Indy Colt’s Dallas Clark Opens Train Wreck Winery

Dallas Clark (right) and others sort grapes during harvest

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 others, explains Steve Larson, Clark’s father-in-law. ‘The train wreck actually happened on land adjacent to the one-acre vineyard,” says Larson, who is the winemaker and manager for Train Wreck Winery.

Label from Train Wreck Winery depicts an steam engine with Dallas Clark's #44 jersey number on the front.

In 2008, Clark planted Marquette and Brianna grapes, and the first crop was harvested last fall. Train Wreck also purchases Iowa-grown Frontenac, Frontenac Gris, Edelweiss, Niagara and St. Vincent and additional Frontenac and Frontenac gris from Minnesota growers.

A train depot built in 1917 houses Train Wreck Winery. Clark purchased the rundown building and spent five years renovating it. Opened on Dec. 20, 2011, the winery includes a tasting room and 40-person banquet room. The wines are made and bottled in a building across the street. A new rose will be released in February 2012, called Orphan Train. Five other wines range from sweet to dry.

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