Wine Tasting in Illinois
Coverage of Fox Valley Winery on ABC7
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Rows of corn may be a familiar sight in rural illinois, but grapevines really get the juices flowing for one family about 90 minutes southwest of Chicago. The five-year-old Faltz family vineyard covers 26 acres of land overlooking the Fox River.
Right now 13 grape varieties are grown there. They finished up the harvest in September. A little earlier then usual and that's thanks to the hot dry summer. That these grapes loved.
"That's the kinds of summers that California and other grape growing regions typically have. We typically don't, and it wasn't exceptional here," said Brian Faltz, Vineyard Manager.
In the years before prohibition, vineyards were actually quite common in Illinois. While California now produces more than 90 percent of domestic wine, the Illinois industry has resurrected thanks to a relatively small, but dedicated group of grape growers and winemakers.
"In Illinois we're a family and the Midwest the whole wine region, everything. We're a family, we work together, we learn from each other. We do testing out here in our vineyard nor do we make more Illinois winery more successful and they do the same," said Kori Faltz, Winery Retail Manager And Event Coordinator.
Growing pure vinifera grapes -- the best-known varieties such as pinot noir and chardonnay -- is difficult in this region with such harsh winters.
"We have a lot of high breads which are basically those same varieties, like Pinot noir and chardonnay that are actually crossed blended with cold hardy varieties like. For instance Chardonel has a cross blend between Chardonnay and Savout. Which qualifies it as a French high bread, but lets us be able to grow it with our cold winters?" said Faltz.
Once the grapes are harvested, they're transported in refrigerated trucks -- 22 miles east to the Fox Valley Winery in Oswego.
The winery includes a tasting room for the public and the family has opened a second room in the nearby town of Sandwich. All of this started when real estate developer Dick Faltz was inspired on a vacation to German wine country.
"Our first impressions were that it was going to be very easy and that it was just a nice little family hobby to get into. As we really got into it, we found out that it was a lot of hard work a lot of family involvement. Think god that we have a large family. So that provided a lot of labor for the initial vineyard, getting it started," said Dick Faltz, winery president.
As evidenced by the large-scale winemaking equipment, this sophisticated family business is no "mom-and-pop operation."
"It's fragmented musk that's in this tank. Cabernet Franc, which is the skins the seeds all the solids from the juice, but its finished fragmenting know. So it has alcohol, and what it's going to be then. Is that it's going to run out into the snider screw pump, out and through into the press and what the press does then. Basically is just a sieve. Strains out all the skins, the seeds, any stems that might have been left over, after the stemming. And then what happens is that the wine will actually drain out through the slots into the pan. Then get pumped back into the holding tank, next wards," said Mike Faltz, winemaker.
Once the wine is pressed fragmented and aged, Fox Valley Winery fills over 180,000 bottles a year.
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