Angela Ward – Lush green acres of grape vines surrounding small wineries might seem out of place among the cotton fields, cattle ranches and oil rigs of East Texas, but local vineyard owners find the area meets their needs.

Jeff Sneed, owner of the Los Pinos Ranch Vineyards in Camp County, is one of the more established wine makers in the state. Since he began his operation in 2001, he said the number of Texas vineyards has increased more than three-fold, from fewer than 50 to more than 170.

“Unlike a lot of businesses, we don’t want to discourage competition,” said Sneed, the Region II Director of the Texas Wine and Grape Growers Association. “The more Texas vineyards there are, and the more people associate Texas with wine, the better it is for all of us.”

The Texas wine industry in the early 21st century is about where the California wine industry was during the 1960s and ’70s, Sneed said.

“Back then, people kind of sneered at the idea of any kind of American wine and assumed all really good wine came from Europe,” he said. “Within the past 30 years, people have come to realize that some of the finest wines in the world come from the Napa Valley. About 20 years from now, I’m guessing that Texas wines will be considered among the best on Earth.”

Altus Koegelenberg, one of the owners of Enoch’s Stomp Vineyard and Winery in Harrison County near Harleton, said the enterprise takes a lot of work but has plenty of rewards.

“I’m from a wine making family, so I enjoy tasting the grapes when they’re ready to harvest and the wine when it’s finally aged to the point of drinkability,” Koegelenberg said. “I’ve also met some wonderful people who come out to our tours and events.”

The vineyard occupies about 11 acres, which Koegelenberg and his partners purchased in 2004. They planted the grapes in early 2005, and wine was first available for sale in 2008.

“It takes about three years from harvest until the wine is ready, so it’s a long process,” he said. “It’s very labor intensive.”

It generally takes a vineyard seven or eight years to break even and begin turning a profit, Koegelenberg said.

Sneed estimated he has invested about $3 million in land, raw material and equipment for his vineyard, which produces about 7,000 cases of wine per year. He said the labor investment was even more intensive than the financial one.

“We close down for a couple of weeks in January, but other than that, I’m pretty much working from dawn to dusk every day of the week,” Sneed said. “However, wine making was my passion for many years before it became my profession, so it doesn’t really feel like work to me. It’s just living a life I love.”

While soil and weather conditions limit the varieties of grapes that can be grown in East Texas, both vineyards produce several varieties of wine. Enoch’s Stomp divides its selections between red and white, while Los Pinos classifies its wines as either sweet or dry.

“Most people who aren’t familiar with wine will usually start out preferring sweet wines and then gradually begin to enjoy the dryer ones,” Sneed said.

Both vineyards are open to the public on weekends and available for a variety of events, including weddings and reunions.

A limited number of foods are available at Enoch’s Stomp, while Los Pinos offers a more comprehensive menu. Vineyard locations are generally isolated from the hustle and bustle of even the smaller East Texas towns, and the owners said they are selling ambience and much as alcoholic beverages.

“Coming out here is the opposite of going to a typical chain restaurant,” Sneed said. “The service is slow, but we pride ourselves on that. We’re not trying to rush people through their dinner. We want them to have time to enjoy the scenery, the company and, most of all, some good wine.”

Sneed said people in the Texas wine industry have to be as comfortable with their customer as they are with the land and the fruit.

“Because many Texans didn’t grown up drinking wine on a regular basis, a lot of what we do is education,” Sneed said. “We want people to be comfortable with the idea of wine and realize there aren’t a lot of rigid rules that have to be followed.

“There are some traditional pairings, like white wines with poultry or seafood and red wines with red meat, but the wine police are not going to arrest somebody if that individual happens to prefer red wine with chicken or white wine with beef.”