GRANBURY – The first Texas Viticulture and Enology Research Symposium will be held June 2-3 at the new Granbury Resort Conference Center, 621 East Pearl Street.
Granbury is about 30 miles southwest of downtown Fort Worth.
The symposium is being sponsored by the Texas AgriLife Extension Service, Texas AgriLife Research and Texas Tech University.
According to organizers, the symposium will bring together researchers and students from Texas Tech and Texas A&M University to report on recently completed and ongoing research in support of the Texas wine industry.
“Our primary audience is vineyard owners and wine producers, but we also hope to draw in other researchers as well as those who simply have an interest in grapes and wine,” said Ed Hellman, AgriLife Extension viticulture specialist based in Lubbock.
Enology involves the science of wine-making, and viticulture refers to the agricultural science of grape production.
Some of the topics to be addressed at the symposium will include: physiology of grape variety adaption to climate, bud-burst delay, grape berry moth infestation, vineyard canker diseases, vineyard economics, wine stability, sensory evaluation of Texas wines, and cancer-fighting effects of Texas wines and wine marketing.
“All presentations will conclude with a summary of how the research can be applied to vineyard or winery operations,” Hellman said. “And proceedings containing extended abstracts of each presentation will be distributed at the symposium.”
The event’s keynote speakers will be Dr. Peter Cousins, grape rootstock breeder and geneticist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service, and Patricia Howe, research enologist, winemaker and owner of Patricia Howe Wines & Consulting. Cousins will present the viticulture keynote presentation, and Howe will present the enology keynote presentation.
“This symposium will be a great opportunity for those involved in the Texas wine industry to hear from scientists and respected speakers who will give an in-state and out-of-state perspective on current research in viticulture and enology,” he said. “Granbury’s new conference facility and the town’s geographically central location make it an ideal location for the first symposium.”
Symposium and hotel registration is open, but attendees are requested to book their rooms early to receive a special discount rate available through May 9. For symposium and hotel information, go to: http://winegrapes.tamu.edu/meetings/TX_Research_Symposium.pdf .
To register for the symposium online, go to: http://agrilifevents.tamu.edu/ and search using the key word “viticulture.”
A pre-symposium dinner will be held at Barking Rocks Winery in Granbury, with registration for the dinner separate from the symposium. For information and to register for the dinner, go to: http://winegrapes.tamu.edu/meetings/Dinner_Registration.pdf .
For more information about the town of Granbury and the Granbury Resort Conference Center, go to: http://www.granburytx.com/Home.aspx
Hellman said each symposium registrant also will automatically be entered for a drawing to win a complete registration package to the 2010 Texas Wine and Grape Growers Association annual conference in Dallas, a value of up to $500. The prize is courtesy of the association.
For more information on the symposium, contact Hellman at 806-746-6101 or e-hellman@tamu.edu .