Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/63248
VINEYARD NextGen Texas Young vintners are changing the face of the state's wine industry By Jeff Siegel hris Brundrett's career path in the wine business has been fairly straightforward: college experimental vineyard, work- ing with a vineyard management com- pany, then a partner and winemaker in a small winery. The difference is that he didn't do this in a region where that's common. Instead, 28-year-old Brundrett, who owns William Chris Vineyards with Bill Blackmon, did it in Texas. In the last decade or so, the state's industry has grown through the contri- butions of its first generation of vint- ners – people who came to the wine business after a first career, usually successful, in some other industry. That's changing, however, and Brun- drett is among the next generation of Texas winemakers who are part of that change. Typically, they're younger and more professionally trained than their predecessors, and they chose wine as their first career instead of coming to it from something else in midlife. In this, they bring a fresh perspec- tive to the country's fifth-largest wine-producing state. This second gen- eration, which includes winemakers at operations large and small, is garnering critical and popular acclaim for distinc- tively Texas wines that reflect terroir in a way that hasn't always been the 68 VINEYARD & WINERY MANAGEMENT MAY - JUNE 2012 Chris Brundrett of William Chris Vineyards is part of a new generation of profession- ally trained Texas vintners. Photo: Miguel Lecuona case. Its focus is less on traditional varieties, such as cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay, and more on Texas- friendly grapes including syrah, viog- nier and tempranillo, and even hybrid and native grapes. "They've got an opportunity to pick up the ball and run with it," said Sam Clark, who oversees the Texas wine category for Houston-based Spec's, the state's largest liquor retailer. "But they have to understand that they have to put as much work into it as their elders did." FIRST-GENERATION GROWTH Texas has some 225 wineries, about five times more than in 2001, and quality has improved just as dramatical ly. Those changes have been pow- ered by the previous gen- eration of winery owners and winemakers, a cadre of successful executives, lawyers and physicians who came to wine from elsewhere. Paul Bonariggo, whose family owns the 100,000- case Messina Hof Winery and Resort, in Bryan, was a physical therapist. Rich- ard Becker, whose Becker Vineyards has been a Hill Country fixture since the late 1990s, is an endo- crinologist. Entrepreneur Rick Naber started Flat Creek Estate in the Hill Country at the beginning of the century. "The thing to keep in mind is that for much of the industry, we still needed a day job," said Raymond Haak, an elec- t r ical -engineer- turned- winemaker whose Haak AT A GLANCE Second-generation Texas winemakers often come to wine as a first career, rather than later in life. New winemakers are more open to pairing grape varieties with their terroir. They are benefiting from lessons learned from their predecessors about climate and soil. Younger winemakers understand marketing to younger consumers. WWW.VWM-ONLINE.COM