October is Texas Wine Month! The Texas Department of Agriculture designated October as the official month for Texas wine because typically, this marks the end of the annual grape harvests, and the next steps of winemaking have begun. The Texas Hill Country Wineries association is the largest group of wineries in a region in Texas and recently they held a virtual meeting with some media representatives to discuss what has happened and what will be happening.
There was a large number of winery representatives available in the meeting to answer questions and the primary speakers for the evenings were Mike Nelson of Ab Astris Winery, Bret Perrenoud of Airis’Ele Vineyards, Nikhila Narra Davis of Kalasi Cellars, and Karen Bonarrigo of Messina Hof Winery.
The Texas wine industry has 443 wine producers making wine from 45+ varietals in 8 American Viticultural Areas (AVAs). The industry has created 141,235 jobs with $6.91 billion in annual wages. Tourism alone gets two million plus visitors a year with tourists spending $685 million. The Texas wine industry has a total economic impact of $20.35 billion.
The Texas Hill Country AVA was first established in 1991 and is the third largest AVA in the U.S. There are 120+ wineries and 1,200+ vineyard acres in the Texas Hill Country AVA. These wineries produce 500,000+ cases a year and one million visitors visit the AVA every year.
The Texas Hill Country Wineries (THCW) association was first established in 1999 and currently, there are 63 winery members and 20 grower and associate members. There are four passport events held throughout the year and the one happening right now is the Texas Wine Month passport which is held every day in October.
Besides passport events, THCW holds winemaker dinners, road shows in four different cities, the Hill Country Wine Symposium (10th anniversary), tasting room manager luncheons, grower tailgates, and winemaker tastings. They also have the Texas Hill Country Wine Industry Scholarships which was founded in 2016 and is funded by the passport events, dinners, and donations. To date, they have awarded over $90,000 to over 50 students.
Viticulture
Different aspects of the wine industry were discussed. First was viticulture and Karen Bonarrigo discussed their head trained 1.5-acre vineyard at Messina Hof Hill Country Winery growing Lenoir. Messina Hof makes their Port wines without fortification except for the Hill Country location which does use brandy fortification. Mike Nelson said they planted their 12-acre vineyard in 2018-19 and is growing some unique grapes such as Souzão and Clairette Blanche. Nikhila Narra Davis uses fruit from their 140-acre vineyard in the Texas High Plains growing 21 different varieties. Bret Perrenoud has been in the Texas wine industry since 1999 visiting vineyards all over the state, and the story of Texas is that we can grow a lot of varieties of grapes.
Organic vineyards were discussed, and Nikhila Narra Davis said they started trying organic years ago and now they need to start applying the different requirements to keep the soil and health of the vines in balance. They are hoping next year they can become organic. Mike Nelson and some other wineries have been working with Dr. Colleen Myles on developing a Sustainability certification for Texas. Bingham Family Vineyards had the first TDA-certified organic vineyards in Texas in 2004, but they had to drop the certification after four or five years because at the time Texas wineries were not interested. Their row crops are still TDA certified.
Winemaking
Regarding winemaking, Nikhila Narra Davis started as a grower, but she learned she enjoyed making wine. Bret Perrenoud recently returned from a trip to Washington and saw a number of wine incubators there. There are some incubators starting to appear in Texas such as Rivenburgh Wine. He also mentioned how the trend in the wine industry is low or no-alcohol wines. Karen Bonarrigo said Messina Hof is working on sparkling wines and their wine on-tap program started in 2013.
Wine Tourism
Wine tourism is of course very important to wineries so they can sell their wines. Karen Bonarrigo stated the demographic of guests has changed over the last few years and they see a different mix of guests at their four locations. Bret Perrenoud confirmed the goal is to attract tourists to the wineries. In Fredericksburg, there are two million people visiting the National Museum of the Pacific War, but they are not visiting the local wineries there. Nikhila Narra Davis said visitors are looking for experiences, so Kalasi Cellars is starting to do more experiences and promote that. Mike Nelson said Ab Astris is hoping to turn a visit to the Hill Country into more than a day or two experience.
Harvest 2024
Everyone on the panel said that the 2024 harvest looks great with the quality of the fruit being excellent. Come back in a year or two when the wines are ready to enjoy them. Mike Nelson stated this year’s harvest started early and was fast. The last harvested fruit for them in 2023 was October 20th, but this year’s ended September 19th, almost one month earlier.
Texas Wine Month Passport
Texas Hill Country Wineries holds their passport event in October where you can visit over 45 wineries in the Hill Country. This year is Texas Hill Country Wineries 25th Anniversary and it’s also the 25th Texas Wine Month Passport.
During the October Texas Wine Month passport event, you can use the Texas Wine Lover mobile app to plan and guide your visits to the Hill Country wineries you want to visit. Just select Trips from the menu and then the Texas Wine Month Trip.
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