Growing Grapes in Texas Ain't Easy

Whew, we made it past May 4th!  Why the sigh of relief? We are celebrating because in 2013, Texas had a devastating frost decimating the 2013 grape crop!  

Growing Grapes in Texas Ain’t Easy

We’ve been watching weather forecasts and our vines with prayers and fingers crossed since late February.  At the end of February, you may recall a frigid cold snap, where luckily our vines were mostly asleep and so were unaffected.  Some of our friends and neighbors in the hill country weren't as fortunate and suffered losses.

As is said of Texas weather, if you don’t like the weather, just wait a minute! And now as the threat of frost is removed, our eyes turn to hail.  

Hail can wreak terrible damage on a vineyard (or house, car or really anything) in a short amount of time.  Already, two of our three Hill Country vineyards have been hit with hail. Twice in one week, the Cobb Family Vineyard suffered damage from a hail storm.  Most recently, the thunderstorm of May 3 also brought hail to our newest vineyard of Petite Sirah at Barons Creekside, right inside Fredericksburg. Luckily, damage to both vineyards doesn’t appear to be significant and we will adjust our canopy management to adapt.

We still have a fair bit to go in terms of springtime hail threats, but we keep crossing our fingers and waiting the Texas minute!.  There are plenty of worries in farming that are threats out of our control: we have “tropical rain events”, severe heat waves, animal predation and a host of diseases.  In 2017, the tropical rain event was Harvey, which brought an astounding amount of rain to Texas. Luckily for the vineyard, we had harvested our Hill Country fruit before his arrival,

We take our challenges as a reminder of our connection to the land we farm, the community that supports us, and the miracle that is the resulting fruit. In every bottle there is a story: a labor of love, a commitment to faith, and the rewards of perseverance.