The first Vinifera grapes were planted in what is now Texas in 1680, about
100 years before they were planted in California.
TWGGA provides the necessary educational and marketing resources for currently producing wineries and vineyards, as well as information
for those exploring the winemaking and grape growing opportunities in Texas.
They are located in Grapevine, Texas.
An Important message from Texas State Rep.
David Swinford
GRAPE
PRODUCTION, TOURISM AND VALUE ADDED PROCESSING
As
Chairman of the Texas House Agriculture and Livestock Committee, my charge is to
promote, protect and preserve agriculture in Texas. That means we need to
look around the country and see if there are things we should be doing in Texas
that would promote agriculture. During my travels around the state on the
Ag Policy Special Committee that I also Chair, it was brought to my attention
that our grape and wine industry had some serious problems.
Whether
we choose to drink wine or not is not the issue. The issue is that many
Texans are drinking wine and it is being produced in other states' agricultural
areas. Wine is an agricultural crop that has been processed. Grapes
are water efficient, high profit crops that can have a huge impact on the
economic survival of rural communities. We have made an economic
evaluation and comparison between the number I (California) and the number 2
(Texas) agriculture states related to the wine industry. I want to give
you the facts that we discovered.
The
economic impact of wine in California was over $33 billion last year. Wine
is the number one finished agricultural crop. Grapes, before processing,
rank 3rd in terms of agriculture valve. 847
wineries produce 2.6 billion bottles from grapes grown by 4,400 farmers.
Grape acreage has grown to 2,527,056 acres in 1998. In California, taxes,
licenses and fees to state, counties and local communities exceeded one billion
dollars in 1999. There is no increase in social problems attributed to
grape growing and wine production in California. The wine industry has
created over 145,000 jobs, paid $4.3 billion in wages, and provided 10.7 million
visitors to the rural areas where grapes are produced and wine is processed.
Well,
how do we compare in Texas? California had retail sales of $2.66 billion
in 1998 while Texas had $921 million. California produced 524,971,095
gallons of wine in 1998 while Texas produced only 1,298,723 gallons.
In fact, Vermont produced almost twice as much wine as Texas. The
bottom line is that California produces 404 times the wine we do but only
consumes 2.9 times the wine. Texas consumes a lot of wine but most the
benefits of production of grapes and processing of wine is in California.
At
present, we have 39 small wineries in Texas scattered across all regions of the
State. We are pretty far north for most grape varieties but there is grape
production going on today in Morse, Texas near the edge of Moore County.
Why does
California have such a prolific grape industry, and Texas such a small one?
Mainly, California has passed laws to encourage the wine industry while Texas
has the most regulations of almost any state in the country. In simple
terms, we are not providing a market for the grape farmers product In fact we
have a distribution system for wine in Texas that almost guarantees failure for
the winery in Texas.
We
have two distributors in Texas that have exclusive rights to distribute wine and
spirits. If they do not choose to
distribute the wine you produce, you are almost left without a market for your
product. Consolidation of wholesale distribution of wine has left a
monopoly in place that makes small wineries compete with huge wineries for
shelve space and the little guy most always loses.
We
must do something to promote the grape industry in Texas if we want to take
advantage of this huge rural development opportunity. Can you picture
vineyards scattered around some small communities and a small winery with
tourist lining the streets throwing money at the local shops and cafes and
spending the nights in bed and breakfast places and local motels. Then
shopping in our antique stores and taking nature tours run by local residents?
Well you could if you had been with our Texas Ag Policy Committee as we
toured the Napa Valley in California this past August. We are missing out
on wonderful, environmentally sound, high dollar businesses by having 1891 laws
on the books in Texas.
I
will be offering the Farm Winery Act of 2000 that will allow grape farmers to
come together to create small wineries that can offer tastings to promote
tourism and create rural economic development. We need to become
aggressive about using our environment to preserve, promote and protect our
rural way of life.
Please pass this on to other Texas wine lovers and encourage them to contact
Ron Wilson's committee in support of Texas wineries.
If anyone has questions or needs information on how to contact the Texas
Legislature they may go to:
http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/capitol.htm)
