Fritz Westover of Westover Vineyard Advising

If you have been involved in grape growing in Texas, you have probably heard of Fritz Westover. Fritz served as Viticulture Extension Program Specialist for the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service from 2007 to 2013 where he worked stateside on developing viticulture education and research programs. Often when you attended a grape growing conference, such as the Texas Wine & Grape Growers Association (TWGGA)’s Grape Camp, Fritz would be one of the speakers presenting a topic.

In 2013 Fritz began working as Technical Program Coordinator with the Vineyard Team, a leading grower group in the Central Coast of California, where he developed educational programs and applied research demonstrations to enhance vineyard sustainability for winegrowers.

In January 2015, Fritz decided to come back to Texas and his home in Houston. His company is Westover Vineyard Advising where he is available to speak on a variety of viticulture topics and consult with different vineyards on a variety of services. Since Fritz was primarily based in southeast Texas, he is a leading resource for growers of Pierce’s disease tolerant and vinifera winegrapes.

Comprehensive vineyard consulting packages and services are available for experienced, new, and prospective grape growers. He can help provide an efficiently managed and profitable vineyard.

Types of consulting services include:

• Site evaluation for vineyard suitability
• Vineyard design and establishment
• Vineyard employee training
• All aspects of vineyard management
• Educational seminars and public speaking

Fritz also offers online Virtual Viticulture Tutorials which are short courses that provide concise overviews of common viticulture practices or concepts. These tutorials were designed to be used as instructional “how-to” guides for vineyard managers, workers, and students. They can be viewed from your desktop computer, tablet, or smartphone.

I recently took Fritz’s pruning webinar, which ran for over an hour, and I can see how people can benefit from his knowledge and experience. I recognized a name in the webinar which was Mark Rogers of Marker Cellars.

I asked Mark why he was taking the webinar, and he said, “Since being first introduced to Fritz when he was still a part of the Texas AgriLife Team, I’ve found him to be a wealth of knowledge. It does not matter if you are a novice or new student or an experienced vineyard manager and wine grape grower. He is patient with his audience, he is thorough in his explanations, and I learn something new each time I have the opportunity to chat with him. The pruning seminar was a great refresher for me as we start the pruning season.”

Fritz has a lot of articles on his Westover Vineyard Advising website and you can learn a lot there. Even better though is to contact Fritz on his contact page for more information about his vineyard consulting services.