The Texoma AVA sprawls 3,650 square miles and is carved like a jigsaw puzzle piece on its northern edge, a narrow east-west expanse along the Texas-Oklahoma border. Its southern edge is, in places, just a 40-minute drive north from the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Here, 19th-century viticulturist Thomas Volney (T.V.) Munson bred hundreds of grape varieties and phylloxera-resistant rootstocks. Today, winemakers are attuned to the AVA’s varied terroir.
“There are three subregions. The western part is drier and soils near the Red River are reddish clay loam. In central Texoma there’s black clay and it’s very fertile, with large, high vigor vines. The lakes there help moderate the temperature. And in eastern Texoma, we see more sandy loam soils,” explains Michael Cook, a viticulture program specialist with Texas A&M’s department of horticultural sciences.
The AVA is named for Lake Texoma, a massive reservoir finished by the Army Corps of Engineers in 1944. On a map, it looks like the body of a clawing centaur, and, in places, delineates the border between Texas and Oklahoma. Vineyards near the lake, or near Lake Ray Roberts, an hour south, benefit from
the moderating effect Cook describes. “In winter, we stay a few degrees warmer, and in summer, a few degrees cooler,” adds Tom Kilgore, co-owner of 5 Fifty-Five Vineyard and Winery in Valley View, a few hundred feet from Lake Ray Roberts.
Christopher McIntosh, co-owner of Edge of the Lake Vineyard, a waterfront property along Lake Ray Roberts in central Texoma, is also the president of the North Texas Winery Association. “Our challenges are weather-driven—rain, hail, humidity and sometimes tornadoes.” Soils here are clay and sand; clay holds water, and it’s possible to manipulate sand to further control irrigation. Growth is vigorous, so McIntosh, who primarily grows Tempranillo and Grenache, prunes for fewer clusters per vine to achieve flavor and tannin concentration, especially important during a wetter season.
To the west, near the Red River, Arché is surrounded by stunning bluffs and expansive grassland, and roads with roller coaster-like ascents and descents offer breathtaking pastoral views. There’s more elevation and diurnal shift, and less annual rainfall. A cooler microclimate means Chardonnay is more successful at Arché than elsewhere in the AVA.
Texoma red wines, especially from Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre, are balanced, fruit-forward and often medium bodied. For Kristi Abrahamson-Tullis, co-owner of Lonesome Vine in west Texoma, this means eventually dialing into GSM blends and single-variety vintages of each, in addition to Tempranillo and white Rhône varietals.
Munson’s original vineyard is on the campus of Grayson College in Denison, in the northeastern section of the AVA; many alums of Grayson’s Viticulture and Enology program continue to farm the land, experimenting with both Vitis vinifera and hybrids alike. Jackson Anderson, owner of Square Cloud
Winery, maintains a baseline production of Tempranillo, Malvasia Bianca and Syrah while also trialing Munson varieties like Captivator and Wineking. So significant are Munson’s achievements in the area that Abrahamson-Tullis even suggests including his name in a future sub-AVA to pay homage to his contribution.
Indeed, the varied terroir throughout Texoma means that many in the local industry are keen to see the larger AVA subdivided to acknowledge that diversity. But, as Cook concludes, growers are still coming into their own. “They’re sharing their knowledge and, in a once fragmented industry, we are unifying and making a name for ourselves.”
Quick Facts
- Date AVA Established: 2005
- Total Size: 3,650 square miles
- Most Planted Grapes: Syrah, Mourvèdre, Tempranillo, Grenache, Picpoul Blanc, Roussanne, Marsanne, Viognier
- Climate: Humid subtropical and continental
This article originally appeared in the Best of Year issue of Wine Enthusiast magazine. Click here to subscribe today!
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Published: December 3, 2024
