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West Texas wineries bloom despite bad cropMIDLAND, Texas (AP)--Scrunching her face slightly, Carla Bryant lowered the wine glass from her mouth and dumped the remainder of her Late Harvest Riesling sample in the jug sitting nearby. "Not that one,'' she said, untwisting her features. "Too sweet.'' The dessert wine was one of five she and a group of locals tasted at Llano Estacado winery near Lubbock during a recent tour of West Texas wineries hosted by Odessa College's continuing education program. The white wine Bryant and others said they would skip in the future is meant to be paired with cheesecake or sugar cookies. It's known as a late harvest wine because it's allowed to mold so the sugars become concentrated and give it that natural, but intense sweet taste, tour guide Michael Laughlin said. "You don't want to have this with a meal,'' he said, suggesting the group members cleanse their palettes as sugars tend to "destroy'' them. Before tasting, the group was ushered through the winery viewing everything from the 3,000-gallon silver fermentation tanks to the chemical lab where staff work to concoct perfect combinations to the barrel and bottling area. And while the actual harvesting and processing is scaled back from previous years after hail damage and late frosts ruined many of the vineyards' crops, winery staff say it hasn't put a dent in the number of Texas tourists coming to visit. "We're noticing some of our people aren't from as far away as they used to be,'' said Llano Estacado tasting room director Dusty Duke. "We still have people stopping.'' About 2,000 come through the winery each month, he said, with more people typically stopping in the late summer and fall so they can view parts of the process. "You'll actually get to see us press the grapes and do winemaking stuff,'' Duke said. At Pheasant Ridge winery, just north of Lubbock, staff said they've also kept a steady business despite losing about 85 percent of their crop during spring hail storms. "This particular year we'll probably make a proprietor's reserve and that's it,'' said Zach Edgerton, who's working at the winery as he earns his master's degree in winemaking and wine chemistry. Some wineries will choose to buy grapes from other vineyards to make up for the loss and allow semi-normal production to continue. Wineries like Pheasant Ridge, however, don't do this because it would mean the loss of their estate designation, which is given because all of their wine is produced from grapes grown at the vineyard. Edgerton said crop insurance will help cover the costs of the grapes lost but won't do anything to make up for the loss in sales that may come later because of the area's poor growing season. Typically, winery staff said, West Texas is ideal for grape growing--a fact they said continues to surprise even visitors who live nearby--since the vines need even less water than the region's cotton requires. Because of the area's hot, dry summers and low humidity in addition to soil that typically drains well, the Texas High Plains usually provides just the right environment for vines to succeed, according to Llano Estacado. In the last few years, though, high rains have increased the area's humidity, which in turn has meant the usual cool nightly temperatures didn't occur. The higher temperatures then allowed grapes to continue maturing at night. The moisture also can lead to mold issues. Plus, winery staff said, hail and late freezes such as occurred this year, can knock grapes from the vines or damage those left behind. "Parts of Texas are under a drought and that's unfortunate, but we're getting too much rain,'' Laughlin said. The grapes that did survive are being harvested a little later than normal, meaning any who've yet to visit area wineries have plenty of time to stop in and see the start of the production process. Llano Estacado just began its harvesting and Pheasant Ridge will be harvesting within a month. Both started as small Texas vineyards and now sell nationwide. Gloria and Robert Hernandez, who went on the trip, said they signed up after purchasing one of Llano Estacado's wines for "next to nothing'' at Wal-Mart and then seeing an add for the trip the next day. If visitors catch the winery at just the right time, they may get to see more of the process than the Odessa College group did, though they caught the remnants of a recent bottling session at Pheasant Ridge and passed by as chemists worked at Llano Estacado. Grapes are typically hand-harvested and continually brought in to the wineries' staff. Green grapes are cleaned and pressed and then juices are taken on for the next step. Red grapes often are kept in a container to ferment and then mashed every few hours--typically not with feet anymore but instead with machinery that emulates the foot-stomping motion. Once this process is complete, those grapes are pressed before proceeding in the process. Tall silver tanks in plain view at both wineries allow wines to ferment. The taste and process can be altered by how much yeast is added and for how much time and by the temperature at which the tanks are kept. From the tanks wines are transferred to barrels where they're kept for a varying amount of time. "Basically it's just a waiting game hoping they don't go bad,'' Edgerton said, adding wines are then taste-tested periodically. Char inside a barrel also affects the final outcome with medium-charred barrels typically reserved for red wines and lightly charred for white. Un-oaked charcoal gives off a more citrus flavor, while oak yields a creamier taste, Laughlin said. And while wine has a reputation of gaining notoriety with age, Laughlin said Texas wines are not aged as long as a French wine might be because the vines are not as old. White wines typically have a shelf life of two to three years after bottling, Edgerton said, though some reds still are good after more than 20 years. "I had no idea Texas had wine like Germany,'' said Lucie Hunt, who said one of her favorites was the Gewurztraminer, a white wine that is good with spicy foods. The group sipped several different varieties at both vineyards, with Hunt attracting attention from other tourists for her enthusiastic reviews of some varieties and others quietly commenting to one another about a new favorite found. Lisa Cline, director of Community Service at Odessa College, led the trip, and said they're working to put together additional continuing education tours that are meant to serve the community and give additional people a chance to get involved with the college. The winery tour was the first continuing education trip the college has taken, and though Cline said acting as tour guide was a new experience for her, it's one they are working to duplicate. "It's an educational delight,'' she said.
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