Real Wine from the Texas Hill Country
La Cruz de Comal is one of the most uncompromising natural wine projects in the United States — a 3-acre estate in the Texas Hill Country that has redefined what Texas wine can be. [^1^] Founded by Lewis Dickson (former Houston defense attorney) and California natural wine legend Tony Coturri, La Cruz de Comal produces only authentic Texas wine from 100% estate-grown grapes. [^4^] The winery is the only producer in Texas — to our knowledge — making "no sulfite added" wine entirely from its own vineyard. [^5^] Their philosophy is radical in its simplicity: nothing added, nothing taken away. The wines are alive, evolving, and deeply connected to the limestone hills and hot Texas sun.
From Houston Courtrooms to the Hill Country
Lewis Dickson did not grow up farming. He was one of Houston's most prominent defense attorneys — a bon vivant and full-time resident of the Four Seasons Hotel downtown, known for defending some of Texas's most high-profile and dangerous criminals, from politicians to serial killers. [^5^] His law firm, DeGuerin and Dickson, was legendary. But Lewis's true passion was wine.
His wine journey began in 1981 when he tasted Tony Coturri's first commercially released wine from the 1979 vintage in Sonoma. [^1^] Lewis called Tony the next day, arranged a visit, and they became lifelong friends. Lewis went on to own part of a small vineyard in the Santa Cruz Mountains, travel the world's wine regions, and live in France — in both Provence and Toulouse — during the late 1990s. [^1^]
Upon returning from France in 2000, Lewis began planting the LD3 Ranch Vineyard on a limestone hillside near Canyon Lake, Texas. [^1^] He started with eleven different grape varieties to see which could survive without being on "24/7 pesticide life support." [^1^] After six years of natural selection, two varieties emerged as the clear winners: Blanc du Bois, a white grape introduced to Texas by Florida university researchers in the late 1980s, and Black Spanish (also known as Lenoir), a red grape that has been grown in Texas since the time of the Spanish conquistadores. [^5^]
The name "La Cruz de Comal" comes from an old Mexican graveyard cross that sits in the estate vineyard. [^1^] Lewis bought the cross in San Antonio in the mid-1980s. The story goes that in a small village near Lake Chapala in Michoacán, a man who was essentially the mayor, priest, and godfather to everyone died in the late 1800s. The villagers wanted to cast a special cross for his grave, so they gave over their comals — iron utensils used to cook carnitas and heat tortillas — and the cross was made from them. [^1^] "La cruz" means "the cross" in Spanish. The reference to "comal" has nothing to do with Comal County, Texas — it's about what the cross is made of and the dedication behind it. [^1^]
La Cruz de Comal became a bonded Texas winery in 2004, and the tasting room — designed by Lewis himself, inspired by his time in France — opened in 2012. [^1^] [^4^] The building was constructed entirely with lumber gleaned from the winery's property, with vaulted beamed ceilings, a fireplace, and the feel of a Provencal cottage dropped into the Texas Hill Country. [^3^]
"You can have a wine that Robert Parker gives a 95 to. It's black, it's icky, it's jammy, it's oaky, and it's dead. It's dead on arrival. It's not alive. It doesn't evolve in the glass. You open a bottle and the second glass tastes the same as the first and the fourth glass tastes the same as the second. I think if a wine doesn't evolve in the glass, it probably hasn't evolved much in the bottle. I'm trying to take the raw materials here and not make wines in the image of something they're not."
— Lewis Dickson
Zero Sulfur, Native Yeast & Chemical-Free Farming
La Cruz de Comal's farming is deliberately simple and chemical-free. The 3-acre LD3 Ranch Vineyard is planted on limestone hillside soils in the Texas Hill Country, a hot, dry region between Austin and San Antonio where the Mediterranean-like climate challenges conventional viticulture. [^1^] [^14^] Rather than fighting the land with pesticides and irrigation, Lewis works with it — letting natural selection determine which grapes belong there.
