The Grape Industry in Illinois

The Grape Industry in Illinois: The Results of a Survey of the Illinois Grape Growers and Vintners Association (IGGVA) Members by the Illinois Council for Food and Agricultural Research (C-FAR)

by R.M. Skirvin, A.G. Otterbacher, K.D. McPheeters, M. Kushad, and Patti Peratt, College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES), Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences (NRES)
University of Illinois, 258 ERML, 1201 W. Gregory Dr., Urbana IL 61801

Web site for this project = http://w3.aces.uiuc.edu/NRES/faculty/Skirvin/cfar/

Background

The Illinois Council on Food and Agricultural Research (C-FAR) has funded a research project (CFAR-98I-078-1 and CFAR-98E-26) to evaluate and expand the Illinois grape and wine industry; The University of Illinois research team working on this project prepared a questionnaire in August, 1997, and made on-site visits to several grape growers and most of the wineries in the state of Illinois in the fall of that year. The names and addresses of individuals who received the questionnaire were provided by the Illinois Grape Growers and Vintners Association (IGGVA).

Questionnaire. The questionnaire was designed to survey grape growers and winemakers concerning the status of their industry and their plans for the future. In the initial contact, about 140 questionnaires were mailed out; one quarter responded. Based on the preliminary tabulations there were approximately 120 acres of producing vineyards in the state of Illinois and 60 acres of non-yielding grapes had been planted.

Since the responses from our survey were relatively low, a senior student (Ms. Patti Peratt) joined our team to make telephone contact with each person on our list. George Majka, executive director of the IGGVA, also pointed out that the time that we mailed our survey was very near harvest and most growers and vintners did not have time to respond until later in the season.

Vineyards and Wineries in Illinois

Patti began phoning near the end of October. She talked to each person she could reach. Each contacted person was offered another survey form which they could fill out and return by mail or they could fill out the form over the telephone. Based on her phone calls an improved list of IGGVA members was compiled. To correct the list further, Patti went to several libraries and consulted their telephone directories. Of the original 140 questionnaires mailed out there were many duplicates and some people wanted to be removed from the list. Of the remaining 121, 47 were confirmed to have vineyards, 46 remained unknown, and 28 individuals did not have vineyards but wanted to receive any information available from the group. Forty-two of the 47 vineyards responded to our survey. We also found there were 14 bonded wineries in the state of Illinois. These are listed in Table 1.

Table 1. Illinois Wineries - 1998

Alto Vineyards/Winery (1988) Paul Renzaglia P.O. Box 51 Hwy. 127 Alto Pass, IL 62905 618-893-4898	Schorr Lake Vineyards (1998) Paul and JoAnn Nobbe 217 North Main Street Waterloo, IL 62298 618-939-8698 Fax: 618-939-8609
Baxter's Vineyards/Winery (1988) Brenda and Kelly Logan 2010 East Parley Street Nauvoo, IL 62354 217-453-2528 or 800-854-1396	Seminary Winery (1993) Terry Tulin T. J. Worthington Limited 83 South Seminary Galesburg, IL 61401-4802 309-343-2512
Chateau Ra-Ha Winery (1985) Harry and Rita Hussmann 230 East Main St. Grafton, IL 62037 618-786-3335 618-786-3336	Owl Creek Vineyard (1995) Ted Wichmann 2655 Water Valley Road Cobden, IL 62920 618-893-2557
Galena Cellars Winery (1983) Scott Lawlor and Christine Lawlor White 515 S. Main Street P.O. Box 207 Galena, IL 61036 815-777-3330 or 800-397-WINE	Pomona Winery (1991) George Majka and Jane Payne 2865 Hickory Ridge Road Pomona, IL 62975 618-893-2623
Gen Kota Winery (12/1997) Brad Drake 301 North 44th Mt. Vernon, IL 62864 618-246-9466	Spring Pond Vineyards, Inc. (1998) John W. McFarland 13772 Spring Pond Road Benton, IL 62812 618-439-6029
Glunz Family Winery & Cellar (1993) Joe Glunz 888 E. Belvidere Road #211 Grays Lake, IL 60030 847-548-9463 Fax: 847-548-8083	Von Jakob Vineyards (11/1997) Paul Jacobs 1309 Sadler Road Pomona, IL 62975 618-893-4500
Lynfred Winery (1977) Fred E. Koehler 15 S.Roselle Road Roselle, IL 60172 630-529-WINE or Fax: 630-529-4971	Waterloo Winery (1986) Mark L. and Susan Hendershot 725 N. Market Street Waterloo, IL 62298 618-939-8339 or 618-939-5743 Fax: 618-939-4882

Grape Growers in Illinois

The following information is based on the responses received from the 42 of 47 individuals that responded to our survey. First of all, among the 42 respondees, 31 considered grape growing to be their business; 12 considered it to be their hobby. Some people obviously consider it to be both a business and hobby. Half of the growers have been in the grape business for less than 5 years; the rest have been in the business for 5 to 20 or more years. Five respondees said they have been growing grapes for more than 20 years.

