Central Texas heat hurts grape growers

A good glass of wine comes from good grapes. But, a combination of weather concerns is keeping Texas vineyard owners from producing that perfect product.

"It's like hunting Easter eggs," Gary Gilstrap said as he searched for a decent cluster of grapes in his vineyard in Johnson City.

"Normally, in this area we would see four times as many clusters and they'd be larger clusters," he said.

An April freeze left him with small, sporadic bunches of grapes across his vineyard, Texas Hills Vineyard.

That was strike one.

"If we do have any grapes at all, you can't expose them to the sun because they'll turn to raisins real quick," he said.

That was strike two.      
 
 
A summer of record high heat could make for a bitter batch of wine.

"With a heat like this they won't build sugar," Gilstrap said. "We'll still get some quality wines, but not near what we'd like to get taste-wise."

Between the late freeze and the heat, Gilstrap's gone from growing most of his grapes to having to buy from suppliers to
make up for the shortfall.

In an average year, he'd produce 60 percent of his crop. This year, 80 percent is being brought in.

And that's strike three.
    
But the season's not a total loss.

"Our production is down, but our business is up. We're about at a 25 to 30 percent increase in business for this calendar year, which is incredible," Gilstrap said.

Gilstrap hopes more customers will make the trip to his vineyard for winery tours, as he prays for next year to be a more profitable grape growing season.

"I'm ready for a good year," he said.

Gilstrap said in an average year he produces 10,000 to 12,000 cases of grapes.

This year it will be more like 3,000 cases.

Meanwhile, because grape growers use irrigation, the dry weather has not hurt them. Because of the ongoing drought, however, their water wells are starting to run out.