When Acquaviva Winery in Maple Park, Illinois petitioned the Tax and Trade Bureau during 2007 to use the name Brianna for their wine labels, they found that only one other winery had petitioned for the name. From virtually anonymity just five years ago, Brianna is now growing in popularity all over the Midwest. Grape growers like this wine grape for its cold hardiness, surviving … [Read more...]
Midwest Wine Press recently compiled current TTB data to arrive at the number of wineries in the Midwest. (This tabulation method entails acceptance of the TTB definition of a winery which is subject to debate.) The number of wineries in the Midwest as defined by the 11 states in the Midwest Wine Press market area is now 1,132. There are now also 43 organized wine trails in the Midwest. … [Read more...]
Matt Nissen owner of Prairie Moon Winery in Ames, IA and Dr. Paul Domoto from Iowa State University explain the effect of recent crop losses in Story County Iowa to KCCI reporter Angie Hunt http://www.kcci.com/weather/Frost-damages-Iowa-s-grape-crop/-/9358602/10660576/-/7wywtyz/-/index.html … [Read more...]
Midwestern wineries are increasingly taking advantage of the opportunity to use mobile bottling. Aside from avoiding the massive expense of purchasing bottling equipment, mobile bottling saves hours of labor compared to hand bottling. Still, mobile bottling requires a considerable amount of preparation on the part of the winery. Recently, Midwest Wine Press spoke with two relatively new … [Read more...]
Many attendees of the various recent Midwestern wine conferences were entrepreneurs gathering information to start a winery. At the Cold Climate Conference in St. Paul on February 24th, 2012, a panel made up of Midwest winery owners discussed various considerations for starting a winery. Participants in the discussion were: Karin Koenen, Hinterland Vineyards, Clara City, Minnesota, … [Read more...]
As more people seek their region’s local foods to purchase, more than 1,000 new farmers markets began operating across the country last year. As of mid-2011, 7,175 farmers markets were recorded, reports the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Considering that consumer interest in local foods has helped foster interest in regional wines, farmers markets and wineries would seem a natural coupling, … [Read more...]
Winery workers are accustomed to customers who say how much they would like to work at a winery. Brad Johnson, external relations manager at Fireside Winery in Marengo, Iowa, is now making his customers wishes come true through two carefully monitored volunteer programs at Fireside. (One of the 10 largest wineries in Iowa, Fireside, after only 5 years in business, has an annual production … [Read more...]
For more than 100 years, Dallas Clark’s family has farmed the land that now includes the vineyard owned by the current Indianapolis Colts tight end and former Iowa star. Clark’s farmland, in north-central Iowa, is near the site of a tragic event that occurred July 3, 1920. On that date, a Minneapolis-St. Louis Railway passenger train derailed, killing eight people and injuring several … [Read more...]
Here in Minnesota and across much of the Upper Midwest we have had two dramatic frost damage events in the past year and a half. One on Mother’s Day Weekend in Spring 2010 and one this past September 15, 2011. Some growers escaped. Others did not but this has demonstrated clearly how serious these events can be and has made us look toward ways to reduce or escape the damaging effects of late … [Read more...]
As reported in MWP during October 2011, Iowa has developed a Iowa Vintners Quality Alliance (IVQA) program modeled after the Canadian Vintners Quality Alliance which emphasizes terroir. The IVQA is managed by Murli Dharmadhikari, Director of the Midwest Wine & Grape Industry Institute at Iowa State University. Mike White at Iowa State University now reports that the first five Iowa … [Read more...]
Recently, Midwest Wine Press spent time with Clara Orban, the author of Wine Lessons: Ten Questions to Guide Your Appreciation of Wine. Clara not only chairs the Department of Modern Languages at … [Read More...]
Publisher's note: This is the second in a three part series on how wineries structure successful events Lacking the dramatic backdrop of vineyards, urban wineries, such as family owned Easley … [Read More...]
