| The Ste. Genevieve winery near Fort Stockton, Texas, until recently, owned by the French wine conglomerate Domaine Cordier Estates, is the largest winery, by far, in the state. Both the enormous main building, which stores tens of thousands of gallons of wine, and the 800 acres of vineyard directly behind it, home to over twelve grape varietals, are enormous even by Texas standards. All of this is even more remarkable given the fact that the winery is invisible. Well, that is overstating the reality. The winery is established just off interstate 10 W, just east of Fort Stockton. The structure, a three-storied white, metal rectangle with few windows, resembles any number of industrial buildings that we have all seen at the back of any town. Nevertheless, the winery rests alone on the side of the highway in the middle of the Permian desert. Driving either direction on the interstate, the building is so non-descript, so isolated, that noticing the thing should bring a prize. It is, quite literally, hiding out in the open. The wine business in Texas is a relatively new yet capricious industry. Seeded in the mid 1970s it is now a multi-million dollar a year business. Indeed, according to the Texas Wine and Grape Growers Association, there are presently 138 commercial wineries operating in the state. It shouldn’t take too much imagination to understand how large an operation Ste. Genevieve would have to be in order to be the largest from such a number of competitors-especially within a state where size is always a priority. The production here is incredible. The winery’s general manager, Jean-Michel Duforat, a French native of the Bordeaux region, told my wife and me this past July that the vineyard produces roughly 3000-3500 tons of grapes each year and from this fruit they are able to retrieve 170-180 gallons per ton. Because Mr. Duforat could see me struggling with the basic math he offered, “We produce about 630,000 gallons per year.” I thanked him after I had finished gulping down this staggering figure. Even while I tried to come to terms with the enormity of the production Mr. Duforat added that this output was, “not enough.” The winery also exports an extra 970,000 gallons per year by buying fruit and juice from unaffiliated grape producers. (In fact, the Pinot Noir, if you look on the back label, reads ‘French’ because the grapes are brought over from France then aged and bottled at the winery). It appears that being the biggest comes at a price-you are always having to surpass whatever goals you have already achieved. To accommodate such gigantic proportions, the Ste. Genevieve winery has an obscenely huge storage facility. In addition to the industry’s standard 12,000-gallon tanks (there were more of these than I could count) the winery also has 28 aluminum, 27,000-gallon tanks which cool and age the wines. The storage capacity of these behemoths is slightly over three quarters of a million gallons. As Mr. Duforat led us through the facility, we were continually amazed how one storage room would lead only to another. The rooms all held the musty odor of spilled wine and stale fruit. Metal-caged, industrial fluorescent bulbs lighted each. The chemist’s room, full of beakers, half-empty (or half-full?) bottles of wine, strangely colored fluids in glass containers and Bunsen burners, was vacant; their jobs being reserved for the time after the harvest in the fall. In all, we covered the enclosed area in just under an hour. Then, it was time to head outside to the vineyard where the ethereal business of the winery is accomplished. Walking 800 acres was not an option. Mr. Duforat loaded us into his white pick-up and we headed off into the expanse of the vineyard. Heading directly behind the building we immediately recognized the striated mesa that is the icon of the Ste. Genevieve label. Passing row after row of grape vines Mr. Duforat pointed out how each variety is identified by a small white placard stapled to a post at the end of each line. On this side the notes read Cab. Sav., Merlot, Pin. Noir, Zinf., on the other, Ch.Blc., Sauv. Bl., Muscat. There were many others going by too quickly to list. Again, the enormity of the operation was extraordinary. Nevertheless, what we were seeing was only a portion of the usual yield. We listened while Mr. Duforat explained how this past winter had ruined so much of the crop. A late freeze and snow, during Easter, had done more damage than anyone could have forecasted. Because the vines producing white wines bloom earlier than the reds, these had received the most damage. The sauvignon blanc vines were as bare as a tree in winter, the fruit on the chardonnay vines hung stunted and retarded. The white varieties that had survived the storm were still struggling to mature in time for the harvest. Mr. Duforat explained that what was left was, “not even a quarter, overall, of