High Plains grapes and Lubbock tasting rooms run on a long, lumpy cash cycle: pay for the harvest now, sell the wine much later. Apply in five minutes for $25,000 to $5,000,000.
Apply Now →Lubbock, the county seat of Lubbock County with 257,141 residents at the 2020 census, lies on the Llano Estacado at the southern end of the High Plains. That same tableland is home to the Texas High Plains American Viticultural Area, established by federal regulators in 1993. Public reference material describes it as the second-largest AVA in Texas, with most vineyards on flat ground between 3,000 and 4,000 feet in elevation, irrigated from the Ogallala Aquifer, and sharing the landscape with cotton, sorghum and wheat.
Lubbock is also part of the region's grape history. Records of the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station in Lubbock show grape cultivar trials in the early 1900s, Texas Tech University planted research plots in the 1950s and 1960s, and Llano Estacado, the area's first winery, had its first crush in 1976. Today the city's Depot District, a music and nightlife area in the old railroad depot, counts a winery among its restaurants, pubs and shops.
| Vineyard | Winery or tasting room | |
|---|---|---|
| Main revenue | Grape sales, usually at or after harvest | Tasting fees, bottle and case sales, club shipments, events |
| Biggest outlays | Irrigation, labor, spray programs, trellis and equipment | Fruit purchases, barrels, tanks, bottling, labels, staff |
| Where it gets tight | Spring and summer, before any fruit is sold | Harvest and crush, then the months before new wine is released |
| Weather exposure | Freeze, hail and drought hit the whole year's crop | Short crops raise fruit costs and cut available volume |
Many High Plains operators run both a vineyard and a winery, or sell fruit to wineries elsewhere in the state, so the two calendars stack on top of each other.
Wine is one of the slowest inventory businesses there is. A winery buys or harvests fruit in a few weeks, pays for fermentation, barrels and labor right away, and then waits. Red wines may age for many months before bottling, and bottling itself means a large single purchase of glass, closures and labels.
For illustration only, with round numbers that are not our terms: a winery that spends $150,000 on fruit, barrels and harvest labor in the fall may not sell most of that wine until the following year or later. Meanwhile the tasting room still pays staff, rent and utilities every month. Working capital is how operators avoid choosing between buying enough fruit and keeping the doors open.
Wine-grape growers share the High Plains with row-crop farms; see cotton and grain farm funding and ag supply and feed stores. Tasting rooms with food service may also want Lubbock restaurant funding. For product comparisons, read about a business line of credit, term loans or a merchant cash advance in Lubbock. The county overview is at Lubbock County business funding.
Texas Biz Funding provides $25,000 to $5,000,000 to Lubbock-area businesses, including wineries in town and vineyards out toward Slaton and Wolfforth. The application takes about five minutes with a soft credit pull, and funding can arrive in as little as 24 hours. Sole proprietors can apply. Start your application.
Yes. An operating vineyard can apply at any point in the year, including the spring and summer months before fruit is sold.
Yes. Barrels, tanks, presses and bottling equipment are common uses, and equipment financing is one option for larger purchases.
No. Texas businesses can apply wherever their vineyards are located, whether in Lubbock County or elsewhere on the High Plains.
Working capital can cover payroll, rent and utilities while inventory is aging or visitor traffic is light. Funding can arrive in as little as 24 hours.
No. A weather loss is exactly the kind of cash gap operators apply to cover, whether that means buying fruit to replace a short crop or retraining damaged vines.
Three months of business bank statements and a 5-minute application. FICO 500+ considered. $25,000 to $5,000,000, funded in as little as 24 hours.
Apply Now →It takes about two minutes and it will not affect your credit score.
No obligation • No impact to your credit score
