Santa Fe, Texas--Aided by a hot, dry growing season that began with budbreak on March 15, grapegrowers near Texas' Gulf Coast began harvesting early-ripening varieties last weekend. At Haak Vineyards & Winery, the only vineyard/winery in Galveston County, a crew of some 150 volunteers turned out to pick Blanc du Bois, a hybrid variety derived partly from Golden Muscat vinifera. In the course of about 90 minutes, they brought in about 2,700 pounds from Haak's two acres.

Owner/winemaker Raymond Haak told Wines & Vines that last year's uncomfortably wet growing season had forced him to prune more heavily than usual this year, removing some producing canes, and realizing a yield far smaller than in 2007, when he brought in 5,800 pounds from the same plot. A third acre, which had been planted to Lenoir, or Black Spanish grapes, was pulled and replanted to Blanc du Bois, from which Haak produces five different wines.

Haak was an electrical engineer before starting his vineyard in 2000, when he produced his first vintage. His own three acres represent only about 3% of his normal crush; the rest comes from vineyards in both the Gulf Coast and the Texas High Plains near Lubbock. Last night, he said, his crew was on the crush pad receiving another 11 tons of Blanc du Bois from a vineyard in Cat Spring, west of Houston.

Blanc du Bois is well suited to the humid Gulf Coast, Haak explained, because it is both versatile and highly resistant to Pierce's disease, epidemic to the region. He vinifies it as a dry wine (similar to Albariño); an oak-aged reserve that goes through malolactic fermentation, and a semi-sweet version as well as fortified white port and Madeira styles. Haak uses purchased Texas grapes to make numerous other wines including Cabernet Sauvignon, Tempranillo and Malbec. Haak said Texas is well suited to growing the Iberian varieties, and he's also investigating Sangiovese.

In the past 10 vintages, his yearly output has grown from 1,500 to about 7,000 cases. "I have the ability now to produce up to 15,000 to 25,000 cases in the winery, without adding more equipment," he said. "There's a certain spot where you reach critical mass, where you can be profitable."

He described his as a "destination winery," but admitted that, as the county's only winery, it's tough to promote. To that end, he recently contracted with an advertising/PR agency to help bring customers and attention to his operation. The event this past weekend may have helped, too: Texas' Secretary of Agriculture Todd Staples came to add his blessing to the harvest, which began at a later than normal hour to accommodate him and other visiting dignitaries. Despite laboring in the mid-summer heat, Haak said of his volunteer crew, "They don't know it's work."

Haak said that normally he can schedule his Blanc du Bois harvest in advance. Fritz Westhover, who handles viticulture/enology extension for the Gulf Coast, confirmed, "As a general rule, we can say here that by July 4, Blanc du Bois is on the final stretch" of ripening.

"We're enologically advanced here," he commented. He said this year the variety is coming in at about 20º to 22º Brix, and that he had noticed a certain amount of raisining or "random berry shrivel." He wasn't certain if this was a function of the unusually arid season.

The Black Spanish or Lenoir hybrid is the prevalent red grape of the Gulf Coast, Westover said. This year, he predicted, its harvest will start in mid-August, about a week ahead of normal. Following the early Gulf Coast crush, he noted, he will spend time in other areas in Texas, which is the fifth largest wine producing state.

Haak noted that Texas is also ranked No. 4 in wine consumption, and estimated that 96% of Texas-produced wine is consumed within the state. In addition to his tasting room, which has a population of some 4 million within a 60-mile radius, his wine is distributed in Texas through Republic National, and he ships direct-to-consumer through Vinoshipper.


Meanwhile, Westhover and his colleagues at Texas Viticulture and Enology Extension are working to help new growers and those who are expanding their vineyard acreage, with a series of eight grapegrower workshops around the state see www.winesandvines.com/template.cfm?section=news&content=64888.

"We know how these varieties work here," he said. "We're trying to improve quality and yield in the vineyard with canopy management and different training systems."