UNCORKED Couple converts barn into winery, tasting room

Felicia Frazar The Seguin Gazette

Ryan and Robin Richter have given a century-old hay barn in the middle of the country new life and purpose.

The Guadalupe County couple has transformed the once abandoned barn into Windmill Farms Winery on five acres just north of Geronimo at 9111 Huber Road.

“We’re excited and a little nervous,” Ryan said. “We just want to be a place where people can come out to and relax and have fun.”

About 14 years ago, the couple purchased the land, which had a home and a barn, both built around 1902, Ryan said.

At first, the Richters used the building as storage. It had a lean-to shelter on the southern wall, two sliding hay doors at the top, a dirt floor and it was a little crooked from years of weathering, Ryan said.

Now, the rejuvenated building has a concrete floor throughout, the lean-to closed in for the work room and the main barn transformed into a tasting room with an eclectic mix of furniture and antique decor. The wooden structure was fixed up with materials left by the previous owners or repurposed from other buildings around the area, Robin said

“Anything that we could keep as the original, we did,” she said. “If we couldn’t, we had materials that we collected from torn off someone else’s barn or someone else’s house.”

Robin picked and pulled various pieces to fill the inside and create a warm and welcoming atmosphere that mixes a bit of a modern industrial look with history. This includes transforming a hay trolley into a light fixture.

“We pulled hay trollies out of barns, repainted them and repurposed them into light fixtures,” Ryan said. “We found this 1930s nail and screw bin and so we bought it and adjusted it to hold our wine.”

Throughout the building are also individual pieces with meaning to the Richters’ families.

With high ceilings, the couple created a loft for additional seating for visitors 18 years and older.

“Besides the antiques, we tried to incorporate a lot of family stuff in the decor,” Ryan said. “My great-granddad’s saddle, a mermaid is actually me because I was an underwater performer at Aquarena Springs. It’s stuff like that to give it a personal touch.”

Among the pieces the couple used in their decor is the winery’s name sake.

“We were going through different names and we had a windmill from when we bought the place. It was on the ground and we stood it up and it was a steady piece,” Ryan said. “We found another windmill piece and started ping-ponging ideas. And came up with Windmill Farms and it just kind of stuck.”

With retirement looming for the couple, they wanted to find something they could do together and realized their love of wine was the path they wanted to follow.

“We’ve been members of Water To Wine in New Braunfels for a while. Let’s talk to the owner and brought her out to see if we should go for it,” Ryan said. “She saw it in its original state and said she thought it would work.”

The tasting room offers a small selection of hand-crafted wines made at the winery, as well as the option for visitors to make their own.

“A person can come in, mix their wine, we do the remaining steps, they come back in with friends and bottle it,” Robin said. “They’re only making 28 bottles. If someone happens to love one flavor, they can get a half batch, 14 bottles, with their own labels and their set. Some businesses use them for Christmas gifts. Before we became owners, we would make our own batch.”

The couple first began making their own libations after coming across a Water 2 Wine shop in Fredericksburg. Once a New Braunfels location opened up shop, they continued their wine making there until deciding to open their own shop, Robin said.

Currently, they have 22 different wines ready for tasting and purchase with plans to add more, and include seasonal or limited series. Each one carries a name with local flair, Robin said.

“We’re having fun with the names that have meaning,” she said. “We’re trying to incorporate local names into our wines like 1902, Barabosa Berry, Zorn White, Geronimo Red, Panther Juice and Navarro Nectar and we’re coming up with more.”

Windmill Farms is not only family friend, but family oriented as their children helped get them started, Ryan said.

“We’re kid friendly and we’re looking at maybe bringing in a playscape to give the kids something to do while [adults] sip wine,” he said.

The couple also plans to eventually host market days or other fun actives throughout the year for guests to enjoy.

Windmill Farms, located at 9111 Huber Road, is open noon to 7 p.m. Thursday, noon to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and noon to 7 p.m. Sunday.

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