As beautiful as the Hill Country’s wines and vineyards are, it can be difficult to keep all of them straight. With 69 member wineries, Texas Hill Country Wineries (THCW) is as close as anyone can get to doing it, and the trade association is now partnering with Wine Folly to create a “dynamic online Region Guide” that’s free for anyone to use.

The online guide is less like a book and more like a database, with six main topic pages spanning wines, wineries, terroir (growing conditions), history, region, and travel. There’s also a short introduction that combines all those topics in a quick overview that’s worth reading out loud from the passenger seat.

Clicking into each section, the guide starts to take shape, featuring segmented writing and data visualizations to get the point across. For example, in the wines section, the 418 wines represented are organized into a doughnut chart by prevalence (surprisingly, Mourvèdre takes the largest section with 32 in total). Users can then click through to a list of matching bottles with profiles describing their tasting notes, behind-the-scenes growing information, suggested food pairings and more.

The other sections unfold as follows:

  • Wineries: The first page presents several featured wineries, and a secondary page organizes all winery profiles with a filter for grape varieties used.
  • Terroir: Helpful illustrations take wine-lovers back to elementary school science, with more written details for teachers’ pets.
  • History: A timeline tracks the region back to the 1600s, and a secondary page on vintages lays out some interesting info about the fruits of the past 11 years.
  • Region: This section lays out geographical information about what Texans probably just call “the Hill Country,” but in much greater detail and in winemakers’ terms.
  • Travel: Adding flavor, this section suggests routes to take by car (“wine trails”), alternative transportation options, general winery etiquette and offerings, things to do nearby, and recommended places to stay.

For devout fact-checkers and voracious researchers, each section is presented with a list of sources.

A press release from THCW calls this a “first-of-its-kind digital resource,” meaning no other site has compiled a comparable online guide. In case wine-lovers do want to check out other guides, though, Wine Folly has more on general topics like wine basics, pairings, tasting, and handling; plus 14 more regional guides including the Napa Valley, New York, Bordeaux, and Italy (titled Chianti Classico).

“This partnership with Wine Folly represents a monumental step forward for Texas Hill Country Wineries and for Texas wine as a whole,” said THCW president Blake DeBerry in a press release. “For the first time, we’re investing in a fully interactive, global-scale educational platform that will showcase the diverse terroir, winemaking styles, and must-visit wineries that make Texas Hill Country one of the most exciting wine regions in the United States.”