Wine crops are popular across West Texas and some grape growers believe that’s due to the dry climate. But winegrowers can count on the unexpected weather, including severe weather and heavy rainstorms to keep them on their toes.
“We tend to be similar to hot regions like in Spain and hot regions in Italy. The growers themselves are out in the vineyards 24/7 and they can anticipate with rain if we will have pests and stuff or mold pressure then they can anticipate it and kill it,” Mike Laughlin, the Hospitality Director at Llano Estacado Winery said.
The winegrowers do have equipment to dry out the crops after a heavy amount of rainfall but Laughlin said they depend a lot on mother nature as well.
“Some of our growers use large rigs to pull over the crops with large fans attached to them to help dry out the crops. But we’re very lucky out in West Texas because wind is not a problem out here,” Laughlin said.
Laughlin said even though they try to eliminate as much of the mold as possible, some of the mold is good to keep around.
“You can sometimes develop some molds and wetter environments of course invite more pest but sometimes there is mold that isn’t a bad thing for instance there is a mold which we made with one of our 2007 wines. So some wines you can get good effects from mold,” Laughlin said.