Texas wine

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Texas (Wine Region)

A vineyard in the Texas Hill Country AVA near Johnson City.
Official name State of Texas
Appellation type U.S. state
Year established 1845
Years of wine industry 1650-present
Country USA
Sub-regions Bell Mountain AVA, Escondido Valley AVA, Fredericksburg in the Texas Hill Country AVA, Mesilla Valley AVA, Texas Davis Mountains AVA, Texas High Plains AVA, Texas Hill Country AVA, Texoma AVA
Total area 261,797 square miles (678,051 km²)
Size of planted vineyards 3,200 acres (13 km²)
Grapes produced Blanc du Bois, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Carignane, Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, Gewurztraminer, Grenache, Lenoir, Malbec, Merlot, Mourvedre, Muscadine, Muscat Canelli, Mustang, Noble, Norton, Orange Muscat, Palomino, Petit Verdot, Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir, Primitivo, Riesling, Roussanne, Ruby Cabernet, Sangiovese, Sauvignon Blanc, Sauvignon Musque, Scuppernong, Semillon, Syrah, Touriga Nacional, Viognier, Zinfandel[1]
No. of wineries Over 100
Comments All data as of 2006
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Texas has a long history of wine production. The sunny and dry climate of the major wine making regions in the state have drawn comparison to Portuguese wines.[2] Some of the earliest recorded Texas wines were produced by Spanish missionaries in the 1650s near El Paso. The state is home to over 36 members of the Vitis grape vine family with fifteen being native to the state, more than any other region on earth.[3] As of 2006, the state had over 3,200 acres (13 km²) planted with Vitis vinifera.[4] Despite being the largest of conterminous states, this relatively small amount of planted land is dwarfed by the production of even the smallest French AOCs like Sancerre. The Texan wine industry is continuing its steady pace of expansion and has gained a reputation as an established wine growing region in the United States.[5]

Contents

[edit] History

Texas is one the oldest wine growing states in the US, with vines planted here more than a hundred years before they were planted in California or Virginia.[5] In the 1650s, Franciscan priests planted Mission vines in West Texas, near modern day El Paso. The vines were a necessity in the production of sacramental wine used in the Eucharist.[6] The horticulturist Thomas Munson used Texas vines to create hundreds of hybrid grapes and conducted significant research in finding root stock immune to the Phylloxera epidemic. The advent of Prohibition in the United States virtually eliminated Texas' wine industry which didn't experience a revival till the 1970s, beginning with the founding of Llano Estacado and Pheasant Ridge wineries in the High Plains region near Lubbock. The Texas wine industry still feels the effects of Prohibition today with a quarter of Texas' 254 counties still having dry laws on the books.[3]

[edit] Geography and climate

Texas is divided into three main wine growing regions with a vast range of diversity and microclimates that allows many different types of grapevines to grow in the state. The North-Central Region spans the northern third of the state from the border of New Mexico across the Texas Panhandle and towards Dallas. This includes the Texas High Plains AVA which has the highest concentration of grape growers in the state.[4] The eastern third of the state makes up the South-Eastern Region which encompasses the area around Austin, San Antonio, and Houston. In recent years this area's wine industry has been hard hit by Pierce's Disease. The high humidity around the northern end of this area makes it difficult to grow vinifera grapes, while vines in the Muscadine family flourish. To the south and center of the area is the Texas Hill Country AVA where vinifera is grown. At the far south end of this region, along the Mexican border is the state's oldest winery, Val Verde, which has been in operation for over a century, making sweet fortified wines. The central-western third of the state is known as the Trans-Pecos Regions which produces about 40 percent of the state's grape in the highest altitude vineyards of the area. More than two thirds of all the wine produced in Texas comes from this area.[7]

The calcareous soil in the Texas High Plains is very fertile with the vines exposed to long days of sunshine and cool nights. Cold temperatures during the winter gives the vines opportunity to shut down and go dormant before the growing season. The Ogallala Aquifer provides water resources for irrigation and serves as a tempering effects on the high summer temperatures and extreme winter hazards such as freezing temperatures and hail. The effects of constant wind over the flat terrain serves as a buffer against viticultural diseases such as oidium and powdery mildew.[3]

Harvest time in Texas is normally around the end of July, two months earlier than in California and three months earlier than most of the wine regions in France.[8]

[edit] Appellations

Texas is home to eight American Viticultural Areas.[7][9]

[edit] Wines

Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay have the highest number of plantings in the state, followed by Chenin blanc and Sauvignon blanc as leading variety in tonnage produced. Texas is also home to Syrah, Tempranillo, Sangiovese, Viognier and Pinot Gris plantings.[7] The Texas Department of Agriculture lists twenty-one wine varietals grown in Texas.[10]

[edit] Wineries

There are more than 136 wineries in Texas, producing 1.9 million gallons in 2005, making it the fifth-largest wine producing state in the nation.[11][12] The University of Texas System is the largest wine producer in the state with over a thousand acres (4 km²) planted near Fort Stockton in West Texas. First established as an experimental vineyard in 1987, the university leases the land to a group of Bordeaux wine makers who produce two labels-Ste. Genevieve and Escondido Valley. The second largest winery is Llano Estacado Winery.[3]

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Appellation America (2007). "Texas Hill Country (AVA): Appellation Description". Retrieved Nov. 14, 2007.
  2. ^ K. MacNeil The Wine Bible pg 623 Workman Publishing 2001 ISBN 1563054345
  3. ^ a b c d H. Johnson & J. Robinson The World Atlas of Wine pg 286 Mitchell Beazley Publishing 2005 ISBN 1840003324
  4. ^ a b J. Robinson "The Oxford Companion to Wine" Third Edition pg 695 Oxford University Press 2006 ISBN 0198609906
  5. ^ a b K. MacNeil The Wine Bible pg 750 Workman Publishing 2001 ISBN 1563054345
  6. ^ K. MacNeil The Wine Bible pg 751 Workman Publishing 2001 ISBN 1563054345
  7. ^ a b c J. Robinson "The Oxford Companion to Wine" Third Edition pg 696 Oxford University Press 2006 ISBN 0198609906
  8. ^ K. MacNeil The Wine Bible pg 754 Workman Publishing 2001 ISBN 1563054345
  9. ^ The Wine Growing Regions of Texas. Texas Wine / Texas Dept. of Agriculture (2006). Retrieved on 2007-12-16.
  10. ^ Texas Wine Varietals. Texas Wine / Texas Dept. of Agriculture (2006). Retrieved on 2007-12-16.
  11. ^ Wineries in Texas, Listed Alphabetically. Wine Society of Texas. Retrieved on 2007-12-01.
  12. ^ Texas Department of Agriculture press release
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American wine