If Chris Conrad has lived a big life, this year was the biggest. In January, he bought a castle just outside Johnson City, built a boutique hotel modeled after a Spanish colonial fortress that protected the mission system in the early days of the republic and started Conrad Family Wines. This fall he is introducing eight varieties of Texas Republic wines that his patrons can sip while immersing themselves in Texas culture at his Hill Country boot shop.
A history buff and a proud fifth-generation Texan who traveled the world before starting his custom leather boot company in 2011, Conrad comes to the Hill Country from Houston. And he plans to stay, drawing on Texas history to create experiences that correlate with his brand.
“We are big on the experience,” he says, adding that he wants to host a lot of concerts and events at the Republic Wine Castle. “It’s so bombastic. It really fit our brand.”
His boot and leather goods shop in Houston has doubled its business in the last five years with live country music and other experiences. In the fall, he takes high end clients out with alligator hunters to harvest hides. He also owns a crocodile farm and a tannery in Mexico to vertically integrate his supply chain.
Towering over US Route 290, the castle, which was only built five years ago, is an elevated experience in itself. “As you go in, it is a very elegant Texas theme,” he says. “Outside we have a Luckenbach green field. We will be doing concerts out there.”
In his renovations on the 37-acre property, he gave the medieval castle a Lone Star feel. He moved the winery’s fermentation offsite to Johnson City and created a honky-tonk music hall and a luxury hotel with a pool. Where there was once a dungeon, he created a bespoke wine cellar where he plans to open a small local steakhouse.
“We are big on local–100 percent Texas wines and foods,” he says.
In July, just before they planned to open the Presidio Hotel and the Republic Wine Castle shop, heavy rain in the Hill Country flooded the castle.
“We lost some of our hotel rooms,” he says. “The hydrostatic pressure behind it made us shut down. But we made it bigger and badder.”
As an engineer who used to work on multi-million-dollar oil and gas projects in Asia and Europe, Conrad isn’t daunted by floods or systems that require precision, like making wine. He caught the wine bug while living in Italy and he has been making 100 percent Texas wine for 25 years as a hobby. In fact, he sees winemaking as a natural extension of his custom boot business.
“The creativity in building a boot is like building a wine,” he says. “We took existing stock that we had and we blended it to make these.”
By these, he means his Texas Republic Tempranillo, Petit Syrah, Sangiovese, Pinot Gris, Viognier, Sweet Red and White, and Sangiovese Rosé.
On each label, augmented reality technology enables people to scan the image with their smart phone to tell a story about Texas history. While the history of the Republic is very much alive at Republic Boot Co., the story of wine in the Hill Country is just beginning to be told on the world stage.
This year, four Texas Hill Country wineries upset the wine world by being the first Texas varietals to win gold at the 2026 Decanter World Wine Awards. (Ab Astris Winery’s Souzao 2022, the Turtle Creek Vinyard’s Tannat 2023, the Adega Vinho Winery’s Estate Tempranillo 2021, and Spicewood Vineyards’ Las Montañas 2022.)
“In Texas, we are trying to educate the market on these varietals they may never have had,” he says. “It’s cool to have a Texas steak and not have to have California wine. Now you can have an excellent Texas wine to go with it.”