Texas Vineyards
Texas is unique in the world of wine since it has two distinct types of vineyards. Texas vineyards are either coastal or inland. All of these vineyards are currently in a dormant stage with no vegetation, just vines. The coastal counties have warm night temperatures with lows in the upper 60’s to mid-70. Those counties also have high humidity, lots of molds and bugs adverse to most grape vines. The inland vineyards at least two hundred miles from the coast have a variety of climates conducive to growing the classic wine grapes which belong to the vitis vinifera. These grapes are found in the Texas Hill Country, Franklin Mountains in west Texas, north Texas, and the Texas High Plains. About 80% of the grapes grown in Texas come from the Texas High Plains located over 3,000 feet above sea level. This high elevation provides cool nights with temperatures around 55 to 60 degrees. At this height, there is little humidity and virtually no molds and harmful insects to negatively impact grape vines. There are significantly reduced levels of allergens in the High Plains which produce grapes with low levels of allergens which means wines produced from these grapes have low levels of allergens. This is great news for people who have allergies since these wines, particularly the red wines have low levels of allergens. As a result, there are less negative impacts from consuming wines made from these Texas High Plains grapes. Late freezes do impact the High Plains. As a result, pruning these vineyards is delayed as late as possible in hopes of delaying bud breaks. If bud breaks occur on these vines too early, a rough pruning is done to prune the existing canes to lengths of 18-24 inches long. The vines will re-emerge a week or two later with the delays hopefully just enough to miss that north Texas freeze. Pruning is done to provide the grape vine with limitations on a wild production of grapes to a manageable level of grapes which will produce a better quality of grape showcasing that grape varietals characteristics. Bud break is normally in April with vineyard pruning in April. Grapes will form after flowering in May with grape harvest starting in August and extending thru September. Inland vineyards contain the classic grape vines that you would normally encounter such as Chardonnay or Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon. However, Texas vineyards have found other vitis varieties like Tempranillo, Tannat, Sangiovese, and twenty-plus more grape varieties flourish in Texas vineyards. These grapes will have about 24 to 30% sugars compared to store-bought grapes around 9% sugars.
Coastal vineyards plant grape hybrids like Blanc du Bois. Blanc du Bois was established in Florida and migrated to Texas due to the help of Raymond Haak who established Haak Vineyards in Galveston County. Blanc du Bois is flourishing now along the Texas Gulf Coast, but it takes a lot of work. Organic sulfite fungicides are used about every two weeks during the active growing season to control molds and fungus in the humid Texas weather along the coast. Vine pruning along the Gulf Coast is done in the early part of February with flowering for the grape berries occurring the last week in February to the middle of March. Grapes are harvested in June-July. These grapes have about 18 to 22% sugars.
If you are interested in growing grapes in Texas, the Texas Wine and Grape Growers Association can help. Their annual show will be held March 3 and 4, 2025 in San Marcos. Their Grape Camp is scheduled on October 8 and 9, 2025 in Lubbock. To find more information on these vineyard events, go to www.TxWines.org.