Giving Thanks for a Great Texas Grape Harvest
The Texas wine industry has seen another great harvest of grapes with outstanding quality and good yields. Winemakers throughout Texas report grape quality meeting and exceeding expectations. The warm winter brought an early bud break, in some areas by as much as two weeks. Thankfully, there were no late freezes and major hail storms in Texas. This was followed by a normal Summer, but wet which minimized irrigation in the vineyards. The white grapes like Chardonnay and Roussane were harvested first in August with grape harvest continuing with the red grapes, through September and into the first days of October. Wedding Oak winemaker Van Johnson outlined these previous scenarios and expects 2024 to have a slight excess of grapes as occurred in 2023. The vast majority of grapes grown in Texas come from the Texas High Plains. This region is high in elevation, ranging from 3,000 feet above mean sea level to 4,000 feet. MSL. As a result, the night temperatures dip into the 50’s on most Summer nights. This area has low humidity so molds and mildews do not plague the vineyards. Summers are not overly wet, but can go to above 100 degrees during the day. This Summer on the Texas High Plains was not on the extreme hot sides as has been in the past. Texas wineries are happy with this year’s harvests consisting of the vitis vinifera in the interior parts of Texas and the hybrid grapes like Blanc du Bois along the Texas Gulf Coast.
California has seen an abundant crop of grapes with California wineries not purchasing as much grapes as years prior due to declining wine sales. As a result, thousands of tons of grapes in California were not harvested and left on the vines to rot. Many California vineyards are pulling up their grape vines and replanting with other crops like almonds.
France has experienced another problem with its grapes. In years past, hail storms wiped out vineyards. This year the grapes did not mature well, having low sugar levels. The sugar levels were so low this year that many wineries requested permission from the French regulators to add bulk sugars to their grapes. Sugars are needed in the fermentation process for the fermenting yeasts to convert the sugars into alcohol. Without these additional sugars to provide the alcohol levels required for a suitable wine, the wines would be flabby and not palatable.
Texans have a lot to be thankful for, including the outstanding grape harvest and the award-winning wines to be made from this year’s quality grape harvest. This coming Thanksgiving raise a glass of Texas wine to celebrate the bountiful harvests in Texas. There are so many outstanding Texas wines to choose from with the best Texas wines to be acquired directly from Texas wineries either at the winery or via delivery services like UPS. Those boutique wines truly show the greatness of the Texas wine industry and its award-winning wines!