By Jill Kasparie
Tuesday, July 07, 2009 at 5:50 p.m.
Read more: Local
BATAVIA, IOWA -- The Iowa wine industry has exploded in the past ten years.
According to statistics from Iowa State University, there are more than 70 wineries across the state. That’s up from only 13 in 2000.
On July 4, the Cedar Valley Winery near Batavia, Iowa opened its doors, which will add to the growing industry.
The Miller family is literally growing a successful business on a small plot of land off of highway 34.
"The idea started quite a few years ago when my dad had done some consulting work over seas and visited several wineries over seas and thought it would be neat to start up a winery in Iowa," said Co-owner Seth Miller.
The family started planting grape vines in 2002 and they've continued to plant more every year.
"We have about six acres of grapes right now. It takes three years before you can start harvesting any fruit off your grape vines and about five years until you're at full production,” Seth Miller said.
Last fall the family started using their grapes to produce home-made wine.
"We bring the juice in from the grapes in the fall. We harvest in September and we pump the juice into these tanks and these are the fermentation tanks and we have both stainless steel tanks as well as barrels to ferment the juice in and turn it into the wine itself," said Landowner David Miller.
Seven different types of grapes fill the vineyard, which are used to make many different types of wine.
"We’d like to have a high quality dry wine because we think that could separate us in terms of quality, but most Iowa consumers prefer a sweet wine, so we have a sweet wine also," Seth Miller said.
The family hopes to eventually expand their operation to cover ten acres of land.
The new business is contributing to the success of the ever-growing Iowa wine industry.
"We’re probably about ten years behind the Missouri wine industry, but they've had a lot of success in Missouri and now Iowa is coming up pretty strong,” David Miller said.
The winery is open every Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
