Deschain Cellars

About Winery and Wines

Deschain Cellars - the convivial "little winery that could" - built out of ten decommissioned shipping containers, is the passion project of Willem Johnson and Kristin Mapstone. It’s the culmination of Willem’s lifetime of experience and research in wine, hospitality and engineering. And, it has given Kristin a chance to exercise some offline creativity since so much of her time is spent sitting at a screen running an online marketing company. Willem and Kristin share a pioneering spirit and couldn’t resist the opportunity to help build the North Texas Wine Country and support the revitalization of downtown Gainesville. When they found this beautiful fully wooded, undeveloped property so conveniently located off US-82, they knew the right time and the right place to start a new adventure had aligned.

A wine and hospitality industry veteran, Willem was the first sommelier hired by Vail Resorts. He spent more than two decades managing their wine program, while also making wine for private club members as the co-owner of Churchill Cellars in Wolcott, Colorado, where he met Kristin when she was visiting Vail. A move to North Texas in 2015 to be with Kristin and her two boys led him to Muenster’s 4R Ranch Vineyards & Winery where he was the founding winemaker until early 2020. His wines have won a host of awards across the US and internationally, and he’s proud to be the first Texas-based winemaker to win a Sweepstake Medal (awarded to the top seven of seven-thousand entries) from The San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, the oldest and most prestigious blind tasting in the country.