All the roads seem to be back roads in southern Illinois, ribbons of blacktop that dip and dart through farm fields and woodlands that seem startlingly hilly after Chicago’s prairie flatness. This is that “other” Illinois you hear of, a hard-working and somewhat hard-scrabble area whose residents make it clear they’re from the “southern” part of the state to distinguish themselves from the city slickers up north. It’s not a place you would think of for wine.
What, then, is a $2 million Tuscan villa doing rising amid grapevines just outside of Makanda, population 419? There’s a surreal “Field of Dreams” quality to Blue Sky Vineyard, with its high-ceilinged tasting room, musician’s gallery and tasting bar sheathed in custom-carved wood. Yet, this well-financed venture is not a “build it and they will come” pipe dream.
Blue Sky Vineyard epitomizes the burgeoning Illinois wine industry, which is luring Illinoisans, north and south alike, to drive outside their comfort zones to explore a state crop that has a little more glamor than, say, soybeans.
It has been proven all across Illinois, from the Chicago suburbs to the state’s southernmost tip, that people will come, thirsty and cash in-hand, whether the winery is built on the palatial scale of Blue Sky, is housed in a charming storefront like Prairie State Winery in downtown Genoa just northwest of Chicago, or tacked on the back of a rural home like Mackinaw Winery in Mackinaw in the central part of the state.
All sell the belief that the wine country lifestyle cultivated by the chichi valleys of northern California can be transplanted, and flourish, in the Land of Lincoln.
“One of the fun things is watching the mouths drop open when they walk in the door,” said Jim Ewers, Blue Sky’s general manager, with a chuckle.
Politicians are doing their own double takes because the state’s more than 50 wineries and 300 growers now contribute a $60 million economic punch. That may not seem like much given the state’s multi-billion-dollar economy but, still, it’s a lot of grape juice.
State Rep. Kenneth Dunkin (D-Chicago), chairman of the House Tourism & Conventions Committee, is sponsoring a wine “summit” at the end of the month to bring together Illinois winemakers and Chicago restaurateurs
“In the 5th District, I represent many of Chicago’s finest restaurants and I think it would be a win-win situation for everyone if more Illinois wines were on the wine list,” Dunkin said in a prepared statement. “Many of these wineries are within driving distance and I believe Chicagoans would support Illinois tourism by visiting the wineries that make their new favorite wines.”
Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who slashed funding for the state’s wine industry when he took office only to restore the money a year later after meeting with winemakers, thinks the wine industry is such an important draw in southern Illinois that he allocated $550,000 to get the word out. He also declared September to be “Illinois Wine Month.”
The Illinois Grape Growers & Vintners Association is trying to increase public awareness via a Chicago-based public relations and marketing firm. The association is showcasing Illinois wines at fairs and festivals, including the Illinois State Fair last month. And the association is working to create additional wine “trails” similar to one now existing in southern Illinois to link nearby wineries together for visitors.
Yet, Bill McCartney, the association’s executive secretary, conceded there’s a lot of work ahead. Some visitors to the association’s “wine garden” at the Illinois State Fair had no clue that there were wineries in Illinois.
“There’s a big educational curve ahead,” he said.
For consumers, yes, and perhaps even for the winemakers.
“It’s a very young industry,” said Richard Faltz, president of Fox Valley Winery in Oswego. “It takes a long time for winemakers to understand the grapes.”
In California, Oregon and Washington, moderate climates can reliably support the large-scale cultivation of Vitis vinifera wine grapes used to make the world’s best wines, such as chardonnay, pinot noir, cabernet sauvignon.
But east of the Rockies, growers usually resort to native grapes from the V. aestivalis or V. labrusca families, grapes including Concord, Catawba or Norton, which is the state grape of Missouri. Or growers rely on cold-hearty hybrids like chardonel, a white grape cross of chardonnay and seyval blanc that is the most widely planted wine grape in Illinois, or vignoles, another white, or red grapes like chambourcin and Marechal Foch.
