Texas Wine Month

Texas Wine Month

By Sharon Schweitzer

Across the state of Texas, October is known as Texas Wine Month, a 31-day-long celebration of Texas wines and the Texas Wine Industry. The Texas Department of Agriculture has designated the entire month of October as Texas Wine Month. October was selected since the grape harvest is normally finished and wine being made from those grapes. The celebration officially starts with the opening of the Texas State Fair in Dallas on Friday, Sept. 29th.

Texas is the fifth-largest wine-producing state in the nation, with more than 400 wineries and over 5,000 acres of producing vineyard farmland. Additionally, Texas has a $14 billion-plus wine industry and continues to grow. 

In recent wine news, as of last month, archaeologists in Egypt discovered hundreds of ancient jars that contain remains of 5,000-year-old wine.

According to the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, during excavations in Sohag province, Egyptian archaeologists, together with colleagues from Austria and Germany, discovered hundreds of jugs with the remains of wine. The scientists were working at the tomb of Queen Merneit from the First Dynasty in the Umm El-Kaab area of ​​Abydos. There, they found hundreds of closed jars that had never been opened before.

“The discovery of sealed, intact wine jars at Abydos, along with well-preserved grape pips, has the potential to significantly build our understanding of some of the earliest wine production, use and trade in the ancient Mediterranean and North Africa,” Emlyn Dodd, a lecturer at the Institute of Classical Studies—a research institution associated with the University of London in the U.K.—who was not involved in the discovery, told Newsweek.

Abydos is one of the oldest and most important archaeological sites of ancient Egypt, with a history of occupation that stretches back as far back as 3300 B.C. Located around 7 miles of west of the Nile river, the sacred city overlooks a desert valley that the ancient Egyptians believed offered passage to the realm of the dead.

The city’s necropolis served as a burial ground for the earliest ancient Egyptian pharaohs, and later became a center of worship for the cult of Osiris, the god of the underworld.

This month, come visit Texas vineyards and enjoy a glass! 

To quote the founder of Texas, “Nature seemed to have intended Texas for a vineyard to supply America with wines.” – Stephen F. Austin

Photo by Messina Hof Winery

Sharon Schweitzer JD, is a diversity and inclusion consultant, cross-cultural trainer, etiquette expert, and the founder of Access to Culture. In addition to her accreditation in intercultural management from the HOFSTEDE Centre, she is an attorney and mediator. Sharon served as a Chinese Ceremonial Dining Etiquette Specialist in the documentary series Confucius was a Foodie, on Nat Geo People. Her Amazon #1 Best Selling book in International Business,  Access to Asia: Your Multicultural Business Guide, won a coveted Kirkus Star, and was named to Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books. She’s a winner of numerous awards, including the British Airways International Trade Award at the Greater Austin Business Awards.

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