Texas has a long history of
wine production. The sunny and dry climate of the major wine making regions in the state have drawn comparison to
Portuguese wines. Some of the earliest recorded Texas wines were produced by
Spanish missionaries in the 1650s near
El Paso. The state is home to over 36 members of the
Vitis grape vine family with fifteen being native to the state, more than any other region on earth. As of 2006, the state had over planted with
Vitis vinifera. Despite being the largest of
conterminous states, this relatively small amount of planted land is dwarfed by the production of even the smallest
French AOCs like
Sancerre. The Texan wine industry is continuing its steady pace of expansion and has gained a reputation as an established wine growing region in the United States.