The History of Texas Wine

The History of Texas Wine
Author: Katherine Crain
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Total Pages: 178
Release: 2013-07-23
Genre: Cooking
ISBN: 1625845626

Sample the untold history of Texas’s wine industry in this book filled with fascinating stories and photos. Spanish colonists may have come to Texas to spread Christianity, but under visionary Father Fray Garcia, they stayed and raised grapes. Later immigrants brought their own burgundy tastes of home, creating a unique wine country. When a North American pest threatened European vines, it was Texan scientist T. V. Munson who helped save the industry overseas. When Prohibition loomed stateside, Frank Qualia's Val Verde Winery in Del Rio survived by selling communion wine—and it’s now the longest-operating bonded winery in the state. Today, tourists flock to Texas vineyards, and the state sells more wine every year. Join local experts Kathy and Neil Crain and sample the untold story of Texas's wine industry, a 350-year story that is still reaching its savory peak.

The Wines of Texas

The Wines of Texas
Author: Sarah Jane English
Publisher: Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum
Total Pages: 236
Release: 1995
Genre: Cooking
ISBN: 9781571680549

Grape Man of Texas

Grape Man of Texas
Author: Roy Renfro
Publisher: Board and Bench Publishing
Total Pages: 351
Release: 2008-10-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1935879588

Grape Man of Texas is the first biography of Thomas Volney Munson (1843-1913), the internationally recognized horticulturist who developed over 300 new varieties of grapes, some of which are still grown today on almost every continent. He is perhaps best known for his work in fighting the phylloxera epidemic of the late nineteenth century, which nearly destroyed the world's vineyards. His solution—grafting vinifera onto certain resistant native rootstocks from Texas—earned him the Chevalier du Merite Agricole in the French Legion of Honor and numerous accolades. This second edition introduces new insights into the phylloxera period, Munson's many papers and publications, and his far-sighted grasp of the needs of twentieth century agriculture and transportation. It details the continuing influence of both his research and his hybrid grapes on modern viticulture and new varieties of vitis that have been bred from them around the world.

Family, Traditions & Romance - the Messina Hof Story

Family, Traditions & Romance - the Messina Hof Story
Author: Paul Bonarrigo
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2020-12
Genre:
ISBN: 9781736177006

Paul and Merrill Bonarrigo were pioneers in the Texas wine industry. They founded Messina Hof which reflected their union of love as well as the origins of their heritages from Messina, Sicily and Hof, Germany. This book shares their amazing Texas wine journey, reveals their marketing strategies and the elements that have made Messina Hof so successful. It provides insights into their business development and how they were successful in keeping their love story so vibrant. This is the perfect book for those in a family business. There are many lessons learned and shared. This book is inspirational and it traces a history of Texas from its inception as a Pet Rock Industry to its modern day world class status.

Texas Wine Pioneers

Texas Wine Pioneers
Author: Gretchen Glasscock
Publisher: Advancing Texas Wine
Total Pages: 124
Release: 2020-11-10
Genre:
ISBN: 9781736017616

In the years preceding the seventies, America began to awaken to locally sourced food and wine; a key turning point was The Judgement of Paris in 1976, a moment that rocked the world of wine and set it on a different course. French judges, in a blind tasting, judged two California wines superior to their French counterparts. Attitudes toward wine began to shift and adventurous people in various parts of the United States began to feel empowered to explore wine-making conditions in their own regions. As part of this cultural movement, Gretchen Glasscock, returning from the East with a degree from Columbia University and a penchant for research, upended a Texas A&M Study asserting that all Texas was a hot and humid climate suitable for growing only jug wines. She identified the region around Blue Mountain in Fort Davis as cool and crisp, like Napa or parts of France. Before planting her vineyard, Glasscock brought in renowned viticultural and enology experts to guide her in developing this new Texas agribusiness. Subsequent Judgement of Paris moments have now taken place putting premiumTexas wines at the center of a new, more diverse wine universe. This book provides new details recorded by a Texas wine pioneer, advocate, activist and entrepreneur who lived it. Her seminal research and hard fought wine legislation laid the foundation, enabling the development of a multibillion-dollar Texas wine industry.This is a tale of epic battles and larger-than-life personalities, including iconic global winemakers, titans of the wine industry, newcomers who wanted to create this groundbreaking industry and Texas legislators who either caved or fiercely fought the well-financed liquor lobby that had one goal: to kill change.It explores the future of the Texas wine industry, particularly in this present moment of a pandemic that has forced wine-tasting rooms and wine festivals to shut down. Glasscock's solution is to establish an online wine sales platform for all Texas wineries to be able to market their wine online and deliver it to a wine lover's door, in a way that will create a new prosperity for the Texas wine industry.

