The Texas High Plains AVA is an
American Viticultural Area
An American Viticultural Area (AVA) is a designated wine grape-growing region in the United States, providing an official appellation for the mutual benefit of winery, wineries and consumers. Winemakers frequently want their consumers to know abo ...
located on the
Llano Estacado
The Llano Estacado (), sometimes translated into English as the Staked Plains, is a region in the Southwestern United States that encompasses parts of eastern New Mexico and northwestern Texas. One of the largest mesas or tablelands on the North A ...
region of
Texas.
The
appellation is the second largest American Viticultural Area in Texas, and covers an area of over . Most of the vineyards are on flat terrain at elevations between and
above sea level
Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''.
The comb ...
. The Texas plains can be extremely dry, so most vineyards are
irrigated
Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has been devel ...
with water from the
Ogallala Aquifer.
The
hardiness zone
A hardiness zone is a geographic area defined as having a certain average annual minimum temperature, a factor relevant to the survival of many plants. In some systems other statistics are included in the calculations. The original and most wide ...
s are 7a and 7b.
Wineries
There are at least six wineries located within the Texas High Plains AVA, although many wineries outside of the AVA source grapes from the high plains including Caprock Winery (the first publicly held Winery in the state) and
Llano Estacado Winery.
See also
*
Texas wine
Texas has a long history of wine production. The sunny and dry climate of the major winemaking regions in the state have drawn comparison to Portuguese wines, in addition to other regions in Europe like Spain, France, and Italy. Some of the earli ...
References
{{coord , 33.4764, -101.7898, display=title
American Viticultural Areas
Geography of Texas
Texas wine
Economy of Lubbock, Texas
1993 establishments in Texas