Fredericksburg is building on its reputation as one of Texas’ leading food, wine, and tourism destinations. In this CEO Spotlight interview, Fredericksburg Food and Wine Event Foundation’s Jim Mikula shares how the city’s Food & Wine Festival has grown into a nationally recognized event named among Forbes’ top food and wine festivals in the country.

With more than 80 operating wineries in Gillespie County, a sold-out Street Dinner, and a focus on local chefs and Hill Country AVA wineries, the festival is designed to preserve Fredericksburg’s distinctive small-town character while welcoming visitors from across Texas and beyond. Mikula also discusses the area’s resilient economy, historic Main Street, agricultural roots, and the luxury hospitality developments shaping the region’s future.

Listen to the full interview below.

Thank you KRLD 1080 and David Johnson of the CEO Spotlight

Full transcript below:

Food and Wine Festival

You know, a couple of weeks, I don’t know, maybe three weeks ago on the show, we had a fascinating interview, I thought, with Brian Heath [of Heath Family Brands]. You remember, he was in Wall Street, and he gave up Wall Street, and now he’s making wine, and he’s got vineyard. And it was in, it’s in Fredericksburg, and so we started talking about Fredericksburg, TX.

Then, sounds like one heck of a place, and he’s not alone down there at all. Time to check in on Fredericksburg. Jim Mikula’s the president and CEO of the Fredericksburg Chamber of Commerce, joined us right now.

It’s good to have you with us.

Well, thanks for having me on.

This is like southern France, in Fredericksburg. How many wineries are down there?

Just in Gillespie County, there’s currently 90 licenses approved by the state, and 80 of them are operating in the county.

That’s astounding. But what it’s done is it’s really grown. I was looking at, you put on this food and wine festival in February, and it’s coming up in October, and this thing seems to be an enormous hit.

Big money banker, and everybody’s happy about this.

Well, for the food and wine festival, yes. So we, the Chamber [and Events Foundation], we took it over three years ago. It’s actually been operating over 30 years here in Fredericksburg, the wine festival.

And Brian is one of our big sponsors, so I know him pretty well. And so with his support and the other wineries, Forbes magazine listed us in the top 10 food and wine festivals in the country right now. So when they’re talking Aspen, they’re now talking Fredericksburg, Texas as well.

That’s really astounding. I had no idea. Now I got to try.

So I went on the website and looked, and so this thing is a month away, and a lot of the stuff’s already sold out.

Yeah, yeah. For the opening party, I think there’s four tickets left for that. And that’ll be enough.

So they’re sold out. The all access tickets are sold out. Our street dinner, which is the most popular event, is on Friday night.

And that sold out in 90 minutes.

That looks like a scene from an Italian movie where the little towns and everybody, the entire community is set up at one big table right down the middle of Main Street. That looks like a blast. You must have good weather.

Yeah, well, the first year we had pretty good weather. Last year it rained, so we have to move it into a covered area to get that done. But this year it’s bigger.

I’ve doubled it. So we’re 256 people for this dinner, five chefs, five different wineries.

And you’re already sold out.

Yeah.

So your background is interesting. You spent most of your life in the food and lodging hospitality industry. You know, Four Seasons, lots of big brands.

How does this translate into what you’re doing in Fredericksburg?

Well, because of my hotel background, a lot of my time was in sales and marketing, recruiting groups and getting groups into the hotels and understanding the logistics of handling those groups. So the city didn’t want to run it anymore. And I felt it was an opportunity to take over that event and upgrade it significantly.

So I took my luxury hotel background and then applied it into these events. We’ve upgraded it significantly, and we’re running more people at the event, higher revenues, et cetera. So for me, because I started out as a butcher’s assistant in high school, and then I was a baker, and then I was in catering, and I did all that stuff.

And so for me, I just have this love for food and beverage and culinary and with my Four Seasons time, I was traveling around the world a lot and drinking a lot of wine and a lot of food. And so I have that collection of experience that I can apply to this festival and create an experience for our attendees that’s unique.

Unique Town Character

It’s really interesting, this identity of Fredericksburg, though, because in a sense you are, and correct me if I’m wrong, but I mean, you’re between two major municipalities, San Antonio and Austin, that seem to be headed the same destiny of Dallas and Fort Worth, just sort of growing together and blending into one. And there you are in the middle, and you don’t get squeezed out. What’s the identity of Fredericksburg?

Well, we, being a little German town, we’re still small, 12,000 people in Fredericksburg. There’s only 32,000 in Gillespie County. But you’re right, 50 minutes away to San Antonio is what the eighth or ninth most populous city in the country, and Austin is number 12, something like that.

