Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/348953
114 { THE SOMM JOURNAL } AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2014 Comprising eight million West Texas acres, the High Plains AVA is not the pret- tiest of wine countries. Near Lubbock, for example, it's flat as a board—from horizon to horizon there's hardly a geographic blip of the topography, other than the gentlest of slopes and the occasional pumpjack drawing up the last few drops of crude oil from beneath this windswept landscape. Still, it's where a swelling number of award-winning Texas wines begin. The semi-arid climate and altitudes ranging from 3,000 to 4,100 feet bring hot summer days and cool nights. There is also good soil. "It's a sandy loam type soil. Porous, easy to work with. You can grow any crop in this," says Vijay Reddy, who has a Ph.D. in soil chemistry and soil science and has been farming commod - ity crops in this area since 1979; Reddy Vineyards, in Brownfield, has 280 acres planted to grapes. "Beneath the surface it's of a calcareous nature, it's caliche. That's good for grapes." In total, the AVA has about 4,000 acres under vine from around 30 growers, and Reddy is representative of area farmers choosing to convert (or forego planting altogether) cotton, sorghum and peanuts in favor of wine grapes, which provide better financial returns and require less water. (Water is still critical here, though. This severe landscape is very dry and most vineyards are irrigated from the Ogallala Aquifer, which has less-than-ideal recharge rates because of increased usage coinciding with an ongoing drought.) In recent years, growers suffered through spring frosts, a danger to bud - ding vines, in 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2013, the latter of which brought many growers near-100-percent losses. Then last April 15, there was an overnight drop in temperatures from the mid-30s to mid-20s, leading to another lost vintage for some, as was evident during my trip to the region near Lubbock about a month later. But there were also some big develop - ments. Cliff Bingham, of Bingham Family Farms in Meadow, packed nutrient-rich It's a hardscrabble life in the High Plains, where dirt devils sweep tumbleweeds and sand across the roads and onto the vineyards. Talk about gnarly!