Sustainability and the Emergence of the Texas Wine Industry

Sustainability and the Emergence of the Texas Wine Industry
Author: Kourtney G. Collins
Publisher:
Total Pages: 98
Release: 2020
Genre: Grape industry
ISBN:

The Texas wine industry dates back to the 17th century when the first grape vines were planted by Spanish missionaries (Crain & Crain, 2013). Although wine has a long history in Texas, the commercial industry was relatively dormant until recently. As of 2019, Texas is home to over 500 wineries and 350 vineyards, with over 5,000 acres bearing grapes (Texas Wine and Grape Growers Association, 2020). Given the geographic scale of Texas wine-growing region, I will focus on the two largest AVAs in this study and apply a sustainability lens (economic, environmental, and social transitions) to improve our understanding of how these "fermented landscapes" (Myles, 2020) have evolved with a primary focus on the last three decades. The Hill Country AVA in Texas meets the demands of tourists better than the High Plains AVA and is home to the majority of wine production, however the region only produces a tiny fraction of the overall grapes being used for wine production in the state. Despite the lack of vineyards, the Hill Country AVA represents the truest "wine country" in the state, in the cultural sense, wherein visitors have the chance to taste and visit the wineries where production occurs, while the High Plains AVA is more focused on winegrape growing versus winemaking. Through a mixed method approach, this research explores the geography of wine production in Texas, taking into account the environmental, economic, and social differences (the pillars of sustainability) between the predominant grape growing regions versus the leading wine producing regions. Texas carves out a unique wine identity and strengthens its place in wider wine culture. New methods and education are being used to overcome obstacles the Texas wine industry faces to produce high quality wine (Williams, 2020). This period of transition takes the Texas wine industry as a whole to the next level when compared to established wine regions like California or Oregon.

The Wineslinger Chronicles

The Wineslinger Chronicles
Author: R. D. Kane
Publisher:
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2012
Genre: Cooking
ISBN:

"A chronicle of Texas's emergence as a wine-producing region. Relates the stories of winegrowers, past and present, who have contributed to Texas wine culture"--Provided by publisher.

A History of Wine in America, Volume 1

A History of Wine in America, Volume 1
Author: Thomas Pinney
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 572
Release: 2007-09-17
Genre: Cooking
ISBN: 052093458X

The Vikings called North America "Vinland," the land of wine. Giovanni de Verrazzano, the Italian explorer who first described the grapes of the New World, was sure that "they would yield excellent wines." And when the English settlers found grapes growing so thickly that they covered the ground down to the very seashore, they concluded that "in all the world the like abundance is not to be found." Thus, from the very beginning the promise of America was, in part, the alluring promise of wine. How that promise was repeatedly baffled, how its realization was gradually begun, and how at last it has been triumphantly fulfilled is the story told in this book. It is a story that touches on nearly every section of the United States and includes the whole range of American society from the founders to the latest immigrants. Germans in Pennsylvania, Swiss in Georgia, Minorcans in Florida, Italians in Arkansas, French in Kansas, Chinese in California—all contributed to the domestication of Bacchus in the New World. So too did innumerable individuals, institutions, and organizations. Prominent politicians, obscure farmers, eager amateurs, sober scientists: these and all the other kinds and conditions of American men and women figure in the story. The history of wine in America is, in many ways, the history of American origins and of American enterprise in microcosm. While much of that history has been lost to sight, especially after Prohibition, the recovery of the record has been the goal of many investigators over the years, and the results are here brought together for the first time. In print in its entirety for the first time, A History of Wine in America is the most comprehensive account of winemaking in the United States, from the Norse discovery of native grapes in 1001 A.D., through Prohibition, and up to the present expansion of winemaking in every state.

