Get your passport stamped along the Texas wine trails

While the trail riders rode into town last Friday, you could be riding out one weekend soon to hit one of Texas's 11 wine trails just as the bluebonnets are beginning to bloom this spring.

The fifth most productive wine-producing state in the nation, Texas features more than 200 vineyards with an annual output of 1.2 million cases of wine. One point two million. And that number will only continue to grow, as last year's record grape harvest would indicate: 8,900 tons of grapes were produced, a nearly 50 percent increase just from the year before.

Go Texan Wine wants to encourage Texans to take advantage of the thriving wine industry in their own backyard and, to that end, they've developed a Texas Winery Passport program that goes hand-in-glove with the state's many wine trails.

For every four visits to a Texas winery, you can redeem your passport "stamps" for rewards on Go Texan Wine's website. And although the rewards are pretty basic stuff at the outset -- a pair of stemless wine glasses for your 20th winery visit, a free winery tour for your 36th visit -- they get increasingly fancy as you make your way around all of the state's vineyards.

And if you manage to hit all 216 wineries? That's when the real rewards kick in.