Lake Travis Wine Trader

Are you in to wine? I mean are you REALLY into wine? This place is as good as it gets! A truly interesting concept. You can grab and open any bottle you want off the shelf. Everything in there is retail price. Open it up in the store for $ 5 corkage and drink it there or take it home with you. Wanna snack? They serve Antonelli’s cheese trays! So tasty! If you’re around on Friday, you can get a homemade lunch and a glass of wine, and you never know what other goodies may be cooked up on any given day.
Plenty of wines available by the glass, too, if a whole bottle isn’t your thing. You can just have a sip or two…
But wait, there’s more… :-)
And tastings! Back when we were beginners, we started with the entry level on Sundays… $ 5 refundable against bottle purchase. These were often boutique and unusual wines, all generally less than $ 20 a bottle. We moved up later to the Saturday tastings. These were $ 25/​$ 30… BUT the bottles we were tasting were all over $ 50 each. I’d never actually buy a bottle for that much (or I wouldn’t have THEN), but it gave me a chance to try some of the higher end.
They have the big leagues, too! About once a month they host «Big Winos.» This is when the big dogs come out to play! These bottles are often over $ 200 a piece and you get to try FIVE of them for about $ 90. The untold secret is that you may get to try a little taste or two from the cellars for the regulars as well. They LOVE to share.
Additionally, several times a month winemakers and vineyard owners come in to tout their wares. On a week night you can expect an intimate tasting where you hear everything about the wine from the vineyard to the fermentation to the bottling.
It’s in a strip center in Lakeway on RR 620… so it’s a little hidden. It’s in the parking lot with the restaurant Fore… just a few doors down.
The people who work there can tell you whatever you want to know about every bottle on the shelf and recommend good choices for you even if you know nothing.
I started going here a few years back and quickly learned that there is a large and close knit following of locals (and not so locals, I live in Round Rock. It takes nearly an hour to get there.)
It can be a little overwhelming as an outsider that EVERYONE in there seems to know each other and treats the place like it’s their living room, BUT you learn very quickly to actually enjoy the experience. Better yet, people in there WANT to share with you.
Wine Trader is celebrating its ten year anniversary this Sunday.
You should come on in to check it out if you haven’t been there! You don’t know what you’re missing.
Tell Lori, George, and Steven that I said, «hi.»

Well, I haven’t actually been here yet, but after the phone conversation I just had with Lori, I will definitely be heading there soon. I phoned to see if they had a specific wine I’ve been looking for and if they had any spare corks and wine crates they could part with. She was awesome and so helpful. Although they don’t sell the wine I am looking for, she is on the ‘hunt’ for it now. I can’t wait to go in and have a glass of wine there now. This was a total opposite experience to what I recently had with Spec’s. Thank goodness for the smaller, local businesses! Bravo, Wine Trader!

Pretty small place, but stocks a good selection of wines from around the world. Reasonably prices. They do tastings on certain days. On Sunday you get 2 red and 1 white for $ 5 or for free if you buy any bottle.
Just A-​OK due to environment. Again, small so felt kind of cramped. Also, a little «stuffy.» Rather than being a «wine bar» and retailer it comes across more like a… hmmm…place where ladies might go to to play cards and enjoy some wine. Kind of… boring. Maybe I just went on an off night. So happens that when I went a group of women were having, what I guessed was a birthday party, so there was cake, balloons, and such on the large table in the center of the room — which is the very first thing that caught my eye. Probably will give a tasting at the bar another try.
Nice option to purchase a bottle for home, perhaps to pair with dinner. Staff seemed very knowledgeable.

Fun place — excellent wine selection that appeals to all — good people hanging out drinking wine — what more can you ask for? — the owner seems like a very fun and knowledgable gal !

The best place to drink great wine!!! The owners are the greatest! If you want knowledge about wine this is the place to go.

My husband and I stumbled into the Lake Travis Wine Trader one Sunday afternoon. Well not actually stumbling but after making a quick stop at a business near the front of the collection of mall shops, we spotted this delightful wine bar and retail store. The owner and wine pourer for the day was very knowledgeable and showcases a very respectable selection of wines from around the world. The facility is very comfortable and seems to cater to special orders for several of the local regulars that came and went while we sat at the bar. We will definitely be back to visit when in the Lakeway area.
And, note if you need a mani/​pedi, you can pick up a glass before heading a few doors down to the local spa — then return the glass when finished with your spa service. How great is that?

Some of the best features of wine are the people with whom you are drinking.
Wine and people are the very best.

If you like wine, this is the place to go. Very friendly, staff, owners and patrons.

Walked by this little place on my way to the Spicy Parrott last nite for little olé lady friend’s birthday. I was Astonished that we, as Professional Drinkers, had never noticed this little place and then seeing it had never been reviewed either, I assumed it had just opened.
Nope, the nice man behind the bar said they’ve been open for FIVE YEARS! I need to have my wine bar radar maintenanced! The place was crowded as they were having a vintner’s tasting but we wedged into a coupla stools at the bar. Immediately this place reminded me of a Vino 100. Lots of bottles for sale along the walls but unlike V100, whose bottles were all $ 25 or less, there is a wide range of prices here. You can also drink by the glass or by the «taste», a 2 oz pour.
We each had one glass of wine and I grilled the barkeep about the biz as is my Unilocal right. They have an ingenuous device set up with spigots for the wine that keeps the O2 levels in opened bottles just right. They also do frequent tastings, including every Sat and Sun (these are for a fee tho).
We enjoyed our wines (a Riesling for LOLF and a Tempranillo for me) and our conversation with the barkeep, who was very nice and tolerant of LOLF’s quirks.
We’ll definitely come back, maybe sit outside and have some wine and a cheese plate or panini now that it’s on my radar!