well, i don't have any experience with the classic texas black waxy clay
soils you've got, but grapes can thrive in a variety of soils at a
variety of pH's, provided the soil has a decent microbial life going.
Your best bet is to learn to graft, as the grapes you probably want to
grow (decent wine grapes) will struggle in your soil. Grafting is quite
easy, though, and there are numberous books that describe the process.
My favorite is called The Grape Grower, by Lon Rombough.
Basically, you're going to want to use a grape like Champanel as a
rootstock, with whatever winegrape you prefer on top, such as cabernet,
merlot, etc.. You'll also want to try out some French-American hybrids,
such as Baco Noir or an old Texas favorite, Black Spanish (Lenoir) on
their own roots. This is what i typically do, as the european varieties
tend to be very suceptible to disease.. You'll need about one vine per
gallon of wine you intend to produce, although it will take 4 or 5 years
to get to that point. You'll need a reliable irrigation system, too,
preferrably drip (which is easy to install), and of course some sort of
trellis system.

Here are some pertinent sites:

http://www.bunchgrapes.com
this is Lon Rombough's website. he sells cuttings at a reasonable rate.
he can also answer a lot of questions better than i can.

http://www.rakgrape.com/
double a vineyards in new york. good prices on cuttings.

http://www.tandjenterprises.com/productslinks.htm
this is Thomas Giannou's organic products website. he can be a huge
help in advising how to prepare soil over the winter and have a
successful planting. His BioVam is a blend of live micorrhizal fungi
that do wonders in helping grapevines adapt to a variety of soil types
and effeciently use available soil nutrients.

Good Luck!

Adam



knikki wrote:

> i live in crowly just south of fort worth. what r the best grapes to
> grow for wine produciton. i have a 3/4 acre yard and black dirt. dont
> they like acid soil? is there a point in growing any? my brother lives
> to play around with wine making and im the gardener. how many vines
> does it take to get a decent amount of grapes?
>
>