Mc Henry County Fighting Nun’s Winery

From the Drinks Business we bring you another effort by the backwards element in McHenry, Illinois to block a winery from opening.  This time the county is fighting the Fraternite of Notre Dame, a religious order formed in 1977.

You might recall that McHenry County also waged a multi-year battle with Jeff Pankow, the owner of Blue Star Vineyard in Hebron.  Pankow is a respected local business owner and is well-known in McHenry County civic circles, but that did not stop the McHenry County Board from jerking him around mercilessly before granting a permit.  As for the nuns, monasteries in Europe have been making beer and wine since the Middle Ages to support themselves.

See: Nuns Battle to Build Winery 

Mark Ganchiff

Mark Ganchiff is the publisher of Midwest Wine Press, the leading source of news on the growing wine industry in the central United States. Mark has been a wine judge at the 2012 and 2014 INDY International Wine Competition, the 2014 Cold Climate Wine Competition, the 2013 Mid-American Wine Competition, the 2012 Illinois State Fair Wine Competition and the 2013 Michigan Wine Competition. He also enjoys speaking at wine events including the Cold Climate Wine Conference, the Illinois Grape Growers and Vintners Association Annual Meeting, the Midwest Grape and Wine Conference and the Wisconsin Fruit and Vegetable Conference. Mark's articles about regional wine have appeared in Vineyard & Winery Management, WineMaker and several regional magazines. Mark is a Level One Sommelier in the Court of Master Sommeliers. He lives in Louisville, but also has a residence in Chicago.

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