STATE OF TEXAS - HISTORICAL COMMISSION - APPLICATION NARRATIVE

SAGMOR VINEYARD

CONTEXT:

Grapes grow naturally in Texas. They were among the fruits that the first settlers to the High Plains observed growing wild. According to Texas A&M University agriculture specialists, more than 50 percent of the world’s native grape species grow wild in the state. – but it is American-European hybrid grape varieties that support the commercial Texas wine industry.[i]

Today, as Texas AgriLife documented in 2023, “80% of the state’s wine grape production occurs in the higher elevations and drier air of the Texas High Plains.”[ii]  The original experiments that identified today’s outstanding Texas wine grape varieties occurred at Sagmor Vineyard.  It has been described as a “simple recreational project in which an entire industry would have its roots.”[iii] 

OVERVIEW:

The early history of wine grape cultivation in Texas is long and riddled with marginal successes and outright failures, resulting from plant diseases, pests, unsuitable climates, lack of interest, and pressure from outside forces. Spanish missionaries and local settlers brought European grapes to the El Paso River Valley region of Texas in the 1600s but these struggled to stay alive. The European grape species, Vitis vinifera, are different species from those growing wild in Texas and did not have resistance to local diseases and pest infestations.[iv]

By 1919, there were nineteen bonded wineries in Texas. They were small, family-owned vineyards producing wine from either American or European-American hybrid grapes, or from other fruit and berries, selling them locally and often for religious purposes. Prohibition, which took effect on January 17, 1920, after the ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, devastated the U.S. wine industry, including vineyards and wineries in Texas. After Prohibition was lifted in 1933, Texas grape and wine production remained stagnant until its rebirth in the 1970s.[v]

After the end of Prohibition, there were sporadic attempts to grow and research grapes in Texas, but the failure or abandonment of those efforts, “characterized the status of the wine grape industry in Texas before 1960.”[vi] The genesis of Sagmor Vineyard lay in one of those efforts. In the early 1940s, Texas Technological College horticulturist W. W. Yocum added small batches of several Vitis varieties of grapes to existing experimental plots of fruit-bearing plants and trees to expand the research project. But as the College began to expand, Yocum was forced to relocate the experimental plots again and again to make room for new buildings.[vii] In the 1960s he had to give up his research when he retired, but two other professors indirectly built upon the work. Clinton “Doc” McPherson was a chemistry professor and Robert “Bob” Reed was a horticulture professor. The two men, both veterans of World War II, established a friendship based in part around their mutual interests in plants. [viii]

When another College building construction project at the school necessitated yet another transplant of Yocum’s grapes, Reed obtained permission to rescue vines that would be destroyed and, with McPherson’s assistance, moved the as-yet unnamed cuttings to Reed’s backyard. “I put (the grapevines) in the backyard for an ornamental to shade the patio in 1963 and had grapes in 1966,” he said in a 1974 interview with the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.[ix]  Reed affectionately named these previously unnamed grapes, “Patio Grape.”[x] The red, French-American hybrid vinifera, could not be identified because the nursery in Kansas where it was obtained was no longer in business. It is still known as the Patio Grape.[xi]

After Reed’s vines produced more grapes, McPherson produced juice and then experimented with homemade wine. This necessitated a license from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission so that he could continue his experimental wine making in the storm shelter under his garage. Eventually, McPherson began wine making as an engaging tool for teaching chemistry.[xii]

In 1968, after some success with the Patio Grape, and winemaking experimentation in the chemistry lab at Texas Tech (with the College’s permission and another TABC license), McPherson and Reed began searching for land suited to an expansion of their experiments.[xiii] They were ready for a ‘real’ vineyard. They found a rural country site totaling fifteen acres located in the northeast corner of Section 25, Block 20, now the intersection of as 88th Street and Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard.[xiv]  Here they bult a small vineyard. One day, after the grapes began growing, McPherson noticed the trellises sagging with the weight of the grapes – more so than the grapes growing previously on Reed’s patio. Sagmor Vineyard had its name.[xv]

Over the next few years, the vineyard was planted with several hundred varieties obtained from nurseries in the eastern and western United States. Reed and McPherson did not attempt to create new hybrid grape varieties (a common means of propagation); instead, they observed the growing vines, seeking those that flourished in the climate of the High Plains and produced the most fruit. In a later interview, Reed said, “We were looking for something that would grow in this country, reliable enough to produce sufficient quality and quantity that you could make wine out of – a palatable, potentially marketable wine.”[xvi] Sagmor Vineyard became the field laboratory for determining a significant amount of information regarding the growth and care of wine grapes for the nascent Texas wine industry. 

