Des Moines Register
11-05-06
Vintners' vision to ferment in cave Vintners hope to cave in to success
Entertainment complex to age wine, hold house parties
By PATT JOHNSON
REGISTER BUSINESS WRITER
Doug Bakker is starting with a vineyard but plans to turn his 30-acre parcel in
Madison County into an entertainment complex.
Bakker, 44, and his business partners have begun construction at his Madison
County Winery on a wine cave, a $450,000 project on St. Charles Road, four
miles west of Interstate Highway 35 in Madison County.
The cave will serve double duty. A portion of the naturally humid cave will age
the wine Bakker's vineyard produces. The remaining space will serve as a venue
for weddings, parties and other events, Bakker said.
There has been an eruption of wineries and vineyards in Iowa in the past six
years. In 2000, there were five wineries in the state with about 15 acres of Iowa
farmland devoted to wine grapes, said Mike White, field crop-viticulture
specialist at Iowa State University Extension. Today, there are 700 acres
devoted to wine-grape production in Iowa and about 45 wineries.
"It's value-added agriculture," he said.
Adding to the wineries' business success are the reception areas most operate,
he said.
"The wineries are replacing the church basements and Oddfellow halls," he said.
The Madison County Winery cave will be made from pre-cast concrete covered
with limestone and native grasses. The cave will be attached to a new winery
where Madison County wine, now produced off site, will be made and sold, he
said.
"The whole idea is to build a neat leisure destination," Bakker said. The cave will
be set into a hillside, with the rolling Madison County landscape as a backdrop,
Bakker said.
Bakker, his wife, Cheryl, and partners Keith and Sue McKinney and the
McKinneys' son and daughter-in-law Ryan and Katy McKinney, are partners in
the business. The McKinneys supply grapes from a vineyard they operate on
their rural Colo farm.
The project is being funded in part with $25,000 from the Natural ResourceBased Business Opportunities Grants program through the Iowa Department of
Natural Resources.
"The caves are so unique," said Linda Appelgate, coordinator, Iowa Heartland
Resource Conservation and Development, USDA Natural Resources
Conservation Service.
Grant guidelines require recipients to create or enhance their local economy by
using "natural resources in a sustainable way."
"This project is local and sustainable," Appelgate said. "This fits so well into the
vision for the county and capitalizes on its natural resources.''
Keith McKinney was attracted to the project because it was unusual.
"The cave concept is something no one else has done," said Keith McKinney.
"And Madison County already has a name known nationwide."
McKinney said his family began growing grapes on 3 acres in 2000 when he
decided that was a way for the next generation to continue to farm.
"We wondered what was going to sustain Ryan and Katy in agriculture," he said.
This alternative crop seemed to be the ticket.
Keith McKinney said, "I've spent my life learning how to grow corn and soybeans.
Growing grapes is very different."
Bakker, a graphic artist turned grape grower, began his vineyard on four of 30
acres in Madison County in 2001. He and McKinney began bottling and selling
wine two years ago at wine shops and at the farmers market in downtown Des
Moines. This year, Madison County Winery is selling five varieties - three dry and
two semi-sweet wines that range in price from $12 to $15 a bottle.
Bakker grew up Rock Valley, a rural community in northwest Iowa. After working
in Chicago for several years, he came to Iowa with an eye to starting some sort
of agricultural business.
"We looked at orchards," he said. "Then I read an article on vineyards coming
back."
Natural Resource-Based Opportunities Grants 2006
Natural Resource-Based Business Opportunities Grants is a program run by the
Department of Natural Resources. Recent grants include:
- Solar Wind Electrical, $15,600 - D.A. Residential Designs and Iowa Renewable
Energy Association for a small hybrid electrical wind production system.
- Bio-Energy Development in Washington County, $8,420 - Consortium of local
groups in Washington County to study conversion of hog manure to energy.
- Terra Bio-Diesel, $43,500 - Feasibility studies for Terra Renewable Energy,
which is planning to build a bio-diesel plant near Council Bluffs.
- Iowa Lakes Organic Market, $25,000 - Connie Baschke of Fostoria to help
establish a year-round organic market and coffee shop in Spencer.
- Guidebook for the Iowa River Corridor, $25,000 - Iowa Valley Resource
Conservation and Development in Williamsburg to produce printed and on-line
guidebooks on recreational activities in the Iowa River Corridor.
- Wood and Corn Fuel Pellets, $21,500 - Ultimate Corn and Wood Fuel Pellet
company to produce wood pellets from corn for burning in stoves.
- Iowa Forest Heritage Center, $12,500 - Feasibility study for a forest heritage
center in Lacey-Keosauqua State Park.
- Recreational cabins, $25,000 - County conservation boards in Calhoun,
Humboldt, Kossuth and Pocahontas will build cabins in those counties.
- Crystal Lake cabins, $23,000 - Hancock County Conservation Board will build
four cabins to enhance recreational opportunities.
- Wildlife assessment, $5,000 - Twelve northwest Iowa counties will develop a list
of watchable wildlife resources and create a plan to market them.
- Southern Iowa strategic action plan, $15,000 - Creston area retailers and
citizens plan to create a series of tours of southern Iowa natural resources hot
spots, create a plan to market them and train workers of the local hospitality
industry about them.
- Tours and day trips for Loess Hills, $5,240 - Western Iowa Tourism Region and
Scenic Byway Council will create printed and online information about the Loess
Hills Scenic Byway region.
- Natural resource-based business training, $5,240 - Iowa State University
business college, Mid-Iowa Small Business Development Center and Leopold
Center plan to mentor and help develop natural resource-based businesses.
Source: Iowa Heartland Resource Conservation and Development