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Denny Franklin and his wife, Cathy Franklin, of Pheasant Hollow Winery, left, speak with Rachel Cristaudo, center, of Rend Lake College and Sonja Lallemand of the University of Illinois Extension Office on Thursday during the Illinois Grape Growers and Vintners Association’s annual conference and trade show at the Crowne Plaza. Jason Johnson/The State Journal-Register
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Wineries continued to open in Illinois straight through the Great Recession, raising the total to more than 100 at the start of 2012, according to the Illinois Grape Growers and Vintners Association.
Not that there haven’t been losses.
“It’s ever-changing. We’re starting to see a little attrition,” association president Bruce Morgenstern said on the opening day of the association’s annual convention Thursday at the Crowne Plaza Hotel.
“It’s a warm, fuzzy business. Everybody sees themselves with a vineyard and a winery,” said Morgenstern. “But everyone forgets it’s still an agriculture-based industry. It’s a lot of work. It’s time-consuming. You have to have a passion to survive it.”
Morgenstern, who operates Pheasant Hollow Winery in southern Illinois, said 106 wineries were licensed in the state at the start of the year.
Industry survey
The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the association have begun surveying the state’s wineries in order to update the last such study in 2007, when 63 wineries produced more than 844,000 gallons of wine a year in Illinois.
In 1999, the total was 16 wineries.
Wine tours also have become a standard part of the state’s tourism promotions.
Association marketing director Megan Pressnall said there was a 30 percent response from the initial 450 surveys, and the association expects to gather more data at the convention, which continues through Saturday.
‘Big for us’
Vendors from as far away as the state of Virginia filled a ballroom at the Crowne Plaza with products from grapevine stock to crop-management systems.
“Illinois is big for us now. We had probably $100,000 worth of sales in Illinois last year,” said Lisa Roberts, purchasing agent and traffic manager for Arton Products of Lively, Va.
The company specializes in etching and imprinting glassware, ceramics, plastic and metals, including a line of custom wine glasses on display at the trade show. Roberts said the company has been coming to the show for several years.
Plastic fermentation tanks for winemaking were an accidental spin-off for Westfall Co. of Eureka, Mo., said company owner Alan Westfall.
Westfall said the 40-year-old company originated as a manufacturer of pipes, pumps, tanks and valves for heavy industry, including chemical plants, the food industry and utilities.
However, his own hobby of winemaking hobby led him to the new product line.
“I own a two-acre vineyard, and I’ve always used these tanks in my winemaking,” said Westfall. “A friend of mine that owns a vineyard needed a tank in a hurry, so I sold it to them, one. They had friends who owned wineries, and they saw it was working, and I sold eight, then 10, then 100.”
Westfall said wine-fermentation tanks still account for only 2 percent of his business, “but it’s the funnest 2 percent.”
Legislative agenda
Morgenstern said an Illinois law enacted in 2008 to clarify the rules on direct sales to consumers by wineries seems to have worked well. The law allows wineries with production of up to 25,000 gallons annually to obtain permits to sell directly.
As the industry grows, however, more wineries are coming up against the 25,000-gallon threshold that requires commercial distribution, said Morgenstern.
His Pheasant Hollow winery is nearing 25,000 gallons in annual production, Morgenstern said, but he had already decided to use a commercial distributor.
“We have a lot of wineries that are bumping 25,000. What I’m afraid of is they’ll hit that wall and cease to grow,” he said..
The association this spring is seeking approval of legislation that would allow for one-year festival permits, rather than having to seek a permit each time a winery holds a special events An extended license would streamline the process and reduce paperwork for regulators, he said.
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Illinois industry remains small
Illinois’ wine industry remains small compared to those of major wine-producing states, such as California, Washington, New York, Oregon and Virginia. Missouri also has moved rapidly up the list in the past decade.
California is the giant, accounting for nearly 90 percent of the 3.9 million tons of grapes produced for wine in the United States in 2010. Here is the percentage of production by region of the country in 2010:
* California: 89.5
* Northeast: 4.1
* Northwest: 3.7
* South: 1.2
* Midwest: 0.8
* Mountain: 0.2
Source: U.S. Department of Commerce; total does not equal 100 percent because of incomplete data from some states