Texas Grape Harvest Continues
Texas grapes are being harvested with the grape quantity low, but the quality of the grapes is outstanding. Last Spring’s late freezes caused freeze damage to many grape vines, particularly on the Texas High Plains where the bulk of the vitis vinifera grapes grow! Several grape growers provided their insights into their harvest.
Dave Reilly with Duchman Family Winery in the Texas Hill Country told me, “This is a unique year for us: Duchman will not be bringing in fruit this harvest. Over the past several vintages we purchased and produced at significant volume, and today our cellar is at capacity, committed to wine already in production. Our approach has always been built on time – our reds spend four to five years in barrel and another year or more in bottle before release. This year, all of our attention goes to the wines already in house, from cellar aging the reds to preparing our next white releases. When you build a program around extended aging, you’re buying fruit for wines that won’t reach the market for five or six years. You’re making your best projection about a future no one can see. Sitting out a harvest is not an easy decision, and I don’t want to pretend it was. But the wine in our cellar is some of the best we’ve ever made, and this year it gets all of our time and attention.”
Michael Barton with Signor Vineyards is glad the field work is done. “The last of our Estate fruit is officially in! Our Mourvèdre cropped beautifully at 2.5 tons per acre. While the spring frost left us with only a small amount of Sangiovese, the fruit arrived with beautiful chemistry and flavor. Together, the final pick totaled 6.5 tons, and the two varieties are now being married in the same tank to co-ferment. Our small block of Black Spanish came off easily, yielding a perfect one ton. Everything arrived about a week ahead of schedule, although the floods added nearly five days while the vineyard dried out. We were incredibly fortunate that the floodwaters stopped just 20 feet from the Mourvèdre. After yet another wild Texas growing season, we’re grateful to have such beautiful fruit safely in the cellar. Now, we let the vintage tell its story.”
Pedernales Cellars Co-Owner David Kuhlken told me, “This year will mark the first ‘real’ harvest at our estate Kuhlken Vineyard since we replanted it in 2020. We expect several of our blocks will be mature enough to yield fruit and possibly enable us to make a Sangiovese by the end of July and possibly some early harvest Grenache for rosé. In the Texas High Plains, we have a number of vineyards with mild frost damage reduction to the crops, though we have sourced additional fruit to cover these losses. The biggest hits seemed to be in Mourvèdre, but also some of the Viognier blocks we work with. More generally, yields will be light, but we hope can lead to some improved overall quality if weather gives us a good window in the next couple of months. The overall weather cycle has been promising up to this point given the moderate to higher rainfall in the Hill Country giving over to hot, but not extreme conditions so far. The High Plains has been much drier and hot, though not extreme to this point, but the critical window on that is still ahead.”couple more complete estate blends. We replanted with these varieties: Tempranillo, Grenache, Graciano, Mourvèdre, Touriga Nacional, Tinta Amarella, Alicante Bouschet, Teroldego, Petite Sirah and Sangiovese. As of early July, these blocks ranged from 50%-90% veraison. In general, we are ahead of schedule on veraison and ripening with an expectation that we could be harvesting early varieties like Tempranillo and
Brian Heath, CEO/President of Heath Family Brands said “We began our estate harvesting with Tannat and Petite Sirah on Monday night August 3rd. Little lower yields than normal, but great quality. None of our white varietals produced after the late freeze earlier this year, so it’s an all red harvest.”
Remi Immler Gregory, Becker Vineyards Winemaker near Fredericksburg told me, “The harvest is looking very light due to multiple freezes earlier in the year in both the Texas Hill Country and High Plains. With yields being low, I’m very excited about incorporating different techniques and trials into our winemaking and being able to track experiments to use for future vintages. With low yields, grape quality has been high. Becker Vineyards kicked off harvest on July 21st with Estate Semillon. Since then, Chardonnay from the Tallent Vineyard (Mason, TX) followed by Estate grapes of Sauvignon Blanc, Petite Sirah, Malbec, Sangiovese have also been harvested. Merlot from the Texas High Plains (Seminole, Tc) has also been harvested.”
My prediction after hearing this news is that Texas will be producing many award-winning wines!
