Winery A Winner

Two farm couples, with deep family roots in southwestern Iowa agriculture, are part of a value added trend that is making a comeback in Iowa. They are growing grapes, making wine and marketing their product directly to the consumer. 

Mike and Dana Killinger and Doug and Becky VonWeihe are partners in Whispering Hills Vineyards four miles south of Oakland, Iowa, in Pottawattamie County. The two-year-old winery consists of a refurbished farm building that houses the wine making and bottling equipment and an old barn that has been converted into a rustic wine tasting area complete with a newly built deck with a view of corn and soybean fields and the rolling rural landscape.   

The wine tasting room opened July 24, 2004 to large weekend crowds. According to Mike Killinger, word of mouth and Omaha area news coverage has turned Whispering Hills Vineyards into a weekend destination for many wine enthusiasts. Killinger says, “After we opened the tasting room, we’ve had crowds so unexpectedly large that we’ve had to bottle more wine after closing to have enough to sell the next day.” The winery is also popular with brides, he adds. “We’ve booked a number of wedding parties because the bride liked our uniqueness.”

Besides the partnership in the winery, each couple also has their own vineyards, which produces grapes they can make into wine.  Their total grape acreage currently stands at five with more being planned.

Both couples credit much of the success of their vineyard and winery to help they have received through the Golden Hills Resource Conservation and Development office in Oakland. Golden Hills, a non-profit organization affiliated with USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, has a mission of helping Loess Hills farmers get back into the grape growing and wine making businesses that was so prevalent in the area 80 years ago.      

As a perennial crop, grapes prevent erosion of the loess soils and offer added income for the landowner notes Shirley Frederiksen, Golden Hills RC & D Coordinator. She says a vineyard can produce an average of three tons of grapes per acre and they are environmentally friendly. One ton of grapes can make up to 150 gallons of wine and, depending upon the grape, a grower could earn between $800 and $1000 per ton of grapes harvested.

Frederiksen notes wineries, like Whispering Hills, bring tourists and their dollars to the Loess Hills. More wineries, she feels, will help grow southwestern Iowa into a tourist area similar to Hermann, MO, or the Finger Lakes region of New York – both are popular day destinations for travelers.

To help operators improve their grape production and winemaking, Golden Hills employee Eli Bergmeier, a full time viticulture technician, works closely with farmers. A former vineyard manager, Bergmeier displays a passion for helping producers improve their operations. When he is not putting on seminars, Bergmeier can be found in area vineyards helping producers with the finer points of grape growing that range from proper pruning to vine care.  

While Bergmeier and the Golden Hills RC&D help wine growers start their operations and improve them, the business decisions always remain with the producer. According to Doug VonWeihe, some of these decisions have become a very unfamiliar challenge. VonWeihe said, “I’ve been farming for over 30 years and currently have 2,200 acres of row crops with my brother. For all that time, people have always told me what my selling price will be. Now that we have this winery, for the first time in my life, I get to set the selling price!”

The people of Golden Hills RC&D are used to helping producers work through the unfamiliar experience of grape growing and winemaking. They are excited about the economic benefit of more vineyards and wineries being started in the Loess Hills. If Shirley Frederiksen and Eli Bergmeier have their way, they will be helping more southwestern Iowa farmers grow grapes, sell wine and set their own product prices while revitalizing an old Iowa industry that benefits the environment.

On the web:

www.goldenhillsrcd.org
www.iowagrapegrowers.com

Side Bar:

Brief History of Grape Growing in Iowa

At one time, Iowa had more than 6,000 acres of vineyards under production with half located in the Loess Hills of western Iowa. Pottawattamie County alone had over 600,000 vines and harvested more than 4 million pounds of grapes in 1929.

The decline of Iowa vineyards came about by the combined impact of the Depression, Prohibition, a killing freeze in 1940 and the devastating impact of the wide spread use of 2,4-D, a herbicide lethal to grapes.  

Grape plants are highly susceptible to herbicide drift and easily injured; even from spray two miles away. Farmer and grape grower Doug VonWeihle says the health of his vineyard relies on the cooperation of neighbors.  VonWeihle says the local cooperative will call if they are spraying anywhere near their farm and his neighbors check with him before spraying, too.