In 1972, McPherson received permission to start Texas’ first state-supported experimental winery – in the basement of a new addition to the Chemistry Building, approved and funded by the Texas Tech. The wine could only be used for research. Now McPherson and Reed were both viticulturists and winemakers - propagating the Patio Grape along with seventy-five other varietals at their experimental vineyard and making wine in the chemistry building basement. State and federal permitting for wineries differed from that for vineyards. While navigating new levels of the bureaucracies, McPherson and Reed were joined in their efforts by Robert E. Mitchell, a professor new to the chemistry department. The trio was awarded a University grant in November 1972, for viticulture research.[xvii]  By the next August, then-University president Grover Murray, Regent Bill Collins, and fifty-two others were able to tour Sagmor Vineyard, taste grapes fresh from the vine, and then return to the Chemistry Building’s basement winery to “taste the fruits of their research.”[xviii] 

In addition to the information learned at Sagmor Vineyard, the other essential innovation that “added to the wine grape revolution” on the High Plains was drip irrigation. By the time Reed and McPherson built their winery in a basement, other growers were beginning to experiment with grapes across the country and in Texas. On the High Plains, that included William N. Lipe at the Texas A&M Experiment Station in Lubbock in conjunction with the Abernathy Chamber of Commerce. When Lipe reported on the drip-irrigation technology developed in Israel and its promise, McPherson adapted it for use at Sagmor.[xix]

McPherson and Reed’s efforts to tell others about the potential for growing wine grapes in Texas and on the High Plains, and to gain support for them, were as important to the industry’s development as were their advancements in viticulture. One such event making headlines and garnering state-wide attention occurred on August 25, 1975, when Sagmor Vineyard hosted Lady Bird Johnson, widow of the late President Lyndon B. Johnson. Mrs. Johnson was on a tour for her “Keep Texas Beautiful” program and was scheduled to appear at the University; McPherson and Reed invited her for a visit to Sagmor Vineyard.

The former First Lady’s Secret Service detail arrived first that morning and were initially hesitant to allow McPherson to enter, until they learned that he was the owner. Lady Bird Johnson arrived after her visit to the University campus, and was greeted by McPherson’s wife, Clara, a home economics professor at Tech, and a small group of guests. Clara served the visitors breads, crackers, cheeses, and Sagmor Vineyard wine at folding tables draped with white tablecloths in the Vineyard’s open barn.[xx] Johnson wrote to the McPhersons and Reed following her visit, “I am thoroughly intrigued at the work you are doing at the Sagmor Vineyards and ask that you sign me up as an enthusiastic fan of your grapes.”[xxi] Similar social events brought Sagmor Vineyard and the work of Reed and McPherson to the attention of an ever-widening audience.

In the early years, building a base of grape growers was as essential for the still-young wine industry as support from academia, legislators, and the public. Two years before Johnson’s visit, McPherson and Reed hosted a “field day” for those interested in the possibility of growing grapes. As a result, they shared their knowledge and would go on to assist a group of twenty-seven farmers located west of Lubbock to form the West Texas Sandyland Grape Association (WTSGA). By 1978, these farmers joined McPherson and others in the new, state-wide Texas Grape Growers Association.[xxii]

In 1976, McPherson, Reed, and several investors, founded and opened the Llano Estacado Winery, the first post-Prohibition, modern commercial winery in Texas.[xxiii]  McPherson summed up the achievement by saying, “Our whole premise is to make wine for Texans with Texas grapes by Texas people.”[xxiv] In doing so, the changes that they fought for, and saw enacted to the State’s old, antiquated, and sometimes contradictory laws benefitted the new Texas wine industry.[xxv]

