Browse >
Home /
Wine / What’s Up with Texas Wine?
What’s Up with Texas Wine?
Being from Texas, I am undoubtedly proud of my state and its history. Although a lot of Texans are much more vocal than I about their Texas heritage, I am in no way ashamed of where I grew up and how I grew up. Even in spite of some crazies, I love our state. There are so many regions and climates within Texas that it is easy to understand our state’s late advertising slogan, “It’s like a whole other country.”
In the east, there are hundreds of square miles of pine forests. Go south and you are at the northern border of Texas’ portion of the Gulf of Mexico—even further south is the beautiful coastal region, Laguna Madre (of South Padre, Spring Breaker fame). We successfully grow citrus in the culturally diverse Rio Grande Valley. Travel west of Austin and San Antonio to Fredericksburg and stop at any number of the road-side fruit stands to sample some of the nation’s greatest peaches. Don’t forget about the ho-hum crops that grow in all of the parts in between such as corn, wheat, milo, rice, and cotton or the naturally-occurring, wild Dasylirion Wheeleri which Sotol is distilled from. Just about anywhere one goes in Texas, it seems like we have the perfect environment to grow something. So why not grapes, right? I mean, it is only logical.
In 1973, while on a trip to France, Ed and Susan Auler noticed the similarities between certain French wine regions and the Texas Hill Country, more precisely their ranch. Located a little more than an hour northwest of Austin, the Auler’s founded Fall Creek Vineyards on the shores of Lake Buchanan. They chose the 400 acre site based on the particular micro-climate that encompassed it. According to the Auler’s, their property gets the desired warm-day/cool-night weather patterns that grapes need in order to ripen properly on the vine. California, especially Northern California, epitomizes this weather pattern.
Fast forward almost 20 years and move an hour and a half south to Fredericksburg, Texas. A similar story took place with Richard and Bunny Becker. In 1992, after a trip to France, they realized that the micro-climate around the Fredericksburg area was unusually similar to certain parts of France as well. The soil is supposedly very comparable, as are the day-time/night-time climates. They soon developed land in the area and founded what is now known as Becker Vineyards.
I briefly described the Auler’s and the Becker’s because I think they represent the best wine that is being produced in the State. Each year, new wineries are popping up all over the State. The consensus is that most of it is really bad wine. Excluding Fall Creek and Becker, most of the wineries in Texas are extremely young—under ten years old. Texas wineries have not had 200 years of trial and error to narrow down and improve the wine growing & making process. Fall Creek has had 30 years to establish itself and follow the trends that Northern California has set over the past few decades. For the most part though, Texas wineries are just getting their feet wet in the wine making process.
Taking all of this into consideration though, is Texas plagued for eternity to be a mediocre wine-making region? Three weeks ago, one of my best friends was in from California for a wedding. We had some time to kill while we were in Austin and decided to head to the closest winery (about 45 minutes away). Not particularly looking forward to the verbal beating that I felt would ensue after the tasting, I tried to set a few ground rules which somehow turned into a lengthy discussion about the future of Texas wine. My friend lives in the heart of Sonoma County and works for a biologics company that develops heart-valves. Everyone that he works with and/or comes into contact with seems to be either passionate about wine, have good relationships in the wine industry, or own a small vineyard and make wine themselves. He is constantly in an environment that is discussing and tasting wine. Knowing how he has felt about some Texas wines in the past, I prayed that our eminent tasting was at least passable. I had never been to or tasted this winery’s line.
Upon arriving at the surprisingly beautiful winery, we chatted about their grapevines as we bounced down the road to the tasting room. As we entered, the whole space felt very “Texas”. It didn’t seem to try and be something it wasn’t—native Austin limestone façade, cedar posts, etc.; everything was tastefully done. As we sat down for the tasting and were handed menus, I held my metaphorical breath in anxiety about what was to come. Having been to Becker countless times I could only hope for an experience that compared to the many I have had there. At Becker, not every wine is a homerun, but everything is mostly good—even having some outright grand examples of what potential Texas wine has.
The tasting began with the usual suspects, a few unmemorable whites that proceeded on to a group of reds. The entire portfolio was very Texas/Italian-centric. Like, “Try our Texas version of a Super Tuscan.” We ended with two white desert wines made from the Muscat grape, as well as some Texas bubbly—almond-infused sparkling wine to be exact. The lady in the tasting room informed us that this particular sparkling wine was based on the flavors found in traditional wedding cake. We had to take two sips to make sure we tasted what we thought we tasted. Yup, it is confirmed. It tasted as if almond extract and sugar were dumped into the bins during fermentation. The result was an overly-sweet and overly-“almondy”, unfinishable glass of CO2-injected white wine.
