Business owners seek sustainable growth amid rising costs ahead of the election: A glimpse into the Texas Hill Country
With Election Day approaching, candidates up and down the ballot are making their final push to reach voters. CBS News Texas has been following the polls and covering political events all year long in a quest to find the Texas State of Mind.
But ultimately, it's the people who matter and who will decide what happens. In an effort to get a better understanding of what voters across the Lone Star State will be thinking about as they cast their ballots, reporter Jason Allen and a CBS News Texas crew are spending the weeks leading up to the election traveling across the state, speaking to people from the Chihuahuan Desert to the Pineywoods.
Last week, Jason traveled to the Rio Grande Valley. This week, we slow down and head to a couple of wineries in Central Texas' Hill Country.
HILL COUNTRY – When Chris Brundrett co-founded William Chris Vineyards in 2008, he just wanted to grow good grapes. He now employs 136 people.
His winery is among more than 100 in the region that are contributing to the state's $20 billion industry.
"When I first started, all I cared about was having a badass place for people to work and make the best wine in the world," Brundrett said "And then I got a little older and I was like, 'We should get health insurance.'"
Brundrett is one of the winery owners in the area focused on growing his business, and the industry, sustainably. David Kuhlken with Pedernales Cellars is another. He co-founded the winery in 2005 and is now trying to figure out what growth looks like for his business moving forward.
"To get to the next step we have to convince a much broader set of consumers, not just in Texas but ideally elsewhere too, this is something worth checking out," Kuhlken said.
The hard part, Kuhlken says, is scaling up the business enough to be able to produce bottles at competitive prices.
Ken Cooke, publisher of the Fredericksburg Standard Radio Post, said the wineries nearby have helped create a good economy for Fredericksburg.
"Fredericksburg is a little bit of an anomaly as far as a small town in Texas," Cooke said. "A lot of them are really struggling and Fredericksburg is not."
But while Cooke said the town is insulated from a lot of what happens in bigger cities, there's at least one thing Fredericksburg isn't insulated from: rising costs.
"The housing prices here are more like they are in Austin or San Antonio, a larger market," he said.
"This has become even more of a tourist town than it was before, and it's changed the economics of the town," Kuhlken said. "Land is more expensive, homes are more expensive, the cost of doing business is more expensive."
In recent years, both Kuhlken and Brundrett have partnered with Colleen Myles, a cultural geographer at Texas State University, to help their businesses grow in ways that are sustainable environmentally, economically and culturally.
Myles said the goal is to study how the wine industry has changed the region and create a plan to make sure that change is positive.
"What portions of change can be attributed to fermentation, the wine itself being a driver for how people view this place, and how people spend their money here, who lives here," Myles said. "If you try to put some intent, or at least try to embody your values and your intent into your growth and into your change, then hopefully you can create the most desirable outcomes for the most amount of people."
For Kuhlken and Brundrett, the project means working toward ensuring they can continue to make wine in Texas' Hill Country for years to come.
"We want to leave the world in a better place than where we found it," Brundrett said.
This story is one of several CBS News Texas is releasing in the weeks leading up to the election, trying to find the Texas State of Mind. We asked every person we met on the road for their essential road trip song. Below is the playlist we put together of those recommendations.
