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74 WINES&VINES October 2017 WINE INDUSTRY NEWS WINE EAST H ouston, Texas—The Gulf Coast of Texas took a di- rect hit from Hurricane Harvey, but the good news is vine- yards there were almost entirely undamaged. The region has been d e s c r i b e d a s h a v i n g " w a r m breezes and micro-climate," and as a result, grapegrowers had fin- ished harvest by the end of July. By late August, the grapes had mostly finished fermentation and were safely ensconced in their tanks or barrels. Fran Pontasch, the Gulf Coast extension program specialist at Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, told Wines & Vines that for vineyards, the Gulf Coast did better than expected. "All the vine- yards are small, mostly just a few acres," she said. "The losses are small, maybe six vines at most in a vineyard. You can count the number on one hand." The region has 36 vineyards and 23 wineries, according to the Texas Wine and Grape Growers Association. It is not an easy cli- mate in which to grow grapes: The warm temperatures and high hu- midity, combined with frequent rain, create an environment that favors the growth of many fungal diseases. Most of the grapes grown there are Blanc du Bois, a white hybrid grape crossed by Dr. John A. Mortensen at the University of Florida's Central Florida Research and Education Center in 1968 and released officially in 1987. The va- riety is tolerant of the humid cli- mate and, even more important, is resistant to Pierce's disease. Haak Vineyards and Winery in Santa Fe, Texas, 20 miles from Galveston and 25 miles from Houston, is one of the largest win- eries in the Gulf Coast region. Winemaker and president Ray- mond Haak told Wines & Vines that the winery produces about 9,000 cases of wine and has a 3-acre vineyard planted solely with Blanc du Bois. Haak noted that he received some of the first- released Blanc du Bois vines from Mortensen 35 years ago and makes seven different styles of wines from those grapes. When asked about the hurri- cane, Haak reported that Santa Fe h a d t h e h i g h e s t r a i n f a l l amount of anywhere in the Hous- ton-Galveston area—about 59 inches or more. "We may not have had quite that much at the winery," he said. "We had a little bit of water in the cellar, and lost power for about 16 hours. But now we're doing great; we're back on our feet. The crop was all off the vines, and that takes a load off the vine. They can have wet feet for several weeks if the crop is off." Haak thinks they may have had some minor tornadoes as three cast aluminum light poles in their parking lot were broken during the storm. Haak buys all of his red grapes from the High Plains region of Texas and had just received 38 tons of Tempranillo and Touriga Nacional from near Lubbock. "The storm didn't go there, so the grapes were in great shape." A week after Hurricane Har- vey finally departed, Jerry Ber- nhardt, owner and winemaker at Bernhardt Winery in Planters- ville, Texas, (about 60 miles northwest of Houston) was out in the vineyard, checking the vines and considering what sprays to apply. He reported that the vineyard got "more than 30 inches of rain over five days. It wasn't a wind event, not like Hurricane Ike (in 2008), when things in the vineyard blew over. We've got pretty good drainage, and we survived." The grapes from Bernhardt's 2-acre Blanc du Bois vineyard were picked in early July. He will probably apply a protective spray and expects that the vines will "go dormant by (the leaves) getting old. They'll lose their leaves in mid-October." "We're fortunate," Bernhardt said. "We can stagger our fermen- tations here. The first week in July we harvest the whites; the first week in August we bring in the reds. Then in September we get grapes from West Texas, Arkansas, New Mexico and California." He finishes in October, when the old- vine Zinfandel arrives from Lodi, Calif. The winery produces about 2,600 cases each year. —Linda Jones McKee Wine East Covering Eastern North America Gulf Coast Vineyards in Texas Survive Hurricane Harvey Students Run Lake Michigan Tasting Room Jonathan Schrock, general manager, and Jerry Bernhardt (standing), owner and winemaker at Bernhardt Winery in Plantersville, Texas, check vines to determine what spray(s) to apply in an effort to control fungal diseases in the vineyard after Hurricane Harvey. B a r o d a , M i c h . — L a k e Michigan College estab- lished a wine and viticul- t u r e t e c h n o l o g y a s s o c i a t e degree program two years ago. The program provides a com- prehensive, hands-on education in enology, viticulture and now the business side of the industry including sales, marketing and distribution. The "grand opening" of the Lake Michigan Vintners wine tast- ing room took place earlier this summer, but this is no ordinary tasting room: Students in the wine and viticulture program at Lake Michigan College run it. "The tasting room is an educa- tional opportunity for our stu- d e n t s , " s a i d t h e p r o g r a m ' s director, Michael Moyer. "We opened it somewhat by necessity: It helps to educate students but also promotes the college's wine program and the entire southwest Michigan wine region as well." Laura Morris, whose official title is brand manager, supervises the students working in the tast- ing room. "It's a cool concept," Morris said. "Students sell the wine they have made. There are nine varietals for sale, including two styles of Riesling and a hard cider, and most of the wines are on the drier side." Morris said she expects the tasting room will have 800 to 1,000 cases of wine from each vintage to sell. The emphasis is not on profit but to provide stu- dents an opportunity to learn about customer service and tast- ing room operations. The Lake Michigan College wine and viticulture program is housed temporarily at the Men- del Center of the campus in Ben- ton Harbor, just north of the tasting room in Baroda. A new Wine and Culinary Education Center is under construction, and Moyer thinks that students will be able to process wine there in 2019. —Linda Jones McKee