A vital element of any successful wine or winery is a successful sales and marketing strategy. A significant aspect of such a strategy is marketing where the grapes in the wine were grown – a specific geographical designation known as an appellation of origin or viticultural area. By 1980, McPherson was an enthusiastic supporter of trying to obtain the designation for the High Plains. It was not a swift process, but he was able to provide the critical documentation that accompanied his direct application to the federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TBB) seeking designation for the West Texas region as the Texas High Plains American Viticultural Area (AVA).[xxvi] The application was accepted and the AVA designation awarded to the region on March 2, 1993.[xxvii]

Today the Texas wine industry has a $20.35 billion economic impact on the state and employs more than 100,000 Texans in jobs from growing grapes to wine tourism. The Texas wine industry also injects around $1 billion in taxes to localities.[xxviii]  The size of this industry has grown substantially over the last half century. At the time Sagmor Vineyard was established, 144 commercial grape growers had 151 acres in production – by 2022, there were nearly fourteen hundred commercial vineyards growing over 11,500 acres of grapes.[xxix] Federal laws had required that wines marketed as Texas wines had to utilize 75% Texas-grown grapes to be designated as such, but in 2021, the Texas State Legislature passed a “100% rule” for Texas wines.[xxx]  The growth of Texas vineyards and the 100% rule has grown the number of wineries from a handful in the 1970s to 806 registered Texas wineries in 2024.[xxxi] This growth of the Texas grape and wine industry can largely be attributed to McPherson, Reed, and their research work at Sagmor Vineyard.”

SIGNIFICANCE:

“Practically every winemaker credits terroir as the most important part of winegrowing, yet characterizations of it vary widely.” This all-encompassing French term, in use for a thousand years, “represents a sense of place.” [xxxii]  Sagmor’s founders, Clinton M. ‘Doc’ McPherson and Robert ‘Bob’ Reed, would tell anyone interested that, as much work as goes into planting and harvesting wine grapes, it is in fact, the very specific piece of land from which any grape is grown that determines its quality – its color, its flavor, and its essence. “Let the grapes speak for themselves,” McPherson would say.[xxxiii] 

Sagmor Vineyard has remained in production since its first plantings in 1968 and is still a family-owned vineyard.[xxxiv] Future plans are for it to be an experimental vineyard and living laboratory, this time involving statewide university viticulture programs, students and professionals in the areas of research and development, improving and sustaining quality Texas wine grapes and a growing Texas wine industry.[xxxv] 

After Reed’s death in 2013, followed by McPherson’s in 2014, publications across the state and throughout the wine industry paid tribute to both men. The most common words in the tributes from so many were “mentor,” “visionary,” “trailblazer,” “pioneers,” “giants,” “founding fathers,” and “legend.”  McPherson and Reed showed the rest of Texas that not only will wine grapes like Sagmor’s prized Sangiovese variety grow in Texas, but that a commercial winery could produce award-winning wine using grapes grown within the state. [xxxvi] The land and terroir of Sagmor Vineyard is considered to be “the birthplace of the modern Texas wine industry.”[xxxvii] 

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ENDNOTES:

[i] W. Hubert Curry, Sun Rising on the West, The Saga of Henry Clay and Elizabeth Smith (Crosbyton, Tex.: Crosby County Pioneer Memorial, 1979): 174.; The Texas A&M University System, Texas Agricultural Extension Service; Texas Agricultural Progress, (Summer 1976): 6.

[ii] Russell, Adam, “Texas Wine: Down to a science; Texas A&M scientists and AgriLife Extension specialists help fine tune the Texas wine industry,” Agrilife Today, (11 August 2023): 4.

[iii] Sanchez, Eric D., “Forked Tendrils: Llano Estacado Winery and The Rise of The Modern Texas Wine Industry – A Thesis in History.” Texas Tech University, Graduate Thesis, (May 1996): 27. Note: In the introduction to his thesis, Sanchez provides a detailed review of available sources at the time he was writing. Because sources were so rare and/or the information they contained was exceedingly brief, he conducted a great many primary research interviews with participants in the events that he chronicles who were still alive at the time of his work.

