(Wines&Vines) - At the end of May, the prospects for a great harvest in Texas this season were dubious. While no grape growers reported spring frosts across the state, torrential rains during Memorial Day weekend delivered as much as 13 inches of rain in 12 hours in the Texas Hill Country wine region west of Austin, and other parts of Texas also experienced soaking rains.

Neal Newsom, owner of Newsom Vineyards in Plains, Texas, told Wines & Vines that parts of Texas “had enough rain in May to fill all the reservoirs and keep the rivers going in California for a year and a half.” Bobby Cox, owner of Pheasant Ridge Winery in Lubbock, added, “Texas got more rain in May than in 2011 and 2012 and the first five months of 2013 combined.”

After that rain event, the weather in Texas moderated. Ed Hellman, professor of viticulture at Texas Tech University and the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, summarized the growing season: “Vineyards got started late, and we had a lot of rain and cloud cover in May. We haven’t had a hot summer. There have been only two days of 100°-plus temperatures, and harvest will probably go into late September. It could be a very long growing season if it pushes into September, and we get cooler nighttime temperatures. My expectation is that we could have the best harvest ever, as well as the largest.” He noted that more than 2,000 acres of vineyard have been planted just in the High Plains region during the past five years, and many of those acres are coming into bearing this year.

Harvest started July 28 for Bending Branch Winery in Comfort, Texas. The Texas Hill Country winery brought in a small amount of Viognier that day, according to winemaker John Rivenburgh. He anticipates that by the end of this week (Aug. 29), Bending Branch will be finished with the white varieties and have processed about 65 tons. “We’ve seen some good numbers for Texas,” Rivenburgh said. “Brix levels have been at 21°-22°, pH at 3.6 and TA’s around 6.0.” He anticipates that it will be a couple of weeks before the red varieties are harvested, with Malbec being an earlier variety, followed by Tempranillo. “I think we’ll have a great season for reds,” Rivenburgh stated. “If growers have done good water management and have some patience, we could have some of the best red fruit we’ve ever had.”

Much of Bending Branch’s harvest has been custom work for clients. The winery purchased the first fully automated, self-contained Della Toffola biothermal cooler system in the country last year. Run from an iPad, the unit can process 3 tons per hour and, because it has the capability of continuous feed, can easily do 20 tons in a day. “The wines we’ve made using this unit have been spectacular,” Rivenburgh noted, “both for their color and for the reduction in vegetal aromas and flavors.” The flash détente technology rapidly heats the must and cools it quickly in a vacuum chamber, a process that improves color extraction and reduces the pyrazines present in numerous grape varieties. After using the Della Toffola unit for test runs in 2014, Bending Branch Winery is now offering flash détente services to their custom-crush clients.

In the High Plains region, harvest started somewhat later than in the Hill Country. According to Hellman, harvest began the second week in August, starting with Muscat Blanc and Pinot Grigio, followed by Orange Muscat, Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc and Viognier. “In Texas, getting good Brix numbers isn’t a challenge,” he noted. “With Viognier, if you let it hang it will get to 24°Brix; with the Muscats, the flavor and aromas are there at lower Brix—between 20° and 22°. With a cooler year, numbers will be better, especially for the reds. It’s been a tough stretch, with 2010 being our last good harvest. First there were droughts, then frosts in 2013 and 2014.”