Before we ever tasted a wine, Untamed had already made an impression.
Butterflies drifted through beds of blooming roses and purple salvia while broad lawns rolled toward distant Hill Country views. The stone buildings and black steel pergolas felt polished without becoming formal, inviting us to slow down before we ever reached the tasting room. It was an appropriately beautiful entrance for a winery whose name suggests something a little unconventional.
Inside, that feeling continued.
Katie welcomed us with the kind of enthusiasm that immediately makes you feel less like a customer and more like someone she’s genuinely excited to meet. While we looked over the tasting menu, David introduced himself and, after discovering we both lived in the Dripping Springs area, our conversation wandered from favorite local businesses we’d hated to lose into the story behind Untamed. It never felt like a rehearsed tasting. It felt like talking with someone who genuinely believed in what they were building.
That story begins thousands of miles from Texas.
Owner and winemaker Dane Sanvido built his career making wine in South Africa before opportunities took him through Australia, California, and New Zealand. Along the way he worked in some of the wine world’s most respected regions, producing everything from boutique wines to labels measured in the millions of cases. His wife, McKenzie Sanvido, is a biochemist whose laboratory work supports wineries throughout Texas as well as California. Together they eventually stepped away from corporate winemaking with a simple goal: build something of their own.
Texas became that place.
Rather than simply opening another tasting room, they built a working winery that produces Untamed’s wines while also serving as a custom-crush facility for wineries across Texas. McKenzie Sanvido’s laboratory gives them an unusually broad view of what growers and winemakers throughout the state are accomplishing. Few people have a better vantage point for watching Texas wine evolve because they’re helping shape that evolution every day.
Today’s Untamed portfolio still leans heavily on fruit from some of California’s finest growing regions, reflecting Dane’s insistence on starting with exceptional grapes. But rather than waiting for Texas to catch up, Untamed has become part of that journey. Through their winery, laboratory, and relationships with growers across the state, they’re helping improve both vineyard practices and winemaking while steadily bringing more Texas fruit into their own program.
That perspective explains many of the wines we tasted.
During our visit, the Picpoul was the winery’s only Texas-grown wine, and it couldn’t have been more appropriate for a scorching Hill Country afternoon. Completely unoaked, bright, crisp, and remarkably clean, it was the kind of wine that makes 100°F (38°C) feel a little more manageable. We had just tasted an oaked Picpoul at Lost Draw a few days earlier, making the contrast even more interesting.
The conversation became even more memorable when David poured the Pinotage.
Outside of South Africa, Pinotage remains unfamiliar to many wine drinkers, and David clearly enjoyed introducing visitors to both its history and its personality. Developed by crossing Pinot Noir with Cinsaut, the grape carries Pinot Noir’s lighter body while adding distinctive smoky, savory characteristics that David compared to smoked bacon. It was one of the more educational conversations we’ve had on this trip, and after a sip or two it became easy to understand why he immediately recommended pairing it with Untamed’s wood-fired meat-lover’s pizza.
That willingness to experiment extends beyond the current lineup.
One of the wines David was most excited about wasn’t available yet. An upcoming Texas High Plains Tempranillo had been transformed by adding roughly five percent Pinotage, rounding out the middle of the wine while still allowing it to remain legally Tempranillo. Better yet, visitors had been able to taste both versions side by side. It wasn’t a marketing story. It was a genuine look at how thoughtful decisions in the cellar can completely change a wine.
By the end of our visit, one thing had become obvious.
Untamed isn’t trying to convince visitors that Texas wine has already reached its destination. Dane and McKenzie Sanvido bring decades of international experience, but instead of recreating South Africa or California in the Hill Country, they’re investing that knowledge back into Texas. Through custom winemaking, laboratory support, and an increasing commitment to Texas-grown fruit, they’re quietly helping raise the quality of wines being produced across the state.
The gardens may be what first catches your eye, and the patio may convince you to stay another hour beneath the blue umbrellas overlooking the Hill Country, but we left thinking about something entirely different. Dane and McKenzie Sanvido didn’t choose Texas because it was the easiest place to make world-class wine. They chose it because they believed in where Texas wine is headed—and they’re helping push it there.
We can’t wait to come back this fall, taste the new Texas releases, and see what happens when more Texas fruit meets that level of experience.
Fruit story: still largely sourced from California’s top growing regions, with a growing share of Texas fruit and Untamed running as a custom-crush facility for wineries across the state. From the visit: a Texas Hill Country Picpoul, a South African–born Pinotage, and Méthode Cap Classique sparkling — plus rose-and-salvia gardens, a patio under blue umbrellas, a wood-fired pizzeria, and a look at the production floor.
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