LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – The Newsoms are known as grape growing legends in the state of Texas. But the way of life they’ve known for the last 40 years, and now one of Texas’ oldest and largest vineyards, started with taking a risk.
Neal Newsom had no idea he would one day end up growing grapes in the town he grew up in.
“Thought I was going to be an electrical engineer. That’s what I wanted to do. And then one day I realized that’s an office job and I could be here,” he said.
“Here” for the Newsoms is a beautiful 140 acre vineyard north of Plains. His family has farmed cotton on the South Plains for a hundred years, but he wanted to branch out. In college, he heard from a professor just the way to do it.
“He talked about wine making and wine growing, you know, way back then,” he said. “Of course, I wasn’t interested in agriculture then, you know, small town boy going to town.”
But he and his wife Janice came back to the plains he grew up in. They chose the rockiest land they had and planted 3 acres in 1986.
“He came home one day and he said, ‘I think we’re going to grow wine grapes.’ And I said, ‘I guess we’d better learn how to drink wine,’” she said.
Grapes may not be what comes to mind when people think of West Texas farming. But the shallow soil and semi-arid climate made Plains the perfect place for Newsom Vineyards to grow.
On about 140,000 vines grow 16 different varieties of wine grapes, that go to 16 different vineyards across Texas.
Just across the highway, something else is growing. In 2006, his family purchased the farm house of a historic ranch north of town and turned it into the Rock’n N Bed and Breakfast.
They’ve added on to the property, with room for about 10 guests. Lavender lines the fence, and many decorations in and outside of the home were found on the land.
With vineyard tours and hosts like the Newsoms, guests are getting more than a place to rest, but a chance to participate in agritourism.
“Somehow, we usually find a bottle of wine while they’re here and, you know, that’s just part of the experience,” he said.
The generational business has now spread to another vacation rental and tasting room in Comfort, Texas.
“That’s great bragging rights, you know, to have the family interested in something you started,” he said.
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