We both left scratching our heads, understanding the financial commitment that was made here to produce really bad wine. Is it the climate’s fault? I mean, it is typically more humid in Texas than other wine producing regions in the U.S. We also have the dreaded Pierce’s disease that is a looming predator on our vines. Then there is the extreme hot weather during the summer that doesn’t cool down substantially at night, as well as the crazy late-march cold snaps or freezes. We haven’t even considered the fact that the winemaker might not know what to do with a good harvest once he gets it.
Not being a winemaker or grape grower, I am apt to presume that the weather is the biggest culprit. Without the proper time for grapes to develop while on the vine, or the right temperature in the evenings and at night to cool down the grapes, they don’t reach the proper brix level of ripeness for the sugars to last naturally through fermentation.
So realizing this, Texas wineries have gone crazy experimenting with all sorts of varietals. Last summer when my wife and I went through Fredericksburg on our way to our house in the Hill Country, we stopped in for our usual tasting at Becker Vineyards. It seemed like there were no less than 20 varietals on their tasting menu. This seems to be the trend across the state, with few wineries being the exception. Two vintages ago, Andrea Immer Robinson, Master Sommelier, and former wine director at Windows on the World, referred to Becker’s 05 Viognier as, “One of the best viogniers made in America, so it’s worth the search.” The next year, it was not as good, but it was STILL good. Wine Spectator also had very positive remarks their Claret. With press like that, why do the Texas wineries not focus on one, two, or even three varietals that seem to grow well, produce good fruit, and ultimately good wine?
It seems other budding wine regions have caught on to this trend. On a Fall 2005 trip to Washington State’s Walla Walla Valley, it became quickly apparent that they grow what suits their climate the best—cold weather grapes like Syrah, Riesling, and Gewürztraminer, along with a few Cabernet Sauvignon & Merlot clones. These wines that they have garnered their focused, consistently rate 92 and above by many of the wine industries standard compasses such as Parker and Wine Spectator.
It seems as if Texas wineries are trying to give us the best examples of what Texas-grown Italian or French varietals taste like. I understand that marketing a relatively unknown or native grape can be extremely tough, but so is selling bad wine more than once to the same person. California locked onto the native Zinfandel grape and hasn’t looked back. To this day, red Zinfandel is one of my favorite varietals on the market. I’m not necessarily suggesting that we focus exclusively on Mustang grapes that are native to Texas. I would just rather see Texas focus on what grows well here and make that the best it can be. There is no reason that a Texas winery should even attempt to make Riesling or Gewürztraminer. It is so far out of the realm of possibility for our climate to produce a stellar product; and in my opinion, is not even worth the effort.
Perhaps we should let the grape “thing” go and be satisfied with the distillates that we could make well. Some micro-breweries and distillers across the state have begun making fine products from the yields of local agriculture. Wine is still certainly the last frontier of agriculture in our region. I suppose we can be rest assured that as long as people have deep pockets, time will tell as to the quality and potential of the grape in Texas.
Written by Morgan · Filed Under Wine
[…] Read the rest of this great post here […]
i agree and think that wineries can be like restaurants, good people with some cash who try their best but often times don’t know how to make things work. Coupled with americans unfortunately buy wines based on label design and varietal and there is a problem. The most recent is merlot and lots of regions grow it when it really doesn’t make sense. What should be focused on are analogues to the texan climates and grapes grown there. South of Spain, Sicily and other areas with similar climates and challenges and then make a meritage and make it work. It will be a difficult road, but if you are growing the right grapes, the right way and have someone who knows what they are doing you can have a great wine.
until then st. arnolds and real ales will work in the meantime.
I think that within ten years Texas will be known for some good wines, but yes, it is a joke right now. I also agree that they need to be focusing on different grapes; Tempranillo, Viognier, and Grenache would be good places to start. Your comparison with Zinfandel (which might also work here) is good– Zin makes interesting wine, it seems, only in California, it holds no great acclaim in Italy (where people mistakenly believe it to be from, it is called Primativo there), and is barely known in Croatia, where it actually originates (North America has no native varieties of Vitis vinifera). Perhaps there is some unknown varietal waiting to explode on to the scene after taking advantage of Texan terroir? I’m not holding my breath or anything, but it could happen.
This is a regrettable common thread when writing about Texas wines. It pretty much boils downn to not having any knowlegable advice on Texas wine and randomly trying a few. True there is some really bad Texas wine out there. There is also some really bad wine from California, Aulstralia, Chile, etc. Texas is making some great wines. Just last year we brought home gold medals from nearly every major competition in the country, including a Double Gold from San Fransisco, Flat Creek Sangiovese/Cab/Merlot. Last night I opened a bottle of 1986 Pheasant Ridge Merlot that was still fanstastic. There are 150 wineries in Texas now. How much time have people invested learning what is good from CA., how much time have they invested learning what is good from Texas. Even tasitng 20 is not much research.
you know, I think it’s a lot more noticeable because it’s a relatively young wine region and there just aren’t that many wineries, so the amount of crap wine produced is a lot more noticeable. One of the things that really frustrates me about Texas wines is that while I’ve had a lot of really quality whites, the reds really seem to be kind of…wimpy. I actually wasn’t really that thrilled with Becker, either, although I did enjoy the lavender.
