It’s a Brix Horse Race on the Texas High Plains with Tempranillo in the Lead
I just saw the Brix number’s posted on the Bingham Family Vineyards website (actually a link from their Twitter post @BinghamVineyard of 8:29 am this morning) for the wine grapes that are still hanging on their vines. See summary below for yesterday, September 2, 2010:
| 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon | 21.4 °Bx / pH 3.2 |
| 2007 Tempranillo | 22 °Bx / pH 3.22 |
| 2007 Vermentino | 20.8 °Bx / pH 3.23 |
| 2008 Roussanne | 18.6 °Bx / pH 3.31 |
| 2008 Tempranillo | 22.6 °Bx / pH 3.36 |
| 2008 Trebbiano | 18.4 °Bx / pH 3.13 |
See: http://www.binghamfamilyvineyards.com/2010/09/03/brix-and-ph-test-results-for-september-2-2010/
It looks like Tempranillo is in a red grape competition with Cabernet Sauvignon for the highest Brix (Brix is a measure of the sugar content in the grapes). If this was a good old fashioned Texa horse race, Tempranillo would be leading by a neck as they are coming around the club house turn. They are now entering the straightway with the finish line plainly in sight.
We need to hope for some those sunny warm days and cool nights for which the Texas High Plains AVA is best known. They will help to bring up the Brix numbers, while keeping the great pH numbers they are showing so far stay low.
Thanks to the Binghams for this information. Their periodic blog posts about the progress of the 2010 vintage has been very interesting. It’s almost like I got my feet in their vineyard watching the grape ripen, day-by-day.
Go Tempranillo….Go!
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Follow their Brix as the 2010 vintage progresses at:
http://www.binghamfamilyvineyards.com/category/vineyards
Oh my gosh! The Binghams just updated their Brix numbers this morning with data from today (Sept. 3, 2010):
2006 Cabernet Franc 23.2 °Bx / pH 3.35
2006 Dolcetto 22.6 °Bx / pH 3.35
2006 Tempranillo 21.2 °Bx / pH 3.4
2006 Vermentino 21 °Bx / pH 3.32
2009 Merlot 22.8 °Bx / pH 3.59
2009 Vermentino 22 °Bx / pH 3.57
2008 Cabernet Franc 22 °Bx / pH 3.59
2008 Cabernet Sauv. 18 °Bx / pH 3.25
2009 Tempranillo 22.2 °Bx / pH 3.69
Another horse just broke out of the pack (Old Cab Franc) at 23.2 Brix! This horse race is just starting to get exciting.
Thats great! Here at Lone Oak Winery, we just harvested several tons of Tempranillo! Let the process begin!
Who is that punk with his hat turned around? The equipment that has lain dormant for so many years WORKS! It a triumph of German engineering. Many tons this week.
I think that his name is Robert Cox or something like that….
Updated info from the Bignham’s September 7, 2010:
2006 Cabernet Franc 24.2 °Bx / pH 3.55
2006 Dolcetto 24.4 °Bx / pH 3.55
2006 Tempranillo 22 °Bx / pH 3.52
2006 Vermentino 22.4 °Bx / pH 3.48
2009 Merlot – 24.4 °Bx / pH 3.92
2009 Vermentino – 24.4 °Bx / pH 3.83
2008 Cabernet Franc – 23.6 °Bx / pH 3.73
2009 Tempranillo – 24 °Bx / pH 3.75
Dolcetto, Cab Franc, Tempranillo and Vermentino are all running neck and neck now. This IS a real horse race!