The vineyard is dedicated to just two varieties: Blanc du Bois (white) and Black Spanish (red). [^1^] Both are hybrid varieties bred for resistance to Pierce's Disease, the bacterial plague that destroys conventional Vitis vinifera vines across the humid South. Blanc du Bois was developed by the University of Florida in the late 1980s and thrives in the Texas heat. Black Spanish (Lenoir) is an old American variety with a history stretching back to the Spanish colonial era — it is one of the few red grapes that can reliably produce quality wine in Texas without chemical intervention. [^5^]
All grapes are grown without the use of chemicals. [^4^] The vineyard is farmed by Lewis himself — shake his hands and you'll find them chapped from pruning and picking. [^5^] He is a farmer first, not a surgeon-turned-vintner. He prefers to call himself a grape grower, giving winemaking credit to Tony Coturri, who has vinified Dickson's fruit in nearly every vintage since 2001. [^5^]
The wines are fermented on wild, natural yeasts — Lewis has never had commercial yeasts on the property. [^1^] No additions of acid, sugar, grape concentrate, powdered tannins, or artificial coloring agents are ever used. [^1^] [^4^] The wines are unfined and unfiltered, bottled by hand at cellar temperature (56–58°F), and stored in a limestone hillside cave on the property. [^4^]
Lewis Dickson belongs to an extremely small group of courageous winemakers making "no sulfite added" wine. As far as we know, he is the only winemaker in Texas producing zero-sulfur wine entirely from estate fruit. [^5^]
Since 2011, all wines are made strictly from estate-grown Blanc du Bois and Black Spanish. No purchased fruit. No High Plains grapes. True Texas terroir from Canyon Lake limestone hills. [^1^]
Commercial yeasts have never been on the property. Fermentation relies entirely on indigenous yeasts living naturally on the grape skins and in the winery. [^1^] [^4^]
Hand-harvested, hand-punched caps three to four times daily, aged in French and hybrid oak barrels, bottled by hand without fining or filtration. [^1^] [^3^]
Living Wines That Evolve in the Glass
La Cruz de Comal's cellar is a study in patience and non-intervention. Tony Coturri — the legendary California natural winemaker who has been using indigenous yeast and zero pesticides for over 40 harvests — has been the guiding hand behind every vintage except 2011, when he walked Lewis through the process via phone conference. [^5^] [^11^] Tony was nominated as a semi-finalist for the prestigious James Beard Award in 2018 for Wine, Beer and Spirits Professional of the Year. [^1^]
The winemaking is deliberately primitive in the best sense. Grapes are hand-picked into small baskets and brought to the small winery on the other side of the vineyard from the tasting room. [^4^] Red wines are punched down by hand at least three to four times a day during fermentation. [^1^] All red wines are aged in oak barrels — mostly new or one-year-old French oak and hybrid barrels (American oak staves with French oak heads, or alternating staves). [^4^]
Because the wines are unfiltered, they contain sediment and can appear cloudy if shaken during transport. [^4^] Lewis is transparent about this — he doesn't hide the sediment. The wines should be stood upright for a day before opening to let sediment settle. [^4^] Because they are bottled at cellar temperature and contain living yeasts, they continue to evolve in the bottle and even in the glass. The first pour will not taste the same as the last. [^3^]
The wines are not perfect in a conventional sense, and they are not easy wines. They can "stink" when first opened, requiring patience and decanting. [^5^] But they reward the patient drinker with freshness, technicolor fruit flavors, and a sense of place that manipulated wines cannot replicate. "I don't make the wine," Lewis says. "I just give it a place to live." [^3^]
Using estate-grown Blanc du Bois and Black Spanish, Lewis has created eight completely different types of wine — a remarkable achievement given the limited palette of just two grape varieties. [^1^] The wines are released under two labels: "La Cruz de Comal" for wines that may include fruit from other sources (in earlier years), and "Dickson" for wines made exclusively from the LD3 Ranch vineyard. [^4^]
The Wrongheaded Hombre — Black Spanish & Zinfandel
One of La Cruz de Comal's most distinctive wines, the Wrongheaded Hombre is a 100% natural blend of Black Spanish and Zinfandel with no added sulfites (<10 mg/L). [^10^] The label features striking original artwork — a hallmark of La Cruz de Comal's visual identity. The wine exemplifies the winery's philosophy: Texas grapes, California natural winemaking sensibility, zero manipulation. It is a wine that demands attention and patience, evolving dramatically from the first glass to the last. Available through RAW WINE and select natural wine retailers. ~$35–$45.
The La Cruz de Comal Range
La Cruz de Comal produces a small portfolio of wines across two labels — La Cruz de Comal and Dickson — all made from 100% estate-grown Blanc du Bois and Black Spanish since 2011. [^1^] The wines are hand-harvested, fermented with native yeasts only, aged in French and hybrid oak, and bottled by hand without fining, filtration, or added sulfites. [^1^] [^4^] Because production is tiny and the wines are alive, they require careful handling: store at cellar temperature, stand upright before opening, and decant if sediment bothers you. [^4^] Prices are approximate and in USD.