So You Think You Know Texas Wines? (2020-2021)

So You Think You Know Texas Wines? (2020-2021)
Author: Marques Vickers
Publisher: Marquis Publishing
Total Pages: 48
Release: 2020-03-04
Genre: Cooking
ISBN:

“So You Think You Know Texas Wines” is designed to simplify your understanding by identifying growing trends, grape descriptions, and future direction of the Texas wine industry. This book concisely profiles each of the state’s leading growing regions and prominent grapes based on the most recent available harvest data from 2019. The edition also includes comparison with the California, Washington and Oregon wine regions. The 2020-2021 edition is ideal for wine collectors, winemakers and anyone who appreciates a Texan grown vintage. The following facts are from hundreds of little known essentials included in the book: 1. Texas harvested 14.2 thousand tons during the 2019 harvest. California harvested 4.28 million tons and Washington 261 thousand tons during the 2018 harvest. Oregon harvested 91.3 thousand tons during 2017. 2. Texas’ wine grape harvest is 15.5% of Oregon’s, 5.4% of Washington’s and .03% of California’s annual harvest. Washington’s harvest is only 6% and Oregon’s 2.1% of California’s overall production. Oregon’s production is 35% of Washington’s. 3. California has 3,670+, Washington 940+, Oregon 725+, and Texas approximately 200+ wineries. California has seventeen, Washington fourteen, while Oregon and Texas have designated five growing regions. 4. Texas has eight designated AVAs (American Viticultural Areas) including Bell Mountain, Escondido Valley, Fredericksburg, Mesilla, Texas Davis Mountains, Texas High Plains, Texas Hill Country and Texoma. 5. Cabernet Sauvignon is Texas’ most popular but only thirtieth highest priced wine grape. It is California’s second most popular and second highest priced red wine grape. It is Washington’s most popular and sixth highest priced and Oregon’s sixth most popular and highest priced wine grape. 6. Tempranillo is Texas’ second most popular and seventh highest priced wine grape averaging $1720 per ton. It is California’s thirteenth and Oregon’s fourth most popular red wine grape. 7. The High Plains and Panhandle growing region is the largest Texas production center harvesting 72.6% of the state’s grapes. 8. During 2019, Texas’ state total production ratio was 71% red wine grapes and 29% white wine grapes. Total Bearable acreage is 73% red wine and 27% white wine grapes. 9. Between 2015 and 2019, production of the Muscat Canelli grape dropped 56.6% in Texas overall and 47.8% in the High Plains and Panhandle growing region. The grape in 2015 was Texas’ largest produced varietal. 10. Based on 2019 non-bearing acreage figures, the six most likely statewide grapes to increase in production are Cabernet Sauvignon, Tempranillo, Blanc du Bois, Black Spanish (Lenoir), Merlot and Mourvèdre. Non-bearing acreage represents planted vineyards whose young grapes have not been included into production statistics. They may also reflect damaged and destroyed vineyards that did not add to the production totals. 11. Production of Mourvèdre jumped over 700% in the High Plains and Panhandle growing region between 2015 and 2019 making it the second largest grape. The grape is now the third largest produced in the state. 12. Blanc du Bois and Black Spanish grapes are the dominant grapes produced in the Southeast Texas and Gulf Coast growing region comprising 80.1% of production. Combined in 2019, they represent 63.3% of statewide production in those grapes.

American Rhone

American Rhone
Author: Patrick J. Comiskey
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 351
Release: 2016-10-11
Genre: Cooking
ISBN: 0520965140

"Thoughtfully conceived and very well written, this is essential somm reading."—The Somm Journal "This is the most important wine book of the year, perhaps in many years."—The Seattle Times "Crisply written, impeccably researched, balanced if fundamentally enthusiastic, scholarly but accessible, and full of unexpected details and characters."—The World of Fine Wine No wine category has seen more dramatic growth in recent years than American Rhône–variety wines. Winemakers are devoting more energy, more acreage, and more bottlings to Rhône varieties than ever before. The flagship Rhône red, Syrah, is routinely touted as one of California’s most promising varieties, capable of tremendous adaptability as a vine, wonderfully variable in style, and highly expressive of place. There has never been a better time for American Rhône wine producers. American Rhône is the untold history of the American Rhône wine movement. The popularity of these wines has been hard fought; this is a story of fringe players, unknown varieties, and longshot efforts finding their way to the mainstream. It’s the story of winemakers gathering sufficient strength in numbers to forge a triumph of the obscure and the brash. But, more than this, it is the story of the maturation of the American palate and a new republic of wine lovers whose restless tastes and curiosity led them to Rhône wines just as those wines were reaching a critical mass in the marketplace. Patrick J. Comiskey’s history of the American Rhône wine movement is both a compelling underdog success story and an essential reference for the wine professional.