The resulting bottlings don’t taste like the familiar wines of California or Europe. That can be a blessing in the sense of uniqueness rooted in the land–the French call it terroir–but for years this distinctiveness has been more of a curse.
Richard Carey, president of Vitis Research in Lancaster, Pa., and an oenological consultant to the state of Illinois, said that chambourcin is the grape that bears the closest resemblance to a vinifera wine in terms of flavor.
“Chambourcin, in my view, is known as the zinfandel of the East because so many different things can be done to it,” he said.
Though Illinois has been growing grapes since the mid-19th Century–Baxter’s Vineyards in Nauvoo has roots dating to 1857–the modern wine industry is a relatively new creation. At 26 years old, Lynfred Winery in Roselle is the winery that has been in longest continuous commercial operation. In 1997, there were just 12 wineries in the state.
One sign of the industry’s maturity: Illinois may soon be home to a genuine AVA, or American Viticultural Area, which identifies specific wine-growing regions in the United States, much like the French system of appellations. The federal government is considering a 1.2 million-acre Shawnee Hills AVA in southern Illinois where a cluster of wineries operate along what’s now called the “Shawnee Hills Wine Trail.” Also under consideration is an AVA label for the Galena region.
A matter of taste
Recent tastings conducted during a statewide tour of the major winemaking regions showed a number of drinkable wines out there, from decent to extraordinary, from as dry as any posh Napa bottling to as sweet and homey as Grandma’s berry pie.
There is no signature Illinois style, at least not yet. If anything, Illinois wines are “fruit-forward” with a “nice, crisp acidity” that can go dry or sweet, Faltz said.
Illinois’ wines are winning awards, besting even some California wines in competitions (see sidebar).
Yet the public’s unfamiliarity with most hybrids and the widespread practice of blending grapes to create a singular house style, a tradition in European wineries, has allowed winemakers to come up with all sorts of fun and fanciful proprietary names for their products.
It’s smart marketing. If you happen to take a shine to Prairie State Winery’s “Red Oak” wine, a smoky blend of Norton and chambourcin, you’ll have to go to the winery in Genoa to get it. Enjoyed that bottle of Powder Hill white, a sweet blend of vignoles and cayuga grapes? Better know the way to Greenup and Cameo Vineyards. You can take comfort that the wine and gift shop is housed in a century-old pin-beamed barn perched on a hillside overlooking the Embarras River Valley.
Wineries are popularly viewed as oenological playgrounds for the rich. There’s some justification in this, as noted by Carey. Not only must a would-be winemaker wait four years for the first real harvest, he said, but most won’t see a profit for the first eight years. One has to have ready cash to make it, he added.
Not all winemakers can live on turning Illinois grapes into Illinois wine. Many have resorted to “importing” grapes from California and elsewhere (even Michigan) to make classic vinifera-style wines consumers will buy, or they’ll blend a number of Eastern varietal grapes together to create a signa-ture style of wine.
Most winemakers defend this, saying Illinois doesn’t raise enough grapes to meet the demand.
(To be labeled as Illinois wine, a wine must contain at least 75 percent Illinois grapes.)
A few winemakers do try to grow V. vinifera grapes here in Illinois. Rudolph Valentino DiTommaso of Long Grove’s Valentino Vineyards buries all of his vinifera vines, including cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay and merlot, in the fall to protect them from harsh winter conditions. At their Sandwich vineyards, the Faltz family of Fox Valley Winery uses their familiarity with the land and climate to find the right patch of ground for their chardonnay vines. The gently swelling slope, an old soybean field, faces due south. At the hill’s base, a pile of brush, vine cuttings and wood are ready for lighting if a frost threatens. The bonfire is not just for warming; the heat sets up a pattern of air circulation that prevents the frost from settling on and killing the vines.
To market, to market
The traditional method of selling wine in this country is called the three-tier system: winemaker to importer/distributor to retailer/restaurant. Then you buy. But in Illinois, local winemakers find little thirst for their wines among distributors in the all-important Chicago market.