Grape Growing in Illinois

The 42 individuals who responded had a total of 110.1 acres of yielding grapevines in Illinois; another 69.9 acres has been planted and should come into bearing over the next two years. Geographically the majority of the yielding plants (53.1 acres) are found in Central Illinois (the area between Interstate 70 in the South and Interstate 80 in the North). Northern Illinois (north of Interstate 80) has 25 acres of vines; Southern Illinois (south of Interstate 70) has 32 acres. However, the majority of the new plantings are being made in the South (Zone 3) where 63 acres of non-bearing plants are reported.

The majority of the grapes grown in Illinois are used to make wine (94%), but a few (5%) are sold fresh or processed into juice (1%). The most important wine and table grapes grown in Illinois are listed in Table 2. The cultivars that are being most planted are listed in Table 3.

Table 2. The most common grape cultivars now grown in Illinois

Wine Grapes 		Total acreage
  Vignoles	            16.5
  Chambourcin	            13
  Seyval		    12.5
  Vidal Blanc	             9
  Chardonel	             7.5

Juice and Table Grapes
  Concord	            10.5
  Niagara	             6
  Catawba	             4

Table 3. Grape cultivars that are now being planted in larger numbers

Wine Grapes 		
  Norton
  Chancellor
  Foch

Juice and Table Grapes
  Fredonia

Illinois Grape and Wine Resources Council

Present status of wine consumption in the State of Illinois. Illinois is number five among the 50 states in wine consumption. Illinoisans consumed 25 million gallons of wine in 1996 for a total of $705 million dollars in sales. Less than 1% of this wine was produced in Illinois. To help increase the percentage of Illinois wine consumed, the State of Illinois established the Illinois Grape and Wine Resources Council by legislation in 1997. The information gathered in the C-FAR projects is now being used by this group to assist the grape and wine industries and encourage their development. The results of our survey will aid in the establishment of research priorities for this group.

Web Site Development

To provide open transfer of information between researchers, cooperators and the public, we have established a World Wide Web site (http://w3.aces.uiuc.edu/NRES/faculty/Skirvin/cfar/) that allows exchange of information. We plan to communicate the results of our survey, research, and other pertinent information (products, production levels, marketing) to end-users (members of IGGVA, project cooperators, horticultural instructors, outreach personnel, as well as citizens of Illinois) via the Web site.

At this time there is much information available at this site. We encourage everyone to make use of the information available on this site.

Future Studies

Cultivar trials: Another goal of the C-FAR funded project is to establish cultivar trials at four locations in Illinois. We plan to make these plantings in St. Charles (Northern Illinois), Urbana (Central Illinois), Dixon Springs (Southern Illinois) and a site in Western Illinois.

The cultivars that we plan to test are given below. The list is still open for suggestions; contact either Skirvin (217-333-1530) or Otterbacher (217-333-4210) at the University of Illinois.

Wine Grapes			Seedless Grapes
  Marechal Foch (Foch)		   Marquis
  Seyval			   Glenora
  Cabernet Franc		   Canadice
  MN 1141			   Einset
  Norton/Cynthiana		   Saturn
  Traminette
  Frontenac
  LaCrosse
  NY 73.0136.17
  NY 70.0809.10
  GR 7
  Chardonel
  Leon Millot 
  Melody
  Horizon
  Siegfried
  St. Croix

Rootstocks and increased winter hardiness: To study the role of grape rootstocks in winter hardiness, we will establish a planting of cultivars grafted onto special rootstocks. The best grapes for wine making in Illinois are either European (Vitis vinifera) or European hybrids (=French hybrids). Unfortunately, most of these cultivars are not very winter hardy. There is evidence that particular species rootstocks can impart hardiness. To test this possibility we propose a complete replicated trial of several rootstocks that show potential for imparting hardiness under selected scions.

References

Ahmedullah, M. and D.G. Himelrick. 1990. Grape Management. pp 383-471. In Galletta, G.J. and D.G. Himelrick (eds.) Small Fruit Crop Management. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs NJ.

Barrett, H.C. 1956. The French hybrid grapes. National Horticultural Magazine 35:132-143.

Hedrick, U.P. 1913. Grape stocks for American grapes. N.Y. Ag. Exp. Stn. 31st Annual Rept. pp 489-521.

Howell, G.S. 1987. Vitis rootstocks. pp 451-472. In Rom, R.C. and R.F. Carlson (eds.) Rootstocks for fruit crops. John Wiley & Sons, New York.

Mowry, J.B. 1979a. Cold hardiness of grape cultivars. Proc. 1979 Illinois Small Fruit School. University of Illinois. Hort. Series No. 15:15-18

Mowry, J.B. 1979b. Phenology and spring frost hardiness of grape cultivars. Proc. 1979 Illinois Small Fruit School. University of Illinois. Hort. Series No. 15:19-20

Otterbacher, A.G. and R.M. Skirvin. 1984. Grape Performance at Urbana, Illinois. Proc. 1984 Illinois Small Fruit School. University of Illinois. Hort. Series No. 48:40-42.

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