A century ago, Iowa was one of the top winemaking states. In the past few decades, the industry is bouncing back

FAYETTE — The entrepreneurial spirit and passion for wine is in Lisa Halvorson Goodwin’s blood.

Growing up, Goodwin — the daughter of the late Roger Halvorson, a longtime state representative and former speaker of the Iowa House — was surrounded her family’s many businesses.

One of those businesses Halvorson and his wife, Connie, opened was Eagles Landing Winery and Vineyard in Marquette. When Halvorson died in 2014, his son took over that winery, planting additional acres in the vineyard.

Those grapes at used at Heaven Boutique Winery, the business Goodwin and her husband, Carlton, own and operate outside Fayette in northeast Iowa.

“We opened in May 2019, but my family has been in the wine industry for decades,” Goodwin said.

Goodwin is not alone. Iowa has seen a resurgence in vineyards and winemaking, with 99 wineries operating in the state in 2023.

Since opening, Heaven Boutique has incorporated art and yoga classes into the winery space, and the Goodwins renovated a grain bin on their land and opened it as an Airbnb.

“It has all the pieces of Iowa. I just always thought it was so beautiful,” Goodwin said about the land where they built their business.

Goodwin’s parents opened their winery in the 1990s, when the winemaking industry in Iowa was seeing a resurgence in production.

Iowa currently has about 1,200 acres of grapes in production, Suzanne Slack, an assistant horticulture professor at Iowa State University, said, noting nearly every county in Iowa has a winery.

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According to the Wine Institute, Americans in 2023 consumed about 899 million gallons of wine. That number is down from 1.04 billion in 2021 during the pandemic. As of June 2023, the state had issued 109 “class A” permits, which apply to native wines, according to the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division.

Among the new wineries opened in Iowa this year is the Lubben Vineyards & Wines in Anamosa. The Ackerman Winery in Amana, established in 1956, is the state’s oldest winery.

History of Iowa winemaking

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Slack, the ISU assistant professor, said the 1990s marked a turning point in Iowa’s production of wine.

“In the early-1990s and mid-2000s, there was a big resurgence of the orchard and wine industries in Iowa, and especially with the breeding of new ‘cold-hardy grape’ varieties,” she said.

Long before that resurgence, Iowa was one of the nation’s top winemaking states, ranking sixth in the nation’s winemaking in 1919, before Prohibition put an end to the wine production

In 1919, Linn, Pottawattamie and Polk counties produced about one-third of Iowa’s grapes.

The fatal blow came Nov. 11, 1940, when the Armistice Day blizzard hit Iowa and other parts of the United States, dropping nearly 50 degrees in a 12-hour period. The weather killed people and cattle, while also killing off nearly every apple tree and grapevine in the state.

The blizzard hit Iowa about 14 months into World War II, which halted replanting efforts.

“With the World War happening, there weren't enough people, enough young men, to replant all those orchards and vineyards,” Slack said.

As a result, Iowa lost its U.S. ranking and most of its winemaking tradition for nearly 50 years.

But the grape growers who managed to replant in that interim period saw their crops damaged by pesticide drift.

Slack said one herbicide, 2,4-D, was used in farming in the 1940s and 1950s, primarily on corn and soybeans. Grape vines are “super susceptible” to that herbicide, Slack said.

“It decimated any of the orchards and vineyards that had been reestablished” after the Armistice Day blizzard, Slack said.

Decades later, vineyards started production again after the agriculture industry introduced a less volatile herbicide for crops, and the state started managing pesticide drift better.

Despite the industry’s boom in the 1990s and the early 2000s, wine production in the state has plateaued in 2020 due to the pandemic, Slack said.

“There's still room to grow in the industry. There's still wineries going on,” Slack said. “There's people who drop out, or they'll sell their wineries every year.”

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Still, as of May 2023, Iowa ranked No. 25 among wine-producing states.

Slack said the Choose Iowa program, started in 2023, has helped wine production, connecting consumers to Iowa produce and other products and helping support local businesses and agriculture.

A changing climate

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Christie Jensen, executive director of Iowa Wine Growers Association, said one of the challenges that Iowa winemakers face is the changes to Iowa’s climate.

“Grapes that are grown here are very different than grapes grown in places such as California,” Jensen said. “We still have some newer varietals that we are learning about.”

Jensen said the Iowa Wine Growers Association has a “strong” partnership with the Iowa State University Midwest Grape and Wine Industry Institute, which helps the association’s winemakers with their winemaking and vineyards.

Slack said “stressed out” grape vines make for better wine.

“Depending on how you look at it, Iowa soil is great, so the grapes are not stressed out,” Slack said.

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Those better soil conditions, she said, is one reason why Iowa wines tend to be sweeter.

“Happy vines do not make good wine,” Slack said.

Slack said the ISU institute can manipulate the grapevines to add more stress, such as removing some of the vine’s leaves or shoots, or changing how the vine would naturally grow.

Jensen, from the Iowa Wine Growers Association, said that overall, the Iowa winemaking community is a distinct one.

“Wineries don't view each other as competition,” Jensen said. “They want their neighbors to succeed just as much as they are.”

Olivia Cohen covers energy and environment for The Gazette and is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues.

Comments: (319) 398-8370; olivia.cohen@thegazette.com

Eastern Iowa wineries

This is a sampling of the wineries in Eastern Iowa, as taken from state records:

Ainsworth: Revasser Winery

Amana: Ackerman Winery/Fireside Winery; Village Winery; Ravens Nest Orchard and Winery

Anamosa: Lubben Vineyard & Wines; Grant Wood Hills Winery; Daly Creek Winery & Bistro

Cascade: Crimson Sunset Winery

Cedar Rapids: Stone Cliff Winery

Davenport/LeClaire/Clinton: Wide River Winery

Decorah: Winneshiek Wildberry Winery

DeWitt: Tycoga Winery & Distillery

Dubuque: Stone Cliff Winery; Sunset Ridge Winery; Dubuque Heritage Winery (no tasting room)

Dyersville: O So Good Winery

Epworth: Park Farm Vineyards and WInery

Fayette: Heaven Boutique Winery

Garber: Jennings Winery

Guttenberg: Promiseland Winery

Homestead: Ehrle Brothers Winery

Iowa City: Walker Homestead Farm & WInery; Brick Arch Winery

Lansing: Madigan Winery

Maquoketa: Iowa Grape Vines Winery

Marengo: Fireside Winery

Marion: Cherry Meadow Winery and Distillery

Marquette: Eagles Landing Winery

Mount Vernon: The Local (Glyn Mawre)

Parnell: Old Man’s Creek Vineyard and Winery

Sherrill: Bishop Vineyard and Winery

Solon: Gully Washed Fruit Winery

Springville: Deja Vine Vineyards & Winery

Strawberry Point: Jennings Winery

Swisher: Cedar Ridge WInery & Distillery

Traer: Fox Ridge Winery

Tipton: Buchanan House Winery

Vinton: 42 North Winery

West Branch: Brick Arch Winery

Sources: Iowa Secretary of State, Iowa Department of Revenue