Faltz of Fox Valley Winery is proposing that Illinois wineries unite to sponsor a direct outlet for their wines in Chicago. Discussions are ongoing with state officials, he said.
Much of the action, therefore, takes place in the wineries’ tasting rooms. And wineries use a number of methods to draw customers. The strategies range from building a bed-and-breakfast (Lynfred) to offering live entertainment, from weekend concerts (Mackinaw Valley Vineyard) to a murder-mystery dinner theater (Hill Prairie Winery in Oakford).
Location is a key element for any enterprise, not least for Lavender Crest Winery in Colona. Situated on U.S. Hwy. 6 near Interstate Highways 80 and 74 a few miles east of Davenport, Iowa, the winery is perfectly situated to attract the motoring crowd.
Martha Rittmueller, co-owner of the winery with her husband, will tell you repeatedly that the core business is the wine. They make about a dozen varieties and employ their own winemaker, Gina Backes.
“We went to 200 wineries for research,” she said proudly.
Why go to all that trouble researching wineries? Why bother making wine in Illinois at all?
For Rittmueller, as for all Illinois winemakers, the answer is as unique as the individual. Rittmueller, who had worked in agricultural entrepreneurship for the University of Illinois Extension Service, simply fell in love with the idea of winemaking.
Faltz is a real estate developer who started Fox Valley Winery five years ago as a way to involve his seven children in a family business. He operated the winery out of his home until last year, when the winery moved into a spacious $2.5 million facility in Oswego, complete with gift shop and dining room. Already, there are plans to expand the facility to 11,000 square feet from 8,000.
“My wife and I weren’t serious wine drinkers in the 1980s, then we went to Germany and France,” Faltz said. “We enjoyed the wine and wondered why we couldn’t do more with wine in the Midwest. It ignited a passion in us, not to create French wines but wines of Illinois.”
DiTommaso of Valentino Vineyards used to help his grandparents grow grapes when he was a kid; began making wine in earnest 25 years ago. A builder of custom houses, he switched to wine full-time 10 years ago and has no regrets.
“When you are building houses you are dealing with 14 different subcontractors,” he said. “It’s having to depend on all these different people. . . . Working outside in the vineyard, and not having the pressure of depending on other people, is quite nice.”
For the Lounsberry family, who moved to central Illinois some eight generations ago, operating their Hill Prairie Winery in Oakford is a way to hold on to their deep farming roots, according to its Web site.
And what of the future?
“What’s happened in the last eight years is just gonna keep on going,” said Bill McCartney of the Illinois Grape Growers & Vintners Association. “I’m getting three or four calls a week from people wanting information on growing grapes.”
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Illinois wine country
The state has more than 50 wineries located within its borders, with clusters around the Chicago area and downstate Carbondale.
THE WINERIES
1. St. Alto Vineyards
2. August Hill Winery
3. Baxter’s Vineyards
4. Berryville Vineyards
5. Black Diamond Vineyard
6. Blue Sky Vineyard
7. Cache River Basin Vineyard & Winery
8. Cameo Vineyards
9. Collver Family Winery
10. Cooper’s Hawk Winery
11. Fox Creek Vineyards
12. Fox Valley Winery
13. Furrow Winery
14. Galena Cellars Winery
15. GenKota Winery
16. Glunz Family Winery and Cellars
17. Hedman Orchard & Vineyards
18. Hidden Lake Winery
19. Hill Prairie Winery
20. Illinois River Winery
21. Indian Creek Vineyard
22. Inheritance Valley Vineyards
23. Kickapoo Creek Winery
24. Kite Hill Vineyards
25. Bed & Breakfast and Winery
26. Lasta Winery
27. Lau-Nae Winery
28. Lavender Crest Winery
29. Limestone Creek Winery
30. Log Cabin Winery
31. Lynfred Winery
32. Mackinaw Valley Vineyard
33. Mary Michelle Winery & Vineyard
34. Massbach Ridge Winery
35. Orlandini Vineyard
36. Owl Creek Vineyard
37. Pheasant Hollow Winery
38. Piasa Winery
39. Pioneer Winery
40. Pomona WineryPrairie State Winery
41. Ravissant Winery
42. Schorr Lake Vineyards
43. Shawnee Winery
44. Spirit Knob Vineyard & Winery
45. Springer’s Creek Winery
46. Stiengtunt Winery
47. Vahling Vineyards
48. Valentino Vineyards & Winery
49. Village Vintner Winery
51. Von Jakob Vineyards
52. Waterloo Winery
53. White Owl Winery
54. Wild Blossom Meadery/Winery
55. Winghill Vineyard & Winery
Source: ESRI, www.IllinoisWine.orgTribune
Check illinoiswine.com for addresses and phone numbers
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A toast to the Land of Lincoln
September is Illinois Wine Month. The restaurant one sixtyblue, 1400 W. Randolph St. , will celebrate by featuring Illinois wines.
