Missouri wineries produce homegrown holiday gifts

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Most people purchase the regular, 750-milliliter bottles of wine, said Ron Junge, president and owner of Brown Derby.

“If someone wanted to do something very special for the host (by) taking a bottle of wine for dinner, magnums, which equal two bottles, they’re the greatest way to go. They look nice on the table,” he said.

Wine gifts may be tucked in baskets or gift boxes alone or with cheese, crackers or chocolate. Or the bottle can make a statement on its own, presented to the recipient as-is.

Hand painted glassware, wine bags and wine charms to hang from stemware are often included with wine at Sugar Creek, said Ken Miller, who, with his wife, Becky, owns Defiance-based Sugar Creek Winery and Vineyards. Patty Held-Uthlaut, public relations director and part of the family that owns Stone Hill Winery in Hermann, said that Stone Hill frequently sells wine racks as gifts along with bottles of wine.

Giving season

“If you’re going over to somebody’s house for dinner or for any kind of party, a bottle of wine in a nice little gift bag – I don’t know of anything any better,” said Junge.

Buying Missouri wines as gifts is a way to support local businesses, Held-Uthlaut said.

It’s “giving a gift that you enjoy yourself, and also a quality product because Missouri wines win a tremendous amount of national and international awards,” she said, adding that Stone Hill is one of the top five award-winning wineries in the country. “It’s giving something that you’re proud of, proud to share.”

It isn’t necessary to spend a fortune on a bottle of wine. “There are very nice wines under $10,” Junge said. “There are very nice wines under $20.”

Nathan Green, manager at Whispering Oaks Vineyard and Winery in Seymour, recommended Whispering Oaks Rosé, which sells for $10. Holts Summit-based Summit Lake Winery’s Velvet Red retails for $12. Stone Hill’s Steinberg White is $9.99.

Choosing wine doesn’t have to be intimidating. Visitors at Summit Lake Winery in Holts Summit may be asked a few questions by the staff to help with their selection, said Sandra Lewis, banquet coordinator for the 3-year-old winery. Customers are first asked if they like sweet or dry, then red or white, and what the wine’s purpose is.

“Are you using it for a meal, a social gathering, or what? And then you go from there,” Lewis said. “Then we’ll be able to tell them we’ve got this, this and this at various price ranges. That way, basically, it makes it easier to make a decision.”

Sweeter wines are the most popular choice when choosing wine for someone else, especially if the giver is not familiar with the recipient’s preferences.

“Generally, it’s something light and sweeter because when you get into the dry wines, a lot of people don’t have the taste for those,” Green said.

Lewis suggests giving both red and white wines as a single gift, to offer the recipient a choice.

Another option is the juice made by wineries. “We have a sparkling white juice or a sparkling raspberry juice,” Stone Hill’s Held-Uthlaut said. “They’re more festive for the holidays. They’re big sellers also.”

History

Winemaking has a long history in Missouri, dating back to German settlers who established Hermann in 1837. By 1848, more than 10,000 gallons a year were produced in Hermann’s wineries. By the 1880s, 2 million gallons of Missouri wine were produced each year. In the mid-1800s, rootstocks from Missouri vines were credited with saving the French wine industry. They were grafted with French cuttings after the phylloxera louse destroyed tracts of French vines, which had no resistance to the pest.

The Missouri wine industry – and its 100 wineries – were halted by Prohibition in 1919. In the 1960s, Missouri wineries began the slow process of working to regain their former stature.

“We’ve got a rich history in Missouri,” said Miller. “We’re making fine wines that stand up with California and the rest of the world.”

Great grapes

Missouri wines, Junge said, have a different dimension and flavor than wines made elsewhere. “They’re just totally different from wines from California or Oregon or France or Italy,” he said.

The types of grapes that are grown in California and Europe are difficult to grow in Missouri, “because of our drastic changes in weather and our hot, humid summers, our cold, frosty winters, and the changes where you may have a 30-degree day and then the next day it could be 60 or 70 degrees. It makes it very hard to grow certain styles of grapes. The grapes that we grow here, the French-American hybrid, are more conducive to our weather conditions and are hardier grapes and can withstand that,” said Jill Cobb, marketing specialist for Missouri Department of Agriculture’s Grape and Wine Program.