Houston is number three, and that’s a three hour, four hour drive. And then you have the DFWplex, and folks from there coming down to here. But what’s kept us, our flavor and our nature and all of that is in the 90s, there was a group of leaders that made sure that there was no chain store on Main Street.

So it’s still all mom and pop little stores on Main Street. We have an historical review board that maintains the historical nature of our building. Because we have architecture from the 1870s all the way into the 1950s on Main Street.

And they’re maintaining that look and not changing what downtown looks like. So that’s part of our magic. And also we have agriculture here, not just the wineries and the peaches, but we have a very large cattle operations.

We have goats. Matter of fact, we’re one of the largest supplier of goats to the Middle East.

No kidding.

Yeah.

I will win a bar bet with that.

And so anyway, you have that collection of small business operators and the wineries and all of the architecture. It just creates a unique destination. And we’re a very friendly town, especially to outsiders coming in to live here and visit.

It’s just a wonderful place to live.

Economic Resilience Growth

That sort of economy does not, to me, seem to be recession proof, however. And I know you, since you had, I guess COVID hit, since you’ve been there. You’ve been there, what, a decade now, and you’ve been settled out there.

But how do you, how does an economy like that do during challenges, challenging periods?

Well, actually COVID was a blessing for Fredericksburg.

Really? Yeah.

So what happened was that when most of the country shut down, Texas was the first place to open up. And so Texans couldn’t fly out, go anywhere. So they all came to Fredericksburg.

So we had this boom during the pandemic period, 2020, 2021, early 2022 were just booming years for us. And then it dipped a little bit, but we’ve never gone below where we were in 2019, which was pre-pandemic. We had a little dip in 2020, and then late 2020, 2021 were fabulous years.

And then last year we had a little bit of a drop because of the fire we had in March of last year. And then the flood in Kerrville hurt us because of our location. But right now, year to date, we’re running our sales tax numbers are up 6.5%, which is two points over inflation.

And our neighboring counties are not doing as well as we are. So the economy that we have, both tourism and the agricultural economy, our economy is pretty resilient, continuing to grow. And as a matter of fact, our economy has grown faster than the state of Texas, so in the last five years.

Well, then I can’t believe that Four Seasons or Walmart or somebody hasn’t made a run, either Simon Properties to put up a mall or something, haven’t made a run at Fredericksburg, because you seem to be booming.

Well, Waldorf Astoria is going through its approval process with the city right now. So they plan on, they should break ground probably early next year, I would think.

Will that be a resort type or a standalone hotel?

Yeah, it would be a resort. And then Klimpton is putting in a 180 room hotel on the west side of town. Then there’s a couple of independents that are coming into town.

And north of us in Lano County, the Amman Group is putting in an ultra luxury property there. So you have this conflagration of major populations around us and drivable, and there’s no five-star luxury hotel outside a major metroplex in Texas. So that would be the first international luxury resort in Texas that’s not in the city.

Preserving Local Charm

So what’s next? I mean, it sounds like you’ve got, well, you’ve got the wine business booming. You’ve got this food and beverage festival that’s a big hit.

Do you keep it growing? Yeah, yeah, we will.

But I would say for the food and wine festival, we know that we’re going to max out at probably 4,000 people, because if it goes beyond that, then we’ll lose the charm that we have. So it’ll limit us from revenue, but at the same time, we want to keep that charm that we have at our food and wine festival, because we don’t allow any national brands or national distributors into this festival. You have to be in the Fredericksburg Hill Country AVA, which is a viticultural area that’s designated.

So you have to be within that AVA to be in our festival. So the folks who attend, like our folks, you know, we’re folksy, we’re local. We don’t have any big chefs from New York or DC.

It’s all local chefs. We do bring in a chef from Austin on occasion, but people like that. We’re just very, you know, just come on in, y’all.

It sounds like great fun. And like I say, just a booming industry down there. Jim Mikula is the president and CEO of the Fredericksburg Chamber of Commerce and seems to have his hands full.

Thanks for taking the time to be with us.

Well, I appreciate that.

Thanks, Jim.

Bring your friends down from Dallas.

I won’t bring too many because I know I know your space requirements. For more of our conversation, go to krld.com/ceo of David Johnson News Radio 1080 KRLD.

From CEO Spotlight: Jim Mikula, President & CEO, Fredericksburg Chamber of Commerce  “From Hill Country Town to World-Class Destination”, Sep 8, 2026

Texas had its best year on the international wine stage, and it was not close.

Four Texas Hill Country wineries claimed gold medals at the 2026 Decanter World Wine Awards, making this the first time in the competition’s 23-year history that any Texas wine has reached that level. The Decanter World Wine Awards is the largest wine competition in the world, with nearly 17,000 wines submitted from 58 countries in 2026 alone. To put gold-level performance in context: earning one is rare. Earning four in a single year, all from the same Texas region, is something else entirely.

