This summer of 2023 has been a historic summer of temperatures over 100 degrees, with some days approaching 110 degrees in temperature.
Weather forecasts are predicting more temperatures over 100 in the coming week. This weekend is a three-day weekend with Labor Day on Monday. Normally, we start to transition to the fall with cooler temperatures on the way. This Labor Day normally marks the transition from lighter clothing, lighter foods, and lighter wines to heavier clothing as the weather cools. In addition, our foods normally get heavier as we transition to red wines which are heavier.
That will not be the case for several more weeks. However, cooler weather will be coming so we can make this transition.
Texas is enjoying another outstanding year of a quality harvest through the Labor Day weekend. Grape quantities are down this year since all of Texas, including grape vines suffered through the dry weather, February’s Freeze of two years ago, and Bayer’s Diacamba herbicide which is killing hundreds of acres of vineyards according to vineyard owners. The grapes have been harvested along the Gulf Coast and the Texas Hill County. The grapes on the Texas High plains have everyone abuzz about 2023 being another awesome year for Texas, once of the BEST ever! About 70% of the Texas grapes are harvested on the flat lands of the Texas High Plains.
These flat lands make harvesting grapes easy with mechanical grape harvesters. These machines have vibrating sides on each side of the rows of grape vines guided by a wheeled mechanism. About 100 grape pickers equal the daily output of just one mechanical harvester. With lack of farm labor, Texas is not being impacted unlike California with its steeply sloping vineyards and lack of farm hands.
These machine-harvested grapes come into the winery cleaner and faster than hand-harvested grapes. As a result of a faster accumulation of grapes via mechanical harvester, the grapes arrive at the wineries in less than 90 minutes vs. several hours of vineyard storage and accumulation of grapes to justify transportation to the winery by truck. The grapes that arrive faster from mechanical harvest have a temperature about one to two degrees above ambient air temperature. However, grapes that have to reside in the storage bins in vineyards for hours start fermentation via rogue yeasts and bacteria. Winemakers have no control over these rogue fermentations and sometime have unusual tastes that the winemaker does not want to have in his wines. With this type of mechanical harvesting, Texas wineries are experiencing better quality grapes at the winery. Although the final end of the grape harvest is several weeks away, most everyone agrees that Texas is finding its identity and making lots of award-winning wines.
As we look into another quality grape harvest, it appears that Texas is poised to continue to earn the recognition it has earned year after year with more Best in Show, Gold Medals and Double Gold Medals. Grapes in California have not been harvested to the extent that is seen in Texas.Â
Bernhardt Winery concerts
The Bernhardt winery folks are looking forward to sharing their wines, stories, poetry, and music with you! Jerry Bernhardt invites you to join him on the north winery lawn for another year of Sunday evening concerts paired with fellowship and great wines. The reputation for the Bernhardt Winery concerts has grown over the years with large crowds enjoying each other, Bernhardt Winery Wines, great foods, and outstanding music. I suggest getting to the winery to stake out your perfect spot with your chairs and tables, foods, and of course your choices in Bernhardt Wines. You can bring your own foods or buy available foods on the winery site. This winery is both kid and dog friendly, but you still must take full responsibility for both! You can bring it all to the winery concerts, except outside alcohol since the TABC says that is a BIG No-No! There is a nominal cover charge of $10 to $15 depending on the concert for those over 18 with youngsters and dogs free. Upcoming Sunday concerts include:
•   Sept. 2 – Vinyl Arcade for acoustic music listening
•   Sept. 3 – Just like Pink, a Pink Tribute Concert starting at 6:30
•   Sept. 9 – Kevin Lamar and the Texas Backbone Band
•   Sept. 10 – Bad Moon Rising, a Credence Clearwater Revival TributeÂ
See the bernhardtwinery.com website for a full listing of September entertainment.Â
Bernhardt Winery is also putting on Saturday afternoon acoustic concerts starting around 1 p.m. These free Saturday events are also paired with other Saturday events at the winery. To further enjoy these concerts, I suggest bringing lots of friends.
Ron Saikowski may be reached at rsaikowski@comcast.net.Â
