Guy Renzaglia says Illinois was among the leaders in grape production in pre-Prohibition days and believes vineyards can flourish again in the state with more legislative help.
Alto Vineyards, at the northwest corner of the small village of Alto Pass in Union County, was a dream of Renzaglia`s that began taking shape in December, 1981, when he and his partners bought a 50-acre farm. They started planting in the spring of 1982.
Renzaglia, 68, of Murphysboro, who was on the Southern Illinois University-Carbondale staff about 27 years, had been thinking about growing grapes since the mid-1970s.
”But Illinois had prohibitive laws on wineries,” said Renzaglia.
When the legislature amended the Illinois Dram Shop law in November, 1981, to allow farm wineries, Renzaglia was ready to move. But not before the Alto Vineyards partners did a lot of reading, attended seminars and conferences and took a course on grape-growing and wineries at SIU.
Alto Vineyards has grown steadily and now has 4,000 vines, including seven French hybrid and two American varieties of grapes, covering 7 1/2 acres. ”We have a vision of going into a winery–a small farm winery–within a couple of years,” said Renzaglia.
He is experimenting with a seedless variety, Reliance, and also tried growing two of the world`s most renowned varieties–Reisling and Chardonnay
–but most of those vines fell victim to a combination of cold and drought.
Renzaglia`s partners in the vineyard operation are his son, Paul, who lives at the vineyard, and Theodore Wichmann of Cobden, described by Renzaglia as a ”darned good winemaker.”
Small farm wineries are allowed to make up to 40,000 gallons a year but can sell only 10,000 gallons on the site. Neighboring states have more lenient laws, Renzaglia said.
In Missouri, a farm winery can make up to 750,000 gallons and an unlimited amount can be sold locally, he said. While Missouri has more than 30 wineries and about 50 vineyards, Illinois has only two wineries and they import their grapes, he said.
Alto Vineyards produced only 6 1/2 tons of grapes last year because of bad weather, but Renzaglia hopes to grow 30 tons this year, he said.
Four tons of last year`s production were shipped to a winery south of Chicago. ”It is going to produce the first wine from Illinois grapes since before Prohibition,” said Renzaglia. He said Gov. James Thompson, upon learning the winery was going to produce wine from Illinois-grown grapes, ordered the first case.
”We hope to establish four or five cooperatives that would funnel their grapes into one winery,” said Renzaglia.
Renzaglia says he sells all his Concord grape production to Amish settlements in Southern Illinois.
”We hope to tap into the California market for imported grapes used by home wine-making,” said Renzaglia. ”There are more than 100 home winemakers in Southern Illinois and the California grapes are probably 2 to 3 weeks old by the time they arrive here, and they lose a lot of their character in that time.”
”I think Southern Illinois is better than Missouri for grape growing,”
he said. ”We have more rainfall and higher land. Illinois needs some kind of infusion to our dwindling farm economy.”
The vineyard is near the foot of Bald Knob Mountain, which is crowned by the 111-foot ”Cross of Peace.”
Renzaglia`s interest in grapes comes naturally. His father, Renaldo, immigrated from northeast of Rome to Minnesota in 1910 to work as an iron ore miner. ”He`s only 93 and lives in Virginia, Minnesota,” said Renzaglia.