Four Hill Country Wineries Made History on the World Stage

The gold medals went to four producers that are all located in the Texas Hill Country:

• Ab Astris Winery — Souzao 2022
• Turtle Creek Winery — Tannat 2023
• Adega Vinho Winery — Estate Tempranillo 2021
• Spicewood Vineyards — Las Montanas 2022

Each wine represents a grape variety that has found a genuine home in Texas soil. Souzao, Tannat, and Tempranillo are all warm-climate varieties with thick skins and strong tannin structures, which suits the Texas heat well. The Spicewood Vineyards Las Montanas is a red blend of 75% Tempranillo and 25% Petit Verdot, a combination that layers the savory depth of Tempranillo with the structure and dark fruit that Petit Verdot contributes. The range across these four winners reflects how broadly Hill Country winemakers have been thinking, working with varieties that most of the wine world has rarely explored at this level.

Texas Earned Its Strongest Decanter Showing in History

Texas submitted 122 wines to the 2026 competition. Of those, 62 earned scores of 90 points or higher, meaning more than half of everything Texas entered met the threshold that separates good wine from genuinely great wine by Decanter’s standards. The state collected 58 silver medals and 60 bronze medals, and by the measure of 90-plus point wines, Texas ranked second among all American wine regions entered in the competition.

James Tidwell, a Master Sommelier and the U.S. regional chair for the Decanter World Wine Awards, noted the performance directly: “Texas exceeded expectations. The most impressive new development was with Texas, which had a strong presence with entries.” Coming from a chair responsible for evaluating the full breadth of American wine, that is not a throwaway line.

You can browse the full list of Texas results, including every medal winner and score, on the Decanter World Wine Awards search page filtered for Texas.

The Grape Varieties Behind the Wins Reflect a Deliberate Hill Country Strategy

Tannat is a grape originating from southwest France that produces deeply colored, intensely structured wines. It is not widely planted in the United States, but Hill Country producers have been betting on it for years because it handles heat and dry conditions well. Tempranillo, the backbone of Spanish Rioja, has shown similar resilience in the Hill Country, where elevation and diurnal temperature swings provide the kind of variation that preserves acidity. Souzao is a Portuguese variety most often used for Port blending and rarely bottled as a varietal on its own. Ab Astris took that bet and it paid off at the highest level.

The choice of varieties matters because it signals something about how Hill Country winemakers think. They are building a regional identity around what grows well in their specific climate and soil, and international judges are confirming that the approach is working.

Texas Wine Country Has Outgrown Its Underdog Status

The Hill Country wine region has changed dramatically over the past 20 years. What started as a small collection of pioneer wineries along U.S. Highway 290 west of Austin has grown into a region with hundreds of producers, drawing visitors from across Texas and increasingly from out of state. Texas wines have been winning regional and national competitions for years, but international recognition at the Decanter level is a different signal.

Texas has recently outperformed prestigious California vineyards on international rankings, and the 2026 Decanter results add another data point to that trend. When judges evaluating 17,000 wines from 58 countries put four Texas bottles in the gold tier, it reflects sustained quality across the region. For wine travelers who have been curious about this region but uncertain whether it belongs alongside the destinations they already know, 2026 makes that a clear answer.

What the Decanter Results Mean for Visitors to Fredericksburg, TX

All four gold medal wineries are Hill Country producers, which means the wines that impressed judges on a world stage are the same wines you can taste in the region this year. The grape varieties that earned gold at Decanter, including Tannat, Tempranillo, Souzao, and the Tempranillo-Petit Verdot blend from Spicewood Vineyards, are representative of the direction Hill Country winemaking has been heading for over a decade.

If you are planning a visit to the Hill Country or attending the Fredericksburg Food and Wine Festival, these results are a useful guide. Seek out the producers recognized at Decanter for gold and other medals, try the Tannat, Tempranillo, Souzao, and Tempranillo-Petit Verdot wines they are making, and you will be tasting the same regional identity that caught the attention of judges evaluating nearly 17,000 wines from around the world.

Texas Hill Country wine is no longer a regional curiosity. It is a serious wine destination, and 2026 made that case in front of the largest audience in the competition. Congratulations, Y’all!

Texas Monthly Spotlights Fredericksburg Sparkling Wine Makers, Including Festival Favorites

Texas sparkling wine has arrived and Texas Monthly magazine just said so on a national stage.

The magazine’s June 2026 issue covers the growth of Texas sparkling winemaking, with Fredericksburg and the Texas Hill Country at the center of the story. Several wineries pouring at the Fredericksburg Food & Wine Festival are highlighted as pioneers of la méthode traditionnelle.  This is the same labor-intensive, bottle-fermented process used to make classic French Champagne, but right here in the Hill Country.

