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MARK HARMON MAKES PROPHETIC BET WITH WALDORF ASTORIA TEXAS HILL COUNTRY.
By DAVID EISEN
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It’ s déjà vu all over again for Mark Harmon, who for 30 years flourished as the founder and CEO of Auberge Resorts Collection, which played no small role as an originator in the luxury boutique space, with a portfolio of properties whose services and amenities may have only been outdone by their natural surroundings. Consider Auberge du Soleil in Napa Valley, which was opened in the late 1980s by Harmon’ s father, Bob. This was only a few years after the 1976“ Judgment of Paris” tasting, where Napa Valley wines beat out French wines, putting Napa on the world stage
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and beckoning oenophiles the world over, and well before the film“ Sideways” made Merlot anathema.
Here’ s the point: There is something in the Harmon DNA that acts like an antenna for knowing where the next big thing is going to be— it just so happens to be associated with wine. In this case, it’ s— Texas? Yes, and Harmon is set to do it again, this time with a bold new project in Waldorf Astoria Texas Hill Country.
DEEP IN THE HEART The state of Texas is known for many things: cowboys, cattle and chili are three. It’ s a state where Lone Star beer is
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sacrosanct, not Tempranillos. That’ s all changing, slowly, but changing nonetheless and Harmon and his partners’ new project, Waldorf Astoria Texas Hill Country, is riding with every pour.
Texas Hill Country is a region central in the state with bucolic typography of rolling hills and limestone outcrops and a climate that allows for wine production. Within Texas Hill Country is Texas Wine Country and within Texas Wine Country is the city of Fredericksburg, settled by German immigrants, just over an hour from both San Antonio and Austin and considered a starting point for those visiting wineries in the
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36 hotelsmag. com May / June 2025 |