2019 Blanc du Bois Texas

Texas is one of the oldest wine growing states in the US, with vines planted here more than a hundred years before they were planted in California or Virginia. In the 1650s, Franciscan priests planted Mission vines in West Texas, near modern day El Paso. The vines were a necessity in the production of sacramental wine used in the Eucharist. Using Texas vines to create hundreds of hybrid grapes, horticulturist Thomas Munson conducted significant research, finding root stock immune to the Phylloxera epidemic, saving the French wine industry from total ruin. The advent of Prohibition in the United States virtually eliminated Texas' wine industry.  In the 1970’s the industry was revived with the founding of Llano Estacado and Pheasant Ridge wineries in the Texas High Plains appellation (near Lubbock and the La Buena Vida winery in Springtown). According to the Texas Grape and Wine Growers Association (txwines.org), Texas now has eight AVAs although many vineyards exist outside the specified AVAs.