Invention Vineyards, located just five miles from downtown Fredericksburg, takes center stage. Owner Brian Heath has invested more than $5 million in a state-of-the-art 25,000-square-foot sparkling wine facility, now producing varietals including a Texas High Plains chenin blanc, a copper-toned Ebullience, and an elegant blanc de blancs. Heath’s commitment to “cradle-to-grave” Texas sparkling wine, using only grapes grown in-state, is a new chapter for what Hill Country wine can be.

Also featured is William Chris Vineyards in Hye, a long-standing presence at the Festival. Cofounder Chris Brundrett, motivated in part by the carbon footprint of shipping base wine to California for processing, has brought sparkling wine production home. His new Rebecca Caroline line and the forthcoming tasting room at the historic Hye post office represent an evolution for a winery that’s been shaping Texas wine culture for years. William Chris education director Kelsey Kramer tells Texas Monthly, “This is one of the places where Texas wine is going.”

Rounding out the Hill Country trio is Elisa Christopher Wines, whose founder Elisa Jones became the first vintner in the region to acquire traditional-method sparkling equipment in 2023. Today she produces her own sparkling labels while also processing wines for fellow Texas producers. Elisa is  not so quietly becoming an essential part of the state’s sparkling wine movement.

Together, these three wineries reflect something we’ve long known at the Fredericksburg Food & Wine Festival: the Texas Hill Country sets wine trends. That spirit of experimentation, of investing deeply in craft and terroir, is what makes this region one of the most exciting wine destinations in the country right now.

Read the full Texas Monthly feature  “The Future of Texas Wine Is . . . Champagne?”  and then come taste the wines for yourself at the Festival.

The article spotlights Fredericksburg’s first-ever Restaurant Week and its growing reputation as a Texas Hill Country food and wine destination.

Fredericksburg’s culinary scene continues to earn regional attention. A recent feature from San Antonio Magazine highlighted the debut of Fredericksburg Restaurant Week, a new spring event created to showcase the restaurants, chefs, and dining experiences that make the town a standout Hill Country destination.

The article positions Restaurant Week as a spring escape worth savoring, giving visitors a reason to explore Fredericksburg through prix-fixe menus, special dining experiences, and local culinary events. Coverage like this reinforces what Fredericksburg Food & Wine celebrates year-round: the connection between great restaurants, Texas wineries, and the hospitality that defines Fredericksburg.

As part of Fredericksburg Food & Wine, Restaurant Week helps introduce more visitors to the town’s evolving food scene while building excitement for the Preview Series in July and Festival Week in October.

Read the full article:
https://www.sanantoniomag.com/a-spring-escape-worth-savoring-fredericksburg-debuts-its-first-ever-restaurant-week/

Food & Wine highlights Fredericksburg as a standout culinary destination in the Texas Hill Country.

Fredericksburg continues to gain national recognition as a destination for food and wine lovers. In a recent article from Food & Wine, the town was included on a list of the top small cities in the United States for food and drink, alongside other celebrated culinary destinations across the country.

The publication points to Fredericksburg’s deep agricultural roots, surrounding vineyards, and thriving restaurant scene as key reasons the town stands out. With more than 75 wineries and tasting rooms, the area has become the epicenter of Texas Wine Country and a place where winemakers, chefs, and travelers gather to experience the flavors of the region.

The article also highlights local favorites such as Cabernet Grill, Eaker Barbecue, and Prometheus Pizza as examples of the creativity shaping Fredericksburg’s culinary scene.

Recognition like this continues to reinforce Fredericksburg’s reputation as one of the most exciting food and wine destinations in the Texas Hill Country — and one of the reasons the Fredericksburg Food & Wine Festival celebrates the incredible chefs, wineries, and culinary partners that make this community so special.

An article by Tastingtable.com

“Austin is a well-known foodie destination, but if you’re in the mood for good food in a smaller location, try Fredericksburg, a little town with just over 11,000 inhabitants about two hours west of Austin. As the name suggests, the town has strong German roots, and this is true of the food, as well. This makes Otto’s German Bistro a key stop for anyone passing through town, especially for the famous duck schnitzel and plenty of wursts or sausages.

For something a bit more Texan, there’s the Cabernet Grill, which serves Texas wines entirely sourced from nearby vineyards and certified Angus beef steaks. If that’s too fancy, go back to basics with Leroy’s Tex Mex BBQ, where you can get a range of typical Tex-Mex dishes packed with flavor, like nachos with meat or beans and roasted tomatillo avocado salsa, or the chopped brisket sandwich. If you come at the right time of year, you may be able to head over to the adjacent orchard to pick blackberries, peaches, or pumpkins.”