A bounty of 2012 Viognier grapes from Bingham Family Vineyards in the High Plains

Just got back from a few days in the High Plains where the 2012 grape harvest is in full swing! From grape grower to winemaker alike, the annual harvesting season is where the rubber meets the road on revealing exactly what we can expect from Texas wine from year to year. After last year’s monumental drought, which yielded a very small grape crop, tension was high this year about what this season would bring.

In Texas, harvest isn’t exactly the kind of thing you see in the movies. In the High Plains, things are done on a regimented schedule and usually in the middle of the night. (It’s the coolest and safest time of day to pick the grapes and get them ready for crush, press and inoculation.)

This is where the old adage, “hurry up and wait,” is brought to reality. As the sugar levels in the grapes approach their optimum levels, grape growers like Neal Newsom, VJ Reddy and Cliff Bingham are in constant contact with the wineries that will receive their grapes to select the best time slot in their schedules to pick them and have them whisked away to production facilities all over the state—primarily in Central Texas.

Night Harvesting in the High Plains

So now that we’re into the first couple of weeks of harvest,  how are things going? In a word, G-R-A-P-E!

But don’t take it from me. Here’s what the experts have to say:

“This week alone has been the best week of grape harvesting I’ve ever seen in the High Plains,” says Bobby Cox, who has been growing wine and consulting to grape growers in the High Plains for more than 30 years. “The fruit is just amazing and this is just what we needed after such a hard crop last year.”

“We have been so blessed with the harvest this year,” says Cliff Bingham of Bingham Family Vineyards who is looking at harvesting about 800 tons of grapes this year compared to only about 150 tons in 2011. “If I can estimate within 15 percent of what I think a particular varietal is going

Cliff Bingham inspecting the Vermentino Crop on his vineyard

to yield, I consider that to be pretty good. But as we’ve been harvesting grapes in the past couple of weeks, we’re seeing so much more fruit than I anticipated. And the [chemistry] levels we’re looking for when we pick the fruit are great too!”

“This will be the largest grape harvest in the history of Texas. The quality of fruit & the quantity are both outstanding,” says Phillip Anderson of CapRock Winery who says he’s particularly excited about the sizable amount of Viognier CapRock received this year. “It means we will be able to make both a traditional Viognier and a blend with Muscat Blanc/Viognier that we call Toscano Bianco. Last year, the harvest was so poor, we only had enough grapes to make the Toscano Bianco but none of the Viognier.”

“The harvest is great. We’ve got more fruit than we expected, and we expected a lot,” says David Kuhlken co-owner and winemaker for Pedernales Cellars whose 2011 Viognier just recently received a gold medal at the heralded San Francisco International Wine Competition and not to mention gold medal for the 2009 Tempranillo in the Dallas Morning News/TEXSOM Wine Competition this year. “Last year was a comparatively lean year, and while the quality was good, the quantity wasn’t. But the combination of a wet spring and the relatively dry stretch we’ve had lately has given us a good target yield from [our] vineyard. The Texas High Plains vineyards are also getting high yield and the heat they’ve experienced is accelerating their harvest.”

In the Hill Country, Kuhlken—and many others—is seeing much of the same. “Our earliest analysis of what we’ve harvested from our Hill Country Kuhlken Vineyard shows medium- to full-bodied fruit with good sugars.” says Kuhlken. “The basic chemistry’s all there for us to create some really good wines. And because of the higher yields, we have the ability to make more Kuhlken Vineyard estate wines in the next few years.”

Salt Lick Vineyards

Down in Driftwood Salt Lick Vineyards began harvesting grapes during the first week of August with both good and bad results. “The late July rains have caused havoc with the grapes,” says Salt Lick Owner Scott Roberts. “It delayed the harvest and the good thing is that the hang time was increased. The bad news is that it cause some of the grapes to shrivel and raisin, which hurt our yield. But overall, our Tempranillo grapes have some of the darkest color and best flavor to date. You know rain late in the season makes you feel selfish. You want everyone to get rain but for yourself you want it to go away. We were lucky this year the late rains could have destroyed the crop so instead of losing everything we got a little bad and a lot of good.”

Just a few miles away from the Salt Lick is Duchman Family Winery.

“We’ll have harvested about one third of our grapes with the first two weeks of August, which is amazing. And it’s just a ton of fruit,” says Duchman’s head winemaker Dave Reilly who received almost double the Vermentino he was

Plump cluster of Dolcetto Grapes from Bingham Family Vineyards

estimating to get this year from Cliff Bingham in the High Plains. (His 2010 Viognier and 2010 Vermentino won gold medals at the Dallas Morning News/TEXSOM Wine Competition and silvers at the San Francisco International Wine Competition this year.) “In my opinion, 2012 is going to be a repeat of 2010 in volume, but the quality is just so much better. It’s going to be a really great year for Texas wines.”

Up in the Colorado River Valley between Marble Falls and Burnett, Seth and Laura Martin of Perissos Vineyards are in good spirits. “Harvest 2012 at Perissos has been abundant,” says Seth Martin who makes the majority of his wines from grapes from his own estate. “This is not only our biggest crop load ever, but also the highest quality fruit across the board. I’d say the wines from this vintage are off to a spectacular start and we are humbled and thrilled over the blessing of this harvest.”

 - Jessica Dupuy