I did take a little wine-tasting trip through Stonewall last year, though, and did run into a couple of places that impressed me. The overwhelming favorite was Woodrose Winery–besides the winery itself being a fun and relaxing place to visit (huuuge deck and firepits out back underneath some lovely pines), they put out some quality wines, red and white. In fact I don’t remember a single wine of theirs that didn’t impress me (although most impressive by far were, again, the whites). I would recommend giving them a try.
Another one I enjoyed was the Malbec at Torre di Pietra (also in Stonewall)–for Texas reds it was pretty bold and had this really bizarrely excellent mushroom and dill overtone (I bought a bottle). They had some other tasty white blends but the malbec was my favorite.
I must thank you all for the passionate responses related to the Texas wine post. I do think our state has the potential to produce good wine.
Wynk, I’ll definitely have to go back to Woodrose after your hearty recommendation. We were there two or three summers ago as they were finishing construction on their tasting room. What we tasted at the time left us a little flat, but it sounds as if things have really improved. We’ll be heading that way over Memorial Day weekend and will definitely have to stop in and taste the new line.
Chelsey, I apologize if I hit a nerve, but I must say that I am a bit offended that you think I would make a blanket negative statement about Texas wine if I had not done a bit more research than you suggested. Over the past few years I have made it to almost every major wine-growing region in Texas and tasted just about everything that they had to offer. Does this mean that I have tasted every wine in Texas by every winery that has a license to produce? Absolutely not, but I feel like I have a pretty good general grasp on our State’s offerings. Saying there is some really bad wine available in California, Australia, and Chile does not put those wine-growing regions on trial—they are already established and well-respected regions. For that matter, one could say that some really bad wine comes out of France. Apples to apples are not being compared though. Texas is still blazing a trail and striving for that credibility.
My main problem with Texas wine is that, in general, it seems like pretty poor choices are made in the wine making process. Of course there are exceptions to that rule, but just the other day I was talking to a friend of mine in the DFW area who was telling me about a new winery near his home. Intrigued, I asked about him to elaborate. Not too far into the conversation, he starts a sentence by saying, “Yeah, they source their grapes from…”. A majority of Texas wineries source their grapes from not only places all over the U.S., but from all over the world (this winery near Dallas actually gets some of their grapes from New Zealand!). This doesn’t make ANY sense to me.
I do not understand this desire that Texas wineries have to source grapes from out of state. I cannot see how the quality can be controlled when grapes are shipped thousands of miles.
I stand by my original opinions that Texas wineries have a lot of potential but really need to focus their attention on varietals that really work well in our climate. In conclusion, lets not forget that these are only my opinions. To reiterate, I am very open minded to new wines in Texas and really want wine produced here to be able to compete with other wine regions. I would be happy to continue this conversation and gather opinions from across the board.
As my wife said, “If you’re going to ship grapes in from New Zealand to make wine, why not just move to New Zealand?”
I think Woodrose needed (and still needs, it’s not perfect yet) some time to get established, but I think they have a good thing going in both atmosphere and the desire to make good wine and to improve upon their product. They also really value feedback from the customers so if you can give them suggestions for improvements I know they would appreciate and absorb them.
“I stand by my original opinions that Texas wineries have a lot of potential but really need to focus their attention on varietals that really work well in our climate.”
I fully agree. Texas needs to learn how important terroir is to the winemaking process. That is what makes ANY winegrowing region special.
There is a beautiful little winery near Conroe, Texas called Bernhardt Winery. They have great live bands every Sunday, and you can bring a picnic - it is very picturesque. Their wine is also undergoing trial and error,as I believe they are new. I also believe they ship in most of their grapes. But it is a beautiful, fun place to spend a Sunday afternoon.
I have lived in both Texas and California and yet to find a good Texas wine. Granted I have not tasted 100 Texas wines, probably more in the ball-park of 20, mostly from these wine competition winners, I have yet to find something I like. I have visited Flat Creek and observed the multitude of medals displayed from various wine competitions. And in my opinion, most wine competitions are like the Special Olympics, every one gets a medal for participating. Any wine competition that awards a gold medal to a CO2 injected almond infused poor excuse for sparkling wine, along with all the people that peddle this craptastic wine should be drowned in said vat.
[…] the heels of my unintentionally pot-stirring article about Texas wine, I figured I would run with the controversy and write about one of the most talked about and highly […]
[…] emails from two people directly related to the wine industry in Texas in response to my post on Texas Wine. Seeing as how I can be a bit obsessive, I have been on a binge of drinking a new bottle of local […]