, TX 78676, USA

Address:	3101 Mt Sharp Rd, Wimberley, TX 78676, USA
Phone:	+1 512-847-6514
Site:	texasoliveoil.com
Rating:	3.4
Working:	Closed Closed Closed 12–5PM 12–5PM 12–5PM 12–4PM

Location

Photos 58

Reviews 13

Noland Martin

I wanted this to be good, but it isnt. Operator is, as the other reviews state, full of himself. Basically hes independently wealthy and he bought himself a pet winery. He was very impressed with himself, and how his olive oil production facility is the "first" in Texas. He claimed this was because he traveled extensively in Italy and looked at a bunch of olive oil facilities there and learned a lot. My supposition is that he traveled in Italy a lot because he could afford to do so. Then, his ego told himself, "you could do this". He tells himself that previous operations failed because they failed to travel to Italy like him - Italy-traveling genius. In reality, he has had a stroke of luck with some pretty mild consecutive winters and this hasnt killed his olive trees. However... despite the fact that his olive trees arent dead yet, the production is still low. What he doesnt say is, "the majority of my olives Im importing from California and mixing mine with them and calling it a Texas olive oil." He would never SAY this because his ego wouldnt allow it. Luckily, laws are such that the fine print on the bottles requires this notification... fine print that you dont notice until you bring a triply-priced bottle home after feeling like if you didnt buy a bottle youd be a cheap moron.

Claire Bradford

Jack Doughertys (founder, owner) pre-tour talk is like being at a Ted Talk. His 20 minute flawless delivery of the history of his orchard and farm, as well as all things olive oil, are worth his sarcasm, rudeness, and ignorance of cell phone functions like taking notes. (He will humiliate anyone who pulls out a cell phone after his warning and description of cell phone use during his talk as "like picking your nose".) I think he enjoys the knowledge (and he does know it) that he pisses people off. It was amusing to me. He doesnt make a living selling olive oil to tour participants. He sells to much bigger fish like governments, after all. If you can handle all that the tour is very informative about a very important food and theres one or two really good wines, particularly the Voigner. .

Marsha Guys

Six of us visited this winery on a Saturday. We did a wine tasting and all of us were astounded at the sarcastic flippant wine pourer who hurried us through the whole wine tasting, acting like he could care less whether we were there or not and complaining about other visitors and their behavior. When we would ask questions, he would never really answer them, just give some sarcastic comment. We tasted six wines, but the tasting quantity was so small, you barely got one sip. Overall, the wines tasted pretty good from what we could tell. We will never return to this winery. It was not a fun experience.

kim poorman

The olive oil and balsamic vinegar was high quality and very tasty. However, this is not a kid friendly place and we felt very unwelcome. The set up is not condusive to having anyone besides the group on the tour to enter the small tasting room/store. I think a sign on the door that says "tour in progress, please enjoy the patio" could help. We felt like intruders even though we understood that children were not supposed to be on the tour. We thought they would be ok to go through the store, but I would not recommend this experience to anyone with children.

Taraneh Amini

After wine tasting & purchasing some goodies, we decided to go sit outside to eat at 3:30pm on a Sunday. A lady came and said they are closing & we have to leave. I was confused because they advertise being open til 4pm on Sundays. So I asked if we can just quickly eat our lunch & she said, "No, Im sorry, were closing." Its pretty ridiculous to kick people out of your establishment, ESPECIALLY 30 mins before closing (Even more so when people drive from out of town to visit). Poor business practice. We wont be returning.

Bruce Freedle

We went to do olive oil & wine tasting. They had both, but a lot of the olive oils were not locally grown. The tasting for the wine was $10 for 4 small pours, which the wife was pouring. The wine was OK, one I liked, but my wife didnt want to purchase because the husband seemed fairly rude towards our son who was full of energy, but not being bad (outside), not even inside.

Lindsey Pace

My husband took me here and it was amazing loved the history lesson and our guide was very educational and a straight forward man. Beautiful location and that olive oil was sooo good. As soon as my pregnancy is over we will definitely be back with our friends

tom shallue

Great way to spend an afternoon if youre in the Wimberley area. Just make sure to check tour times! The Olive Guy gives a fantastic olive history lesson and explains their whole operation.

Hedge MN

If you havent been here you are missing out on one of Texas finest day trips. Great wines, olive oil and the best balsamic vinegar this side of Italy.

Nilay Dinc

Not kid friendly. The tour guide is very rude, full of himself and apparently doesnt like kids.

S Stewart

We really liked the olive oil here. The wine isnt bad either.

Alex Maas

Our fav place to get fresh olive oil in central texas

Marc Johnson

Great staff. Cabernet Franc is fantastic.