[iv] Michael Cruz, et al., Starting a Vineyard in Texas, ([College Station, Texas]:Texas A&M University AgriLife, 2020), 2-3.

[v] Sanchez, Eric D., “Forked Tendrils: Llano Estacado Winery and The Rise of The Modern Texas Wine Industry – A Thesis in History.”Texas Tech University, Graduate Thesis, (May 1996): 19, 47.

[vi] Sanchez, Eric D., “Forked Tendrils: Llano Estacado Winery and The Rise of The Modern Texas Wine Industry – A Thesis in History.” Texas Tech University, Graduate Thesis, (May 1996): 22-26.

[vii] Sanchez, Eric D., “Forked Tendrils: Llano Estacado Winery and The Rise of The Modern Texas Wine Industry – A Thesis in History.” Texas Tech University, Graduate Thesis, (May 1996): 29-32.

[viii] Wine Curmudgeon, “Doc McPherson, 1918-2014,” Wine Curmudgeon, 27 January, 2014, https://winecurmudgeon.com/doc-mcpherson-1918-2014/.

[ix] Gerry Burton, “Grapes May Become Cash Crop in Area.” Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, July 14, 1974.

[x]Kim McPherson (personal communication with Lee Ann Woods, February 2024)

[xi] Sanchez, Eric D., “Forked Tendrils: Llano Estacado Winery and The Rise of The Modern Texas Wine Industry – A Thesis in History.” Texas Tech University, Graduate Thesis, (May 1996): 29.

[xii] Sanchez, Eric D., “Forked Tendrils: Llano Estacado Winery and The Rise of The Modern Texas Wine Industry – A Thesis in History.” Texas Tech University, Graduate Thesis, (May 1996): 32-33.

[xiii] Anthony Head. “Lubbock Winemaker Kim McPherson Puts Texas Wine on the World Stage - The second-generation vintner talks about the industry’s biggest challenges and the future of High Plains wine,” ‘Speaking of Texas,’ Texas Highways, (July 29, 2021); https://texashighways.com/culture/people/lubbock-winemaker-kim-mcpherson-puts-texas-wine-on-the-world-stage/

[xiv] Timberlake, Fred H., Trustee. “Closing Statement.” Sales Price: $8,500.00. 5 February, 1971.

[xv] Sanchez, Eric D. (May 1996), “Forked Tendrils: Llano Estacado Winery and The Rise of The Modern Texas Wine Industry – A Thesis in History.” Texas Tech University, Graduate Thesis. Southwest Collection: 36

[xvi] Sanchez, Eric D. (May 1996), “Forked Tendrils: Llano Estacado Winery and The Rise of The Modern Texas Wine Industry – A Thesis in History.” Texas Tech University, Graduate Thesis. Southwest Collection: 50-51.

[xvii] In 1969, the school changed its name from Texas Technological College to Texas Tech University.

[xviii] Sanchez, Eric D. (May 1996), “Forked Tendrils: Llano Estacado Winery and The Rise of The Modern Texas Wine Industry – A Thesis in History.” Texas Tech University, Graduate Thesis. Southwest Collection: 35-36. Gail Robertson. “Tech profs: little ol’ winemakers,” Texas Tech University, University Daily, (September 27, 1973).1

[xix] Sanchez, Eric D. (May 1996), “Forked Tendrils: Llano Estacado Winery and The Rise of The Modern Texas Wine Industry – A Thesis in History.” Texas Tech University, Graduate Thesis. Southwest Collection: 37-40.

[xx] “Visiting Lady Bird Focuses on Beautification.” Lubbock Avalanche Journal, (August 26, 1975): 1; Catherine Reed. “Bountiful Harvest.” Lubbock Magazine, (ca. 1975): 6. Sanchez, Eric D. (May 1996), “Forked Tendrils: Llano Estacado Winery and The Rise of The Modern Texas Wine Industry – A Thesis in History.” Texas Tech University, Graduate Thesis. Southwest Collection: 60-61.

