Ok folks, it’s time to talk about the debate over what is and what is not a Texas Wine. For our last Texas Wine of the Month, we selected the Becker Vineyards Iconoclast Cabernet Sauvignon, 2009. It’s a good wine. And Luke Restaurant’s Stephen Jeffcoat was wise to select it—it’s a consistently good cabernet sauvignon for a reasonable $10. But, a few shrewd Texas eonophiles were quick to point out that this particular wine, though produced in Texas, is actually made with California grapes.

The truth is, many other wines are sold by Texas Wineries that are made with grapes grown outside Texas. The reason? There just aren’t enough grapes in Texas to meet consumer demand.

Wineries will purchase their grapes from California to meet that demand, or, especially for new wineries, to begin selling wines representative of the winery’s style while they get off the ground to begin using their own native grapes.

Becker Vineyards winemaker Russell Smith has a hand in every wine produced, including the Iconoclast. But as Becker Vineyards General Manager Bret Perrenoud comments, the Iconoclast line has been the backbone for propelling the vineyards’ commitment to making Texas wine with Texas grapes. “Our ability to buy as many Texas grapes as we do is because of the fact the Iconoclast line has been so popular,” says Perrenoud. “Becker crushed almost 1,000 tons of Texas grapes last year from our own vineyards and all the others we bought from within Texas, which is roughly 70,000 cases of the 82,000 that we bottled.”

Purists feel the use of grapes outside the state disqualifies the wine as a “Texas wine,” which is certainly a meaningful point. Meanwhile, others believe the growing industry has to make these kinds of sacrifices until there is a larger availability of Texas grapes.

So how do you tell the difference? Here’s a breakdown of the various descriptions you’ll see on a label:

Texas Estate Bottled: 100 percent of the wine came from grapes grown on land owned or controlled by the winery, which must be located in a viticultural area. The winery must crush and ferment the grapes themselves, and finish, age and bottle the wine in a continuous process on their premises.

Wines with a viticultural area: 85 percent or more of the wine was produced with grapes from that viticultural area or American Viticultural Area (AVA). A viticultural area is a defined grape-growing region in the United States, distinguished by geographical features. In Texas, there are 8 viticultural areas including Bell Mountain, Fredericksburg in the Texas Hill Country, Texas Hill Country, Escondido Valley, High Plains, Davis Mountain, Mesilla Valley, and Texoma.

Wines with an appellation: at least 75 percent of the wine is produced from grapes grown from the place named, such as county or state. i.e. Texas Hill Country or High Plains.

Texas on the Wine Label: at least 75 percent of the wine is produced from grapes grown in Texas, while 25 percent of the grapes could come from somewhere else.

Wines with a Texas vineyard on the label: 100 percent of the wine came from grapes grown on this vineyard.

Wines with For Sale in Texas Only (FSITO): 25 percent to 74.9 percent of the wine is made with Texas grapes and, for legal reasons, this wine can only be sold in Texas.

Wines with American or AVA on the label: Less than 25 percent of the wine is made with Texas grapes.

With wines from around the world competing for precious shelf space at the grocery store in the affordable $10-$15 range, most Texas wineries can tolerate making the sacrifice to include out-of-state grapes in their production if it means building their brand, honing their craft, and gaining enough traction to produce or buy only Texas grapes in the future.

The Texas wine industry contributes $1.7 billion to the state’s economy. And while our hats go off to the wine makers and grape growers who represent Texas terroir by producing wines with in-state juice, there is the sense that the industry wouldn’t be where it is without a mix.

“Texans need to know that without the out-of-state wine bottled in Texas, our wine industry would be so small nobody would know we had one,” says Gary Elliott owner/winemaker for Driftwood Estate Winery and President of the Texas Wine and Grape Growers Association.  “The problem is that we have too many wineries for the number of acres of grapes.  Until we can increase the number of acres of grapes in Texas we need that wine from out of state to keep our wineries open.”

Regardless of where you stand on the debate, we all want to see a healthy, growing Texas wine industry. So the next time you are at the grocery store or liquor store, go try some Texas wines, whatever the semantics of that term means to you.

Cheers!

- Jessica Dupuy