The Battalion, Thursday, May 3, 1979
Texas fermentation could lead the nation
By MARK HERRON
Battalion Reporter
Chateau de TAMU, as Ron Perry calls it, is a wine
made made right here on campus.
Perry is not a bootlegger, however.
He teaches five courses in the horticulture de
partment, but spends any spare time researching
grape production.
After nine years of study and evaluation, Perry
said Texas can compete with California, the leading
state in wine production. In fact, “Wine from Texas
grapes can compete with anybody’s.
“Nobody knew we were making wine over here,”
he said “and we’ve been making it for almost a
year.” Perry works in a pomology lab on the west
side of the campus, where all types of fruit are
studied.
The Chateau de TAMU is made from French
Colombard grapes. At a recent wine tasting in Fort
Worth, Perry said, two experts, Cornelius Ough and
A.N. Kasimatis, both grape specialists from the Uni
versity of California at Davis, agreed Perry’s wine
was the best French Colombard they had ever
tasted.
“We kept a lid on what we were doing until we
found out we were producing quality wine,” Perry
said.
Wine-making is nothing new to Perry, who grew
up around the vineyards of California’s Santa Clara
valley. “My dad was always making wine when I
was a kid,” he said.
Perry earned a degree in fruit production at
California State Polytechnic University and took
courses in viticulture (the care and culture of
grapes) and enology (the science of wine-making).
In I974, Perry received a master’s degree from
Texas A&M University, after completing a study on
the feasiblity of grape growing, for wine productuon,
in Texas.
In his thesis Perry wrote, “If grapes could be
successfully produced, they would provide a signifi
cant new source of income to Texas.”
Later that year, Perry said, with help from the
Texas Agricultural Experiment Staion, he planted
vineyards near Lubbock, El Paso, Uvalde, and in
the Texas Hill country near Kerrville. Since it takes
three to four years for the fruit to ripen, it was I978
before the grapes could be harvested.
“We brought the grapes back here in station wa
gons,” he said. In the pomolgy lab, which Perry calls
“a miniature winery,” he crushed the grapes,
pressed juice from them, and let it ferment. The
wine is stored in a cooler at 50 degrees.
With the success of his wine, Perry said he is
convinced that a wine industry has great potential in
Texas, which is seventh in the nation in wine con
sumption.
The main reason for the state’s potential, Perry
(Please see page 2.)