Harvest Host and On the Road

 Our next overnight was at a Harvest Host Winery, Old Mans Creek Vineyard, in Wellman, IA.  We had a great evening with the owners, Tom and Vicki, and swapping stories.  

Wine making and tasting area

The metal ceiling and beams are part of an old structure on Vicki’s father’s farm

This is where we visited.  Their original intention was to have the whole basement as tasting and wine making area, but due to county regulations, the business can only be 10% of the house.  So this area became the visiting area.

They established the winery in 2005 as a hobby for when they retire.  In 2007 he retired and have run it as a full time hobby.  The land the vineyard is on was originally part of Vicki’s family farm where she grew up.  The original farm was 400+ acres.  When the father passed, they purchased 40 acres for the vineyard. Various family members bought portions of the property as well.  When they purchased it they lived in another town nearby, but eventually they built a house on the property to make it easier to tend the vineyard, to have the winery and for Vicki to be “back home”. 

Some interesting information that we learned.  

Vicki had no running water on the farm growing up.  The first time she had running water was when she went to college.  Didn’t think twice about it cause didn’t know any different.  

Tom was a pharmacist and had owned two stores.  You know, the independent pharmacists that no longer exist.  (O’Neill’s - think of Bernie).  

They started the vineyard with 1,500-1,600 vines.  They had no background, just thought it would be an interesting retirement hobby.  The first year was a dry year, so they had to water the plants.  They did this with a 350 gal water tank and trailer and went plant to plant watering.  They have learned alot over the years.

The first year they had foch, concord and vanessa grapes.  They found that the vanessa were not hardy enough for the IA weather.  Over time they added Edelweiss and Brianna.  These were hardy plants from Minnesota and St. Louis. 

One interesting thing, Dave asked if you could divide the vines to grow the vineyard.  You can do clippings and try to propagate, but you can’t separate plants as they are patented.  Who knew?

There needs to be 12 leaves on a vine to produce a cluster of grapes.

Average year they produce 21,000-28,000 pounds of grapes.  Their best year was 34,000 lbs.  Last year was their worst at 9,000 lbs.  This was due to herbicide drift from a neighboring farm.  There had been some damage previously, but it depends on what crop the farmer grows.  If it is corn, it doesn’t affect them because they spray before it grows.  With beans, they spray once plant is grown, so sprayed higher and hence drift.  The solution as provided by Iowa Agriculture department is send a letter to all the owners around you and spray companies informing them you have a vineyard.  

They were a part of an amateur wine makers club where they learned a lot and shared some equipment, etc.  However, the club disturbed because a good portion of the club started their own wineries.  The local college also offered classes in horticulture and wine making, so that is where Tom gained some expertise.

He told us the story of getting approval to have the winery license.  Had no problem with the federal and state government, but many issues with the county government.  Lots of little things that you can work around, just makes things less efficient.

We learned how they processed the grapes and what grapes they mixed for their various wines. The process for all wines is ferment, clarify, filter and bottle.  All their wines are made dry, then sweetened. That is the only way they can make it consistent is by starting with dry wine (all sugar fermented out) and then adding the same amount of sugar back in for consistency.  They have 4 outlets they sell their wine to, plus those who come to the winery and Harvest Host visitors.  They said Harvest Host has really helped their business as they are off the beat and path and it brings people there.  Last year was their first year as a host and they had 91 campers. 

They like Harvest Host because the winery takes a lot of time, so it gives them a way to “travel” through their visitors.  

Vicki is the one with the taste for wine and she makes all of the decisions on what the blends will be. 

Harvest is in August.   average 1,200-1,500 lbs of grapes.  They use some 1,200-1,500 lbs of grapes for their wines and sell the rest.

12 lbs of grapes equals 1 gallon of juice.

85-90% of juice turns to wine. 

All of their wine is made from their grapes only.

We sat with them sipping wine for about two hours learning all this and swapping our stories about our travels.  This is why we like Harvest Host so much. 

On The Road

As we travelled from the winery to the next stop we passed the Worlds Largest Truck Stop in Walcott, IA.  Of course we stopped in just to see.  They had a museum, which we didn’t have time to tour, and a massive  “store” which had snacks, gifts, a restaurant, a truck parts section as big as a normal truck stop, etc.  On the second level they had a laundry, dentist and chiropractor.  I found this sign with a few trucking facts interesting.

Til next time.