Wednesday, May 15, 2024
In his 50 professional years, Tumbleweed has interviewed some true Texas characters and assembled the largest private collection of oral history in the United States. He writes a syndicated weekly newspaper column and teaches broadcasting at the university level.
I had the opportunity to see a very clean, manicured and well-maintained patch of ground north of Seminole that was filled with grape vines.
Each vine seemed to take on human characteristics and stood like a trained soldier waiting for orders. “I take care of this vineyard like it was my racehorse,” said John Friesen. “It stays in top shape.”
John is a successful cotton farmer and was considering planting a pecan orchard but decided that would require too much water, so in 2014 he started growing grapes as a hobby. It quickly got out of hand. “Yeah. We’ve got over 30,000 vines that produce 13 different types of grapes. Most of them go to wineries, but we also sell some table grapes to area grocery stores.” John didn’t know anything about wines when he started his vineyard, saying he just liked to grow stuff.
John, at age 43, is one determined farmer. When his first grapes were ready to be harvested, he had a call from a winery wanting to buy some grapes. When the winery manager learned that John’s grapes were young, he said he wasn’t interested, that he was looking for some mature grapes. John asked the man “how do you know my grapes won’t work for you? You need to come see my vineyard. I’ll be glad to give you the harvest if you like the grapes. We don’t have any other customers.” So, the man came, saw that John was serious about growing grapes, bought the harvest and said he wanted to be Friesen Vineyard’s exclusive and only customer. John declined the offer but still sells grapes to that winery because it bought his first harvest. John sells to four award-winning wineries now and there’s a waiting list of people wanting to buy his grapes. “But we can’t plant them and grow them fast enough.”
The harvest starts in early September. “It beautiful,” said John. “We get up at 2 or 3 in the morning and start picking the grapes wearing headlamps. There’ll be 60 or 70 people out there with scissors. It’s dark and dead quiet except for all the scissors chopping away at the clusters. We pick by hand. If you want to go for the high-end wines that’s what they like. There’s a small window to get the best grapes. Even a day or two can make a big difference. We try to do it right. We’re willing to work with people, do what they expect, hang the grapes longer, just do all the stuff that make the grapes better.”
John said he picks grapes in the morning because it’s cool. The grapes are loaded into refrigerated trucks soon after picking and delivered to wineries in Johnson City, Fredericksburg and Austin.
I asked John what he likes to grow most, cotton or grapes. “I’d much rather grow grapes, but somebody’s got to pay for the grapes. Cotton pays for the grapes for the time being.”
John’s large house sits on a hill and has an extremely plush wine cellar. It is climate controlled and has close to 1,000 bottles of wine in it.
