Getting to Know Missouri Wines

As a boy living near New York City there was an expression; "Anything outside of New York is Connecticut." Nowadays I live near the Northern California wine country and can see vineyards in any direction I drive nearby. When I hear about quality wines and research at the university level I've come to expect it is all about UC Davis and Napa Valley.

Imagine my surprise to learn the State of Missouri is very serious about their wine production and making a quality wine. Having never visited the state I didn't know "A lot of people come to Missouri just for the purpose of going to bed-and-breakfasts, visiting wineries, tasting wine, so tourism is a large aspect of the wineries" according to Ingolf Gruen at the University of Missouri. All told, it was a $1.6 billion industry in the state in 2009.

Interestingly Missouri wine does not, for the most part, want to compete with California wines. They have their own micro climates that are much different and there are so many varieties of grapes that can grow well in Missouri that do not grow much at all in California. That is where the university comes in.

The research is finding the best type of grapes for their soils, climate and water to produce a quality wine. They are currently looking at 70 varieties in tests over a seven year period. They certainly have some good ideas and I am anxious to try some of the success stories from the research.



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