Noted Breeder and Researcher Lon Rombough Dies
Lon J. Rombough, one of the foremost authorities on North American viticulture, died Monday at age 62 of an apparent heart attack. Rombough was the author of The Grape Grower: A Guide to Organic...
Midwest Wine Press Blog
Traversing Three Generations: Bowers Harbor Vineyards
Spencer Stegnega remembers his childhood filled with animals–cows, chickens, geese, sheep, even a few horses his family boarded on their 20-acre property. ‘It was a full-fledged gentleman’s farm, but I, as the youngest of...
Indy Colt’s Dallas Clark Opens Train Wreck Winery
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,...
John Marshall: Winter Vineyard Tips
Winter is upon us and, while it has been unseasonably warm this year, January still looms before us. It is an annual event for any fruit grower that January always stands like the Sword...
John Marshall: Frost Damage Protection for the Small Grower
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...
“Verterra” Winery Opens in Leland, Michigan
As reported in “Northwest Michigan’s Second Wave,” Verterra Winery opened on the Leelanau Peninsula during Fall 2011. Partners in the winery are retired pharmaceutical exec Paul Hamelin and Skip Telgard, owner of the Bluebird...
MN-WI Distribution Differences Wider Than The Mississippi
The Wisconsin and Minnesota wine industries have much in common. Both states specialize in cold climate grape winemaking, and both can call Elmer Swenson, the godfather of cold climate grapes, a native son. (Swenson...
Chateau Grand Traverse Riesling Named “Top Wine” by Food and Wine Magazine
The 2010 Chateau Grand Traverse Whole Cluster Riesling was included in Food and Wine magazine’s top wines by editor Megan Krigbaum. Food and Wine has a circulation of 375,000 and is one of the...
Wollersheim Celebrates 40th Anniversary
It’s 1972. An electrical engineer moves his family to an abandoned Wisconsin farm, planning to produce estate wines in the property’s Civil War-era winery, despite being told repeatedly that grapes won’t grow there. While...
New Ohio Micro-Distillery Laws Passed
As reported by Carl Feather in the Ashtabula Star-Beacon, Ohio recently passed legislation that will increase micro-distillery permits and allow liquor to be sold in tasting rooms. According to Feather, it was area winery owners...