Each Monday, you can taste 10 wines for $12 in the bar area, with wines changing weekly. Enjoy a nosh with that chambourcin or vignoles from 5:30 to 7 p.m. when the bar menu is half price.
Monday through Thursday, a four-course fixed- price menu for $45 will feature Illinois wines, with wines changing weekly.
A gala five-course dinner featuring Illinois wines will be held at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 29 for $75 (includes tax and tip); reservations are required.
For details and reservations, call 312-850-0303.
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Award-winning wines
Illinois wines are picking up a fair share of medals at wine competitions.
– At the Indy International Wine Competition, in July in Indianapolis, Illinois wineries brought home 122 gold, silver or bronze medals. Some 3,685 wines were tasted and judged at the Indy, the nation’s third largest wine contest.
Judges (and I have been among them the past two years) sample wines in flights. Only classification, vintage and sugar levels are known. The wines are rated for color, clarity, taste, aroma and overall impression.
Galena Cellars won the Leisure Family Pacesetter Trophy for “winningest winery.”
Gold-medal winners
August Hill Winery, 2004 Blackberry Dessert Wine
Collver Family Winery, 2004 Pumpkin
Fox Valley Winery, 2004 Concord Old Glory Red
Furrow Vineyards, 2003 Niagara, 2003 Blueberry-Blackberry Two Berry
Galena Cellars, 2004 Catawba Country Rose, 2002 St. Croix Vineyard Red, 2004 Late Harvest Gewurztraminer, 2004 Cherry, 2004 Rhubarb
Massbach Ridge Winery, 2004 Vignoles
Pheasant Hollow Winery, 2004 Blueberry-Cherry Red and Blue
Prairie State Winery, Vidal-Key Lime Maria Sangarita
Von Jakob Vineyard, Honey Raspberry (mead)
At the 2005 Illinois State Fair Commercial Wine Competition, a much smaller contest, the following medals were awarded this summer to state wineries.
Best-of-show
Galena Cellars Rock House Port (non-vintage)
Governor’s Cup
Fruit wine: Von Jakob Vineyard Jonathan Apple (NV)
Red wine: 2002 Alto Vineyard Chambourcin
White wine: 2003 Piasa Winery Traminette
Best red wine
2004 Baxter’s Vineyards Chambourcin Riverbend Red
Best white wine
2004 August Hill Winery Chardonel
Best fruit or fruit/grape blend wine
Galena Cellars Cherry Cerise (NV)
Best-of-category winners include:
Dessert: Galena Cellars Late Harvest Gewurztraminer (NV)
Fruit: 2005 Lynfred Winery Blackberry
Generic blend: Massbach Ridge Winery Marechal Foch (NV)
Hybrid red: 2003 Furrow Winery Marechal Foch Old Barn Red
Hybrid white: 2004 Piasa Winery Traminette Riverfest
Native American red: 2004 Fox Valley Winery Concord Old Glory Red
Native American white: Hill Prairie Winery Niagara (NV)
Sparkling: Galena Cellars Apple (NV)
Vinifera red: Galena Cellars White Zinfandel (NV)
Vinifera white: 2004 Fox Valley Winery Riesling
— Bill Daley
