Texas Vineyard Happenings
Many Texas vineyards had grapevines that were budding when a freeze in the 20’s damaged primary buds. However, grape vines have a secondary budding which is smaller if vines experienced freezing temperatures when the vines are budding out in leaves. In cases throughout the vineyard world, temperatures in the 20’s means small crop yields with higher quality grapes. Here is what Texas vineyards had to say. Marnelle Durrett with Kiepersol Winery near Tyler told me, “Despite a late frost where we lost our primary buds on the whole vineyard, we have a decent crop hanging on the vines. We have already begun veraison. This started about 3 weeks early for us. We had heavy rain starting in April and by mid June that slowed significantly. We are now at the point where we must irrigate. This gives us total control over the water, ensuring that we can manage the quality. This will be the 27th harvest for Kiepersol. We are looking forward to a remarkable vintage!”
Dr. Bob Young with Bending Branch winery near Comfort relayed to me, “In the Texas Hill Country AVA, Drew Tallent has 60+ acres of vineyard in Mason County that will harvest this year, and Bending Branch will receive the majority of the Tannat and Charbono grown there. Tallent commented that this vintage “looks fabulous.” This year has been going well because of intermittent rains early in the growing season. Since the start of this year, he has irrigated just twice. The canopies are full and have a nice amount of cluster exposure but without overexposure. June was very good with temperatures 88-94 degrees Fahrenheit almost each day with nice breezes.
Our Bending Branch Estate Vineyard, also in the Texas Hill Country AVA, will not produce this year because of the damage from the March freeze. Our very local partner vineyards also experienced moderate loss from the freeze but will still produce small crops.
From one of the two certified organic vineyards that we work with in Texas High Plains, Y Knot Vineyards is having a wonderful growing season. Owner Marie Froese reports there was an early-season drought, unseasonably warm temperatures in March, and a late April freeze that hurt the production yields, but the health of the vines and fruit look good. She anticipates the Chardonnay block will have its first light harvest this year.
Other vineyards in the High Plains have had varying results, and some of the variation depends on the grape varieties. A few vineyards reported high winds at the end of June. David Neufield of Cottonwood Vineyards said early July brought pea-size hail and about an inch of rain. Even with the range of weather conditions, he said, “All in all, things are looking pretty good. The fruit looks phenomenal.”
Based on what we’re seeing across all sourcing regions, the fruit quality heading into this harvest is strong, and we’re looking forward to what this vintage will yield.”
Ron Yates with Spicewood Vineyards informed me, “The St. Patty’s freeze devastated the majority of our estate vineyards. We will harvest very little fruit from the Hill Country this year. Knowing the freeze was coming, we lit fires at the ends of our vineyard rows, which worked well and brought temperatures up to 26 from 20, but we couldn’t get it to 32, which would have saved our fruit. Ironically, our vineyard crew from Mexico was delayed in getting here so we did not get the Touriga Nacional at the EB Vineyard in Round Mountain pruned before the freeze and as a result, we have about 4 to 5 tons there. We will probably be able to make a small rosé blend from Tempranillo, Graciano and Carignan.
We will rely on fruit from the Texas High Plains, far west Texas and Dell Valley Vineyards – all of which are looking really good. These vineyards are a little behind normal schedule because of the rains in late May and early June.”
David Kuhlken with Pedernales Cellars proudly 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 couple more complete estate blends. We replanted with these varieties: Tempranillo, Grenache, Graciano, Mourvèdre, Touriga Nacional, Tinta Amarella, Alicante Bouschet, Teroldego, Petitt 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 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.”
Dave Reilly with Duchman Family Winery informed 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.”
