Pontotoc Vineyard was established in the unique terroir of the Llano Uplift in the Northern Hill Country community of Pontotoc, Mason County, Texas. Pontotoc means “Land of Hanging Grapes” and the vineyard was planted in the fertile red sand soil of a high valley surrounded by pink granite outcroppings and sandstone hills on a farm originally founded by the German Emigration Company in 1872. The community once promised to be a large town with an institute of higher education and farming, ranching, and mining industries. The establishment of San Fernando Academy in 1882 drew students to the area from throughout Texas and was the pride of Pontotoc. Over the years, however, the community experienced a series of hardships, including a typhoid fever epidemic, which nearly wiped out the population; the defeat of a movement to create a new county called Mineral County with Pontotoc as the county seat; and the fire of 1946, which ravaged the town center. Despite these challenges, Pontotoc persevered and, as a testament to the character of the community, now stands poised to realize the promise of the future with the emergence of viticulture and enology in the Northern Hill Country.