Dear Lord, We Could Use a Little Rain and Please Keep the Frost Away

Dear Lord, We Could Use a Little Rain and Please Keep the Frost Away

The Start of the Texas High Plains Vineyard Planting Tour

Arriving back in Houston late last Wednesday, I had just enough time to empty and repack my suitcase, check up on the weather in Lubbock, and catch a short night’s sleep. I’d be leaving the following morning on a tour of the Texas High Plains vineyards. This trek was arranged by the Texas Department of Agriculture to highlight the new grapevine plantings in ten Texas vineyards facilitated by $250,000 in rural economic development grants [For more information, see: http://www.winesandvines.com/template.cfm?section=news&content=58363].

The goal of the new grape plantings is to add over a hundred acres of badly needed new wine grapes to help relieve the grape shortage in Texas. This shortage resulted from the recent spike in the number of Texas wineries, which now totals over 170, combined with decreased vineyard production from late spring freezes, hail and damaging rain during harvest the past several years.

The Lubbock weather warning of cold, windy and snowy conditions was not only personally chilling, a harbinger of possible freeze damage to bud laden vines. No doubt this late wintry blast would be met with trepidation by the High Plains growers that I was about to visit.

Early Wake-Up Call

Thursday morning came way too early. It was nearly an hour before my alarm was set to ring when my dog jumped in bed to announce his needs. Thus motivated, I made an early arrival to the airport and downed my hot java [jet fuel for my sleepy brain, I thought] and thus began my trek to Lubbock. One more check of the weather from my PC in the terminal showed more clearly the potential dire weather situation predicted for later in the weekend. My upcoming vineyard tour might have been better billed as the “Grit and Gumption” tour as this late blast of winter weather would again test the tenacity of the Texas growers.

More at: http://vintagetexas.com/blog/?p=652