[xxi] Claudia Alta “Lady Bird” Taylor Johnson. Personal Letter from LBJ Ranch, Stonewall, Texas, (September 10, 1975). 

[xxii] Sanchez, Eric D. (May 1996), “Forked Tendrils: Llano Estacado Winery and The Rise of The Modern Texas Wine Industry – A Thesis in History.” Texas Tech University, Graduate Thesis. Southwest Collection: 54-57.

[xxiii] Whitehorn, Julia, “Llano Estacado Brings The History Of Texas Wine To The Table,” Sommly.com, (May 9, 2022), https://blog.sommly.com/blog/llano-estacado-texas-wine-heritage/

[xxiv] Keith Henley. “Tech Professor Envisions West Texas Wine Industry.” Lubbock Avalanche Journal, (August 1, 1976): 1.

[xxv] Sanchez, Eric D., “Forked Tendrils: Llano Estacado Winery and The Rise of The Modern Texas Wine Industry – A Thesis in History.” Texas Tech University, Graduate Thesis, (May 1996): 81-91. 116.

[xxvi] Sanchez, Eric D., “Forked Tendrils: Llano Estacado Winery and The Rise of The Modern Texas Wine Industry – A Thesis in History.” Texas Tech University, Graduate Thesis, (May 1996): 106-108.

[xxvii] National Archives. Code of Federal Regulations. PART 9—AMERICAN VITICULTURAL AREAS, Authority:27 U.S.C. 205, Source: T.D. ATF-60, 44 FR 56692, Oct. 2, 1979. § 9.144 Texas High Plains. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-27/chapter-I/subchapter-A/part-9/subpart-C/section-9.144.

[xxviii] Russell, Adam, “Texas Wine: Down to a science; Texas A&M scientists and AgriLife Extension specialists help fine tune the Texas wine industry,” Agrilife Today, (11 August 2023): 3.

[xxix] U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Service, Censuses of Agriculture for 1969-2022 (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1970-2024).

[xxx] LegiScan. “TX HB1957 | 2021-2022 | 87th Legislature.” Summary, Status, Completed Action. Action: 2021-05-28 - Effective on 9/1/21. https://legiscan.com/TX/text/HB1957/2021.

[xxxi] Russell, Adam, “Texas Wine: Down to a science; Texas A&M scientists and AgriLife Extension specialists help fine tune the Texas wine industry,” Agrilife Today, (11 August 2023): 3.

[xxxii] Morris, Roger, “Does Terroir Matter?,” Wine Enthusiast, (May 4, 2023), https://www.wineenthusiast.com/culture/wine/does-terroir-matter/

[xxxiii]Kim McPherson (personal communication with Lee Ann Woods, February 2024)

[xxxiv] Production Evidence documentation – various. “Production Evidence.” Buyers: Fall Creek, Llano Estacado, CapRock. Crop Years: 1988, et al. (Signed Production Evidence paperwork.). 

[xxxv]Kim McPherson (personal communication with Lee Ann Woods, February 2024)

[xxxvi] Dupuy, Jessica. “Remembering a Texas Wine Pioneer - The state's wine industry bids farewell to one of its great ambassadors, Clinton “Doc” McPherson, who passed away early Saturday morning,” Texas Monthly, (January 26, 2014), https://www.texasmonthly.com/food/remembering-a-texas-wine-pioneer/; Ray Westbrook. “Services pending for “Doc” McPherson, Texas wine industry pioneer…,” Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, January 25, 2014; Legacy.com. “Robert Reed Obituary,” (January 13, 2013), https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/lubbockonline/name/robert-reed-obituary?id=20580965.

[xxxvii] Dupuy, Jessica. “Texas High Plains AVA: profile plus 10 exciting wines to try - Most wine grapes in Texas are grown in the Texas High Plains AVA. This high-elevation region boasts everything from rich, structured Italian red varieties to flavourful white Rhône styles with vibrant acidity.” Decanter, (January 22, 2023), https://www.decanter.com/premium/texas-high-plains-ava-profile-plus-10-exciting-wines-to-try-490864/.