what we should have”. He added that “Last year was even worse. We had a [late] freeze, we had a hail storm, we had a tornado, in the same year”. Thinking on it, I was a little overwhelmed by what the winery might produce if only Nature would go a little easier on the vineyard. We turned back and began to drive along the rows of red grape vines. These plants seemed healthier, more productive; the grape clusters, full and whole, could be seen from a distance unlike the white varieties. The fruit was just beginning to reach color, assuming deeper, darker reds. Along the dirt path we waited while a tractor pulling a tank behind it, inched its way across the rows. It spewed a brownish red mist from the back as it passed. Of course, I asked what the stuff was. Mr. Duforat explained that, in the Permian basin, because it was once seabed, the soil is poor and “we have to force the vines to produce”. The mist was iron oxide; the soil is anemic and has to be fortified. The back end of the truck and tank were discolored by the constant creation of the cloud. Back inside the winery’s storage facility we walked past thousands of cases of wines, piled high on pallets waiting for shipment. Not only were there hundreds of cases of Ste. Genevieve wines but also boxes with names such as L’orval, Arena Loca, Peregrine Hill were stacked to the ceiling. Mr. Duforat explained that in addition to the Texas wines, the facility also exports a French wine (L’orval) as well as a Spanish (Arena Loca). Again, my wife and I were astounded by the quantity of wine that surrounded us. There seemed no end to it. There even used to be an Australian wine, Big River, now discontinued, that was shipped from here. Strangely, I found some relief in the fact that at least one brand had been let go. Ste. Genevieve’s newest wine, Peregrine Hill (named for the falcon native to west Texas) is the winery’s new, premium wine. Mr. Duforat told us that this wine is “superior” to the others in production because the grapes are selected more carefully after harvest, there is a longer fermentation period and most are aged, in the steel casks, longer than the others. Last year, 2007, was the wine’s third vintage and produced about 5,000 cases. Mr. Duforat stated that hopefully, with Nature’s permission, as much as 7,500 cases might be produced from this season and he is projecting 10-12,000 cases during the next couple of years. Of its success, he pointed out that the wine had already won a silver medal at the Dallas Morning News Wine Competition in 2006. Apparently not satisfied with this result he added, “It’ll get better”. While we spoke, a semi-trailer pulled into the loading area off to the side of the warehouse. It was the second of the afternoon that we had seen and Mr. Duforat pointed out that it would not be the last. This one was heading for supermarkets in Dallas. It might as well have been bound for any number of stores within Texas. Of course, it could just as easily have been headed for stores in Louisiana, Kansas or Florida where Ste. Genevieve also has markets to sell it’s characteristic 1.5 liter bottle. Watching the workers load pallet after pallet onto the trucks it became easy to understand why this is the state’s largest winery. What was not so easy to understand was how all this was managed with such facility and alacrity. As we tasted wines in one of the chemistry labs, lab and cellar supervisor, Mike Stallard, told us how they not only reuse the fruit’s pulp as fertilizer on the vineyard but also give much of it to Fort Stockton locals as deer feed. There seemed no end to the industry. Mr. Duforat is French as is the head winemaker, Benedict Rhynes. All of the tanks, equipment and tools used in the wine’s production are French. When the 27,000 gallon tanks were brought from France in 1985, they were assembled, in the winery’s parking lot, in the Texas heat (imagine welding aluminum casks while standing on asphalt in July!) by a team of workers from the south of France. However, their product is uniquely Texan, a fact that has not escaped Mr. Duforat. He has been here for a little more than twenty years, owns a restaurant in Fort Stockton near the golf course, and his children have been raised here. Although he visits France when he can, he appears duly acclimated to Texas. As we sat in his office he offered that,” Texans are always proud of a Texas product” and he is undoubtedly proud of his efforts. Not being able to notice the Ste. Genevieve winery from the highway is inconsequential. There really is no need. The business offers none of the standard winery fare: there is no tasting room, no tours available. There is not so much as a sign outside. It is the vibrant, rich and varied wines that should garner our attention and judging by the winery’s production, that should not be much of a problem. |
| Ste. Genevieve Winery TEXAS BY Byron Browne |
