Talk about a long-term project — a couple in Vega, Texas, is growing about 3 acres of grapes in the Route 66 town, and they hope to open a winery there within five to 10 years.
A reporter from ABC-7 in nearby Amarillo recently caught up with Thomas Johnson, who moved to Vega from Wyoming with his wife about four years ago.
One of the key parts of the story:
“I started the first year by planting northern grapes and now I’ve taken those out because it’s just too hot here. The climate is like Spain, therefore a lot of stuff that will grow in Spain will grow in Texas, especially in the High Plains. What’s really good about this area is you have the nights get a little cooler and the days get a little high, so it’ll make the sugars produce,” explained Johnson. […]
Visitors can come out into Johnson’s backyard, harvest their grapes, and then head over to the Milburn-Price Culture Museum to press and mash the grapes into wine before bottling it up.
The Milburn-Price Museum contains a lot of local historical artifacts, including from Route 66, and is worth a visit.
Those who hold doubts about whether Johnson’s grapes will be good in an unlikely locale such as the Texas Panhandle should remember the Gruet Winery in New Mexico. Gruet makes what is widely considered to be the best sparkling wine outside of Champagne, France, and quite a few experts consider it to be equal to champagne.
According to a recent article I read, Gruet’s wine is exceptional because, as Johnson intimated, the grapes grown there favor New Mexico’s hot summer days and cool nights. Because weather conditions are similar in the Panhandle, there’s no reason to believe wine grapes won’t thrive in a similar manner there.
(Screen-capture image from ABC-7 video of Thomas Johnson’s vineyard in Vega, Texas)