Although Texans have made wine since the days of the frontier, they have always had trouble earning respect for their craft. A 19th-century visitor complained that local wines made by hand from wild grapes were too acidic.
More recently, when state wineries began modern production, ungrateful outsiders labeled Texas wine and wineries “Chateau Bubba” as a mockery.
Although this probably had some truth to it in the past, it hides much of the reality. The same Spanish priests who introduced vineyards and wine to California also grew grapes in Texas in the 18th century. Although little is known about the quality of mission wines, there is evidence that some later European settlers (particularly Germans and Czechs) were accomplished viticulturists. They developed ways to make fine wine from native mustang grapes and passed their knowledge down through generations to the present.
At the turn of the century, these same poor wild grapes played a major role in turning around and saving the French wine industry from disaster. When an epidemic of plant lice called phylloxera attacked vineyards everywhere, a Texas winemaker named TV Munson found a solution by grafting French vines onto the more disease-resistant Texas grape vines. Munson remains a hero in France and California’s Napa Valley.
Before Prohibition began in 1920, there were at least 16 commercial warehouses in Texas. The only one to survive Prohibition was Val Verde in Del Rio. They closed until the end of Prohibition in 1933, but reopened after it was repealed. Val Verde remained the only commercial winery in Texas, until the 1970s, when a national wine boom started a revival of production in the state.
The first bottles from these new commercial cellars may not have been very good, but they improved at a rapid rate. Beginning in the 1980s, Texas wines were and continue to be regular winners in wine competitions across the country, taking home metals in many categories.
Some of the largest wineries in Texas today include Llano Estacado, Pheasant Ridge, Sainte Genevieve, Fall Creek, Sister Creek, Messina Hof, Moyer, Slaughter Leftwich, Grape Creek, and a growing number of other winemakers.
Today, Texas wine is truly an international treasure and is no longer labeled the “Chateau Bubba” of winemaking. Now it can keep up with the great wines of the rest of the world and continues to grow in quality and reputation.
