Quad City Times
02/13/06
Q-C wine industry takes root
By Alma Gaul
By day, Teri Minnaert teaches special education at Geneseo High School and
her husband, Willy, works in electrical construction. In their off-hours, they raise
grapes with Teri’s brother, Matt Storm, and his wife, Lesli.Their vineyard was
established in April,making them four among a growing number of people in the
Quad-City region who hope to make some money — if not their entire livelihood
— by growing grapes or making wine, or both.
Although it will be several years before they sell their first crop and see a return
on their considerable investments of time and money, they already have learned
what everyone in the business knows: Growing grapes requires a lot of money,
work and know-how.
“It was a lot more work than we thought it would be,” Minnaert says. “Last
summer, it was a constant battle with the bugs, the Japanese beetles. We were
out there every six to eight days spraying. And the drought — we had to water by
hand with a water tank on the back of a truck.”
There also is a steep learning curve. “They may as well have been speaking
Spanish,” Minnaert says of the teachers who conducted the first pruning class
she and her partners attended.
The wine/grape industry has seen explosive growth in both Iowa and Illinois in
the past 10 years. Iowa has some 270 vineyards and 52 licensed wineries, while
Illinois has some 190 vineyards and 63 wineries. People in the field see great
potential for that to continue, although there are challenges and they expect a
“shakeout” of those who will succeed and those who will not.
Last summer, Iowa State University hired Murli Dharmadhikari, who is widely
credited with growing Missouri’s wine industry, to do the same for Iowa.
Dharmadhikari is an onologist, or one who studies the science of wine-making.
He hopes to develop a program of wine research and education, including a twoyear degree in wine-making at community colleges and a four-year degree
program on the university level, plus a program in which wines meeting certain
standards would receive a label of quality assurance. That would give consumers
confidence in the wine’s quality, he says.
Illinois is not quite to that point yet, but the state is working on it, says Bill
McCartney, executive director of the Illinois Grape Growers & Vintners
Association. An onologist might be hired at the University of Illinois within 60
days, he says.
Growing the “wine experience”
Both states view wine as both an agricultural and tourism venture.
That’s because there is more to the wine business than selling a bottled drink.
There also is the sale of the “wine experience” — tasting, touring, shopping,
attending festivals with food and music — and that provides an attractive
economic development opportunity.
“The whole idea is the experience, the entertainment,” said Mike White, an Iowa
State Extension viticulturist. “It’s urban dollars going out into rural areas. That’s
what it’s all about.”
Wineries and vineyards are the second-most popular tourist destination in
California after Disneyland, according to the Wine Institute, the public policy
advocacy association of California wineries. If the Midwest could capture some of
that interest, it would boost rural job opportunities and increase agricultural
tourism, those in the business say.
Lavender Crest Winery off U.S. 6 in Henry County near Colona, Ill., and Tabor
Home Vineyards & Winery, near Baldwin, Iowa, in Jackson County are shining
examples of wineries that provide complementary opportunities.
Lavender Crest, opened in 2004, makes and sells wine from grapes it buys from
other growers. But it also has a few grapevines on site to give people the
vineyard experience. And it offers wine tasting, a specialty coffeehouse with a
breakfast and lunch menu and a reception hall.
“We’ve had a phenomenal year,” says Martha Rittmueller, who started the
business along with her husband and another couple. “But we wouldn’t have
done it to this level if we were just selling wine. I don’t think you can make it on
wine sales alone. You have to have other things to bring people in.”
Overall, the industry is “providing a lot of opportunities for a lot of people,” she
says.
Tabor, a wine pioneer whose winery was bonded in 1996, grows all its own
grapes, so there are plenty of working vineyards for customers to see. But it, too,
offers wine tasting, a gift shop, rental space and musical entertainment. Tabor
reconfigured a historic corn crib into a screened-in veranda where small blues
groups play in the summer.
“The music is free and folks can buy wine by the bottle to enjoy along with the
music,” winemaker Paul Tabor says. In addition, a local pork marketing group
grills and sells fresh pork and brats.
Based on past economic impact surveys done in other states, for each $1 spent
in a rural winery, another 75 cents to $1 is spent locally for food, gasoline and
lodging, White says.
The industry has even grown to the point that it has sparked controversy.
A recent U.S. Supreme Court case calls on states to determine whether wineries
should be allowed to ship directly to customers, so the Illinois beer distributors
association is trying to limit wine sales to mail-order customers to two cases per
year. And those sales could be made only if a customer had first purchased wine
at the winery.
The wine industry has responded with its own legislation, and the issue is
pending in the Illinois House.
Overall, “the rebirth of Illinois’ grape and wine industry is certainly exciting and a
boost to regional development,” Gene Campbell, of the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign, said in a recent survey of the industry. “The explosive
growth … presents … tremendous opportunities and challenges.”
Adds Iowa State’s White, “It seems like everyone wants to grow grapes and
establish a winery in Iowa these days. There will be both attrition and growth of
individual vineyards as this young industry grows.”
A key question that must be answered is whether Iowa and Illinois wines are any
good.
The short answer is that some are, some aren’t.
For examples that have been judged “good” by trained and certified wine judges,
one can look at Tabor’s track record. Since 1999, the winery has won more than
150 medals, including 30 golds, at international wine competitions.
But those who are trying to grow the industry say that, overall, it is important for
native wines to meet certain objective standards of quality — a good balance
between the acid and fruit tastes, no vinegar or salt taste, and good color — so
consumers feel confident buying it, ISU’s Dharmadhikari says.
That is why he is hoping to establish the quality assurance program. Even with
that, though, casual buyers might balk at spending $10 to $20 for a bottle of
native wine when California wines in the grocery store are less expensive.
But Tabor says that doesn’t bother him. Discriminating buyers are willing to pay
more, and those are the people to whom he is trying to appeal.
“Eleven percent of the population buys 80 percent of the wine,” he says. “We
aren’t going for the high-volume/low-value niche,” he said. “You have to be a
huge producer to compete in that market.”
Another factor for buyers to be aware of is that wines they may be familiar with —
merlot or cabernet, for example — will not be available as Midwest native wines
because the kinds of grapes used to make those types do not grow well in this
climate. Consumers will have to learn new names, such as St. Croix, La Crosse,
Niagara, Frontenac or Prairie Star.
As Dharmadhikari says, “It’s a long journey.”
Adds White, “We’re not Napa Valley yet.”
Alma Gaul can be contacted at (563) 383-2324 or agaul@qctimes.com