The Hottest Stories in Texas Wine – Summer 2025

• A “Next Napa” contender: The Texas Hill Country continues to be recognized as one of the regions vying to become the “next Napa”. Factors in its favor are: rapid growth in wine production, new wineries, increasing reputation for quality of wines, the region’s growing reputation as a food and wine tourist destination, and… I just looks like what wine country should look like!
• International alliances: In February 2025, Texas Hill Country Wineries (THCW) joined the Global Artisan Vintners Alliance (AVA) as a founding member. This new organization facilitates collaboration and sustainable practices among prestigious wine regions around the world.
• Significant economic impact: A May 2025 study from WineAmerica reported that the Texas wine industry has a massive economic footprint, contributing over $24 billion in total economic activity and supporting nearly 137,000 jobs.
• “Top Brand” recognition: WineBusiness Monthly named Bending Branch Winery one of its “Hot 10 Brands”. Recent innovation highlights include its Newsom Vineyards Tempranillo, commitment to local terroir with its Texas white oak aged wines, and the growing quality and reputation of Texas-made wines.  White oak aged wines now available are its 2021 Texas Cowboy Cuvée Reserve, 2020 Petit Verdot Reserve, and 2020 Tannat Reserve. These award-winning wines are available in the tasting room. 

• Podcast coverage: The This is Texas Wine podcast featured Ron Yates of Ron Yates Wines and Spicewood Vineyards in August 2025. The segment covered the launch of his new boxed wine project, the expansion of his tasting room, and insights into the 2025 harvest. Another closely followed podcast is Texas Under Vine that featured a diverse selection of. Texas Hill Country Wineries including: Driftwood Estate Winery, French Connection Winery, Flat Creek Estate, and Heath Sparkling Wines.  

• Early, yet quality harvests: Despite some isolated hail damage, the overall 2024 Texas wine grape harvest was widely reported as early, with both high quality and above-average yields across most regions. The 2025 harvest is still in progress. Early reports indicated that the harvest for hybrid grapes like Blanc du Bois from the Gulf Coast looked promising, with a potentially larger yield for the season. Reports from July noted that the Texas Hill Country received a significant amount of rain. While this can increase grape yields, it also creates challenges for winemakers, requiring measures to protect the grapes around harvest time. In the Texas High Plains, harvesting is well underway for white grapes, and red grape harvesting is expected to continue in the coming weeks. Rains from earlier in the season have been replaced by current dry and sunny conditions with moderate temperatures. These are good conditions to promote a long, slow ripening period. Last but not least, Texas has a new white wine grape vying for palate and name recognition… Picpoul Blanc.

• Legal win against pesticides: In March 2025, Texas Wine Growers secured a federal court order halting the spraying of the Dicamba pesticide, know for its vine damaging properties. The pesticide’s drift had previously caused millions of dollars in damage to Texas vineyards.  This is a big win for Texas wine growers that have faced significant challenges from vine damage and economic losses from Dicamba drift. This led to a lawsuit filed in 2021 by 57 High Plains growers against Bayer-Monsanto and BASF. The  federal court order halted the spraying of the pesticide across millions of acres of cotton and soybeans this year, which was a victory for the growers and a reversal of earlier EPA approvals. 

Photo credits: Farm Progress, Bending Branch Winery